World War II in Photographs
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1939
A War Emergency Reserve policeman joins
a more traditionally dressed colleague
outside Number 10 Downing Street.
RIGHT
The first (false) air-raid warnings followed
the declaration of war. Here, a policeman
blowing his whistle to draw attention to
his warning sign, cycles down Whitehall,
September 3, 1939. The milkman behind
him seems set on business as usual.
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LEFT
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LEFT
Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord
of the Admiralty on the outbreak of war.
He held the same appointment in August
1914, and on hearing the news the
Admiralty Board signalled to the fleet:
"Winston is back". This unposed photograph
shows Churchill arriving at work, complete
with dispatch boxes and bundle of office keys.
RIGHT
British Prime Minister, Neville
Chamberlain, and his war cabinet.
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1939
ABOVE
Rites of passage and, all too
probably, the final meeting: a Polish
woman slips something into her husband's
knapsack as he leaves for the front.
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ABOVE
A German reconnaissance
unit in Poland, September 1939.
RIGHT
Early on September 1, 1939, the old
German training battleship, Schleswig-
Holstein, on a "goodwill" visit to Danzig,
opened fire on the Polish-held enclave of
Westerplatte. The Poles held out bravely
before surrendering on September 7.
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1939
Hitler made several trips to the Polish front
in September 1939. Here he receives the
salute of General der Panzertruppen Heinz
Guderian, one of the authors of the blitzkrieg
that made German victory possible.
BELOW
The best of friends? Russian and
German officers chat at Brest-Litovsk
on September 18, 1939. The Russians
show their rank on collar badges: the
traditional epaulettes, hated symbol
of the tsarist officer class, were to appear
after the German invasion. The black-
uniformed German is a panzer officer.
RIGHT
LEFT
The remnants of the garrison of Warsaw,
marching out of the city after its surrender,
September 27, 1939. Most of the
buildings show the damage inflicted
by German bombardments and air-raids.
RIGHT
Poland had a large Jewish population, and the
invading Germans rapidly set about rounding
it up: an aged Jew is detained in Warsaw.
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German propaganda minister Joseph
Goebbels had Warsaw plastered with posters
showing a wounded Polish soldier pointing
to the city's ruins and saying "England! This
is your work!" The Poles were unconvinced
and in November 1939, two women
were executed for tearing down a poster.
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1939
THE PHONEY WAR
During the so-called phoney war, between September 1939 and
April 1940, unemployment in Britain remained high, mobilization
seemed sluggish, and there was little major war news. However, there
was widespread fear of air attack, in which poison gas might be used,
and the fact that the nation was indeed at war was underlined by air
raid precautions and the evacuation of children from larger cities.
In September, over 800,000 unaccompanied children and more
than 500,000 mothers with young children left the cities, although
as the expected attack failed to materialize eighty percent
had returned home by the beginning of 1940.
BELOW
Families tilling sandbags at Bognor Regis
on August 30. The original print bears
the caption: "A New Beach Pastime".
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1939
OPPOSITE PAGE
A nurse demonstrates the
gas mask issued for babies.
Schoolchildren from North London -
prominently labelled for identification •
leaving the railway station on arrival
at their provincial destination.
BELOW
Popular entertainment helped maintain
morale. Here RAF men are doing the
"Lambeth Walk" with Lupino Lane and
the cast of the hit musical Me and My Girl.
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LEFT
FRANCE PREPARES
France planned to fight a long war, with the Maginot Line safeguarding
her from German attack while her war machine gradually built up
speed. The French army was a mixture of ancient and modern,
with infantry and artillery reminiscent of 1918 and, although it
had some good tanks, too many of these were allocated to infantry
support. Lord Gort's British Expeditionary Force (BEF) went to
France in 1939 and established its headquarters at Arras, in the midst
of World War One battlefields remembered by many of its members.
ABOVE
French infantry on the march, September 1939.
RIGHT
French tanks on manoeuvres, autumn 1939.
When the Germans invaded on 10 May 1940, France
could field 2,285 tanks on her north-eastern front.
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