Sophie Scoll "The White Rose Movement"

 
 On 22nd February, 1943, Munich  a
university student stands before a guillotine,
moments from death.

She's 21 years old. Her crime? Throwing
pamphlets from a balcony.
Her name is Sophie Scholl, and she's about to
speak words that will haunt Nazi Germany and
inspire generations.

But six years earlier, Sophie believed every word
Hitler told her.
At twelve, she eagerly joined the League of
German Girls, the female wing of Hitler Youth. Her
brother Hans joined too. They marched. They
sang. They trusted.

Their father, an anti—Nazi politician, begged them
to see the truth. They argued back, convinced he
was wrong.

Then in 1937, Gestapo arrested Hans for joining an
unauthorized camping group. Sophie watched 

Storm troopers drag away her brother for
something as innocent as a scouting trip.
Everything she believed began to crumble.

By 1942, Sophie enrolled at Munich University to
study biology and philosophy. Hans was there
studying medicine, quietly gathering friends who
whispered about resistance.

Then their friend Fritz came back from the Eastern
Front and told them what he'd witnessed. Mass
shootings. Jewish families executed. The
machinery of genocide.

They formed the White Rose. They wrote
pamphlets calling Germans to wake up, to resist,
to remember their humanity.
"We will not be silent," their writings declared. "We
are your bad conscience."

Sophie bought an illegal typewriter. She helped
write their message. And because Gestapo agents
rarely suspected young women, she distributed
the pamphlets across Munich.

Five successful operations. Then the sixth.
18th February, 1943. Sophie and Hans placed
pamphlets throughout the university. Nearly done,
Sophie saw leftover leaflets in her suitcase. A
split-second choice.

She climbed to the top floor and threw them over
the railing. They cascaded down like falling snow.
A janitor spotted her. Minutes later, the Gestapo
arrived.

Four days later, after a trial that was pure theater,
Sophie received her death sentence. Hours until
execution.

Prison guards later reported her strange
calmness. No tears. No pleading. Just quiet
conviction.

Hedy Lamarr Actress and Inventor

 

Hedy Lamarr, a 1940s Hollywood star,
developed a frequency-hopping radio
guidance system for Allied torpedoes,
laying the groundwork for today’s 
and Bluetooth technologies.

 Hedy Lamarr, a 1940s Hollywood star,
co-developed a frequency-hopping radio guidance
system for Allied torpedoes, laying the groundwork
for today's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. 


Hollywood called her the most beautiful woman
alive. But behind the glamour she was inventing
technology 50 years ahead of its time. The Military 
ignored her. She died broke. Now her invention 
powers your phone. The Hedy Lamarr story nobody knows.

1940s. Hollywood calls her the most beautiful woman in 
the world. Hedy Lamarr. Movie star. Red carpets. Magazine 
covers But nobody knows what she does in her
spare time.

Born Hedwig Kiesler in Vienna. At 19, she marries Friedrich 
Mondl, an Austrian arms dealer selling weapons to the Nozis.
He's controlling. Obsessive. She's trapped in a gilded cage.

But she's listening carefully at every dinner party.
Generals and engineers gather, discussing
weapons, torpedoes, radio control technology.
She absorbs everything. Remembers every detail.

1937. She escapes during a theater outing in London.
Flees to America.
Changes her name to Hedy Lamarr. Louis B. Mayer signs her to MGM.
She becomes o Hollywood sensation overnight.

1940. World War Two is raging. Nazi U boats sink Allied ships daily.
Radio controlled torpedoes keep getting jammed by enemy signals.
Hedy remembers everything from those
dinner parties.

She meets George Antheil at a dinner party.
He's an avant garde composer. Not a scientist. Not an engineer.
She explains her idea: Make radio signals jump between
frequencies so fast enemies can't jam them.

They work together at her house between film shoots.
Antheil understands timing from music. Hedy understands 
weapons from her first marriage.
Together they develop frequency hopping spread spectrum.

11th August , 1942. They file US Potent 2,292,387.
A secret communication system using 88 frequencies, synchronized 
like a player piano.
It would make Allied torpedoes completely un-jammable.
The US Navy reviews their invention. Too complicated, they say.
Too impractical. Impossible to manufacture.
They tell her to go sell war bonds instead
Use that pretty face for something more useful.

The potent expires in 1959. Unused. Forgotten.
Hedy continues acting, but her star fades
Roles dry up. She has no idea her invention will change
everything.

1980s. Engineers developing cellular phone
technology discover her frequency
hopping potent. 1990s. It becomes foundational for Wi-Fi.
Bluetooth. GPS.
Every wireless device uses her tech.
She never receives a cent.

1997. Finally, someone notices. She receives a Pioneer 
Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
She's 83. Nearly blind.
Refuses to appear at the ceremony.
Says on the phone: "It's about time."

19th January, 2000.
Hedy dies alone in Florida. Age 85.
Meanwhile, her frequency hopping tech
generates billions annually for tech
companies worldwide.
She never profited from any of it.

After her death, recognition finally arrives.
Inducted into the National Inventors Hall
of Fame.
Documentaries made. Books written.
The world realizes: She wasn't just beautiful
She was brilliant.

Every time you connect to Wi-Fi, pair
Bluetooth devices, or open GPS navigation,
you're using technology a Hollywood
actress invented in 1942.
The world only saw her face.
Her mind was changing the future.

They dismissed her because she was
beautiful, because she was a woman,
because she was an actress.
The military ignored her.
History nearly erased her.
But her invention outlasted everyone who
doubted her.
Hollywood called her the most beautiful woman
alive. The military called her impractical. But she 
quietly invented the technology that powers
bluetooth, and GPS. 

In the 1940s she was everywhere.
Red carpets, magazine covers, movie premieres.
But in her spare time, she read engineering manuals
and sketched inventions at her dressing table.

In the 1940s she was everywhere.
Red carpets, magazine covers, movie premieres.
But in her spare time, she read engineering manuals
and sketched inventions at her dressing table.

Born Hedwig Kiesler in Vienna, she married an
Austrian arms dealer at nineteen.
He entertained generals and engineers who
discussed weapon systems over dinner.
She listened carefully and remembered every detail

I Hollywood called her the most beautiful
woman alive.
But Hedy Lamarr wasn't just a movie star. Between
filming scenes in the 1940s, she was sketching out
blueprints for something no one could imagine back
then: wireless communication.
She invented frequency hopping, a system designed
to guide torpedoes. The military ignored her. She died
broke.

Today, that same technology powers your Wi-Fi
Bluetooth, and your phone.
Beauty fades, but ideas last forever.

Hedy Lamarr was more than a movie
star.
While Hollywood adored her beauty, she was quietly
designing technology that would shape the next
century.
In 1942 she patented a secret communication system
based on frequency hopping.
It was ignored by the military and forgotten for
decades.
But her invention became the foundation of modern
wireless communication.
Every Wi-Fi connection, every Bluetooth signal, every 

GPS route traces back to her idea.
She died without profit or recognition.
Today, she is celebrated as one of the most brilliant
inventors of the twentieth century.
Sometimes the brightest minds are hidden in plain
sight.

Herta Kasparova Czech Collaborator

  Herta Kasparova, a female
collaborator who worked with the Germans during the
occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War ll, at the
time of her execution by pole hanging...
Herta Kasparova was born on  01st June, 1923, in the
small Czech town of Trest', into a world that never
treated her gently. From birth, she lived with a visible
disability—a damaged right leg that caused a
pronounced limp. In a society that prized physical
normalcy and conformity, especially in the interwar
years, this marked her early. As a child and adolescent,
she was mocked, isolated, and made painfully aware
that she was seen as different. Long before politics
entered her life, she had already learned what it meant
to be vulnerable and watched.

When Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia,
survival often depended on language, usefulness and
proximity to power. Herta spoke both Czech and
German fluently, a skill that suddenly gave her value in
a brutal system. The Gestapo in Trest' used her as a
translator, placing her in rooms where fear dictated
every word. She translated documents and
interrogations, and later was accused of acting as an
“investigator,” reporting on suspected dissidents
within her own community. Whether driven by
coercion, fear, a desire for protection, or a fragile
sense of belonging, her role tied her fate tightly to the
occupiers.

After the war, the moral landscape shifted violently
and quickly. Collaboration trials swept through
Czechoslovakia, fueled by grief, rage, and a desperate
need for justice or vengeance. Herta was arrested,
tried, and sentenced to death. She was just 23 years
old.

On 13th September, 1946, at 6:38 p.m., she was
executed by pole hanging, a method designed not for
mercy but for spectacle and punishment. The
execution device was stark and imposing. When she
was brought before it, terror overtook her body. Her
legs collapsed beneath her, and guards had to lift her
upright. Witnesses noted her visible fear as the ropes
were tied, her chest strapped, her body raised. In her
final moments, the procedure was carried out with
calculated brutality, ending her life publicly and
decisively.

Pre Second World War Hitler in uniform circ 1919 1920

 

                                                        (Lance Corporal) Adolf Hitler 

During the First World War, Adolf Hitler served in France
and Belgium in the 1st Company, Bavarian Reserve
Infantry Regiment 16, he had previously been denied by
the Austrian Army. He was an infantryman in the 1st
Company during the First Battle of Ypres in October
1914 which was his first battle. The 16th Bavarian
Reserve Regiment had entered the battle with 3,600 men
but at its end mustered only 611 men, a casualty rate of
roughly 89%. By December 1914, Hitler’s own company
of 250 was reduced to just 42 able body men. After the
battle, Hitler was promoted from Schutze (private) to
Gefreiter (lance corporal). He was assigned to be a
regimental message-runner.

The Regiment fought in many battles, including the First
Battle of Ypres (1914), the Battle of the Somme (1916),
the Battle of Arras (1917), and the Battle of
Passchendaele (1917) to name a few.
Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the
Iron Cross Second Class in 1914 and the Iron Cross
First Class in 1918, a medal which was rarely given to a
lance corporal. Hitler’s First Class Iron Cross was
ironically recommended by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, a
Jewish adjutant in the his Regiment. Lieutenant

Peter Butterworth English Actor

 
Eighty years on, Peter Butterworth's recently discovered
German prison identity card is going on display as
part of an exhibition telling the story of his life as a
prisoner of war.

Butterworth served in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm
during the war but was shot down in 1940, spending
the rest of it as a prisoner of war.

A cache of prisoner of war documents recently
released from a German archive is now going on
display at the National Archives in London, which
adds new detail to the gradually unfolding story.

The documents arrived from Germany and have been
catalogued by a team of volunteers.
For his son Tyler Butterworth, it has been a revelation
"They keep declassifying things and more seems to
bubble up. It's remarkable."
However, in Stalag Luft 3, he was an officer and code
writer in MI9, the military intelligence agency
responsible for organising escapes from prison
camps. It was a mystery to even his own son until
long after his death in 1979.

He did suffer from what we now call post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD). He never said this to my
sister and I, but my mother (the impressionist Janet
Brown) told me about things that happened,
especially right at the start of their marriage, after the
war, where he'd suddenly leap out of bed at night and
throw himself on the floor and start hiding. She had
to barricade the bedroom door because the staircase
was outside."

Butterworth helped hide the soil from the tunnels in
the camp theatre. Inmates would be encouraged to
smoke pipes near where the soil was stored to mask
the smell.

In the Wooden Horse escape, in which a tunnel was
dug underneath a vaulting horse, he was one of the
organising committee. When the story was adapted
in 1950 for the big screen, he auditioned for a role but
was turned down for not looking sufficiently like a
pnsoner

Alongside him in Stalag Luft 3 was another prisoner,
Talbot Rothwell, who would go on to write many of
the best Carry On films. He and Rothwell convinced
the camp commandant to allow them to build a
theatre, with the sounds from the performances
helping drown out the noise of digging the tunnels.

Battlefront Finland Shelling of Mainila, Causus Belli of the Winter War.

 



NOTE OF M. MOLOTOV, COMMISSAR FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
HANDED ON 26thNOVEMBER, 1939, TO M.YRJO-KOSKINEN,
FINNISH MINISTER AT MOSCOW.
Monsieur le Ministre,
According to information received from the
headquarters of the Red Army, our troops posted on
the Carelian Isthmus, in the vicinity of the village of
Mainila, were the obiect today, 26th November, at
3.45 p.m., of unexpected artillery fire from Finnish
territory. In all, seven cannon-shots were fired, killing
three privates and one non-commissioned officer and
wounding seven privates and two men belonging to
the military command. The Soviet troops, who had
strict orders not to allow themselves to be provoked,
did not retaliate.

In bringing the foregoing to your knowledge, the
Soviet Government consider it desirable to stress the
fact that, during the recent negotiations with M.
Tanner and M. Paasikivi, they had directed their
attention to the danoer resultino from the
concentration of large regular forces in the
immediate proximity of the frontier near Leningrad. In
consequence of the provocative firing on Soviet
troops from Finnish territory, the Soviet Government
are obliged to declare now that the concentration of
Finnish troops in the vicinity of Leningrad, not only
constitutes a menace to Leningrad, but is, in fact, an
act hostile to the U.S.S.R. which has already resulted
in aggression against the Soviet troops and caused
casualties.

The Government of the U.S.S.R. have no intention of
exaggerating the importance of this revolting act
committed by troops belonging to the Finnish Army -
owing perhaps to a lack of proper guidance on the
part of their superiors - but they desire that revolting
acts of this nature shall not be committed in future.

In consequence, the Government of the U.S.S.R.,
while protesting energetically against what has
happened, propose that the Finnish Government
should, without delay, withdraw their troops on the
Carelian Isthmus from the frontier to a distance of
20-25 kilometres, and thus preclude all possibility of a
repetition of provocative acts.
Accept, M. le Ministre, the assurance of my high
consideration.

Munich Putsch ​

Munich Putsch

   The unsuccessful attempt by Adolf Hitler and his new Nazi party to seize power in
the early stage of the National Socialist movement. On the evening of 08th November
1923, some 3,000 Germans were present in the Burgerbrau Keller, a large beer hall
in Munich, to hear a speech by Gustav Ritter von Klar, state commissioner of Bavaria.
On the platform with him were two local dignitaries such as Gen. Otto von Lossow,
commander of the armed forces in Bavaria, and Col. Hans von Seisser, chief of the
Bavarian State Police While Von Klar was delivering his talk, the hall was silently
surrounded  by 600 Storm Troopers. The SA men set up a machine gun outside with
its muzzle pointed at the front door. In the darkness the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler,
surrounded by his followers, hurried down the aisle, jumped on a chair, and fired a
shot at the ceiling, and in a sudden silence cried out "The national revolution has
broken out." To the astonished audience he added: "The hall is filled with 600 armed
men. No one is allowed to leave. The Bavarian government and the government at Berlin
are hereby deposed. A new government will be formed at once. The barracks of the Reichwehr
and the police barracks are occupied. Both have rallied to the swastika."

   Hitler then turned to the podium and gruffly ordered Von Kahr, Von Lossow, and Von Seisser
to follow him to a small side room. Here he denounced his prisoners and informed them that
together with Gen. Erich Ludendorff, the war hero, was forming a new government. The three
leaders of the Bavarian regime, still nervous but beginning to recover their wits, started
to berate Hitler and demanded to know what he mean't by this confounded nonsense. Hitler
flew into a rage. He dashed back to the hall and shouted to the still-muttering crown:
"Tomorrow will find a national government in Germany, or they will find us dead!"

   The huge crowd, puzzled by the spectacle, did not know what was coming next. At this
critical moment a great cheer went up when General Ludendorff, known to everyone in the
audience, appeared on the scene. Ludendorff at once denounced Hitler for presuming to
start a revolution without clearing the matter with him in advance. Hitler, sensing
enthusiasm in the audience ignored the slight. Once again he mounted the podium turned
to the crowd, and informed it that victory was his.  "I have at last fulfilled the oath
I swore five years ago as a blind cripple in a military hospital."

   What seemed to many in the crowd to be a comic opera being played before their eyes
continued through the night. The struggle for control went on behind the scenes. One by
one Von Kahr, Von Lassow, and Von Seisser managed to escape Hitler's SA men. When the news was flashed to Berlin, Gen. Hans von Seeckt Commander of the Reichsweher, pledged that he would smash the rebellion if the Munich authorities failed in their responsibilities. By
early morning  Hitler began to feel that his Putsch had misfired, but Ludendorff insisted
that there be no retreat.

   At 11 A.M. the assembled Nazis, bearing Swastika banners and war flags, began a
demonstration march toward the Marienplatz in the centre of Munich. At the head were
Hitler, Ludendorff, Herman Goring and Julius Streicher. At first the marchers pushed aside
the small police  contingents sent to stop them. As the parade came to Odeonplatz near
Feldherrn Halle the way was barred by a stronger detachment of police bearing carbines.
About 100 police confronted 3,000 Nazis. Hitler called on the police to surrender. The
response was a hail of lead. In seconds 16 Nazis and 3 policemen lay dead on the pavement,
and others were wounded. Goering, who was shot through the thigh, fell to the ground. Hitler,
reacting spontaneously because of his training as a dispatch bearer during World War I,
automatically hit the pavement when he heard the crack of guns. Surrounded by comrades, he
escaped in a car standing close by. Ludendorff, staring straight ahead, moved through the
ranks of the police, who in a gesture of respect for the old war hero, turned their guns aside.

   One the surface the Beer-Hall Putsch seemed to be a failure, but actually it was a brilliant
achievement for a political nobody. In a few hours Hitler catupulted his scarcely known unimportant political movement into headlines throughout Germany and the world. Moreover, he learned an important  lesson: direct action was not the way to political power. It was necessary that he seek political victory  by winning the masses to his side and also by attracting the support of wealthy industrialists. Then he could ease his way to political supremacy by legal means.

   The sixteen early followers of Hitler who were killed by the police on 09th November 1923, after the unsuccessful Beer-Hall Putsch. On 16th October 1924, Hitler, while in prison at Landsberg am Lech, dedicated the first volume of Mein Kampf to these Nazi martyrs. "So called national authorities denied a common grave to these war heros."

 1 April 1924. Defendants in the Beer Hall Putsch trial. From left to right: Pernet, Weber, Frick, Kriebel, Ludendorff, Hitler, Bruckner, Röhm, and Wagner. Note that only two of the defendants (Hitler and Frick) were wearing civilian clothes. All those in uniform are carrying swords, indicating officer status.

The Nazi members shot by the police during the Beer-Hall Putsch:-

Felix Alfarth,                                   Merchant  (b. 05th July 1901).
Andreas Bauriedl,                            Hat maker (b. 04th May 1879).
Theodore Casella,                            Bank official (b. 08th August 1900).
Wilhelm Ehrlich,                              Bank official, (b. 19th August 1894).
Martin Faust,                                    Bank official, (b. 27th January 1901).
Anton Hechenberger,                        Locksmith, (b. 28th September 1902).
Oskar Korner,                                    Merchant, (b. 04th January: 1875).
Karl Kuhn,                                         Headwaiter, (b. 26th July 1897).
Karl Laforce,                                      Student engineer, (b. 28th October 1904).
Kurt Neubauer,                                   Servant, (b. 27th March 1899).
Klaus von Pape,                                 Merchant, (b. 16th August 1904).
Theodore von der Pforden,                Counsel on the State Supreme Court, (b. 14th May 1873).
Joh. Rickmers,                                    retired Calvary captain, (b. 07th May 1881).
Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter,   Doctor of engineering, (b. 09th January: 1894).
Lorenz Ritter von Stransky,                Engineer (b. 14th March 1899).
Wilhelm Wolf,                                    Merchant, (b. 19th October 1898).

Beer-Hall Putsch Trial.

   A Trial for high treason of the leaders of the Beer-Hall Putsch in 1923 in Munich.
The proceedings, which began on 24th February 1924, and lasted twenty four days, were
held in the Infantry Officers School in Munich.  The building was protected by barbed
wire and patrolled by helmeted guards. The court consisted of two professional judges
and three laymen (two insurance men and a dealer in stationary). There were ten defendants,
including Hitler, Gen. Ludendorff, Ernst Rohm, and Wilhelm Frick. All were accused of
conspiracy to commit treason. The chief witnesses for the prosecution were Gustav Ritter von Kahr, General State Commissioner of Bavaria, Gen. Otto von Lossow, commander of the German armed forces in Bavaria, and Col. Hans von Seisser, Chief of the Bavarian State Police. The trial
aroused attention throughout Germany and around the world. At least 100 reporters sat at
the press table, and large crowds attempted to find seating space in the courtroom.

   The accused Hitler wore a cutaway suit with the Iron Cross (First Class) pinned to
the left breast. He dominated the proceedings from the start. For the first time the
zealous young politician had an audience outside Bavaria, and he took full advantage of
the opportunity. He later said: "As though by an explosion, our ideas were hurled over
the whole of Germany." Each day the country listened with increasing excitement as the
Nazi leader converted the trial into a triumph for himself and his party.

   His plan was simple: instead of apologizing of admitting his guilt, he took the initiative
and in long impassioned speeches presented his case to the German people. He told the court
that in all justice his accusers -- Von Kahr, Von Lossow, and Seisser must have been committing
high treason along with us, for during all these weeks we talked of nothing but the aims of
which we are now accused." He took full responsibility upon himself. "But there is no such
thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918. I feel myself the best of Germans who
wanted the best for the German people."

   By this time all of Germany were listening to the leader of the National Socialist movement.
"The greatest gain of the 08th November 1923 is this: that it did not lead to depression and
discouragement, but contributed to lifting the people to the greatest heights of enthusiasm.
I believe that the hour will come when the masses on the streets who to-day stand under our
banner, the hooked cross, will unite with these who shot at us on 09th November. I believe
this: blood will not separate us forever. One day the hour will come when the Reichsweher
will be standing at our side, officers and men."  Hitler sought to convince his German
audience that the Putsch was actually a success. He touched on all the German miseries
in the Weimer Republic -- the Dolchstosstgeorie, the stab in the back theory, the revolution,
the inflation, Marxism, decadent Berlin. "I accuss Ebert Scheidemann, and company of high
treason. I accuse them because they destroyed a nation of 70 millions."
When he was rebuked by the court for going too far, he paid no attention and went on in
the same vein for four hours. His words became even more dramatic:

Adolf Hitler, Emil Maurice, Hermann Kriebel, Rudolf Hess, and Friedrich Weber at Landsberg Prison.

   I aimed from the first at something a thousand times higher than being a minister.
I wanted to become the destroyer of Marxism. I am going to achieve this task, and, if
I do, the title of minister will be an absurdity as far as I am concerned....

   At one time I believed that perhaps this battle against Marxism could be carried on
with the help of the government. In January 1923 I learned that, that was just not possible.
The hypothesis for the victory of Marxism is not that Germany must be free, but rather Germany
will only be free when Marxism is broken. At that time I did not dream that our movement
would become great and cover Germany like a flood.

   The army that we are building grows from day to day, from hour to hour. Right at this
moment I have the proud hope that once the hour strikes these wild troops will merge into
battalions, battalions into regiments, regiments into divisions. I have hopes that the old
cockade will be lifted from the dirt, that the old colours will be unfurled to flutter again,
the expiation will come before the tribunal of God. Then from our bones and from our graves
will speak the voice of the only tribunal which has the right to sit in justice over us.

   Then gentlemen, not you, will be the ones to deliver the verdict over us, but that verdict
will be given by the eternal judgment of history, which will speak out against the accusations
that has been made against us. I know what your judgement will be. But that other court will
not ask us: Have you committed high treason or not? That court will judge the quartermaster-general of the old army, its officers and soldiers, who as Germans wanted only the best for their people and Fatherland, who fought and who were willing to die. You might just as well find us guilty a thousand times, but the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear up the motions of the state's attorney and the judgement of this court: for this she finds not guilty.

   It was one of Hitler's best speeches, and it was effective. Newspapers that had never
mentioned Hitler before now devoted columns to him. Millions of Germans were electrified by
the man of action who was playing a hero's role in the courtroom at Munich.

   The verdict was handed down on 01st April, 1924. Ludendorff was acquitted, but the rest
were found guilty. The maximum penalty for high treason was life imprisonment, but Hitler was
given the minimum, five years' fortress arrest, considered to be the most lenient and dignified
of all forms of detention.  Hitler served nine months of his sentence at Landsberg am Lech.
Richard Hanser, Putsch 1971.

The Phoney War : "Winston is back"

 

Hardly had Chamberlain finished speaking than the London air raid sirens gave out their wailing note, already familiar from practice alerts. Londoners filed down into cellars and basements, or into air raid shelters (where they existed), or into the slit trenches in the parks. There was no sign of alarm - except that one housewife was out in the street, on her way to a shelter, before she realised she had nothing on: she was just about to have a bath.

As expected, the Dominions followed up with their own declarations of war -- except Eire, which elected to remain neutral, a decision that disturbed the new First Lord of the Admiralty: Chamberlain had long resisted inviting Churchill to the Cabinet, but as soon as war broke out he asked him to return to the post he had held during the first World War; and a signal had been sent out to the fleet, "Winston is back". He was worried about the loss of three naval bases in Ireland, which Chamberlain had handed over to de Valera, and to which de Valera now refused access. Still, Churchill was elated at the prospect of returning to office, after years in the political wilderness. Instead of retiring to a shelter when the sirens sounded, he went up with his wife onto the roof of their house -- there to be greeted by the sight of barrage balloons rising into the sky. They were soon to become a clumsy and yet not unattractive feature, particularly on sunny days of the landscape.
Then Churchill went to Westminister, there to try to convey his feelings to the House of Commons: "the glory of Old England, peace loving and ill-prepared as she was, but instant and fearless at the call of honour, thrilled my being".

The belief that a deluge of bombs would fall on London and other major cities as soon as war was declared proved unfounded. The air raid turned out to be a false alarm; and then, for seven weeks, the sirens were heard no more. Perhaps, it was suggested, Hitler wanted to finish off Poland first. He soon did. It was a new kind of campaign, which the world had never seen before: the Biltzkrieg. Bombers -- and dive-bombers, another innovation -- first pounded the defences; then armoured divisions thrust their way through them; and then instead of pausing to consolidate, the tanks surged on, punching deep behind the lines, disrupting communications and throwing the defences into total disorder.
Warsaw and other cities were also subjected to terror bombing -- a technique learned by Hermann Goring's Luftwaffe in Franco's service in Spain -- to try to destroy civilian morale. Within three weeks Poland had been crushed and on 05th October, Hitler arrived for a victory parade in Warsaw.

Now surely, his bombers would turn on the United Kingdom. But no bombers were seen. No German Luftwaffe of any kind were seen, except on routine reconnaissance. On the Western Front, the two armies sat behind their defences -- the French Maginot Line, an elaborate underground network, and Hitler's Siegfried Line, less elaborate, but strong enough, it was supposed, to be too risky to attack until the Allies had built up their strength. Reports spoke of little news was there from the Western Front that the only episode to arouse much interest was when the French drove a flock of sheep over ground the Germans had been suspected of mining. To avoid offending British susceptibilities, the casualty list was not reported.

In due course, a British Expeditionary Force reached its prepared positions with no casualties (except, the story went, one man who had tripped on a gangway and twisted his ankle). This feat was hailed as a masterpiece of organization. What was not publicised was that the B.E.F., by November, still consisted of only four divisions. After the defeat of Poland, the Germans had been able to put about 100 divisions on the Western Front, and although the French army had almost as many, their fire power was inferior, and their morale dangerously low. General Alan Brooke, who had come to France with the B.F.E., was shocked by the poilus' appearance on parade: "men unshaven, horses ungroomed, vehicles dirty, and complete lack of pride in themselves or their units". What shook him most though, was "the look in the men's faces, dusgruntled and insubordinate". When ordered to give "Eyes Left", hardly a man bothered to do so.

This was not realised in Britain. People were puzzled at Hitler's inaction. Surely he must see that the longer he hesitated, the more powerful the Allied forces confronting him would become? When he made no move, people began to joke about the "Sitzkrieg", or the "Bore War", as Chamberlain described it; the "Phoney War", as some American commentater labelled it. The initial flurry, in which over three million people -- hospital cases, mothers, and children -- had been evacuated from the cities, began to look a little ridiculous. Mothers took their children back -- often to the relief of the countryfolk on whom they had been billeted, for reasons which Harold Nicolson, author and MP, described in his diary, when he noted that the Commons' main concern was not with the prosecution of the war, but with evacuees. "Many of the children are verminous and have disgusted habits", he heard. "The mothers refuse to help, grumbling dreadfully, and are pathetically homesick and bored." Soon most of them were back in their old homes again. There they had to cope with the black-out. Car headlights had to be masked which led to a frightening increase in the accident rate -- road deaths actually doubled. And when he reached home, the householder had to ensure that his curtains emitted no chink of light, or he would have zealous ARP wardens, with little else to do, hauling him up before the courts.

Peole also had to carry gas masks, wherever they went -- to the office, to the shops, to the cinema. A Thornton Heath vicar refused to marry two of his parishioners until the girl agreed to bring a gas mask to the altar. The instruction went out from the Ministry of Agriculture that ploughboys must carry gas masks while ploughing. Eton college boys were told to exchange their traditional toppers for gas masks, for the duration. And two murderers sentenced to death at the Old
Bailey, were reprimanded by the warden when they shambled out of the dock for leaving their gas masks behind.

But no poison gas bombs were dropped on the United Kingdom. No bombs of any kind were dropped. Bomber Command's aircraft, too where they were sent over Germany, put down nothing more dangerous than leaflets-- "the confetti war", as it was derisively described. When Amery suggested to the Secretary of State for Air, Kingsley Wood, that incendiary bombs should be dropped in the Black Forest, upon which Germany relied for her reserve of timber. Wood repllied that trees were not a military objective. Amery offered an alternative target: the munitions works at Essen. Wood explained that they could not be bombed either, as they were "private property".

War, people began to find, was not so different from peace. Petrol supplies were restricted, but the basic ration for car owners was quite liberal. Ministers, having enjoyed mocking the Germans for their stringent rationing and the ersatz food they had to accept as rations -- coffee, particularly, being made from everything except coffee beans -- for a while resisted introducing food rationing for British citizens. The theaters continued to show the latest Hollywood products -- Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights; de Mille's Union Pacific; Disney's Fantasia; Deanna Durbin in Three Smart Girls Grow Up..The dance bands played on, more popular than ever, with such inevitable topical songs as "They can't black out the moon".

There was no feeling of guilt among those who stayed on in their jobs and enjoyed themselves as if there wasn't a war on. Conscription had been introduced, belatedly, but apart from those who had committed themselves before the war, in the territorials or in school officers' training corps men who went to join up found themselves being told to wait their turn to be called up. No "Your King and Country need you" posters were required; white feathers were not distributed to young men of military age in civilian clothes. There were not even many conscious objectors; and most of those who refused to join the services did so because they were opposed to the force as a means of settling issues, not because they disagreed with the ends for which the war was being fought.

Only at sea was there action; and there, on balance, the results were encouraging. True, U-boats were a menace. War had hardly been declared when on of them sank the liner Athenia; another torpedoed the aircraft carrier. Courageous; and intrepid U-boat Commander actually managed to penetrate the defences of the naval base at Scapa Flow and sink the Battleship Royal Oak. For a while, too, the Germans made effective use of the magnetic mine. It was responsible for the loss of several merchant ships, as well as severe damage to the battle cruiser Renown. But a remedy was quickly found; the ships were "disgaussed" -- encircled by an electric cable, which neutralized the magnetism. And on 13th December, the Navy had its first victory when three cruisers, Ajax, Achilles, and Exeter crippled a German "pocket-battleship" (so called because it was one of a new class: heavy cruiser with battleship sized 11 inch guns) in the Battle of River Plate. The commander of the Graf Spee had to take her into Montevideo harbour, for repairs. Fearing that he would be unable to escape, he gave orders that his ship should be scuttled, and he committed suicide.

But the only serious hostilities on the land that winter were in Finland. In September, the Russians had moved in the occupy eastern Poland, by pre-arrangement with Hiter; and on 26th November, announcing that the treacherous Finnish army had fired on innocent Russian soldiers, Stalin launched an invasion. Copying Hitlers ways, Russian aircaft also bombed the capital, Helsinki.
The Russian radio claimed they were dropping bread to feed the starving, capitalist-oppressed poor; and bombs were to be facetiously described as "Molotov bread baskets", until bombing ceased to be a matter of jokes.

Russia's reputation fell to its lowest point - lower even than it was to fall over the invasion of Hungary in 1956, and newspaper editors prepared Finland's obituary notices. But the Finns were not downhearted. The main Russian attacks, across the Karelian Isthmus, was held by the defenders of the Mannerheim Line; and in the north, the Finns ski-borne and white uniformed, cut off and cut to pieces Russian divisions sent against them through the winter snow. Their gallantry roused public opinion in France and Britain, and an expeditionary force of 100,000 men was mustered to h er lp them. But the Swedish and Norwegian governments, terrified that to allow the trsnsit of such a force would give the Germans a pretext for invasion, refused to let them through. Eventually the Finns were worn down by the sheer weight of numbers, tanks and bombs and in March they gave way, accepting the Russian surrender terms.

Apart from that heartening resistance, and the Battle of River Plate, there was little to lift people's spirits in Britain. Tommy Handley did his best in one of the most popular radio shows ever presented: "It's That Man Again", with Jack Train inna variety of parts; with Mrs "Can-I-do-you-now" Mopp; and with a host of other characters identified by their catchphrases: "This is Funf speaking"; "Don't forget the Diver"; " 'After you Cecil' -- 'After you, Claud' ".

I.T.M.A.'s popularity was rivalled on the radio only by a commentator in Germany, 'Lord Haw-Haw", eventually identified as William Joyce, a former member of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Facists. Joyce managed to sound as if his lips were curled in perpetual sneer, but his information about what was happening in Britain was sometimes accurate, and rumour began to credit h m6im with almost clairvoyant powers -- he knew, it was said, when a local village clock stopped, and would report it a few hours later. His audience amounted to some six million regulars in Britain, and sometimes to three times as many.

Still, during the phoney war period, at least, Lord Haw-Haw was regarded more as an entertainer than as a serious commentator; he might have been an I.T.M.A. character. And as spring approached hope grew that the war might be won without the predicted accompanying horrors, without even much dislocation of normal life. Food rationing, admittedly, had been introduced early in the new year -- because ministers, to their surprise (they continually underrated the public) found from opinion polls that the public wanted it, to ensure fair shares for all -- particularly when certain goods started to disappear "under the counter", to be given only to favoured customers. Butter, bacon, and sugar were the first foods to be rationed followed soon after by meat. Newsprint supplies began to get tight, too, reducing the size of newspapers and magazines. But this did not prevent Cyril Connolly from lauching his magazine Horizon, which was to provide house room for serious writers of the war period.

"In the name of God go!"
Gradually, it came to be believed that the Navy was gaining command of the seas, and the British and French forces building up to strength which Hitler would be rash to challenge. The words of the song, "Run, Rabbit Run" were converted by Flannagan and Allen to 'Run Hitler Run"; and two song writers came up with the same idea and title "We'll hang out our washing on the Siegfried Line" -- one of them becoming a popular hit.

Churchill had warned against such complacency, "Come, then", he had told an audience in Manchester at the end of January "Let us to the task, to do battle, to the toil -- each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succour the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honour the brave" -- but these ringing words were hardly heard until later in the year, after Dunkirk, when they were recalled and used for propaganda purpoese. The commoner attitude was expressed by Chamberlain at the beginning of April. After seven months of war, he said he felt ten times as confident as he had at the beginning. Was it not extra ordinary, he asked his audience, that Hitler had delayed until France and Britain were ready to withstand him? Whatever the reason, Hitler had not attacked; "one thing is certain; he missed the bus".

Even while Chamberlain was speaking, German ships used in the iron ore trade with northern Norway, which normally went back in balkst, were sailing noth with instead of ballst, soldiers, guns and ammunition. For months the British Government had been complaining to the Norwegian authorities that German ships were abusing the safety of Norwegian territorial waters to transport war materials; and on at least one occasion, to transport British prisoners of war, taken off merchant vessels. The allegation had been proved when Captain Vian of the destroyer Cossack entered a Norwegian fiord and rescued some 300 British prisoners from the Allmark, a supply ship for the Graf Spee. Reluctant though ministers were to offend Norwegian susceptibilities, they had eventually been persuaded that if the Norwegians were unable or unwilling to intervene, mines must be laid in Norwegian territorial waters. On 08th April, in the small hours of the morning, British destroyers laid minefields off the Norwegian coast. The Norwegian Government met to prepare a formal protest, only to learn they were just about to be invaded. On 09th April, German troops were landed at all the main Norwegian ports; and within two days, all their main objectives had been taken. Denmark was also occupied.

For a time, optimism in Britain actually increased. Hitler might have gained the advantage of suprise; but how could he keep it, without control of the seas? Some of the German warships involved in the campaign had been sunk or severely damaged; British losses were relatively lighter. And with the German destroyer force in Narvik harbour pulverized, it should surely be an easy matter to set up a base there, denying Germany her essential supply of iron ore? An expeditionary force was sent to seize the town; and in mid April landings were also made north and south of Trondheim, preliminary to prising that port, too, out of German hands.

Humiliation followed. The officer commanding the expeditionary force off Narvik delined to risk his men an a frontal assault on the small German garrison there; and the troops north and south of Trondheim had hardly been there a week before it was realized that their situation was hopeless. At the beginning of May, they were withdrawn. Taunted by the Opposition -- Hitler had missed the bus, had he? -- Chamberlain only made matters worse by claiming on 04th May, that Germany had not reached all her objectives; "the balance of advantage rested with us". As Harold Nicolson recorded in his diary, "if Chamberlain believed it himself, then he was stupid. If he did not believe it, then he was trying to deceive. In either case, he loses confidence."

How much confidence he has lost was revealed in the Commons debate on the war situation on 07th May. Although it had been demanded by the Labour Opposition, it was disgruntled Cons backbenchers who used it to the best effect: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes, who appeared in full uniform and fired devastating broadside at the Government for its mishandling of the Norwegian operation; and Amery, who delivered an even more destructive thrust at the Prime Minister himself, ending with Cromwell's order to the Long Parliament: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

To Harold Macmillan -- one of Churchill's supporters in the Commons --
Amery's speech was decisive; so was the debate, "for it altered the history of Britain and the Empire, and perhaps the world". Chamberlain himself did not realise how shaky his position had become; "I have friends in this House", he told the Opposition, with what looked like a triumphant leer. He had -- but the division showed how rapidly he was losing them; the Government's usual majority of over 200 had slipped to 81, and forty Conservatives had voted with the opposition. He made one last attempt to salvage his self-esteem. The Commons' anger, he managed to persuade himself, was not so much with him as with his team. Apart from Churchill and Eden, brought in after the outbreak of war, the members of the Cabinet were all veterans of the appeasement era. Well, there should be a reconstruction, bringing in younger men, including some Labour and Liberal leaders.

But the Labour Party, Chamberlain found was not prepared to serve under him. Lord Halifax, then? Yes; they would serve under Halifax, in spite: of his record as an appeasing foreign secretary: in spite of his friendship with the repulsive Reichmarschall Herman Goring. But Halifax felt sick in the stomach at the prospect. When he went with Churchill to see Chamberlain, on 09th May, he explained that as a member of the House of Lords, he did not feel that he would be in a position to excercise the required authority in the House of Commons. Churchill, without a doubt, it would have to be.

Even while this dicision was being taken, German troops were moving into position for Hitler's next onslaught, on the Low Countries. The following morning they were invaded. For a moment, Chamberlain believed that the reconstruction would have to be postponed.

He was quickly undeceived, and that evening he told King George of his decision to resign. In his dairy, the King noted he had told Chamberlain "how grossly unfairly I thought he had been treated"; and informally porposed Halifax as his successor; his peerage could be placed in abeyance for the time being. Clearly the prospect of Winston Churchill as Premier did not appeal to him. But the decision had already been taken. Churchill was duly called to Buckingham Palace, and asked to form a government.

Unlike Halifax, Churchill had no fears, no reservations. at last, he had the authority he needed to prosecute the war in the way and in the spirit it should be untaken. "I felt" -- he was to recall in his History of the Second World War: "as if I were talking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour, and for this trial. . . I could not be reproached either for making a war or want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, though impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams."