BBC News - Britain Declares War on Germany - September 3, 1939
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- 4TheRecord.org
BBC News report from September 3rd 1939, Britain Declares War on Germany plus some useful advice and information.
Audio and Image are Public Domain (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988)
i hope we wont hear something like this ever again
Tom Powers stupid half breed have some respect
@Tom Powers if only you were a bit more well-informed
Might not be long now 🤷🏻♂️
Doubt it
Tom Powers stfu who do you think you are
It's of such a high quality that it's hard to believe it was almost 80 years ago.
@Maxx Fleischer Wire recording machine, used for longer recordings that could not be got on disc. The quality not as good as disc.
Science!
Sid W S Andrew Afyouni chamberlain’s only accomplishment was postponing the inevitable- read about Hitler and the Japanese Empire - they were going after their territorial demands no matter what. Only force of arms could have stopped them
enhanced sound
@@saeedafyouni619 well the appeasement was working so well wasn’t it 😂
Such a chilling broadcast that none of us will ever appreciate.
say it!!!
Gives me chills
i really appreciate this it's inspiring :)
@@matthewgriffin7857 same here!
It's kind of fucking terrifying. Imagine chilling with your friends, maybe listening to music when it cuts out and this starts playing.
“This country, is at war, with Germany.” I got actual chills.
The greatest single broadcast in the history of communications. People forget that it was Neville Chamberlain who drew that line and declared war on the Nazis who had effectively declared war on the world. My father who was 24 at the time went down that day to join the British Army. They weren't ready yet so he had to come back the next day. He hadn't told his mother until he had joined to spare her feelings. He went on to join the 32nd Field Regiment Royal Artillery. He was sent to Belgium and ended up being rescued late in the Dunkirk evacuation. He had to destroy his 25 pounder and kept a breach pin (which I still have) and barometer from a wrecked Dunkirk café. He was shipped to India (HMS Hood was the escort) and then went on to the middle-east and North Africa. He navigated in operations behind German lines and was captured just before the Second Battle of El Alamein (late October 1942). He ended up in a POW camp in central Italy when they quit the war. The Italian guards just walked out but soon the Germans showed up and the prisoners were taken to Werdau Germany. He and a mate escaped but were eventually recaptured and sent to Zwickau Germany. His camp was captured by the Americans and he was sent back to England. My father was eligible for benefits because his health had suffered but refused as he felt the country couldn't afford it. He married my mother and emigrated to the Canadian prairies and raised a family of six. He died of complications due to kidney failure in 1976.
Fair play to your father mate what a brave man
Bless your dad X
A hero.
Wow!
Respect… the fact he refused benefits displays the type of men we used to have. Can’t imagine anyone having the same opinion now.
What a dignified speech. He knew there was war with the Nazis. He bought us time to protect us. God bless him and may he be understood better in history
@Imperium Europa Agreed. Do you know that Hitler sent over 15+ PEACE TREATIES during the war with England?
@Imperium Europa Churchill was not in the government until after war was declared.
Did you listen to the full speech and remember that Hitler broke agreements left, right and centre.
Just for the record, British foreign policy re Europe since the 17th century revolved around not allowing any one country to become too pre-eminent within Europe; hence wars with Holland, France and Germany.
@Imperium EuropaI always see your BS all over YT & that's exactly what it is BS !!!
@Imperium EuropaProud to be a Bigot are you ! How sad your life must be ? I would bet that you live off the Dole ! People like yourself always do . Take care & enjoy your span & eggs !!!
You must be mad. Hitler had a plan to take over the world and we stopped him. Remember France invaded Germany first !
Absolutely chilling. My Mum said her mother was in tears listening to this. She just kept screaming
Not again
Not again.....
I can't imagine what people must have felt when they heard this speech. And I hope one like it isn't heard again in my lifetime. Or ever.
TheHumbleFellow we need a good war to thin out the pussys
@@You_are_not_normal what the fuck is wrong with you?
@@kapitankapital6580 Second that
There will probably be another world war one day
@@You_are_not_normal lmaooooo
Anyone else get chills listening to this?
in hindsight it's even more creepy
Nope, just wondering how a British family would’ve been listening to this on the radio
YES!
@@jeaniusedits6094 Crystal Radio
yeh especially the high sound quality
My Late Grandad was an evacuee when WW2 Started, he was from South London at the age of 9 years old at the time and was evacuated either southwest to Devon or up north to the Yorkshire Dales, 10 years later he did National Service in his late teens until he met my grandmother many years later…
He was a brave boy and a very strong willed man who lived through it all.
From Evacuee to National Service Soldier to Professor/ Doctor in Toxicology/ medical Science.
I couldn’t be more grateful for what a life he has lead…
Love You Grandad
1930 - 2023
To say that this recording is 80 years old it chills me to bone and makes me feel has if I were there at the time.
This is definitely the most important broadcast in British history, imagine hearing this live. I hope we never hear any world war speech like this again, although with what's happening in Ukraine I fear we're dangerously close.
There is always a war somewhere in the world it's a disgrace that human beings are still killing each other
7:32 "not to crowd together under any circumstances" Hitting a little close to home in the time of the 2020 pandemic.
Except those were much more perilous times. The world was truly at risk. This is a glorified flu epidemic.
Not quite the same mate
Can’t imagine how the people listening to this broadcast must have felt hearing that the country is now at war.
And scarcely 20 years after the last one ended, too.
Prime Minister Chamberlain sounds absolutely heart broken in this emergency broadcast. He died of a cancer a year into the war. Wherever Chamberlain is now : he would be proud. Our soldiers (fallen and surviving) did us proud - Britain won the war. I am so sorry u did not live to see it. But in a way I am glad that u did not witness holocaust and numerous concentration camps they our troops and allies stumbled across because they will alwaya haunt humanity. However not only did Britain win the war - but 80 years on.. Germany and Britain are an alliance. 2 countries twice divided by war but now members of Nato.. Never to fight again. May you rest in peace Chamberlain. And also everyone who lost their lives in ww2
Chilling
It’s a pity our leaders today don’t have the same backbone
Well the world leaders these days are different for better and worse.
Perhaps if Chamberlain had had MORE backbone and moved on Germany when they moved into the Sudetenland, before their military build-up, rather than after, he would have prevented WWII in Europe.
@@lmt7816 'perhaps' but then, given hitler was a stubborn lunatic, do you think he would have backed down?
me neither.
@@ScaleModelIncLIVE not backed down, no. However the military buildup in contravention of Versailles began in earnest after the Munich accord. If England and France attacked then, while still holding materiel superiority and readiness superiority, outcomes could have been very different. Not only for Europe but for the USSR which may never have been empowered like they were during the war. However, seeing that time travel isn't possible, ALL historical conjecture is moot, at best. 😉
@@lmt7816 I feel he did have balls, but I agree the war would have ended more swiftly had they struck when he took the rest of Czechoslovakia.
80 years ago TODAY.
My grandfather wanted to go and fight but he worked as a coach driver, I believe he helped evacuate the city of Leeds in the West Riding (Now West Yorkshire).
Listening to this as if I am experiencing that very moment. I feel a mixture of extreme anxiety, anger and sadness.
I can almost hear the roar of the luftwaffe
The sound quality of Prime Minster Chamberlain's speech is superior to recordings made by the American radio networks (CBS, Mutual, and NBC; ABC hadn't been formed yet) since there was no shortwave relay which affected the audio quality.
The recording was on a disc. Most recordings from this era were from wire recorders.
@@visaman I don't this it was on disc: it was on the BBC wire tape machine, which enabled superior longer recordings of more than four minutes. You can hear the hiss of the tape, not the crackle and pop of a disc recording.
And with his words, Chamberlain knew he was done as PM.Probably recorded on acetates at BBC London. Multiple machines were used to make them. Wire recorders were not all that reliable and audio tape as we know it was not yet available in the UK. In some cases, motion picture film was used because of better sound quality. Modern digital techniques can clean up many of these old recordings. BTW, ABC did exist in 1939; it was known as the NBC Blue Network and changed it's name in 1945 after a court-ordered divestiture.
It is impossible to overestimate the new world ushered in by these few words by the Prime Minister. It took such a titanic effort to resist and the defeat tyranny. I hope we never have to defeat the magnitude of this kind of evil again, although at a smaller scale Ukraine is fighting on our behalf for the same principles. I'm in my early 70s, and my parents' lives were shaped by these events. Dad was one of millions of Americans who joined the fight after the British and Commonwealth had carried the burden for more than two years. He crewed on a B-17 flying from Kimbolton in the fens to targets in Germany. Never spoke about it. I am so grateful for that generation. We've got to keep power from being concentrated in the hands of any single human being. Thank you for these recordings.
It feels a little like deja vu, after hearin boris Johnson talking about Russia’s attack on the Ukraine there’s an eerie sense of history repeating itself 😕 humans never learn!
History is our best witness.
love hereing theas early bbc broadcasts !!!
Me too, really makes you feel like you are back in that time. My only issue is I have so much of them and so I'm trying to upload them according to the date.
What do you think I should do with the 1940's broadcasts? Maintain the same upload date as the broadcast date or upload 5 every weekend starting from January?
By the way, the 1939 broadcasts are also added to this playlist for easy access: czcams.com/play/PL9wsAmGh5ZsLknJx2TlaRp_0I2GtQ1KBQ.html
I am a WW2 buff and LOVE the recorded radio broadcasts. I have bought CD's of recorded audio from Dec. 7, 1941. If you have more audio, PLEASE upload them. THANKS!!
Spudskie loads of stuff on the internet archive.
The crazy thing is that there's people who want to re-establish the conditions that led to this.
People want to bring back Nazism and even the Third Reich. They're even running around doing the Nazi salute.
I always wonder what those who fought, survived and lost during WWII think about their work being undone.
Its even crazier that the UK seemingly had no reason to start ww2 by declaring war on germany over a 10 mile strip of land, in a country nowhere near or related to the UK…
@@bigsmokes2708 You're bad at history.
@@Michelle_Schu-blacka so explain why it was reasonable for the UK and France to declare on germany? poland was a backwaters eastern european country that at least was definitely mistreating ethnic germans, and at most committing actual genocide in the polish corridor. (although that is denounced as a neonazi theory.)
@@bigsmokes2708 Honestly, I'm questioning the whole thing in light of recent events.
This problem, as you said, most alternatives are denounced as conspiracy theories or anti-semetic.
Either way, what the Nazis were doing was horrific and had to be stopped.
@@Michelle_Schu-blacka the holocaust is undeniable. but it is also undeniable that it “ramped up” for the lack of a better word, during the actual war, especially during the ending years where germany was losing ground, and hitler became mentally unstable. so it is also arguable that the mistreatment of ethnic peoples was amplified by the start of the world war.
I can not even imagine how people must have felt listening to that. It genuinely scares me to try to.
My Jewish dad then 6 heard that from his home in NY and remembered it
The BBC National and Regional programmes were merged on September 1st 1939 into the one national radio station - BBC Home Service. The closures of theatres and cinemas really annoyed the public, and the new BBC Home Service was initially dreadful. Lacking entertainment, by October 1939 all theatres and cinemas were reopened.
The emotionless sound of his voice is just so frightening and gives you the chills listening to this.
I think he sounds incredibly filled with emotion. It's simply masked by Britishness.
Today is 24 February 2022. Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it.
As he spoke, Chamberlain understood his time as PM would be ending soon. Chamberlain had tried diplomacy against Hitler. He considered war a failure, but his misreading of Hitler doomed him. Canada and most of the Commonwealth would join quickly; America would take 27 months; something we need consider in the light of current events.
it took till the fall of france to realize that the war was existential.... i dont think many anticipated that... couldnt imagine what that was like.... now 80 years ago.... the world has changed so much.
Wonder if anyone realised then that bombs would rain down for the next 4 years, and if he or she would still alive in 5 years time
Thank you for uploading this, my friend, the citizens of Great Britain need too hear this, and they need this footage of the legendary speech by SIR Winston.
Thank you
This is not Winston Churchill, it is Chamberlain
Genuinely haunting
I enjoyed the old radio news from World War II I wish you got more of them I wish you had more of them I really enjoyed them very much
Thank you, I've got 1942 to 1945 but it's not much so in the process of trying to find more radio broadcasts to add to it. I've got 10 minutes of broadcast in total for 1942. Hopefully I'll find some more broadcasts otherwise I'll post what I've got.
There are loads of them.
80 years ago today, damn
The bells at 5:30 are chilling to me.
I was crying just thinking about how many were lost for the freedom of us
This is scary to hear even in nowdays.😬☮️
I just hope that we don't hear this again soon.
My mum was a 1 year old and my grandma was 28 they have both passed now, I wonder if my grandma listened to this broadcast with my mum, she must have been worried. I wish I had asked my grandma more about those war years she only really once talked about it she said it was a rotten time hardly any food and rationing, she lived through both wars she was born in 1910
Thank you for uploading these videos.
I don't consider Neville Chamberlain a cowardly or weak man. He wanted peace because he knew a modern war with Germany would be worse than the previous war. We need to remember the losses the U.K. suffered in First World War. The United Kingdom lost 900,000 killed in the First World War. We have to remember the terrible losses of World War One in shaping British policy in 1939. The Great Depression severely hurt the British economy too. The British did have a decent Air Force and a big Navy. The British lacked the economic resources to be prepared for a modern ground war against Germany in 1939.
In reality, if the American people had been really critically thinking and honest about our place in the world, we should have declared war on Germany and the rest of the Axis in September, 1939. The British were fighting our fight. Neville Chamberlain was correct in saying Hitler was wicked and evil with his unprovoked attack on Poland. Hitler's aggression wouldn't be stopped by anything but brute force. Probably in the first years of the war, we could have fought a naval and air war with minimal losses but maximum economic benefit for the British. An early declaration of war by America couldn't have prevented the Fall of France, Dunkirk or the Blitz but Americans fighting beside the British and Commonwealth would have been the right thing to do.
We can look at films of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Treblinka and Dachau and realize how naive, ignorant and parochial American isolationists were in 1939 about Axis military aggression. We can listen to a Donald Trump rally today and see many of Americans haven't improved very much either from their isolationist grandparents either. Global warming is almost as much of a challenge today as Axis aggression was 80 years ago. The nature of the problems change but the need for allies to work closely together never does to do the right thing together to solve common problems.
It is amazing how clearly one can see in hindsight. The vast majority of Americans in 1939 wanted no part in yet another European war. We had no treaties with any of the belligerents compelling our entry. To be sure, had we known the full extent of the atrocities that Germany would perpetrate we would have entered immediately without question - again, "had we known" .
American isolationists were too busy sticking thing their heads in the sand in the middle 1930's. Newspapers, radio news, FDR's press conferences and news reels showed the Chinese-Japanese war of 1937 and the Spanish Civil War from 1936 onwards. No hindsight at all can be found here. Parochial Americans just IGNORED the facts in front of their face. Spain had a bloody international civil war with the Soviet Union backing the Republicans and fascist Germany and Italy backing the Nationalists under Franco. Life magazine had tegular articles on both conflicts. It is amazing that Americans didn't have more concern placed on a higher emphasis on defense spending with a program for construction of a two ocean Navy. The United States needed a decent sized Army of at least 500,000 troops of ten divisions with modern nucleus of fleet of a thousand relatively modern light and medium M-2 tanks to train with on Army posts. The Army and Navy aviation should have been training many hundreds of pilots pilots in each service every few months. Billy Mitchell showed the future of military aviation in 1918 and during the 1920's. America should have been seriously preparing for a two ocean conflict with another conflict in Europe for sure after 1936. Yet, despite all the evidence of fascist military aggression, all the media coverage on daily newspapers of wars in Asia, Spain and Ethiopia American isolationists wanted few if no military preparations preparing against attack. This shows way too many American chose to willfully ignore problems rather than face up to them. This state describes Americans not focused on overseas matters ignoring the danger just in front of their faces.
Hope to never here this broadcast in our time
Bth by hearing prime minister chamberlain failed attempt to seeking peace is like the biggest low blow a man can take all that time wasted for nothing , all those people that they tell you they listen to you when in real life they have other things in there head its sad that we face situations like this till this day but i guess its what life is
I find that this speech clearly makes a lot of sense and thanks to these brave nations to support Poland that time and fought pretty well against facism extremism nazist.
@@stormrider1375 learn english u will understand
You don’t really understand the impact of this on the people, most of us now have never and probably will never be in the situation where we here a broadcast like this, it’s only when you listen to this that you begin to realise how people were feeling at that time and just how real it actually was!
so um
amazing sound quality
Hope it doesn't end like this again...
Won’t be germany this time
To hear that and to know the whole world is that getting crazy. There were some people (mainly scientists and teachers) in Catalonia which got exiled from there to the UK just after Spanish civil war ended. And months later... that. By the way, by that time the BBC radio had a Catalan language program. Do you know if I can find recordings anywhere? It lasted till 1946.
10 years later my grandfather was born time flies so quick
Damm my grandfather was born in 1941 in a make shift hospital. Crazy how recent the war was yet how far the world has come.
Something went with a bang at 2.36...How prophetic.
Hindsight being 20/20 it is chilling to hear some say I can't think of anything I could have done differently
Nice accent upper crust proper Kings English lovely to hear shame about the sad contents of it!
This is absolutely fucking crazy that this was on the BBC and years later the BBC would be playing on the radios of so many who were invading Iraq in 03 as they were in the midst of the invasion
Battlefield v got it right
this is .. so strange. "stay indoors, don't gather in crowds, wear your masks"
It must of been awful at that time to hear those dreaded words announced on the tv
Lauri Haapakoskii oops sorry!
Lauri Haapakoskii yeah their was . Tv was invented in 1929 or something like that
On the Wireless.
TV would have only been in the London area, owned by a few that could afford it. Radio was the was the mass medium, monopoly of the BBC, with only Radio Luxembourg & Normandy broadcasting to the UK. But Luxembourg was soon to be invaded, so all that was heard on Luxembourg's frequency would be the traitorous Wlliam "Lord Haw-Haw" Joyce, later hanged for treason.
@@oldgitsknowstuff Eh?
This sounds very simular to the acts of russia and putin against ukrain in a few ways
We now know Hitler was territorial Genghis Khan all over again. As was Stalin. Maniacs on Earth. The cost/horror was incredible but we (including my family's) DID get rid of the lousy bastards.
History was unkind to Mr chamberlain
It certainly was, I think a lot blamed him for not realising that hitler was a real problem. I'm sure by this time he must have regretted how he had been, but it was too late.
@@4TheRecord Hitler could not be trusted. I am sure Churchill could have managed Hitler before he went to poland
This is what we watched at school to know about WW2
I am glad it came to some good use.
The start of a conflict that will forever live in history
Shouldn't an announcement of this magnitude be given by the King directly rather than the Prime Minister? He is after all the Commander-in-Chief
The King is more of a symbolic role. The real person in charge is the Prime Minister and the Parliament that can overrule the Prime Minister. The King could dissolve Parliament, but this would lead to the abolishment of the Royal family entirely, since nobody accepts that a King should be able to interfere with a democratically elected Government. UK is a Democracy and not a Monarchy.
It is the prime minister under the passing down of prerogative powers that has the ability to declare war. As such, and what 4TheRecord has said, it is under the Prime Minister's remit as a first among equals to give that announcement
Was this recorded in the BBC's studio or was it recorded via radio?
I believe it was recorded via radio due to the quality.
cant wait for liz's speech
:....if they were hit by a bomb large numbers would be killed or injured....." Can't image the feeling of those poor citizens hearing this live on their radios.
A highly fascinating piece of history. Thanks a lot.
Imagine if they had itv and piers Morgan
Commercial television in 1939 - how vulgar
Hooters, hand rattle and handbells--all that sounds so innocent in light of what we know came about over the following years.
Maybe Germany didn't receive the note... Churchill should have sent another one
Thank you for uploading.
Scary to hear the logic Hitler had, its just like Pootin.
The restrictions that were put into place in ww2 are the same as these ones in 2020 and i would be far more concerned about war than an invisible cold
Brilliant as Chamberlain toiled so hard to preserve peace in Europe.
It's been 80 years...
Poland would be lost without the UK & British Isles, US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Russia. Shame a lot of us Poles did not and still do not honour him and instead bring shame insulting our allies.
Your Allies were fake.
How close to current events is this???
Sometimes it's creepy how close it is, especially the 1942 and 1943 recordings. Also, in 1943, the Germans used the same tactics to take Izyum as the Ukrainians did to liberate it. The battle maps matched perfectly, but this is more to do with the terrain in the area.
Anyone listening to this in 2022? 💀
Yep. History repeating
Yessir. They do say history always repeats itself...atleast twice. That quote scares me
sounds familiar now
#Midnight.
This is being used in schools so this is amazing (How they did it not that the war is good)
Underappreciated man:
-Berchtesgaden
-Godesburg
-Munich
We have lived threw everything being closed once again, but not due to war, but due to CUDID19.
6:30 sounds like he liet a massive fart
Have a bit of damn respect
@@dovahkiin7253 Lol
I'm guessing it was a chair on a wooden floor
True
Mr Chamberlain was undderatted
Boris’s gonna say the same thing tomorrow at 11am hands down
Sure...
Chamberlain was a man of peace, misunderstood by history.
What about Czechoslovakia then? Both he and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier undermine or basically ignore the Czech’s role in the negotiations with Hitler since the whole reason for the Munich agreements was about the issue with Germany taking lands from the Czechs. Chamberlain and Daladier secretly negotiated the terms of Munich with Hitler and Mussolini without the consent and acknowledgment of Czechoslovakia, and to this day many Czechs hated both Chamberlain and Daladier for that
For anyone who plays BF5 I bet this is familiar
Can anyone explain this BBC logo please
Apparently you do not exist but anyway. It just represents a radio aerial people used to hold similar aerials in their hands to try to pick up signals.
Sad.
Makes you wonder, what if Germany won? What world would be now living in
A better one, trust me.
@@KaneChamp why would it be better?
Imagine donald trump giving this speech.. thank god the world had better leaders back then.
Lmao... you must be sooo proud of Biden
The comedian Spike Milligan wrote in his war autobiography about listening to 'a man named Chamberlain who did prime minister impressions' announcing: 'As from 11 o'clock we are at war with Germany.' Spike commented: 'I loved the "we."' In the 1942 Noel Coward-David Lean film 'In Which We Serve', when Chamberlain says 'you can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me', John Mills as a young sailor listening to the radio retorts: 'Well it ain't exactly a bank holiday for us!'
Sorry, but that was unfair. Chamberlain was a good man who seriously tried to prevent war.
I used the same speech to break up with my girlfriend
There was a preparatory announcement:
"The following official communique has been issued by 10 Downing Street: On September the first, His Majesty's Ambassador in Berlin was instructed to inform the German government that unless they were prepared to give his Majesty's government in the United Kingdom satisfactory assurances that the German government had suspended all aggressive action against Poland, and were prepared promptly to withdraw their forces from Polish territory, His Majesty's government in the United Kingdom would, without hesitation, fulfill their obligations to Poland. At 9 AM this morning, His Majesty's Ambassador in Berlin informed the German government that unless, not later than 11 AM, British Summer Time, today, September the third, satisfactory assurances to the above effect had been given by the German government and had reached His Majesty's government in London, a state of war would exist between the two countries as from that hour. His Majesty's government are now awaiting the receipt of any replay that may be made by the German government. The Prime Minister will broadcast to the nation at 11:15. That is the end of the announcement."
Who else here from BFV
Sorry for posting this 2 years after games was realeased
Is this on BFV?
@@lordieuk6079 Yes I'm the intro
This was in Battlefield 5
Trouble is they abandoned Poland to its fate.
No screeming feminists being offended by this speech.