On this day in 1939, Britain declared war on Nazi Germany following its invasion of Poland, marking the beginning of World War II for Britain. Hours later, France followed suit.
Germany had invaded Poland on 1 September, with Adolf Hitler’s forces launching a massive assault by land and air. Britain and France, which had pledged to defend Polish independence, demanded that German troops withdraw.
After Germany failed to respond to a British ultimatum, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced at 11:15am on 3 September that Britain was at war with Germany.
“This country is at war with Germany,” Chamberlain told the British public in a radio broadcast, explaining that the ultimatum had expired without a commitment from Berlin to withdraw its forces from Poland.
France declared war on Germany later that day.
The conflict rapidly expands
As Britain declared war, the conflict rapidly widened beyond continental Europe. Australia and New Zealand also entered the war on 3 September, while South Africa followed on 6 September and Canada on 10 September.
The declarations transformed Germany’s invasion of Poland from a regional conflict into a wider international war.
Despite the British and French declarations, Poland received little immediate military relief from the west. German forces continued their advance, while the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on 17 September under the secret provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Warsaw surrendered later that month and Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
The war that formally began for Britain on 3 September 1939 would last almost six years, engulf much of the world, and become the deadliest conflict in human history.
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