History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

At 11.15 am on Sunday 3 September 1939 the whole country were huddled around their radios waiting to hear Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who gave a 5 minute broadcast on the BBC Home Service. He said: ‘I am speaking to you from the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany’. Thus War was declared on Nazi Germany and the Second World War began. The following day the troops of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), began to move to France and Belgium. Over several months they dug in and waited. Then on the 10 May 1940 the Germans invaded France and the Low Countries. The battle raged with the Germans getting the...