The Phony War

On September 1st 1939, Germany invaded Poland, despite the campaign of “appeasement”, which Neville Chamberlain, the UK Prime Minister had announced with confidence, would ensure “peace for our time.”

On September 3rd, 1939, both Britain and France declared war against Germany, and the first air raid siren sounded in London after Neville Chamberlain finished his radio broadcast.

During that September, train stations in London and other cities were clogged with families dispatching their children to the relative safety of the countryside. Detailed plans had already been drawn up before war was declared, (Operation Pied Piper) and many children, labelled with tags and carrying gas masks, waved goodbye to their parents.

The evacuation plans had been well -advertised, but the take-up was much less than the British government had anticipated. It was not compulsory to send your children away, and many families, faced with the prospect of being divided, in an already frightening time, opted to stay together.

Many of London’s children had never left the city, been on a train or ever seen a cow in a field, and over the next few months there was a drift of children back to the city. Reports of homesickness, and in some cases, abuse and cruelty, contributed to the return of evacuated children.

Everyone was issued a gas mask, the memory of the first World War, just over two decades previously, and the horrors of mustard gas still fresh in many leaders’ memories.

The installation of Anderson shelters in every conceivable space gathered momentum. The corrugated structures were free to low-income families. They were said to be able to withstand a bomb blast and occupants would survive even the heaviest raids, as long as they weren’t claustrophobic or concerned about the damp.

Black-out regulations were put into place, and the familiar lights of London dimmed, and would not fully return for five years - not that the British population would have believed it then.

“It will all be over by Christmas,” was the optimistic sentiment.

This initial flurry of activity and preparation for war was followed by…………….absolutely nothing.

British public morale during the Phony War (as this period between September 1939 and April 1940 came to be known) was characterized by a mix of anxiety, uncertainty, and a sense of anticlimax. The period was marked by a strange sense of normality, as people tried to carry on with their daily lives while also adjusting to the new realities of wartime. The evacuations and issuing of gas masks served as reminders of the potential dangers, but the lack of actual fighting led to a feeling of unease and even skepticism about the necessity of the war.

However, the prolonged preparation proved invaluable as the war progressed in 1940. The resilience, adaptability, and unity of the British people, forged during those early months of uncertainty, would be tested to the limit in the years of hardship and sacrifice that lay ahead.

The people of London, were about to witness the Battle of Britain waged above them, followed by The Blitz, a period of intense aerial bombing by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom, lasting from September 7, 1940, to May 11, 1941. During this time, many British cities were targeted, with London being the most heavily bombed. The Blitz resulted in significant loss of civilian life and widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure.

According to official figures, the Blitz claimed the lives of approximately 43,000 civilians, with an additional 139,000 injured. The majority of these casualties occurred in London, where over 19,000 civilians were killed.

The extensive bombing during the Blitz left a large number of people homeless. It is estimated that around 1.4 million people were made homeless in London alone. The destruction was particularly severe in the East End of London, where many working-class neighbourhoods were located.

The preparations made during the Phony War period did help the British people to cope with the Blitz to some extent. Although the Phony War was characterized by a lack of major military engagements, the evacuation plans, gas masks, Anderson Shelters, Blackouts, rationing and campaigns to keep British morale high, certainly help mitigate the hardships that were to follow.

The lessons learned during the Phony War also informed the government's response to the Blitz and helped to shape the country's social and political landscape in the post-war years.