British Declaration Of War - 3 September, 1939 - COMPLETE Broadcast
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 เม.ย. 2015
- This is the FULL announcement of Declaration Of War made by Neville Chamberlain on 3 September 1939. It was broadcast on BBC Radio at 11:15am, 15 minutes after the British deadline for Germany to withdraw from Poland had passed.
After Chamberlain speaks, church bells ring for a short time and then Government public service messages are broadcast.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
I just want people to be aware that any neo-nazi sympathizer/racist etc. comments won't be tolerated here. There are plenty of videos on YT where these idiots can talk and discuss. I won't allow it here. I know from various private messages I've received that this video is used by students, children and others as research into looking at how the Second World War started and it helps them for their school projects etc. For this reason, I'm making it a point of mine to ensure the comments here are suitable for those audiences.
Any comments that I believe are unsuitable WILL be deleted, and the account used to make the comment will be blocked. It's as simple as that. I don't care if you don't like my attitude or if you think I'm censoring. I'm more concerned about those who use this video for a valid reason. Thanks for reading. DarkLight753
Every thing is fine with the statements in the video, but please get yourself taught with the atrocities they forced on the non europeans, the peace he is talking about is a restricted circle only around europe, every where else they raised havoc, they tried to seize the cultural fabric same as all the invaders who's only concern is personal gain in the name of a greater race. And i also definitely understand that you are too proud to justify.
I'm so glad you are going to monitor this thread. Leaving threads like this one un-moderated, only allows them to be overwhelmed by the most ridiculous comments.
Anirban Dey if the Japanese military and the nazi war machine had won the world two the we would have gone back to a dark age of barbaric racial hatred Britain for 18 months stood alone to save the world from fascist brutality.
DarkLight753 .. well said thankyou
Mark Harrison Britain’s allies were its commonwealth countries largely populated by British stock, America stood by while the British isles fought alone because Americans wanted to see the end of Britian as a global power.
Imagine hearing this live on the radio at the time... mustve been scary as hell
They had known for almost six months that war was coming after Hitler reneged on the Munich agreement. Most British alive at that time had been thru World War I so they were not strangers to war and sacrifice.
I have been watching again the 1983 American Winds of War series on TH-cam.
I think it was more a tragic sense of relief, something along the lines of, "well...all right then... Unfortunate, but we shall do what we must."
NLRamonNL not.
My late mother, her aunt and uncle were in church that morning and the service was interrupted to listen to the broadcast (quite a logistical achievement for an old church building in 1939)
My mum remembers this speech. She said her mother wept and kept screaming not again not again
Indeed
It wouldn't be again, it would be more hard.
I can’t imagine what it was like to be an adult back then. Shit is hard now but my friends and family aren’t dying violently like people did in both world wars.
@@pootypunt69 I don't want to be that guy but we're pretty much heading towards war with China rn
Erik Eriks Oh 100% its a shame how history repeats itself so often
The long pause after the line "this country is at war with Germany" ... chilling. Right at that moment the world was entering one of the darkest periods of human history ...
That gave me chills
The dark period started before that for other countries.
Imagine all the soldiers that survived WW1 that heard that
PUTIN'S NEIGHBOR “not again”
given he tried to make sure war between britain and germany wouldnt happen, even coming back from germany after speaking to hitler, saying that no war would come to britain written down on paper, he would struggle to say the words, he probably felt like he failed the people, you can hear it in the long pause
The saddest part is that Chamberlain dies in 1941, probably thinking that Europe was lost to Germany. He didn't live to see the allied victory.
Did that really happen? To be fair it did look like Britain was gonna lose
@@akinrinoyeolugbayiakintund9819 Yeah? He died in 1941 from cancer.
He died in November 1940. Just over a year after making this broadcast.
@@akinrinoyeolugbayiakintund9819 Yep, he died just over a year after making this speech. Chamberlain did the best he could to keep the peace. He just wanted to avoid a repetition of WW1. The memories of that war were still fresh in the minds of many people. But he wasn't a war PM, Churchill was. Britain needed a war PM. Chamberlain gets a bad reputation because of his appeasement policy. In reality, he had no choice because the British armed forces were severely lacking compared to the Germans. He was buying time to build them up.
@Kokuu Z when he came back off the plane ive spoke to mr hitler ...he wont advance hes army any forward ect.. he was thinking ive might of achieved something good smiling ...but hitler goes in poland and britain has assured poland ...we go to war if they're invade ....then ultimatum germany ignores.....then war......after ww1 ...history repeats its self ww2 ....now same germany want a European army with Markle boss....already making laws and telling how much money they get wnd they get billions....
He sounds utterly broken in that very contained 1930's British way. The betrayal of his essentially good intentions must have had the most profound physical and mental effect on him. History has judged him very harshly. I don't know if, after the abject horror of World War 1, I wouldn't have tried to avoid conflict at all costs.
No one can say he didn't try for peace. Like he said - "We have a clear conscience."
Ahoy, you make an excellent point at the end...Chamberlain was dealing with a monster.
The poor man was dead within a year.
@@davidhoward8270 Not quite - the declaration of war was Sept 3rd 1939. Chamberlain resigned as PM in May 1940 and resigned as an MP in September the same year due to his failing health. He died on 9th November, 14 months after the declaration of war.
World War 1 was definitely a traumatic experience for both the major Allied nations. The Somme, Ypres, Passchendaele, Pals battalions were traumatic for the UK and France basically lost an entire generation at the front in WW1 with 1.4 million dead. The demographics of France were completely changed and they hadn't recovered by WW2.
Very under rated speech and very important in History
@@amaanc8466 Russia would never have beaten Germany without America entering the War...what your saying is rubbish.
Albertanator America came into the war in the last year the ussr was a very strong force in the war if not the strongest
@@bantika6972 America did not come into the war in the last year...America came into the war in late 1941...and yes Russia possessed very strong forces....but without American involvement in this war, the best Russia could have hoped for was a war of attrition with Germany.....America tipped the scales in the favor of the allies...
@@bantika6972 What? The US came into the war in December 1941. Even at the start, they only declared war on Japan. Hitler declared war on the US first. Britain and France had been at war since 1939. The US Navy had been protecting convoys to Britain in the Atlantic for some time before that though.
@@toby5474 Not quite...a Canadian....nice try though
I can't image what my grandparents were thinking listening to this
Robert Tandy same 😂😂😂
Explorer Vlogs why is that funny
I know
My grandad was 6 when it started. My other grandad and a nan was born during WW2 and my other nan was born right after the Cold War
“Round two”
The sound quality is one that would have been impossible on the cheap radiograms of the day. Thanks for posting this in excellent fidelity!
I think he'd like that his voice and this speech can still be heard like this all over the World today, decades after he did it.
Good quality radios of the 1930s and 40s were really quite good. I grew up in a house in the 1960s where our main radio was a 1948 Pye and it was pretty darn good. No VHF of course but very good on MW/LW/SW.
@@EricIrl Considering though, that tape recording didn't exist outside of Germany at the time, the quality of this recording is amazing. Very high fidelity for the time.
@@jackbailey5304 You can get decent sound recording with other techniques. A spinning disc or a wire can record sound quite well. Hollywood sound movies right up to the 1950s didn't use magnetic tape as the sound recording method. The "Fantasia" soundtrack was actually recorded in stereo - on discs.
LandondeeL
The sound quality of wirelesses or even cheap radiograms of this period was far better than you suggest. Provided you were within reasonable range of a transmitter of course. The BBC was in full 'mellow' mode by this time with nightly live broadcasts of dance bands, concerts and recitals of all kinds. Anyone who owns a surviving vintage radiogram and has contemporary 78's to play on it will confirm this. Surviving wirelesses however, are less able to cope with modern transmissions and modern music and might give the impression that the equipment is of poor quality.
"You can imagine... What a bitter blow it is to me... that all my long struggle to win peace has failed..."
You can hear his voice crack while speaking... That poor guy. He witnessed the horrors of war and wanted to avoid it... Frankly, I would have done the same things if I was him.
You damnable appeaser
Yet he declared war on them
Homemade Rock Instrumentals Britain was Poland’s ally so🤷♂️🤷♂️
@Jeb Bush The fact that Chamberlain died at a time when everything was falling apart and it seemed likely that Britain would fall to Nazi Germany, effectively rendering all his efforts to protect his country as a complete failure, makes it even more sad. It would have at least satisfied his legacy if he had lived to the end of the war to realise his efforts were not in vain.
He was a weak and spineless coward. If he had not allowed Hitler to expand and take Austria and Czechoslovakia then ww2 wouldn't have happened. All he had to do was not appease Hitler in 1938 and support the Czechoslovaks, who had French and Soviet support at the time as well
My Gran was playing outside when it was live. After she came back into her street every woman was crying hard. She thought it was a funeral. Until she came inside and my great grandmother told her we are at war with Germany
She heared the air raid siren tesr
The worst thing to hear on radio
The world would NEVER be the same after this announcement.
Just like now , every nations leader speaking similar announcement to avoid covid 19 , do not go out from your house (shelter) 😣
Actually the world would never be the same again after Austria's declaration of war on Serbia in 1914. The second world war was simply a continuation of the first, with a 21 year cease fire inbetween. This speech by Chamberlain would never have been given had the first world war been avoided.
In regards to the balance of power, by the end of the war America and the USSR would be the new world powers. Some would argue that they were set to become world powers anyhow but surely WW2 accelerated this process.
@@temaramsenja Pfft, that comes nowhere near to this speech.
Sadly, Neville Chamberlain has been judged rather harshly and yet I believe he did his best to avoid war. He was an honourable man who took a course of action based on the facts known at the time; not hindsight. Neither Great Britain nor France could have done anything significantly different to prevent what occurred. The fact that they stood alone against Germany at that time in history is a testament to their courage.
This is a very good point. The long dark shadows of the Great War still hung heavily over this generation.
What about Henderson?
Maybe as good of a point this is. Great Britain and France just let Germany shit on the Treaty of Versailles, they let him rebuild his air force (Luftwaffe), they let him remilitarize the Rhineland, they let him increase his military, they let him build more weapons, they let him invade Austria, they gave away Czechoslovakia, and then they finally out their foot down when he invades Poland? Irregardless of the economic situations Great Britain and France should've done something soon moment Hitler broke one Treaty rule
I respectfully disagree with great part of what you are saying. In 1938 France should have fulfil its obligation and help Czechoslovakia which was threatened by Germany. In 1938, France and Czechoslovakia were together stronger than Germany. In the years 1938 and 1939 the governments of France and Great Britain did not show much courage. In the year 1939 started so called phoney war. As it is said in the book A WAR TO BE WON:"At the heart of this inaction-by-default strategy lay the hard fact that British and French politicians had no stomach for war. The German invasion of Poland had brought their worst nightmare to life. Appeasement had failed, but serious military action remained the farthest thing from their minds."
He was a spineless and weak coward. His actions (or lack of action, rather) lead to the carnage that is known as WW2. He could have stopped Hitler in 1938 and end Germany early on, but he didn't
A good man treated unfairly by history.
Hear, hear!
It's easy to think he did the right thing.
But he left the Czechs to wither. In hindsight, Germany should have been crushed the moment it stood defiant.
Honourable, yes. Sensible, no.
@@KopperNeoman Since when is breaking your word considered honorable?
People forget that after the First World War. Both England and France did everything the could to avoid another brutal war. In another time, Chamberlain would have been a good Prime Minister of England.
One thing Chamberlain did right was to put England on a war budget in early 1938.
@@fatdaddyeddiejr *Great Britain not England
My Grandmother lived through this. I asked her about it 5 years ago all she said was everyone was very worried. I didn't ever ask her again, wish I had. She has gone now more history lost.
To think, when he said his he probably never thought of the pure dark history in those camps in the following 6 years.
Very true. Chamberlain didn't even live to see the UK's victory in the war, which I think is one of the saddest parts of it all
Joel Conestollos he didn’t see the result of the war. He died of cancer in 43
@@hartwellcraig7909 He died in 1941?..
@@MD-vw5xw 1940.
Well, no one thought of it until 1944, when the Soviets liberated Auschwitz.
This is heartbreaking to hear 82 years later.
I can only imagine what my grandparents, and their parents who had fought the Great War, must have felt.
its also inspiring I used the same speech to break up with my ex girlfriend 😂, I just find this speech very very inspiring and motivational I listen to this every time I am down
This is a truly historic piece of audio. Absolutely incredible to hear.
The sound quality here is impressive.
My late mother remembered hearing this announcement, listening to the wireless with her parents. At 17 and a half years old she was excited and jumped up saying 'now we'll teach them!' My grandfather said 'You don't know what war means my girl'- he had seen a brother utterly broken by shell shock, so that he could never live normally again, and other family members left mentally and physically damaged in life changing ways. They had been on the Western Front and at Gallipoli. Mum also remembered seeing a woman walking past the house a few moments later, sobbing hysterically. Still, she, like most of her generation got on with it & 'did her bit', joining the WRNS almost immediately. I always thought she was more grown up in her teens than I will ever be. Also- how much calmer and more grown up do these people sound than our present lot ! You feel (possibly wrongly...) that they know what they are doing and are in control.
80 years today. May we never hear the like again. I cannot imagine what it would be like especially with the cancellation of cinema and sport.
And here we are
Western people are so much longing for war, they crave it. Like always it begins with creating a non-existing enemy, that you project your self-chosen misery on. Then you divide the people with the help of lies, podcasted and twittered around all over the media. And as bloody numb as the people can be, they beg to be brainwashed in order to bloody deny that any random neighbour might be a human being as well.
Then, unaware, they start hating themselves for behaving inhumanly, projecting their hatred on their neighbour, actually knowing shit about him. And then they're ready for war and will love the killing and the barbary, being oblivious to the fact that they mentally do kill themselves. Poor bastards. I'm afraid it's about us that I write.
Rob Mayou welcome to coronavirus
@@YazzCarlton sad shit
Frank Rault western people? I don’t crave war. Nor does anyone I know. You sound paranoid.
my grandfather was at work. The radio stopped, this came on, they heard it, went back to work and then a siren blew! False alarm. He said it was birds sighted over the channel.
Thank you for this valuable piece of history.
thank you for this extra random peice of knowledge that wasted my day
i mean its school i dont like it
This speech was also broadcast live by the American networks (CBS, Mutual, NBC Red and NBC Blue) at 6:15 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time.
Because the only way to transmit radio programming across the ocean was by shortwave relay, the sound quality of Mr. Chamberlain's speech on American networks wasn't as good as the BBC broadcast (there was occasional slight fading and a poor audio frequency response) , which was by a direct audio line from his residence at 10 Downing Street in London to the BBC's headquarters (Broadcasting House) in that city.
There were also a handful of Americans who wanted the U.S. to immediately enter the war against Hitler, but it would be more than two years before the U.S. would enter the war.
Recorded off air by the BBC wire recording machine. You can hear the hiss as apposed to the crackle of an acetate disc
FDR immediately gave a radio speech saying the US would be neutral.
Did it go on PST or PDT
Some of our pilots did volunteer to fight on Britain's behalf well before we as a country had entered the war. These volunteer pilots formed what were called the Eagle Squadrons of the RAF.
That's honestly horrifying with Russia right now
Thank you for this! I have never heard the full version of the speech/ public service announcements. Incredible.
You're welcome. I'd never heard it either until I came across an old tape...so I decided to post it on here.
Golden Eagle It's unimaginable isn't it? To think we worry about such small things constantly. They had his ahead of them. Many deaths & such hatred.
I don't know why he was treated so harshly. No one in Britain wanted another war so he was trying to keep the peace.
People tend to pick on one person.
I don’t know what’s worse the start or when he’s says “ may god bless you all” absolutely terrifying ! 😞
Sadly he was dead in a year - from stomach cancer.
No it was colon cancer
colon cancer happens mostly due to hard stress and sadness.
Good riddance. He was a boot licker to Hitler. He should've not allowed the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland.
@@Mrzacman5001 He was not a bootlicker you idiot. He had witnessed the horrors of the Great war and didn't want any British live lost in such a way again.
@@Mrzacman5001 come on, judge him for not invading Germany but 20 years after the worst war in humanity (at that point). Put your self into his shoes
This is one of the very few WW2 videos on youtube where the comment section isn't full of neo-nazi Hitler sympathizers. So refreshing.
Sorry but Chamberlain its not speaking the truth in this video. There were inumerals proposals by the german goverment, including to give the political administration of Danzig to the poles if there were no interference in the germans enterprises. Also was proposed the dismiss of the germans enterprises in the corridor if was allowed the construction of a railroad on the corridor soil linking Germany to East Prussia.
I disagree with you. Your information is misleading. There were perhaps some proposals by the German to the Polish government, but some kind of an ultimatum whose nonperformance could lead to the war was never shown to the Poles or their allies (with some kind of time limit which they should /and could/ fulfil to avoid the war).
+Josef Sedláček I dont think it was necessary to do this ultimatum since Germany and Poland were aware of the possibility of war. Germany gave an ultimatum to Lituania about a similiar issue councerning the german city of Medel in march 1939. Also in march 1939, Ribentrop did proposals councerning Danzig to a Pole representative on a meeting. Since then, Poles refused to even meet with germans representatives and demanded a supervision by England. Germany accepted but demanded in August 1939 a meeting with a polish prenipotentiary since the poles already knew the germans proposals since march.
Dear travisknights, I suppose that regarding the absence of trustworthy German proposals, N. Chamberlain spoke about the situation, which is described, for example by A. Beevor in the book The Second World War:"...Hitler still hoping to put the blame on Poland for the invasion, pretended to agree to negotiations, with Britain and France and also with Poland. But a black farce ensued. He refused to present any terms for the Polish government do discuss..... Ribbentrop, meanwhile, made himself unavailable to both the Polish and British ambassadors....He /Ribbentrop/ finally agreed to see Henderson at midnight on 30 August, just as the uncommunicated peace terms expired....." For more details is possible to read the book mentioned above or other resources.
Such a pity that this action was not taken during the crisis a year earlier. Easy in hindsight. But even so...
Imagine seeing all of your friends die in the trenches of WW1, then seeing it happen again 20 years later...
It is such a chilling radio announcement
His opening words, his later choice of words, and his initial tone/mood gives a clear heads-up of what was coming.
Thanks so much for making this recording available. It's so invaluable for my research and captures such a fascinating moment in history.
Even as he said those words, neither Chamberlain nor many others truly understood the extent of the evil against which they would be fighting. I weep for Poland when I listen to this. The savagery the fascists unleashed there from this time onward was without precedent. Murder, sheer bloody murder. Never again.
3rd of September was the third day of war for Poland, many polish soldiers were being executed because of being considered "rebels". With such reason soviets deported polish soldiers into Siberia. I reccomend you too read a bit about polish post office defense in Gdansk during the first days of war.
The fascists, communists, and national socialists, natch.
Don’t forget: the national socialists and the communists acted together in Poland by treaty.
.??
And, now (2022), Russia is unleashing similar evil against Ukraine. This time, it's Putin, in so many ways like Hitler
His voice sounds sad. He was so interested in keeping the peace.
Never heard this in full before, thanks for posting
You can hear the emotion in his voice.
My Mothers Cousin, this broke him after he had tried so long to prevent war, not long after he died. A good and Honest Man, No Churchill as he would never have been ruthless enough to be War PM, I am very proud that he tried his utmost!
Wow. I really enjoyed the David Reynolds “Munich” Video.
I can imagine how frustrated people must have felt knowing they were going to war and expecting another bloodbath like in the first world war.
Who’s listening during the covid 19 pandemic ?
Me
Me hi
No
Aaron somebody yeah
Me lol
I just cant belive something like this ever happened on this earth , its just unreal
Well believe it and Sadly it's still Happening and at this Rate History will surely repeat itself in the coming years
Not at all, as is, it is going to happen again.
Thanks for this very historic and moving upload. Simply incredible. To think this is fact and not fiction is staggering. This was news as it broke. Thanks again.
Never loses its incredible power and resolve in the Face of Evil
Yes, that's it- regret, horror at what has to be done, but above all, resolve.
First time I ever heard the full announcement. I always wondered how many BBC war recording the BBC had and never released. This is fantastic!
A small portion of this speech is included in "I Can Hear It Now", an LP of historic news broadcasts between 1933 and 1945, narrated by Ed Marrow.
This album is part of the curriculum of many high school history classes.
*Ed Morrow.
Thanks for posting this. 80 years today......
Thank you for posting this. I can’t imagine how frightening this must have been to hear on that day.
Oh, and a P.S. DarkLight753, thank you so much for posting. This is one of the most important things ever written/spoken in British history and you have preserved it for generations.
A sad day. The man was so sad to say that war was here RIP to all.
Such an important and thought provoking speech and a day that changed the world forever
A wonderful record of a most defining moment in British, European as well as World History...Thanks for posting!...
gives me chills
I came here after watching a recent video which featured the first part of this broadcast, and I came to find this full audio clip just to try to imagine myself how it would have felt to hear this at the time. And honestly, I just can't... I can feel some empathy and sympathy towards those who heard this live at the time, but I honestly don't think I can even come close to relating to the real feelings people would have had at the time. Scary stuff.
I am Irish My grandfather was inspired enough to join the British army fight against Fascism saw action in Italy WW2, Proud of him.
I can't even begin to imagine the feeling of terror that everyone must have felt, on hearing these words.
The sound of them bells between PM speech and home Secretary speech is scary
My grandparents were in the garden when it happened and they were called in by grandpas mum (they were childhood friends)
Wow, impressive audio quality, 80 years old and it sounds crystal clear.
Thanks for this historic speech uploading
My great grandmother was a child when this was announced ,luckily she lived out in the county side ,she took in war evacuees x
Why am I listening to this fully after all the WWIII memes
Also, listen to Pearl Harber attack announcement
Same 😔
Even pearl harbor
I’m watching this during the Covid-19 quarantine
Fegelein pranked _you!_ 😂😛😁🙃🤣
My Dad was working for Vosper Thorneycroft at this time as a Loftsman, he tried unsuccessfully to join up but was informed that he was in a protected job and had to stay to build ships, I never knew if he was disappointed about this and of course many of his family simply downed tools and enlisted- the announcements must have been well prepared following Chamberlains declaration only 15 minutes after the deadline to Berlin. So confident were they after beating the Hun in the first one that the tone of the announcements differ from Chamberlains in a kind of you will be back for Christmas
Crying to this in November 2021, war is hell...... so sad that this war couldn't have been stopped....
I've only ever heard the first three minutes and ten seconds of this. It's nice to hear the whole thing
Listening to this after listening to Boris's Covid19 speech on 23 March 2020. I can't begin to imagine what it would have been like to hear Chamberlain announcing a declaration of war. All we have to do is stay indoors for a few weeks. I think that's not much to ask, honestly
Very good point. Stay safe. Hopefully the lockdown won’t be for too long.
Five Months later... Schools are only just reopening, face coverings are required almost everywhere. The risk of transmission is still as high as it was at the start of lockdown. We seem to have gone in one five month loop, I hear another boris speech coming..
name 3 weeks later, we now have a 2nd wave and back into lockdown we go
2 years of lockdowns and covid didn't go anywhere
Those public announcements after Chamberlain's statement are even more chilling.
Thanks for sharing
thankyou for sharing this
Unreal! If only recording was possible even earlier. Imagine some of the other great speeches we could have actually heard.
If I heard this live on the radio I would sh*t myself.
Very good video thankyou for posting ..
Damn... this is so chilling. Really feels like I’ve been thrown back into history.
The First World War was literally just days ago when this broadcast was made. Many people listening to this knew, what it meant. I’ve never heard it before and I find it very impressive. Six years later, sixty million people had died.
20 years
@@user-ky6vw5up9m Yes - that phrase "literally just days ago" puzzled me as well...
Sure, literally just days ago. 7,602 days.
@@janettemohan7739 it is a figure of speech, for many at the time the great war was a memory planted in the minds of many citizens. when men in government declares war to the people on the radio it meant many draconian things start to happen in society like forced conscription of sons and brother from families to go and die on mass in far away lands, many non profit civic duties, rationing. basically far more government control and less freedom. war is where socialism thrives. it is a horrible situation for a commoner to be in when one thinks about it.
@@Galactipod hitler was that pissed?
I showed this video to my grandmother, she shuddered at 1:12.
I was glued to the screen and felt chills imagining what it would be like to be listening at the time.. then an advert came on and was such a reality check wow
Both my parents remember this very well. Dad said being one of 12 boys his mother wept uncontrollably as she knew 7 of her sons would be called up. His father already had erected an Anderson shelter in their garden. Mum remembers both her mum n dad was listening to the radio like the whole country and both her parents were completely silent. Her dad was a captain in the Royal Marines. It was just after this speech that the whole S, SE and London’s air raid warnings sounded which must of been absolutely terrifying because most people thought they were going to be bombed on that day. How sad but how strong that generation of people were.
This is such a big part of our history, to all who did there part to keep our freedom and lives what they are, we will live for those who fell. Along with the fact that ww2 showed most of the countries fight together to protect each other
80 years ago this happened. 2 days ago was 80 years from this.
Very good speech. Uncanny to hear his voice with such high fidelity. Thank you very much.
Could it be canny?
I have a version of this speech on a 78 rpm record (single-sided), dubbed from the BBC Radio broadcast by Levy's Sound Studios Ltd of 73 New Bond Street, London (they moved here in 1937 and stayed until 1949). The recording was issued on the company's gold and black Oriole label. It contains a truncated version of the full speech. The announcement at the start is different; it states "One year has passed. It is now Sunday September 3rd, 1939. This is London. The Prime Minister." A minor detail, but interesting nonetheless, since it suggests that the speech was re-broadcast, presumably on the same day. One other minor detail: nowadays, we say "Primeminister" as if it is one word, but the announcement on the record has a noticeable gap between "Prime" and "Minister" (more so than on your version).
Very interesting!!
Knowing what we know with what's going on right now. This is chilling. Something like this could happen this year
I hope it doesn't happen
Such a chilling yet history defining moment in our great country.
Just imagine hearing this on the radio, and knowing the amount of destruction that soon followed was coming for you. Must have been extremely scary, I feel for the man tbh, he tried so hard to stop the coming hell on earth and millions of deaths, i can’t imagine the pain he felt when making this speech.
I cannot imagine how people must have felt on the day they heard this live. Such dread. Such an unknown future. Even with hindsight this is scary and upsetting in equal measures. With sincere gratitude and thanks to all those who gave their lives so that I could live mine.
What a hell of a time that must have been to live through ! Also a part of history made back then! Thanks !
Listening to this now, in 2022 - at the height of a brink of war with Russia. All I will say is, yikes.. If this scared us then, I can only imagine the fear that will come about with a similar announcement now.
Chilling.
Specially if you were a young man back then.
What type of chill in this type of situation?
Love this channel, for bringing history to our educationally lacking generation of ww2. I thank you for this documentation so that we as a civilized people will remember these events of the past, unto which these tragic worldwide events will never happen again in our name, and within the World, yet I struggle with our next generation. I cry.. because they will forget the workings of WW2. Upon this, history will repeat itself. It already has started the process of repeating. Humankind needs to be interested in history. If not, we will all be led to the pits of Doom...
Imagine if this speech is your next reservist callup. .
I remember my grandmother screened and cried when my school played this as "respect" or a "tribute" she had lost a personal friend in the battle of Britain she was a spotlight operator and her friend died to the sound of the Jericho siren on a ju-87 so I sometimes wonder if the world should have something to show the memories of someone or some people before they do something like a tribute she was really pissed at the school for it they said to her that wasn't appropriate for a rememberance day assembly....it hurts man I don't know what people went through the emotional hardships and turmoil that people had to deal with day in and out but it was never easy I know that much...
Apart from the slight surface noise and a bit of hiss, this sounds like a modern, live recording. I have never heard this recording sound so good.
thanks for this. this will help in my school as we are studiying about ww2 note:i have met some evacuees
1:10 the words that changed the world, forever
What I like about this recording is that it is much clearer and audible. It's free of the hiss and pops so common of other recordings of this speech. Was it digitally "cleaned up"?
Yes in the same way charlie chaplins movies were ie the tramp
Imagine just playing games then all of a sudden you hear this on your tv / radio
I feel bad for Neville Chamberlain. History has treated him unfairly, in my opinion. No one has a crystal ball that can predict the future. No one can TRULY know how our actions will ripple out over time.
In the true historical context, Chamberlain did what any level-headed leader not named Churchill would have done. He was DESPERATE for peace, and while hindsight tells us that he never had a chance, he didn't have the benefit of hindsight then. He did what he thought was right for England, and given the circumstances of the time, it wasn't a crazy notion.
Things turned out how they turned out, and there's no telling what would have really happened if Chamberlain had made (what would have been) a VERY unpopular decision to attack Hitler pre-emptively.
I just think, given the position he was in at the time he was in it, Chamberlain made a rational decision. It's a shame history turned out the way it did, and it's unfair that so much of the blame gets placed on Chamberlain.
I respectfuly disagree, Chamberlain deliberately ignored every sign of Germany getting ready for war. He let them disobey the treaty of Versailles without any consequences. And they betrayed countries they swore to protect (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Latvia) if they protected Czechoslovakia with France it could not have been seen as an act of agression as France had a defensive agreement with Czechoslovakia. Additionaly the USSR would probably also join for their alliance to Czechoslovakia was bond to French assistance. Romania and Yugoslavia might also join because of Allied pressure, they were part of the Little Entente.
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 from their isolationist grandparents either. Global warming is almost as much of a challenge today as Axis aggression was 80 years. The nature of the problems change but the need for allies to work closely together to do the right thing together to solve common problems never goes away.
Incredible how we have this recording
This video is underrated
I came from battle field 5 but this must've been fuckin' scary to hear during the time