70 Years Today - Britian's Declaration of War on Germany

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Mole Man

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"It's exactly seventy years today since Britain declared war on Germany. At 11.15am on September 3 1939, prime minister Neville Chamberlain admitted to the nation in a sombre radio broadcast that his "long struggle to win peace" had failed. Hours later, France issued its own ultimatum to Germany, setting in train the Second World War, which lasted nearly six years and cost more than 50 million lives. Nick (Ferrari) spoke to historian Andrew Roberts and asked him what would have happened if Germany had won the war."

The above was taken from a UK commercial radio station's web site:

http://www.lbc.co.uk/nick-ferraris-blog-3480/entry/77/3604

Perhaps we can all take a moment or two today to reflect on the above and how the legacy of the Second World War has shaped the world that we live in (especially the UK Forum members as a quick glance at the BBC News web site avoids any mention of this historical fact).

Best regards,
Darren/Mole Man
 
definitely a scary time. I mean, i wasn't born until over 40 years after it started, and seeing the wehrmacht marching down the champs elysees gives me the shivers. pretty much the whole history of the 20th century was interconnected (i guess you could say that about any century, but especially the 20th), first world war led to versailles, which led to WWII, which led to cold war, which led to the last decade of the century...
 
Dave_Mc said:
definitely a scary time. I mean, i wasn't born until over 40 years after it started, and seeing the wehrmacht marching down the champs elysees gives me the shivers. pretty much the whole history of the 20th century was interconnected (i guess you could say that about any century, but especially the 20th), first world war led to versailles, which led to WWII, which led to cold war, which led to the last decade of the century...

Yeah.... pretty rough time. My dad was in the US Infantry in Germany during WWII and met my mom there. Helped to get her family out of Eastern Germany and then brought her back to the States. Ironically, my mom's brother (my uncle obviously) was a fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe.... shot down during the war.

A chilling era to be sure.... equally as chilling is what is at stake in this day an age. If another "big war" happens now, I shudder to consider the outcome.
 
I can't ever see another "world war" happening, weapons are used more for political posturing these days and the only threat i see is North Korea and they would last about 10 minutes if they started firing nukes...

Mick
 
leadguitar_323 said:
I can't ever see another "world war" happening, weapons are used more for political posturing these days and the only threat i see is North Korea and they would last about 10 minutes if they started firing nukes...

Mick

Iran/Israel is of concern to me but more than that, it's only a matter of time before our little terrorist friends develop a dirty bomb.
 
Mole Man said:
"It's exactly seventy years today since Britain declared war on Germany. At 11.15am on September 3 1939,
Prince Harry should have taken his nazi uniform out on that day to celerbate. :lol:
 
^ :lol:

marcusnieman said:
Yeah.... pretty rough time. My dad was in the US Infantry in Germany during WWII and met my mom there. Helped to get her family out of Eastern Germany and then brought her back to the States. Ironically, my mom's brother (my uncle obviously) was a fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe.... shot down during the war.

A chilling era to be sure.... equally as chilling is what is at stake in this day an age. If another "big war" happens now, I shudder to consider the outcome.

yeah, my great uncle was a commando (i think the tough genes skipped me, i'm the biggest wuss there is :lol: ) in the war and a pow for about 3 years. i think that's my only closeish family which was involved though, by sheer fluke all my close relations were either too old or too young for both world wars...
 
leadguitar_323 said:
I can't ever see another "world war" happening, weapons are used more for political posturing these days and the only threat i see is North Korea and they would last about 10 minutes if they started firing nukes...

Mick

Hate to tell you this Mick, but we are in the middle of WW3.
 
A good decision?

A massive loss of life, our country was bankrupted, we received no free aid thereafter, (other nations did), we were still paying the USA back for supplies/ships we leased into the 80's, Poland was re-invaded after the war anyway and the world has now for forgotten our sacrifices.

Do we think the UK ever received due gratitude for being the country who stood up to the Nazis in 1939?
 
BobK said:
A good decision?

A massive loss of life, our country was bankrupted, we received no free aid thereafter, (other nations did), we were still paying the USA back for supplies/ships we leased into the 80's, Poland was re-invaded after the war anyway and the world has now for forgotten our sacrifices.

Do we think the UK ever received due gratitude for being the country who stood up to the Nazis in 1939?

+1 on that!

You forgot to mention that most of the hitherto Britsih Empire (especially Far East) ended up being either given up or given away.

The USA and the Soviet Union were the clear winners of WW2.
 
BobK said:
A good decision?

A massive loss of life, our country was bankrupted, we received no free aid thereafter, (other nations did), we were still paying the USA back for supplies/ships we leased into the 80's, Poland was re-invaded after the war anyway and the world has now for forgotten our sacrifices.

Do we think the UK ever received due gratitude for being the country who stood up to the Nazis in 1939?

I used to think my late father was being a reactionary old git when he said stuff like this. Now, I can see his point.

:-?

Mike
 
stratman323 said:
I used to think my late father was being a reactionary old git when he said stuff like this. Now, I can see his point.

:-?

Mike

Man, I can relate to that. We become our parents even after years of "I'm never going to be like you" comments, counter culture behaviour, long hair, etc.

It's a shame we (well, speaking for myself here) couldn't appreciate the wisdom of their words (well, some of them) back then. My dad died shortly before 9/11 and I've never felt so scared, lost and alone in my life after those planes hit.
 
BobK said:
A good decision?

A massive loss of life, our country was bankrupted, we received no free aid thereafter, (other nations did), we were still paying the USA back for supplies/ships we leased into the 80's, Poland was re-invaded after the war anyway and the world has now for forgotten our sacrifices.

Do we think the UK ever received due gratitude for being the country who stood up to the Nazis in 1939?

we maybe should have stood up to them a bit sooner...
 
JuniorEnthousiast said:
leadguitar_323 said:
I can't ever see another "world war" happening, weapons are used more for political posturing these days and the only threat i see is North Korea and they would last about 10 minutes if they started firing nukes...

Mick

Hate to tell you this Mick, but we are in the middle of WW3.

You really think so?, I see no fleets of warships, squadrons of bombers and assault aircraft. And Afghanistan and Iraq are "small conflicts" compared to the magnitude of WW2. I can NEVER see that type of situation ever occurring again. I think we are almost out of "world domination" freaks, i know a lot of people fear Iran but i think Israel has more chance of starting a war in the middle east. North Korea is more of a worry but their over inflated ego and lack of respect for its own citizens would together bring them down in a screaming heap in no time at all. They are so out of touch with reality that they wouldn't last a week in an all out battle and i don't think they would get much help from China as China has too much to lose. I am wondering when America will stop arming minority countries around the world, i was reading yesterday that the US supplies over 60% of the worlds arms now and this is growing, this does not help world security, it wasn't that long ago that the US armed the Afghans to fight the Russians, now US soldiers are being killed with their own weapons as well as Russian weapons.
I also find it kind of ironic that the UN restricts countries from having nukes on one hand but supplies countries with an abundance of weapons on the other ,much of which end up in the wrong hands. I think we need to get over the "if we can't fix it shoot it" mentality and pursue more diplomatic channels, Israel is one of the worst at doing this. Its all about "attitude" and "education", The middle East and North Korea have been brainwashing their people for centuries {more so the middle east} and its mainly because a lack of an overall education, a lot of the conflict spots on the planet are fueled by a lack of understanding and education. Educate the masses and we will have less conflict.

Mick
 
marcusnieman said:
Man, I can relate to that. We become our parents even after years of "I'm never going to be like you" comments, counter culture behaviour, long hair, etc.

Oh i don't think I've become my father at all! I just think he talked some sense about WW2 & it's aftermath. It explains a lot about why the UK was so skint for so many decades after WW2. And still is, relatively speaking.

Anyway, my father hated the Japanese. I don't. At least we have moved on in some ways, thank god.
 
Yes, I really think so. The scale of a conflict doesn't mean a thing, nor does how many lives are lost fighting this war. Why I call this WW3 is simply because troops from different continents are involved. I don't want to get into in a lengthy political discussion on why and how I believe this war was started. This is beside the point. The point is that since WW2 'we' have engaged in several conflicts across oceans and continents for the sake of either regional or world safety, or humanitarian reasons. The war in Irak and Afghanistan is being fought by (not limited to)Americans, British, Australians and (yes)Dutch soldiers, how is this not a war on global scale? The war on terror as it is 'advertized' (I'm not trying to be funny, I have no other term) is fought the world over, in secret and in plain sight, in desert villages in Northern Africa and on our doorsteps. How is not a conflict of global magnitude? WW1 wasn't called this until the second 'Great War' broke out.
 
leadguitar_323 said:
JuniorEnthousiast said:
leadguitar_323 said:
I can't ever see another "world war" happening, weapons are used more for political posturing these days and the only threat i see is North Korea and they would last about 10 minutes if they started firing nukes...

Mick

Hate to tell you this Mick, but we are in the middle of WW3.

You really think so?, I see no fleets of warships, squadrons of bombers and assault aircraft. And Afghanistan and Iraq are "small conflicts" compared to the magnitude of WW2. I can NEVER see that type of situation ever occurring again. I think we are almost out of "world domination" freaks, i know a lot of people fear Iran but i think Israel has more chance of starting a war in the middle east. North Korea is more of a worry but their over inflated ego and lack of respect for its own citizens would together bring them down in a screaming heap in no time at all. They are so out of touch with reality that they wouldn't last a week in an all out battle and i don't think they would get much help from China as China has too much to lose. I am wondering when America will stop arming minority countries around the world, i was reading yesterday that the US supplies over 60% of the worlds arms now and this is growing, this does not help world security, it wasn't that long ago that the US armed the Afghans to fight the Russians, now US soldiers are being killed with their own weapons as well as Russian weapons.
I also find it kind of ironic that the UN restricts countries from having nukes on one hand but supplies countries with an abundance of weapons on the other ,much of which end up in the wrong hands. I think we need to get over the "if we can't fix it shoot it" mentality and pursue more diplomatic channels, Israel is one of the worst at doing this. Its all about "attitude" and "education", The middle East and North Korea have been brainwashing their people for centuries {more so the middle east} and its mainly because a lack of an overall education, a lot of the conflict spots on the planet are fueled by a lack of understanding and education. Educate the masses and we will have less conflict.

Mick

Just remember that Israel is surrounded by numerous Islamic nations that are bound and determined to wipe them out. Their hatred of Israel is the only thing that keeps them from turning on themselves and self-imploding. When Israel acts, it does so out of self-preservation, and usually only after they have tried to fix it diplomatically to no avail.
 
On the positive side, you are typing that message in English :)

BobK said:
A good decision?

A massive loss of life, our country was bankrupted, we received no free aid thereafter, (other nations did), we were still paying the USA back for supplies/ships we leased into the 80's, Poland was re-invaded after the war anyway and the world has now for forgotten our sacrifices.

Do we think the UK ever received due gratitude for being the country who stood up to the Nazis in 1939?
 
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