britain and france declared war on germany on 1 september 1939.
britain and france declare war on germany when?
1 september 1939
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on the morning of 1 september 1939, germany invaded poland. corbin telephoned the foreign office to ask how best britain and france should co-ordinate the declarations of war on germany. bonnet had sent a message to london asking that britain and france instead attend the proposed conference, which corbin distorted by arguing for a time limit for german acceptance on attending the conference, which caused much confusion when bonnet said there would be no time limit. as bonnet did not wish to see france declare war, he decided to take up the mediation offer made by mussolini and instructed corbin in a phone call at 3: 40 pm to tell chamberlain that he wanted a british commitment to attend mussolini's proposed conference. however, at 4:10 pm on 1 september 1939, corbin telephoned bonnet to say that lord halifax had told him that britain would not take part in the italian plan for a peace conference unless germany pulled out all of its forces from poland immediately. at 5:30 pm, corbin tele-texted the instructions that lord halifax had given to henderson to bonnet to indicate the direction that british policy was going. on the evening of 2 september 1939, a major crisis emerged in britain as no declaration of war had been issued, leading to a "sit-down strike" at 10 downing street as the chancellor of the exchequer, sir john simon, previously regarded as one of the men most loyal to chamberlain, refused to leave 10 downing street until he received a promise that britain would declare war on germany. as a sign of allied solidarity, it was felt necessary to time the anglo-french declarations of war on germany together, but a major battle in the french cabinet between daladier who wanted to declare war vs. bonnet who did not, made that impossible. besides for the crisis caused by the dispute between daladier and bonnet, france needed to mobilize six million men in the event of war. corbin issued a press statement on 2 september 1939 in response to angry british callers to remind them that france had to mobilize six million men, which meant a massive degree of disruption to the french economy, and that if britain had to call a similar number of men to the colors all at once, this too would take some time.
charles corbin