france and great britain declared war on germany on 3 september 1939.
france and great britain declared war on germany on 3 september 1939.
when did france and great britain declare war on germany?
3 september 1939
with the backdrop of heavy thunderstorm, corbin was summoned to 10 downing street on the evening of 2 september, discovering a scene of chaos with chamberlain, lord halifax and cadogan all telephoning paris in attempts to get hold of daladier, bonnet or anybody in the french government who might be able to tell them what was going on in france. corbin was be told by chamberlain that his government was on the verge of collapse, predicating the house of commons would pass a motion of no-confidence against his government the next morning if he did not make a decision to declare war on germany at once. corbin told chamberlain that the french cabinet was badly divided between daladier and bonnet and he did not know when france would make a decision to declare war. chamberlain also had corbin speak to simon in order to assure him that the reason for the delay in declaring war was due to the crisis in paris, not because the prime minister was seeking a way to avoid honoring his commitments to poland. corbin was told at about 11:30 pm that the cabinet had approved of the decision to sent an ultimatum to germany at 9 am on the morning of september 3 that would expire at 11 am, and there was to be no co-ordination with france in presenting the declarations of war. at 9 am on 3 september 1939, sir nevile henderson, the british ambassador in berlin, handed over the ultimatum demanding germany cease its war against poland or else britain would declare war at 11 am that day. shortly after 11 am, king george iv went on the bbc to announce britain was at war. at 12: 30 pm, robert coulondre, the french ambassador in berlin handed over the ultimatum saying france would declare at 5 pm if germany did not end its war against poland.
charles corbin
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