Friday
Poland, before anyone called it a world war
German forces crossed the Polish frontier before dawn. In London the children were already being put on trains; in Washington the President went on the air to say the United States would stay out of it.
Opening the day…
The night of
Morning, London
Alvar Liddell and Lionel Marson read the invasion of Poland on the BBC. Radio Warsaw was still transmitting and its report of the German attack survives — one of the few recordings of a broadcasting service describing its own country being overrun. Hitler's Reichstag speech announcing war with Poland was carried by CBS to America.
Afternoon, London
The BBC put outside-broadcast units on the London railway platforms. Seymour Joly de Lotbinière at Waterloo describes labelled children boarding, and then the train leaving — reporting done in the plain, careful register the BBC used for everything, which is what makes it unbearable.
Evening
Roosevelt broadcast on United States neutrality; Herbert Hoover spoke at the onset of the war; the Polish ambassador in Washington addressed the American audience directly. Paderewski — pianist, and Poland's first prime minister — spoke on the war looming over his country. Two days of diplomacy remained before Britain gave up on them.
Where this comes from
