At 9 a.m. Henderson, acting on instructions from London, handed Ribbentrop the ‘final note’, in which the British government asked the German government to present by 11 a.m. its final response to the note of 1 September, which contained the demand to withdraw German troops from Polish territory. In addition, the British government warned that if the German government failed to present its reply before eleven o’clock, this would signify the breaking-off of relations and the beginning of war.

It goes without saying that no reply followed from Hitler. As a result, the prime minister went on air at 11.15 a.m. and declared that, as of then, Britain was at war with Germany.

Half an hour later, the air filled with the bellowing sounds of the siren. People scampered off to their houses, the streets emptied, and cars stopped in the road. What was it? A drill? Or a genuine raid by German bombers?

Fifteen minutes of tension and anxiety – then we heard the prolonged siren wail: ‘all clear’! It had been just a drill. There were no enemy planes.

I got to parliament by midday. I was a couple of minutes late because of the alarm.

Rhodes, Chips, p. 215: ‘A little later Maisky dared to appear, and he beamed his Cheshire-cat smile. No wonder. It is the moment he has long intrigued and hoped for.’

I took the first available seat in the second row. Chamberlain was already speaking. A darkened, emaciated face. A tearful, broken voice. Bitter, despairing gestures. A shattered, washed-up man. However, to do him justice, the prime minister did not hide the fact that catastrophe had befallen him.

‘This is a sad day for all of us,’ he said, ‘and to none is it sadder than to me. Everything that I have worked for, everything that I hoped for, everything that I have believed in during my public life – has crashed into ruins.’

I sat, listened and thought: ‘This is the leader of a great Empire on a crucial day of its existence! An old, leaky, faded umbrella! Whom can he save? If Chamberlain remains prime minister for much longer, the Empire is ruined.’

The House was full, but not as crammed as on 1 September. The electricity that so charged the atmosphere two days ago was absent. Everything bore [indecipherable].

Gallacher was last to take the floor. He spoke for just a few minutes: he was for the defeat of the ‘Nazi regime’, but he was not prepared to break with his ‘class comrades in the Soviet Union’.

The entire meeting lasted about 45 minutes.

So, war has begun! How will Britain and the whole world look in a year’s or two years’ time?…