Object details

Category
Private papers
Related period
Interwar (content), Second World War (content)
Dimensions

whole: 1 box

Catalogue number
Documents.17532

Object associations

Related content

British infantry silhouetted against the skyline in Kuwait, as the troops prepare for operations in Iraq, 2003.
© Crown Copywright (OP-TELIC 03-010-17-145)
Contemporary conflict

Timeline of 20th and 21st Century Wars

Military conflict took place during every year of the 20th Century. There were only short periods of time that the world was free of war. The total number of deaths caused by war during the 20th Century has been estimated at 187 million and is probably higher.
Adolf Hitler at the annual harvest festival at Bückeberg in 1934.
© IWM (MH 11040)
Second World War

How Europe Went To War In 1939

The Second World War was the most destructive conflict in human history. Years of international tension and aggressive expansion by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany culminated in the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later.
The Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain makes a broadcast speech prior to his departure from Arras, France, after visiting the British Expeditionary Force on 15 December 1939.
© IWM (O 2170)
Interwar

How Britain Hoped To Avoid War With Germany In The 1930s

Instituted in the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to Britain’s policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked. Most closely associated with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, it is now widely discredited as a policy of weakness. Yet at the time, it was a popular and seemingly pragmatic policy.