Post Mark/Date

30 August, 1939

Addressee

Mr. & Mrs. A. Edwards

16 Providence Terrace

Swaffham

Norfolk

Owner/Publisher/Photographer

Collection of Alice Taylor, Copyright 2018

Photographer/publisher: UKN

Code: 5088


Posted Message

We are spending a few hours here today. A lovely day a nice trip by the Boat, we begin to count the days now, we saw Shirley Temple last night. We have sampled most of the shows and had a good time.
Love to both
Dad & Mum

Comments

Caption: Esplanade and Beach Houses, Lowestoft

It would be hard for people today to imagine the sea going right up to the concrete wall of the lower prom and that a bather would need a ladder to go up and down to the water.

But what is harder for people today to understand is what was going on in the background. In August of 1939, German was preparing to invade Poland and diplomatic relations between the UK and the Nazis were deteriorating fast.

On August 30th, The Royal Navy was mobilized and Army and Royal Air Force reserves were called up. Lowestoft was a Royal Navy port and mobilisation would have set the town buzzing.
At 11:07 a.m., an official order was given in Britain to evacuate civilians from cities and towns that were likely targets for enemy bombing. Most of the evacuees were schoolchildren. Over the next few days nearly 3 million people would be relocated. Lowestoft was considered a "likely target". Again, the effect of evacuation orders would have been electric and of particular concern in the town.
At 12:30 p.m., Hitler issued Directive No. 1, ordering an attack on Poland to begin September 1 at 04:45. "Now that all the political possibilities of disposing by peaceful means of a situation on the Eastern Frontier which is intolerable for Germany are exhausted, I have determined on a solution by force", the directive read.
At 6:15 p.m. Joachim von Ribbentrop met with Polish ambassador Józef Lipski, more than five hours after Lipski had requested an audience. Lipski said the Polish government would be making a formal reply about direct negotiations in the next few hours. Ribbentrop asked him if he was empowered to negotiate, and when Lipski replied that for the time being he was not, Ribbentrop dismissed him. Lipski returned to the embassy and found that his telephone line had been cut.
In a false flag operation, Nazis posing as Poles seized the Gleiwitz radio station and broadcast an anti-German message in Polish.
At 9:00 p.m. German radio interrupted regular programming to present the government's 16-point proposal for Poland. The demand for the restoration of Danzig to the Reich was maintained, but the question of the Polish Corridor was now to be settled by a plebiscite.Warsaw never heard the proposal because communications between the two countries were cut off.

On September 1st, Germany invaded Poland and started WW2.