So it was 70 years ago today that war was declared with Germany. People of my generation can scarcely imagine what it was like to live through that dark and horrendous period. All we can do is find out about it by visiting places and watching archive footage accounts. Here are a couple of places I found interesting…

Earlier this week there was a ceremony at Westerplatte in Gdansk, the place where German gunships first started shelling that city, thus prompting the war and the speech you can hear below. Westerplatte is right across the Vistula river from the Gdansk shipyards, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement which prompted the downfall of the USSR and fall of the Berlin wall.  Here is a picture I took of the Soviet style monument to the war at Westerplatte, it’s defintely an interesting place to visit and Gdansk itself is a beautiful, if small, city.

You can see the exact location HERE.

From a Polish promontory to an Essex one. This week whilst roaming around the coast of Essex I stumbled upon a Martello tower that had been made home to a small but excellent WW2 museum.

The museum is located well away from anywhere right at the end of a spit of land and surrounded by a caravan park, see the location HERE.

The museum is a goldmine, packed full of all kinds of artefacts from crashed German V2 rockets and British aircraft, to letters and postcards from POW’s to family back home. The volunteer staff are also very keen to explain everything, if you ask. The curator I spoke to was keen to show me his hand grenade collection, which he carried in an old satchel on his back! (Disarmed, I was assured).  I left hugely impressed with effort and enthusiasm that the staff put into the place, and impressed with the huge collection itself. Like Westerplatte, well worth a visit.

You can find out a bit more about the place  on the BBC website here.

Listen to Chamberlain’s historic declaration of war speech by clicking below:

declaration of war speech   Broadcast 70 years ago this week.

70 years on from the world changing outbreak of war, I thought it worth mentioning these two places, which give my generation a little bit more insight into what it was like to live through that terrifying period.

In 1941 George Orwell wrote ” As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead trying to kill me…if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it.” – I can only imagine how such an experience would change your outlook on life, especially if happened every day.