News of the outbreak of World War Two failed to make the front page of a south coast daily back in 1939.

But the adverts, which at the time dominated the front page of the Portsmouth Evening News, reflected the shock news that Britain had declared war on Germany.

The News, as it’s now called, has looked back at the front page (left) of its edition from Monday 4 September 1939 as part of its coverage of yesterday’s 70th anniversary of the start of WWII.

A drapery business declared: “In view of the present emergency, our main Drapery Store and the Furniture Building will be closed at 6pm every night (Wed, 1pm) until further notice.”

Another ad from a bus company explained how some of its services between Portsmouth and neighbouring towns or the capital were being scrapped or curtailed.

Elsewhere, The News has looked at the period leading up to the war and recounted the memories of an evacuee, a housewife and three servicemen in its coverage.

Features editor Simon Toft told HTFP: “We felt it was important to mark the anniversary of the war beginning by telling the story of the countdown to conflict and featuring the memories of the people who were there and lived through that momentous time 70 years ago.

“Not just servicemen, but a bewildered girl evacuated at the age of nine and a housewife who recalled hiding in the coal shed during air raids and giving birth during one such attack.

“As a naval city, Portsmouth was a target for repeated bombings and its people suffered greatly. Yet they were never broken. They simply and defiantly carried on with their lives.”

As war was declared on a Sunday morning, people the length and breadth of the UK had to wait until the next day to read about developments in their local daily paper.

But the Bath Chronicle, then a daily called the ‘Bath and Wilts Chronicle and Herald’, put out a special Sunday edition just minutes after Neville Chamberlain’s announcement.

It was the first and only time the Chronicle published on a Sunday and the paper contained just four pages, with most of the content taken from the previous day’s edition, alongside up-to-date notices about cancelled sports matches.

The only other occasion it considered a Sunday edition was when Princess Diana died in 1997.

This week’s Bath Chronicle (above) carries a photograph of a street vendor selling the newspaper which was loaned to the weekly by a reader who was six when war was declared.

Newspapers across the UK local press have been travelling down memory lane to mark the landmark anniversary this week.

Tristan Nichols, defence correspondent with Plymouth daily The Herald, spoke to two WWII veterans, one of whom remarkably said he “didn’t think anything would come of it” when he first heard the news Britain was at war.

The Paper is also carrying a front page image (left) of how page one of the then Western Evening Herald declared ‘WE ARE AT WAR’.

And Bournemouth’s Daily Echo has looked at the weeks leading up to 3 September 1939 and the stories that were making the news.

It reports that comedian Max Miller and the Monte Carlo Ice show were in town, while the IRA had been bombing in North England and Sir Malcolm Campbell was breaking more records on Coniston Water.

Comments

Mr_Osato (07/09/2009 11:27:43)
However they marked the occasion, I hope no regional newspaper used the dreadful Americanisms WWII or World War Two (the sequel? Now with more Nazis?). Keith Waterhouse may have passed away, but hopefully newspaper style isn’t – quite – dead.