Fevered negotiations, dubbed the July crisis, saw a series of treaties and pacts which had been designed to secure long-term peace, in effect take Europe to the brink and beyond. The Balkans had been unstable for some time, particularly after Austria-Hungary had annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina some years before. Now the threat of Austria extending its power in the region as it declared war on Serbia was forcing the hand of Russia, which did not want to lose its influence in the area. Continent Latest news, analysis and comment from POLITICO’s editors and guest writers on the continent. This story gives some indication of what a turmoil the world was in. Again I am unable to vouch for his veracity but when Captain Penny told me this story he was sober and in an earnest mood. From what I knew of him he was not a man to embellish or lie. I was seven years old at the outbreak of war, it was my mother’s birthday, now whether Hitler was thinking of sending her a present I don’t know. But September the third was my mother’s birthday, so it’s a day we shall remember. I was playing in the garden, I was swinging round a pole when a young lady from the other side of the street came up and rushed past with the news that ‘we are at war’. I swung around the pole and the roof fell in on me. I shall remember September the third 1939. Shout-Out to Shakespeare: "So That's The Way You Like It" is a spectacular round-up of all the most notorious clichés.

As the war dragged on, D-Day came and went, and after trekking down to the riverside we were amazed to see what had been a very crowded anchorage, was now suddenly empty. All those hundreds of landing craft had gone to France and the beginning of the end was in sight. Oh, and then she said, 'Our 'Arry...' she said, 'Our 'Arry is sure to be getting called up.' and she said, 'what are you going to do then?' They sailed for Australia but on the way were twice ambushed by Japanese warships. They managed to escape during the night by dodging between small islands but Smithy’s boat was holed below the waterline. They managed to limp to an uninhabited island where they beached the boat and managed to live like latter day Robinson Crusoe’s. Mr. Blent kept racing pigeons in a pigeon loft in the garden and it was through him I learned how to identify the many colourings of racing pigeons. There was one pigeon of which he was inordinately proud but which had died some years before. Its photo hung on the living room wall and the pigeons name was “Innocent”. The day war broke out-that’s quite a good way to start things that, at the time, were serious, but now, can be laughed about.

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My father also joined the L.D.V. (Local Defence Volunteers or ‘Dads Army’, as it later became known in that well scripted Television Series) One wonders how effective such an ‘Army’ would have been had Hitler invaded! But my missus, she gets on my... she asks such daft questions... she said, ''Ere,' she said, only this morning, she said, 'What are you supposed to be guarding?' The day war broke out…” was a phrase used by a comedian named Rob Wilson as he went on to catalogue a series of events which had a touch of humour. And often what happened to us during the war also had a lighter side.

Alan Bennett: Very many years ago, when I was about as old as some of you are now, I went mountain-climbing in Scotland with a friend of mine, and there was this mountain, you see, and we decided to climb it. And so, very early one morning, we arose and began to climb. All day, we climbed. Up and up and up. Higherrrr, and higherrrr, and higherrrr, until the valley lay very small below us, and the mists of the evening began to come down, and the sun to set. And when we reached the summit, we sat down to watch this magnificent sight of the sun going down behind the mountains. And as we watched, my friend, very suddenly, and violently...vomited. [ Pause] Some of us think life's a bit like that, don't we? But it isn't. She said, 'I don't know how that's going to help you, you've never done it before, so what good are you?' On the 17th March, 1944 Paul and I were evacuated to Argyll Street, Castlefields, Shrewsbury, with Mr. and Mrs. Blent. They were old then and he probably would have retired but for the war. There we were ideally happy. We loved the school, the adults, the other children, the open fields and hills, the canal and especially we loved the river Severn and the weir. Such a magic place. I used to catch tiny salmon tiddlers by tying string round an empty jam jar and suspending it in the water and when the tiddlers entered heave it out to wonder at their golden, blue and scarlet flashes magnified by the jar. I was also ‘adopted’ by Mrs. Blent’s son-in-law who lived next door. He had an exempted occupation as a train driver and was a keen fisherman. He would take me fishing on the Severn for dace, salmon and pike. The war was far away from us but I missed my parents and our terraced home and I cried when they left me after a visit as their bus pulled away. (I have spent of lot of my life saying goodbye to those I love, and it hurts). I still have a card I sent them and it has a sad message and a George VIth stamp on it. (I am now interested in Postal History).These were the days of daylight raids and when the air-raid siren sounded we would all be gathered in the school hall where we remained until either our parents collected us or the all-clear was sounded. As it happens all my sisters married either chaps who were either in the forces or ex army servicemen just after the war. Take That!: The "Sea Slug" missile ("a ludicrously cumbersome weapon, relying as it does on a team of highly trained runners carrying it into enemy territory") is this to Britain's aborted Blue Streak ballistic missile project.