Ocean M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a B l a c k S e a B a l t i c S e a N o r t h S e a C a s p i a n S e a SOVIET RUSSIA JAPAN KOREA BRITAIN POLAND CHINA INDIA Formosa PHILIPPINES SINGAPORE MALAYA INDOCHINA BURMA NORWAY SWEDEN FINLAND El Alamein EGYPT ETHIOPIA Leningrad Moscow Stalingrad Sicily Rome Danzig Alsace Lorraine Casablanca UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ALASKA (U.S.A) GERMANY BELGIUM NETHERLAND DENMARK FRANCE Axis Powers Allied Powers Pearl Harbour Nagasaki Guadalcanal Hiroshima Midway Tokyo Manchuria H a w a i i a n I sl a n d s ITALY Normandy Dunkirk Munich Sudetenland Czechoslovakia Berlin Rhineland E W N S Outbreak of World War II and its Impact in Colonies Nazi–Soviet Pact The guarantees that Britain and France had given Poland were considered weak without Russia’s help. During the early summer of , Britain and France negotiated with Russia. But partly because of mutual distrust and partly because Russia was not prepared for a war against Germany, no progress could be made. Russians preferred peace and guarantee for their territories.
As Germany offered both, in August the Nazi–Soviet (Non- aggression) Pact was signed in the Kremlin. The secret clauses in the pact were: Eastern Europe was to be demarcated into German and Russian spheres of influence and Poland was to be divided. Nazi–Soviet Pact (vi) Invasion of Poland and Outbreak of War In order to carry out Hitler’s larger plan of conquering the whole of Europe, Germany invaded Poland on September on the ground that Poland had been planning with its allies, Great Britain and France, to encircle and dismember Germany and that Poles were persecuting ethnic Germans. In two days Britain gave the ultimatum: unless German troops were withdrawn from Poland, Britain and Germany would be at war.
The ultimatum was ignored and the Second World War began. Hitler Stages of War War in