The Second World War

By the Treaty of Versailles, as we have seen, the future peace of the world became the responsibility of the League of Nations. There was soon reason to fear that the League would prove unequal to the task. The first blow to its authority was the withdrawal of the United States of America, once again influenced by the doctrine of "isolation," and when Italy, in 1935, attacked Abyssinia, her Emperor appealed in vain to the League for assistance.

In 1932 Hitler became the ruler of Germany and soon began the rearming of the Reich under the Nazi system. He repudiated the debt of reparations and in the next few years threw off all the obligations imposed at Versailles and made open preparation for war while the rest of the world disarmed in the hope of perpetual peace. The re- occupation of the Rhineland (1936), the annexation of Austria (1938) and the invasion of Czechoslovakia (in March, 1939) only provoked protests from the League of Nations. In 1939 Hitler had eliminated the opposition of Italy and Russia by concluding treaties with both. Finally, early in September, 1939, he invaded Poland, but England and France had guaranteed her independence and at once issued an ultimatum. The Second World War began on 3rd September, 1939, Italy, Russia and the United States of America at first remaining neutral.

The First Year Of War

Polish resistance collapsed when Russia invaded that country from the east. The British Expeditionary Force, as in 1914, landed in France and lined up with the French Army, but both sides remained on the defensive and for nearly nine months no important developments took place. In Egypt the British forces watched the frontier of Cyrenaica in anticipation of an Italian attack.

Early in April, 1940, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway, occupying both countries after feeble resistance by the Allies. Great Britain promptly occupied Iceland, the troops being under the command of Major-General H. O. Curtis, l C.B., D.S.O., M.C.

By the end of the month the German preparations were complete. The plan was to overwhelm France and the Low Countries at one stroke and after that England. The Italians were to declare war and assist by invading France in the south, at the same time attacking Egypt where their forces outnumbered the British by three or four to one.