Cold Phoney War

April 4, 1940, the British begun mining Norwegian waters with the excuse that Norwegians could not prevent the Germans to use their waters for military operations.

April 9, 1940, the Germans launch Operation Weserübung to invade Denmark and Norway, whose neutrality were suspictious.

Seeing the Germans as the aggressors, the Norwegian government allies with the Allies and try to co-ordinate the Norwegian resistance with the British.

In the following days, the Allies manage to prevent the German attacks on Trondheim and Narvik and recapture Bergen from the Germans. The germans manage to control Oslo, Stavanger and the southern coast of Norway. The Norwegian government relocates to Trondheim.

With Central and Northern Norway in Allied control (and ruled by an allied Norwegian government), and southern Norway plus Denmark in German hands, Sweden's neutrality was tested. The Swedish government knew, however, that they would very likely become a new battleground.

The battleground was, however, diplomatic, with both Nazi German and the Allies trying to bring both Sweden and Finland to their respective sides.

The Norwegian campaign proved the Nazis a few points, the main of them was British Naval Superiority. Which eventually lead Hitler to consider a peace agreement to Britain rather than invade throug the Channel.

This did not prevent, however, German plans to invade the Netherlands, Belgium and France; plans that lead to the French surrendering in June 22, 1940. The British evacuation of Dunkirk tested Chamberlain's leadership.

There was no Battle of Britain as Hitler pretended a negociated settlement with the United Kingdom rather than a probable invasion. Diplomatic channels were kept open in Portugal.

The lack of direct military action between the United Kingdom and the Third Reich after the surrendering of France is considered a continuation of the earlier Phoney War.

The focus was again centered on the Baltic. In June 1940, the Soviet Union attacked Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Finish government secretly negociated with Norway and the United Kingdom to grant full ally support in a continuation war against the Soviet Union.

And the continuation war started in March, 1941, just one year after ther armistice of the Winter War.

Germany kept neutrality in the Finish-Soviet conflict. While simpathetic to the Finish, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact granted no aggretion between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. On the other hand, they would not ally with the Bolcheviks to attack a nominal common enemy: the British.

British-Japanese negotiations begun. Britain would provide oil to the Japanese in exchage of Japanese respect of British, Free French, and American interests in China, and the oppening of a front against the Soviet Union.

US President Roostvelt was not happy with this British-Japanese agreement, but kept the nominal neutrality on the events and thanked the British to include American interests in the pact.

In August, 1941, the Japanese attacked Soviet territory and declared war to the Soviet Union.

The 25th December, 1941, the Germans and the British reached an agreement: a non-agretion pact between Great Britain and Germany, provided that Germany would attack the Soviet Union in the sprint of 1942. This was not a peace agreement, just a suspension of hostilities. Any peace agreement for the British would require Germany to return to 1938 borders.