ՔԻՉ ԱՌԱՋ․Սենսացիոն Հայտարարություն Էդուարդ Շարմազանովից․Սկանդալ է հասունանում

In early June 1940 the Italian Regia aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta, a British possession. In late summer through early autumn Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt. In October Italy attacked Greece, but the attack was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within days with minor territorial changes.[114] Germany started preparation for an invasion of the Balkans to assist Italy, to prevent the British from gaining a foothold there, which would be a potential threat for Romanian oil fields, and to strike against the British dominance of the Mediterranean.[115]

In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa.[116] The offensives were highly successful; by early February 1941 Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a carrier attack at Taranto and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.[117]

German panzers of the Afrika Korps advancing across the North African desert, 1941
Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa, and at the end of March 1941 Rommel’s Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces.[118] In under a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged the port of Tobruk.[119]

By late March 1941 Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact. However, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece, commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month.[120] The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans.[121] Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter and large-scale partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war.[122]

In the Middle East, in May Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria.[123] Between June and July they invaded and occupied the French possessions Syria and Lebanon, with the assistance of the Free French.[citation needed]

Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)
Main article: Eastern Front (World War II)

European theatre of World War II animation map, 1939–1945 — Red: Western Allies and Soviet Union after 1941; Green: Soviet Union before 1941; Blue: Axis powers
With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941.[124] By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.[125]

Hitler believed that the United Kingdom’s refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later.[126] He therefore decided to try to strengthen Germany’s relations with the Soviets, or failing that to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed some interest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.[127]