German Nazi forces had invaded Poland two days earlier, claiming to be acting in self-defence following a ‘false flag’ operation.

On the 29th September 1938, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier reached an agreement on the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland areas of Czechoslovakia.

On the 3rd September 1939, the Second World War officially began when France and the United Kingdom – together with Australia and New Zealand – declared war on Germany.