Grand Alliance

Question 1

When was the Grand Alliance formed?

Answer 1

June 1941

Question 2

Why did the USSR become part of the grand alliance?

Answer 2

German invasion of the USSR

Question 3

Why were there strains in the alliance?

Answer 3

*Different attitudes of the three leaders

• Britain and USA delayed opening a second front: did so in D-Day Landings 1944
  Stalin convinced Britain and USA wanted USSR destroyed by Nazi Germany
• Churchill opposed Bolshevik Rev, supporting the enemies in 1918-21 Civil War as secretary of state
  Suspicious of Stalin’s motives- believed Soviet troops will remain in countries the liberated from Germans.
• Britain went to war in September 1939 to maintain Polish independence, but Stalin wanted Poland as a buffer zone.
  April 1943, German troops discovered a mass grave in** Katyn Forest** containing the bodies of 10,000,Polish Officers murdered by the Soviets in 1939.
• Warsaw Uprising- 1944: German forces occupied and defeated uprising, with Soviets on outskirts of Warsaw
  Poland was left defenceless against the USSR