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.[114] In under a month, Axis forces advanced to
western Egypt and besieged the port of Tobruk.[115]

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.
[116] The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May
completed the German conquest of the Balkans.[117] 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.[118]

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.
[119] Between June and July they invaded and occupied the French possessions Syria
and Lebanon, with the assistance of the Free French.[120]

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.[121] By contrast, the Germans were
steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on
the Soviet border.[122]

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.[123] 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.[124]