foreign affairs, including making a guarantee to defend Poland against Germany. Outbreak of war When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain declared war in tandem with France, supported by all of the Dominions except Ireland. For some time there had been calls to expand Chamberlain's war ministry by bringing in members of the official Labour and Liberal parties but both parties refused to join (with the one exception of Liberal MP Gwilym Lloyd George, who joined the government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade). For the first few months of war Britain saw comparatively little action apart from at sea, but the failure of the Norwegian campaign led to a massive outcry in Parliament. On 7 and 8 May 1940, a two-day debate took place in Parliament, known to history as the Norway Debate. Initially a discussion of what had gone wrong in that field, it soon turned into a general debate on the conduct of the war with fierce criticism expressed by all sides of the House. The government won the debate, albeit with a reduced majority, but over the next two days it became increasingly clear that Labour and the Liberals would have to be brought into government and that Chamberlain was unable to achieve this. On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded the Low Countries and Chamberlain finally bowed to pressure and resigned, bringing the life of the National Government to a close. It was succeeded by an all-party coalition headed by Winston Churchill. Caretaker government of 1945 In May 1945, following the defeat of Germany the coalition government broke up and Churchill formed a new administration, including Conservatives, Liberal Nationals and various non-party individuals who had been previously appointed to Ministerial posts. However, significantly, with the exception of the Earl of Rosebery, there were no other Liberal Nationals in the Cabinet, excluding even the Lord Chancellor Lord Simon. This government nevertheless used the title National Government and could be seen as the heir to the 1930s governments, even though the personnel were very different. The government fought the 1945 general election as a National Government but lost. Following the defeat, elements of the old National Government 'all party coalition' idea continued with Sir John Anderson (elected as a National MP) and Gwilym Lloyd-George, a former Liberal MP who now sat as an Independent Liberal, occupying important positions in Churchill's Shadow Cabinet team. In addition