A ‘triple threat’ from an Axis coalition in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific was the real nightmare of Royal Navy strategists.112 The pursuit of a global answer to Britain dictated that Germany not push for closer relations with the Soviet Union, since Japan and the Soviets were involved in a tense stand-off of their own in Manchuria. In Moscow, however, the signs of a new approach to European security were unmistakable.113 At the same time as the Japanese increasingly pulled back from a firm military commitment to Germany and Italy, the Soviets drifted towards Hitler.
