With the 1940 election looming, a Royal Australian Airforce crash at Canberra airport in August 1940 resulted in the death of the Chief of the General Staff and three senior ministers. The Labor Party meanwhile experienced a split along pro- and anti-Communist lines over policy towards the Soviet Union for its co-operation with Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland. At the 1940 federal election in September, the UAP–Country Party Coalition and the Labor parties each won 36 seats and the Menzies Government was forced to rely on the support of two Independents to continue in office.