From an Italian perspective the Second World War broke out not with the German-Soviet Partition of Poland in September 1939, but with the Italian invasion of France in June 1940 which, though brief and militarily inconsequential, cemented the war-time military "axis alliance" between two of Europe's principal "Fascist" powers. During 1940 the literary dinner club meetings departed from their literary aspects and became essentially political in character. Duccio Galimberti rapidly emerged as a leading anti-fascist figure in the Cuneo district.