“The Boys May Get a Real Fight Started Yet” (October 17, 1939)
unattributed
11 x 15 in, ink on board
Coppola Collection

The “Phoney War” was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there was only one limited military land operation on the Western Front, when French troops invaded Germany’s Saar district. The Phoney period began with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France against Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939 and ended with the German invasion of France and the Low Countries on May 10, 1940.

The period of inactivity of the French and British troops was used by the Wehrmacht for the occupation of Poland, Denmark, Norway, and Poland. In the Saar Offensive in September, the French attacked Germany with the intention of assisting Poland, but it fizzled out within days and they withdrew.