On 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands and the government fled to London to escape the German occupation.

The second De Geer cabinet fell on 26 August 1940 after a conflict between Queen Wilhelmina and Prime Minister Dirk Jan de Geer and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by the first Gerbrandy cabinet with Albarda continuing as of Minister of Water Management, taking office on 3 September 1940.

The first Gerbrandy cabinet fell on 12 June 1941 after a conflict between Queen Wilhelmina and Minister of Defence Adriaan Dijxhoorn and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by the second Gerbrandy cabinet with Albarda continuing as of Minister of Water Management, taking office on 27 July 1941.

Albarda was appointed as Minister of Finance following the resignation of Max Steenberghe and dual served in both positions, taking office on 17 November 1941.

On 27 January 1945, Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy forced Minister of the Interior Jaap Burger to resign following an impromptu remark during a radio address where Burger differentiated between "wrongful" Dutch civilians (foute Nederlanders) and Dutch civilians who made a mistake (Nederlanders die een fout hebben gemaakt) but because Prime Minister Gerbrandy did not discuss this with rest of the cabinet, all the Social Democratic Workers' Party cabinet members announced their resignation and the cabinet continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by the third Gerbrandy cabinet on 23 February 1945.