The Allies, formally referred to as the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
from 1942, were an international
military coalition formed during the
Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were N ...
, led by
Nazi Germany,
Imperial Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitutio ...
, and
Fascist Italy. Its principal members by 1941 were the
United Kingdom,
United States,
Soviet Union, and
China.
Membership in the Allies varied during the course of the war. When the conflict broke out on 1 September 1939, the Allied coalition consisted of the United Kingdom,
France, and
Poland, as well as their respective
dependencies, such as
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. They were soon joined by the independent
dominions of the
British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
:
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand and
South Africa. Consequently, the initial alliance resembled
that of the First World War.
As Axis forces began
invading northern Europe and the
Balkans, the Allies added the
Netherlands,
Belgium,
Norway,
Greece, and
Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union, which initially had a
nonaggression pact with Germany and participated in its
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, joined the Allies in June 1941 after
Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The United States, while providing some
materiel support to European Allies since September 1940, remained formally neutral until the Japanese
bombing of Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...
in December 1941, after which it
declared war and officially joined the Allies. China had already been
at war with Japan
since 1937, and formally joined the Allies in December 1941.
The Allies were led by the so-called "Big Three"—the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States—which were the principal contributors of manpower, resources, and strategy, each playing a key role in achieving victory.
A series of conferences between Allied leaders, diplomats, and military officials gradually shaped the makeup of the alliance, the direction of the war, and ultimately the postwar international order. Relations between the United Kingdom and the United States were
especially close, with their bilateral
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States an ...
forming the groundwork of their alliance.
The Allies became a formalized group upon the
Declaration by United Nations
The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during the Arcadia Conference, the Allied "Four Policemen, Big Fo ...
on 1 January 1942, which was signed by 26 nations around the world; these ranged from
governments in exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile u ...
from the Axis occupation to small nations far removed from the war. The Declaration officially recognized the Big Three and China as the "Four Powers", acknowledging their central role in prosecuting the war; they were also referred to as the "
trustee
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...
ship of the powerful", and later as the "
Four Policemen" of the United Nations.
Many more countries joined through to the final days of the war, including colonies and former Axis nations.
After the war ended, the Allies, and the Declaration that bound them, would become the basis of the modern
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
; one enduring legacy of the alliance is the
permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council, which is made up exclusively of the principal Allied powers that won the war.
Origins
The victorious
Allies of World War I
The Allies of World War I, Entente Powers, or Allied Powers were a coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoma ...
—which included what would become the Allied powers of the Second World War—had imposed harsh terms on the opposing
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in W ...
in the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919-1920.
Germany resented signing the
Treaty of Versailles, which required that it take full responsibility for the war, lose a significant portion of territory, and pay costly reparations, among other penalties. The
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
, which formed at the end of the war and subsequently negotiated the treaty, saw its legitimacy shaken, particularly as it struggled to govern a greatly weakened economy and humiliated populace.
The
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
, and the ensuing
Great Depression, led to political unrest across Europe, especially in Germany, where
revanchist
Revanchism (french: revanchisme, from ''revanche'', "revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. As a term, revanchism originated in 1870s Fr ...
nationalists blamed the severity of the economic crisis on the Treaty of Versailles. The far-right
Nazi Party led by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
, which had formed shortly after the peace treaty, exploited growing popular resentment and desperation to become the dominant political movement in Germany; by 1933, they
gained power and rapidly established a
totalitarian regime known as
Nazi Germany. The Nazi regime demanded the immediate cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims over German-populated Austria and the
German-populated territories of Czechoslovakia. The likelihood of war was high, but none of the major powers had the appetite for another conflict; many governments sought to ease tensions through nonmilitary strategies such as
appeasement
Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...
.
Japan, which was a principal allied power in the First World War, had since become increasingly militaristic and imperialistic; parallel to Germany, nationalist sentiment increased throughout the 1920s, culminating in the
invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The
League of Nations strongly condemned the attack as an act of aggression against China; Japan responded by leaving the League in 1933. The second
Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japan's full-scale invasion of China. The League of Nations condemned Japan's actions and initiated sanctions; the United States, which had attempted to peacefully negotiate for peace in Asia, was especially angered by the invasion and sought to support China.
In March 1939,
Germany took over Czechoslovakia, just six months after signing the
Munich Agreement, which sought to appease Hitler by
ceding the
mainly ethnic German Czechoslovak borderlands; while most of Europe had celebrated the agreement as a major victory for peace, the open flaunting of its terms demonstrated the failure of appeasement. Britain and France, which had been the main advocates of appeasement, decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the
Anglo-Polish military alliance
The military alliance between the United Kingdom and Poland was formalised by the Anglo-Polish Agreement in 1939, with subsequent addenda of 1940 and 1944, for mutual assistance in case of a military invasion from Nazi Germany, as specified in a s ...
in an effort to avert an imminent German attack on Poland; the French likewise had a long-standing
alliance with Poland since 1921. The
Soviet Union, which had been diplomatically and economically isolated by much of the world, had sought an alliance with the western powers, but Hitler preempted a potential war with Stalin by signing the
Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact in August 1939. In addition to preventing a two-front war that had battered its forces in the last world war, the agreement secretly divided the independent states of Central and Eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine.
On 1 September 1939,
Germany invaded Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
; two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Roughly two weeks after Germany's attack, the
Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. Britain and France established the
Anglo-French Supreme War Council
The Anglo-French Supreme War Council (SWC) was established to oversee joint military strategy at the start of the Second World War. Most of its deliberations took place during the period of the Phoney War, with its first meeting at Abbeville on ...
to coordinate military decisions. A
Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
was set up in London, joined by hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers, which would remain an Allied nation until the end. After a quiet winter, Germany began its invasion of Western Europe in April 1940, quickly defeating Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France; all the occupied nations would subsequently establish a government-in-exile in London, with each contributing a contingent of escaped troops. Nevertheless, by roughly one year since Germany's violation of the Munich Agreement, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini.
Formation of the "Grand Alliance"
Before they were formally allied, the United Kingdom and the United States had cooperated in a number of ways,
notably through the
destroyers-for-bases deal in September 1940 and the American
Lend-Lease program, which provided Britain and the Soviet Union with war materiel beginning in October 1941. The
British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union reciprocated with a smaller
Reverse Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
program.
The
First Inter-Allied Meeting took place in London in early June 1941 between the United Kingdom, the four co-belligerent British Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), the eight
governments in exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile u ...
(
Belgium,
Czechoslovakia,
Greece,
Luxembourg,
the Netherlands,
Norway,
Poland,
Yugoslavia) and
Free France. The meeting culminated with the
Declaration of St James's Palace
The Declaration of St James's Palace, or London Declaration, was the first joint statement of goals and principles by the Allied Powers during World War II. The declaration was issued after the first Inter-Allied Meeting at St James's Palace in ...
, which set out a first vision for the postwar world.
In June 1941, Hitler broke the non-aggression agreement with Stalin and Axis forces
invaded the Soviet Union, which consequently declared war on Germany and its allies. Britain agreed to an
alliance with the Soviet Union in July, with both nations committing to assisting one another by any means, and to never negotiate a separate peace. The following August saw the
Atlantic Conference
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and ...
between American President
Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, which defined a common Anglo-American vision of the postwar world, as formalized by the
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States an ...
.
At the
Second Inter-Allied Meeting in London in September 1941, the eight European governments in exile, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter. In December, Japan attacked American and British territories in Asia and the Pacific, resulting in the U.S. formally entering the war as an Allied power. Still reeling from Japanese aggression, China declared war on all the Axis powers shortly thereafter.
By the end of 1941, the main lines of World War II had formed. Churchill referred to the "Grand Alliance" of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union,
which together played the largest role in prosecuting the war. The alliance was largely one of convenience for each member: the U.K. realized that the Axis powers threatened not only
its colonies in North Africa and Asia but also the
homeland. The United States felt that the Japanese and German expansion should be contained, but ruled out force until Japan's attack. The Soviet Union, having been betrayed by
the Axis attack in 1941, greatly despised German belligerence and the unchallenged Japanese expansion in the East, particularly considering their defeat in previous wars with Japan; the Soviets also recognized, as the U.S. and Britain had suggested, the advantages of a
two-front war.
The Big Three
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...
,
Winston Churchill, and
Joseph Stalin were The Big Three leaders. They were in frequent contact through ambassadors, top generals, foreign ministers and special emissaries such as the American
Harry Hopkins. It is also often called the "Strange Alliance", because it united the leaders of the world's greatest
capitalist state
The capitalist state is the state, its functions and the form of organization it takes within capitalist socioeconomic systems.Jessop, Bob (January 1977). "Recent Theories of the Capitalist State". ''Soviet Studies''. 1: 4. pp. 353–373. This ...
(the United States), the greatest
socialist state (the Soviet Union) and the greatest
colonial power
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...
(the United Kingdom).
Relations between them resulted in the major decisions that shaped the war effort and planned for the postwar world.
Cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States was
especially close and included forming a
Combined Chiefs of Staff
The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) was the supreme military staff for the United States and Britain during World War II. It set all the major policy decisions for the two nations, subject to the approvals of British Prime Minister Winston Church ...
.
There were numerous
high-level conferences; in total Churchill attended 14 meetings, Roosevelt 12, and Stalin 5. Most visible were the three summit conferences that brought together the three top leaders. The Allied policy toward Germany and Japan evolved and developed at these three conferences.
*
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference ( codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy ...
(codename "Eureka") – first meeting of The Big Three (28 November 1943
– 1 December 1943)
*
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the pos ...
(codename "Argonaut") – second meeting of The Big Three (4–11 February 1945)
*
Potsdam Conference (codename "Terminal") – third and final meeting of The Big Three (Truman having taken over for Roosevelt, 17 July – 2 August 1945)
Tensions
There were many tensions among the Big Three leaders, although they were not enough to break the alliance during wartime.
In 1942 Roosevelt proposed becoming, with China, the
Four Policemen of world peace. Although the 'Four Powers' were reflected in the wording of the
Declaration by United Nations
The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during the Arcadia Conference, the Allied "Four Policemen, Big Fo ...
, Roosevelt's proposal was not initially supported by Churchill or Stalin.
Division emerged over the length of time taken by the Western Allies to establish a
second front
The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The Italian front is considered a separate but related theater. The Wester ...
in Europe.
Stalin and the Soviets used the potential employment of the second front as an 'acid test' for their relations with the Anglo-American powers.
The Soviets were forced to use as much manpower as possible in the fight against the Germans, whereas the United States had the luxury of flexing industrial power, but with the "minimum possible expenditure of American lives."
Roosevelt and Churchill opened ground fronts in North Africa in 1942 and in Italy in 1943, and launched a massive air attack on Germany, but Stalin kept wanting more.
Although the U.S. had a strained relationship with the USSR in the 1920s, relations were normalized in 1933. The original terms of the
Lend-Lease loan were amended towards the Soviets, to be put in line with British terms. The United States would now expect interest with the repayment from the Soviets, following the initiation of the
Operation Barbarossa, at the end of the war—the United States were not looking to support any "postwar Soviet reconstruction efforts", which eventually manifested into the
Molotov Plan. At the
Tehran conference
The Tehran Conference ( codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy ...
, Stalin judged Roosevelt to be a "lightweight compared to the more formidable Churchill". During the meetings from 1943 to 1945, there were disputes over the growing list of demands from the USSR.
Tensions increased further when Roosevelt died and his successor
Harry Truman rejected demands put forth by Stalin.
Roosevelt wanted to play down these ideological tensions. Roosevelt felt he "understood Stalin's psychology", stating "Stalin was too anxious to prove a point... he suffered from an inferiority complex."
United Nations
Four Policemen
During December 1941, Roosevelt devised the name "United Nations" for the Allies and Churchill agreed.
He referred to the Big Three and China as the "
Four Policemen" repeatedly from 1942.
Declaration by United Nations
The alliance was formalised in the
Declaration by United Nations
The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during the Arcadia Conference, the Allied "Four Policemen, Big Fo ...
signed on 1 January 1942. There were the 26 original signatories of the declaration; the Big Four were listed first:
*
United States
*
United Kingdom
*
Soviet Union
*
China
*
Australia
*
Belgium
*
Canada
*
Costa Rica
*
Cuba
*
Czechoslovakia
*
Dominican Republic
*
El Salvador
*
Greece
*
Guatemala
*
Haiti
*
Honduras
*
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
*
Luxembourg
*
Netherlands
*
New Zealand
*
Nicaragua
*
Norway
*
Panama
*
Poland
*
South Africa
*
Yugoslavia
Alliance growing
The United Nations began growing immediately after its formation. In 1942, Mexico, the Philippines and Ethiopia adhered to the declaration. Ethiopia had been restored to independence by British forces after the Italian defeat in 1941. The Philippines, still owned by Washington but granted international diplomatic recognition, was allowed to join on 10 June despite its occupation by Japan.
In 1943, the Declaration was signed by Iraq, Iran, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia.
A Tripartite Treaty of Alliance with Britain and the USSR formalised Iran's assistance to the Allies. In
Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian dictator
Getúlio Vargas was considered near to fascist ideas, but realistically joined the United Nations after their evident successes.
In 1944, Liberia and France signed. The French situation was very confused.
Free French forces were recognized only by Britain, while the United States considered
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
to be the legal government of the country until
Operation Overlord, while also preparing
U.S. occupation francs. Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944; the Prime Minister feared that after the war, Britain could remain the sole great power in Europe facing the Communist threat, as it was in 1940 and 1941 against Nazism.
During the early part of 1945, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Uruguay, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria (these latter two French colonies had been declared independent states by British occupation troops, despite protests by Pétain and later De Gaulle) and Ecuador became signatories.
Ukraine and
Belarus, which were not independent states but parts of the Soviet Union, were accepted as members of the United Nations as a way to provide greater influence to Stalin, who had only Yugoslavia as a communist partner in the alliance.
Major affiliated state combatants
United Kingdom
British Prime Minister,
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeaseme ...
delivered his ''Ultimatum Speech'' on 3 September 1939 which
declared war on Germany, a few hours before France. As the
Statute of Westminster 1931 was not yet ratified by the parliaments of Australia and New Zealand, the British declaration of war on Germany also applied to those
dominions. The other dominions and members of the
British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
declared war from 3 September 1939, all within one week of each other; they were
Canada,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
and
South Africa.
During the war, Churchill attended seventeen
Allied conferences at which key decisions and agreements were made. He was "the most important of the Allied leaders during the first half of World War II".
Africa colonies and dependencies
British West Africa
British West Africa was the collective name for British colonies in West Africa during the colonial period, either in the general geographical sense or the formal colonial administrative entity. British West Africa as a colonial entity was orig ...
and the British colonies in East and Southern Africa participated, mainly in the North African, East African and Middle-Eastern theatres. Two West African and one East African division served in the
Burma Campaign.
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kno ...
was a self-governing colony, having received
responsible government in 1923. It was not a sovereign dominion. It governed itself internally and controlled its own armed forces, but had no diplomatic autonomy, and, therefore, was officially at war as soon as Britain was at war. The Southern Rhodesian colonial government issued a symbolic declaration of war nevertheless on 3 September 1939, which made no difference diplomatically but preceded the declarations of war made by all other British dominions and colonies.
American colonies and dependencies
These included: the
British West Indies
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada ...
,
British Honduras
British Honduras was a British Crown colony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in June 1973, ,
British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first European to encounter Guiana was ...
and the
Falkland Islands. The
Dominion of Newfoundland was directly ruled as a royal colony from 1933 to 1949, run by a governor appointed by London who made the decisions regarding Newfoundland.
Asia
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
included the areas and peoples covered by later
India,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
Pakistan and (until 1937)
Burma/Myanmar, which later became a separate colony.
British Malaya
The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. Un ...
covers the areas of
Peninsular Malaysia and
Singapore, while
British Borneo
British Borneo comprised the four northern parts of the island of Borneo, which are now the country of Brunei, two Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Malaysian federal territory of Labuan. During the British colonial rule before Wor ...
covers the area of
Brunei, including
Sabah and
Sarawak
Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, K ...
of Malaysia.
British Hong Kong
Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the British ...
consisted of
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...
, the
Kowloon Peninsula, and the
New Territories.
Territories controlled by the
Colonial Office, namely the
Crown Colonies, were controlled politically by the UK and therefore also entered hostilities with Britain's declaration of war. At the outbreak of World War II, the
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...
numbered 205,000 men. Later during World War II, the
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...
became the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 2.5 million men in size.
Indian soldiers earned 30
Victoria Crosses during the Second World War. It suffered 87,000 military casualties (more than any Crown colony but fewer than the United Kingdom). The UK suffered 382,000 military casualties.
Kuwait was a protectorate of the United Kingdom formally established in 1899. The
Trucial States were British protectorates in the Persian Gulf.
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...
was a mandate dependency created in the peace agreements after
World War I from the former territory of the
Ottoman Empire,
Iraq.
Europe
The
Cyprus Regiment
The Cyprus Regiment was a military unit of the British Army. Created by the British Government during World War II, it was made up of volunteers from the Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Armenian, Maronite and Latin inhabitants of Cyprus, but ...
was formed by the British Government during the Second World War and made part of the British Army structure. It was mostly
Greek Cypriot volunteers and Turkish-speaking Cypriot inhabitants of Cyprus but also included other Commonwealth nationalities. On a brief visit to Cyprus in 1943, Winston Churchill praised the "soldiers of the Cyprus Regiment who have served honourably on many fields from Libya to Dunkirk". About 30,000 Cypriots served in the Cyprus Regiment. The regiment was involved in action from the very start and served at
Dunkirk, in the
Greek Campaign
The German invasion of Greece, also known as the Battle of Greece or Operation Marita ( de , Unternehmen Marita, links = no), was the attack of Greece by Italy and Germany during World War II. The Italian invasion in October 1940, which is ...
(about 600 soldiers were captured in
Kalamata in 1941), North Africa (
Operation Compass), France, the Middle East and Italy. Many soldiers were taken prisoner especially at the beginning of the war and were interned in various PoW camps (
Stalag) including Lamsdorf (
Stalag VIII-B
Stalag VIII-B was a German Army prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, later renumbered Stalag-344, located near the village of Lamsdorf (now Łambinowice) in Silesia. The camp initially occupied barracks built to house British and French pris ...
), Stalag IVC at Wistritz bei Teplitz and Stalag 4b near Most in the Czech Republic. The soldiers captured in Kalamata were transported by train to prisoner of war camps.
France
War declared
After Germany invaded Poland, France
declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939.
[Speeches that Reshaped the World.] In January 1940, French Prime Minister
Édouard Daladier made a major speech denouncing the actions of Germany:
France experienced several major phases of action during World War II:
* The "
Phoney War" of 1939–1940, also called ''drôle de guerre'' in France, ''dziwna wojna'' in Poland (both meaning "Strange War"), or the ''"Sitzkrieg"'' ("Sitting War") in Germany.
* The
Battle of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second Wor ...
in May–June 1940, which resulted in the defeat of the Allies, the fall of the
French Third Republic, the
German occupation of northern and western France, and the creation of the rump state
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
, which received diplomatic recognition from the Axis and most neutral countries including the
United States.
* The period of
resistance against the occupation and Franco-French struggle for control of the colonies between the Vichy regime and the
Free French, who continued the fight on the Allies' side after the
Appeal of 18 June
The Appeal of 18 June (french: L'Appel du 18 juin) was the first speech made by Charles de Gaulle after his arrival in London in 1940 following the Battle of France. Broadcast to Vichy France by the radio services of the British Broadcasting Cor ...
by General
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
, recognized by the United Kingdom as France's government-in-exile. It culminated in the
Allied landings in North Africa on 11 November 1942, when Vichy ceased to exist as an independent entity after having been invaded
by both the Axis and the Allies simultaneously, being thereafter only the nominal government in charge during the occupation of France. Vichy forces in French North Africa switched allegiance and
merged with the Free French to participate in the campaigns
of Tunisia and
of Italy and the invasion
of Corsica in 1943–44.
* The
liberation of mainland France beginning with
D-Day on 6 June 1944 and
operation Overlord, and then with
operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil) was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15August 1944. Despite initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, t ...
on 15 August 1944, leading to the
Liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 by the Free French
2e Division Blindée and the installation of the
Provisional Government of the French Republic in the newly liberated capital.
* Participation of the re-established provisional French Republic's
First Army in the
Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine
The Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, also known as the Siegfried Line campaign, was a phase in the Western European campaign of World War II.
This phase spans from the end of the Battle of Normandy, or Operation Overlord, (25 August 19 ...
and the
Western Allied invasion of Germany
The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theatre of World War II. In preparation for the Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine, a series of off ...
until
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easte ...
on 8 May 1945.
Colonies and dependencies
= Africa
=
In Africa these included:
French West Africa
French West Africa (french: Afrique-Occidentale française, ) was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Ivory Coast, Upper Volta (now Burkin ...
,
French Equatorial Africa
French Equatorial Africa (french: link=no, Afrique-Équatoriale française), or the AEF, was the federation of French colonial possessions in Equatorial Africa, extending northwards from the Congo River into the Sahel, and comprising what ar ...
, the League of Nations mandates of
French Cameroun and
French Togoland
French Togoland (French: '' Togo français'') was a French colonial League of Nations mandate from 1916 to 1960 in French West Africa. In 1960 it became the independent Togolese Republic, and the present day nation of Togo.
Transfer from Germ ...
,
French Madagascar
The Colony of Madagascar and Dependencies (french: Colonie de Madagascar et dépendances) was a French colony off the coast of Southeast Africa between 1897 and 1958 in what is now Madagascar. The colony was formerly a protectorate of France kn ...
,
French Somaliland, and the protectorates of
French Tunisia and
French Morocco.
French Algeria was then not a colony or dependency but a fully-fledged part of
metropolitan France
Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the Europea ...
.
= Asia and Oceania
=
In Asia and Oceania France has several territories:
French Polynesia
)Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze")
, anthem =
, song_type = Regional anthem
, song = " Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui"
, image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of Frenc ...
,
Wallis and Futuna,
New Caledonia, the
New Hebrides,
French Indochina
French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...
,
French India
French India, formally the ( en, French Settlements in India), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian Subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were ''d ...
,
Guangzhouwan
The Leased Territory of Guangzhouwan, officially the , was a territory on the coast of Zhanjiang in China leased to France and administered by French Indochina. The capital of the territory was Fort-Bayard, present-day Zhanjiang.
The Japan ...
, the mandates of
Greater Lebanon
The State of Greater Lebanon ( ar, دولة لبنان الكبير, Dawlat Lubnān al-Kabīr; french: État du Grand Liban), informally known as French Lebanon, was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic ( ar, ...
and
French Syria. The French government in 1936 attempted to grant independence to its mandate of
Syria in the
Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence of 1936 signed by France and Syria. However, opposition to the treaty grew in France and the treaty was not ratified. Syria had become an official republic in 1930 and was largely self-governing. In 1941, a British-led invasion supported by Free French forces expelled Vichy French forces in
Operation Exporter
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
.
= Americas
=
France had several colonies in America, namely
Martinique,
Guadeloupe,
French Guiana and
Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
Soviet Union
History
In the lead-up to the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, relations between the two states underwent several stages.
General Secretary Joseph Stalin and the government of the Soviet Union had supported so-called
popular front movements of
anti-fascists
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
including communists and non-communists from 1935 to 1939.
[Paul Bushkovitch. ''A Concise History of Russia''. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Cambridge University Press, 2012. P. 390–391.] The popular front strategy was terminated from 1939 to 1941, when the Soviet Union cooperated with Germany in 1939 in the occupation and partitioning of Poland. The Soviet leadership refused to endorse either the Allies or the Axis from 1939 to 1941, as it called the Allied-Axis conflict an "imperialist war".
Stalin had studied Hitler, including reading ''
Mein Kampf'', and from it knew of Hitler's motives for destroying the Soviet Union. As early as in 1933, the Soviet leadership voiced its concerns with the alleged threat of a potential German invasion of the country should Germany attempt a conquest of
Lithuania,
Latvia, or
Estonia, and in December 1933 negotiations began for the issuing of a joint Polish-Soviet declaration guaranteeing the sovereignty of the three Baltic countries.
[David L. Ransel, Bozena Shallcross. Polish Encounters, Russian Identity. Indiana University Press, 2005. P184.] However, Poland withdrew from the negotiations following German and Finnish objections.
The Soviet Union and Germany at this time competed with each other for influence in Poland. The Soviet government also was concerned with the anti-Soviet sentiment in Poland and particularly
Józef Piłsudski's proposed Polish federation that would include the territories of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine within it that threatened the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union.
On 20 August 1939, forces of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under General
Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( rus, Георгий Константинович Жуков, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐukəf, a=Ru-Георгий_Константинович_Жуков.ogg; 1 December 1896 – ...
, together with the
People's Republic of Mongolia eliminated the threat of conflict in the east with a victory over Imperial Japan at the
Battle of Khalkhin Gol
The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Jap ...
in eastern Mongolia.
On the same day, Soviet party leader
Joseph Stalin received a telegram from German Chancellor
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
, suggesting that German Foreign Minister
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...
fly to Moscow for diplomatic talks. (After receiving a lukewarm response throughout the spring and summer, Stalin abandoned attempts for a better diplomatic relationship with France and the United Kingdom.)
On 23 August, Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister
Vyacheslav Molotov signed
the non-aggression pact including secret protocols dividing Eastern Europe into defined "spheres of influence" for the two regimes, and specifically concerning the partition of the Polish state in the event of its "territorial and political rearrangement".
On 15 September 1939, Stalin concluded a durable ceasefire with Japan, to take effect the following day (it would be upgraded to
a non-aggression pact in April 1941). The day after that, 17 September, Soviet forces
invaded Poland from the east. Although some fighting continued until 5 October, the two invading armies held at least one joint
military parade on 25 September, and reinforced their non-military partnership with the
German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation on 28 September. German and Soviet cooperation against Poland in 1939 has been described as
co-belligerence
Co-belligerence is the waging of a war in cooperation against a common enemy with or without a formal treaty of military alliance. Generally, the term is used for cases where no alliance exists. Likewise, allies may not become co-belligerents in a ...
.
On 30 November, the Soviet Union
attacked Finland, for which it was expelled from the
League of Nations. In the following year of 1940, while the world's attention was focused upon the German invasion of France and Norway, the USSR militarily
occupied and annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as well as parts of
Romania.
German-Soviet treaties were brought to an end by the
German surprise attack on the USSR on 22 June 1941. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin endorsed the Western Allies as part of a renewed popular front strategy against Germany and called for the international communist movement to make a coalition with all those who opposed the Nazis.
The Soviet Union soon entered in alliance with the United Kingdom. Following the USSR, a number of other
communist, pro-Soviet or Soviet-controlled forces fought against the
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
powers during the Second World War. They were as follows: the
Albanian National Liberation Front, the
Chinese Red Army
The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army or Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, commonly known as the Chinese Red Army or simply the Red Army, are the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party. It was formed when Communist ...
, the
Greek National Liberation Front, the
Hukbalahap, the
Malayan Communist Party
The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore from ...
, the
People's Republic of Mongolia, the
Polish People's Army
The Polish People's Army ( pl, Ludowe Wojsko Polskie , LWP) constituted the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state ( from 1952, the Polish Pe ...
, the
Tuvan People's Republic (annexed by the Soviet Union in 1944),
[Toomas Alatalu. Tuva. A State Reawakens. ''Soviet Studies'', Vol. 44, No. 5 (1992), pp. 881–895] the
Viet Minh and the
Yugoslav Partisans
The Yugoslav Partisans, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобо� ...
.
The Soviet Union intervened against Japan and its
client state
A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite state, ...
in
Manchuria in 1945, cooperating with the
Nationalist Government of China and the
Nationalist Party led by
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
; though also cooperating, preferring, and encouraging the
Chinese Communist Party led by
Mao Zedong to take effective control of Manchuria after expelling Japanese forces.
United States
War justifications
The United States had indirectly supported Britain's war effort against Germany up to 1941 and declared its opposition to territorial aggrandizement. Materiel support to Britain was provided while the U.S. was officially neutral via the
Lend-Lease Act starting in 1941.
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...
and Prime Minister
Winston Churchill in August 1941 promulgated the
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States an ...
that pledged commitment to achieving "the final destruction of Nazi tyranny". Signing the Atlantic Charter, and thereby joining the "United Nations" was the way a state joined the Allies, and also became eligible for membership in the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
world body that formed in 1945.
The US strongly supported the Nationalist Government in China in its war with Japan, and provided military equipment, supplies, and volunteers to the Nationalist Government of China to assist in its war effort. In December 1941 Japan opened the war with its
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...
, the US declared war on Japan, and Japan's allies Germany and Italy declared war on the US, bringing the US into World War II.
The US played a central role in liaising among the Allies and especially among the Big Four. At the
Arcadia Conference The First Washington Conference, also known as the Arcadia Conference (ARCADIA was the code name used for the conference), was held in Washington, D.C., from December 22, 1941, to January 14, 1942. President Roosevelt of the United States and Prime ...
in December 1941, shortly after the US entered the war, the US and Britain established a
Combined Chiefs of Staff
The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) was the supreme military staff for the United States and Britain during World War II. It set all the major policy decisions for the two nations, subject to the approvals of British Prime Minister Winston Church ...
, based in Washington, which deliberated the military decisions of both the US and Britain.
History
On 8 December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Congress declared war on Japan at the request of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...
. This was followed by Germany and Italy declaring war on the United States on 11 December, bringing the country into the European theatre.
The US-led Allied forces in the Pacific theatre against Japanese forces from 1941 to 1945. From 1943 to 1945, the US led and coordinated the Western Allies' war effort in Europe under the leadership of General
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
.
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor followed by Japan's swift attacks on Allied locations throughout the Pacific, resulted in major US losses in the first several months in the war, including losing control of the
Philippines,
Guam,
Wake Island and several Aleutian islands including
Attu and
Kiska
Kiska ( ale, Qisxa, russian: Кыска) is one of the Rat Islands, a group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. It is about long and varies in width from . It is part of Aleutian Islands Wilderness and as such, special permission is requir ...
to Japanese forces. American naval forces attained some early successes against Japan. One was the bombing of Japanese industrial centres in the
Doolittle Raid. Another was repelling a Japanese invasion of
Port Moresby
(; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...
in
New Guinea during the
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...
. A major turning point in the Pacific War was the
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under A ...
where American naval forces were outnumbered by Japanese forces that had been sent to Midway to draw out and destroy American aircraft carriers in the Pacific and seize control of Midway that would place Japanese forces in proximity to Hawaii. However American forces managed to sink four of Japan's six large aircraft carriers that had initiated the attack on Pearl Harbor along with other attacks on Allied forces. Afterwards, the US began an offensive against Japanese-captured positions. The
Guadalcanal Campaign
The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the ...
from 1942 to 1943 was a major contention point where Allied and Japanese forces struggled to gain control of
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the s ...
.
Colonies and dependencies
=In the Americas and the Pacific
=
The United States held multiple dependencies in the Americas, such as
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, the
Panama Canal Zone,
Puerto Rico, and the
U.S. Virgin Islands.
In the Pacific it held multiple island dependencies such as
American Samoa
American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...
,
Guam,
Hawaii,
Midway Islands
Midway Atoll (colloquial: Midway Islands; haw, Kauihelani, translation=the backbone of heaven; haw, Pihemanu, translation=the loud din of birds, label=none) is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the Unit ...
,
Wake Island and others. These dependencies were directly involved in the Pacific campaign of the war.
=In Asia
=
The
Commonwealth of the Philippines
The Commonwealth of the Philippines ( es, Commonwealth de Filipinas or ; tl, Komonwelt ng Pilipinas) was the administrative body that governed the Philippines from 1935 to 1946, aside from a Government in exile of the Commonwealth of the Phil ...
was a sovereign protectorate referred to as an "associated state" of the United States. From late 1941 to 1944, the Philippines was
occupied by Japanese forces, who established the
Second Philippine Republic as a client state that had nominal control over the country.
China
In the 1920s the Soviet Union provided military assistance to the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
, or the Nationalists, and helped reorganize their party along
Leninist
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishm ...
lines: a unification of party, state, and army. In exchange the Nationalists agreed to let members of the
Chinese Communist Party join the Nationalists on an individual basis. However, following the nominal unification of China at the end of the
Northern Expedition in 1928,
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
purged leftists from his party and fought against the revolting Chinese Communist Party, former
warlords, and other militarist factions. A fragmented China provided easy opportunities for Japan to gain territories piece by piece without engaging in
total war
Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combat ...
. Following the 1931
Mukden Incident, the puppet state of
Manchukuo was established. Throughout the early to mid-1930s, Chiang's anti-communist and anti-militarist campaigns continued while he fought small, incessant conflicts against Japan, usually followed by unfavorable settlements and concessions after military defeats.
In 1936 Chiang was forced to cease his
anti-communist military campaigns after
his kidnap and release by
Zhang Xueliang, and reluctantly formed
a nominal alliance with the Communists, while the Communists agreed to fight under the nominal command of the Nationalists against the Japanese. Following the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident () or the July 7 Incident (), was a July 1937 battle between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuri ...
of 7 July 1937, China and Japan became embroiled in a full-scale war. The Soviet Union, wishing to keep China in the fight against Japan, supplied China with military assistance until 1941, when it
signed a non-aggression pact with Japan. China formally declared war on Japan, as well as Germany and Italy, in December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Continuous clashes between the Communists and Nationalists behind enemy lines cumulated in
a major military conflict between these two former allies that effectively ended their cooperation against the Japanese, and China had been divided between the internationally recognized
Nationalist China under the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and
Communist China under the leadership of
Mao Zedong until the Japanese surrendered in 1945.
Factions
=Nationalists
=
Prior to the alliance of Germany and Italy to Japan, the Nationalist Government held close relations with both Germany and Italy. In the early 1930s,
Sino-German cooperation existed between the Nationalist Government and Germany in military and industrial matters. Nazi Germany provided the largest proportion of Chinese arms imports and technical expertise. Relations between the Nationalist Government and Italy during the 1930s varied, however even after the Nationalist Government followed League of Nations sanctions against Italy for
its invasion of
Ethiopia, the international sanctions proved unsuccessful, and relations between the Fascist government in Italy and the Nationalist Government in China returned to normal shortly afterwards.
[G. Bruce Strang. On the fiery march: Mussolini prepares for war. Westport, Connecticut, US: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 2003. Pp. 58–59.] Up until 1936, Mussolini had provided the Nationalists with Italian military air and naval missions to help the Nationalists fight against Japanese incursions and communist insurgents.
Italy also held strong commercial interests and a strong commercial position in China supported by the
Italian concession in Tianjin.
However, after 1936 the relationship between the Nationalist Government and Italy changed due to a Japanese diplomatic proposal to recognize the
Italian Empire that included occupied Ethiopia within it in exchange for Italian recognition of
Manchukuo, Italian Foreign Minister
Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 19 ...
accepted this offer by Japan, and on 23 October 1936 Japan recognized the Italian Empire and Italy recognized Manchukuo, as well as discussing increasing commercial links between Italy and Japan.
The Nationalist Government held close relations with the
United States. The United States opposed Japan's invasion of China in 1937 that it considered an illegal violation of China's
sovereignty, and offered the Nationalist Government diplomatic, economic, and military assistance during its war against Japan. In particular, the United States sought to bring the Japanese war effort to a complete halt by imposing a full embargo on all trade between the United States to Japan, Japan was dependent on the United States for 80 per cent of its
petroleum, resulting in an economic and military crisis for Japan that could not continue its war effort with China without access to petroleum. In November 1940, American military aviator
Claire Lee Chennault
Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958) was an American military aviator best known for his leadership of the "Flying Tigers" and the Chinese Air Force in World War II.
Chennault was a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fight ...
upon observing the dire situation in the air war between China and Japan, set out to organize a volunteer squadron of American fighter pilots to fight alongside the Chinese against Japan, known as the
Flying Tigers.
[Guo wu yuan. Xin wen ban gong shi. Col. C.L. Chennault and Flying Tigers. English translation. State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. Pp. 16.] US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...
accepted dispatching them to China in early 1941.
However, they only became operational shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The
Soviet Union recognised the
Republic of China but urged reconciliation with the Chinese Communist Party and inclusion of Communists in the government.
[Frederic J. Fleron, Erik P. Hoffmann, Robbin Frederick Laird. ''Soviet Foreign Policy: Classic and Contemporary Issues.'' Third paperback edition. New Brunswick, New Jersey, US: Transaction Publishers, 2009. Pp. 236.] The Soviet Union also urged military and cooperation between Nationalist China and Communist China during the war.
Even though China had been fighting the longest among all the Allied powers, it only officially joined the Allies after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941. China fought the Japanese Empire before joining the Allies in the
Pacific War. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek thought Allied victory was assured with the entrance of the United States into the war, and he declared war on Germany and the other Axis states. However, Allied aid remained low because the
Burma Road
The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second S ...
was closed and the Allies suffered a series of military defeats against Japan early on in the campaign. General
Sun Li-jen
Sun Li-jen (; December 8, 1900November 19, 1990) was a Chinese Nationalist (KMT) general, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His military achie ...
led the R.O.C. forces to the relief of 7,000 British forces trapped by the Japanese in the
Battle of Yenangyaung
The Battle of Yenangyaung () was fought in Burma, now Myanmar, during the Burma Campaign in World War II. The battle of Yenaungyaung was fought in the vicinity of Yenangyaung and its oil fields.
Background
After the Japanese captured Rangoon in ...
. He then reconquered North Burma and re-established the land route to China by the
Ledo Road. But the bulk of military aid did not arrive until the spring of 1945. More than 1.5 million Japanese troops were trapped in the China Theatre, troops that otherwise could have been deployed elsewhere if China had collapsed and made a separate peace.
=Communists
=
Communist China had been tacitly supported by the
Soviet Union since the 1920s, though the Soviet Union diplomatically recognised the Republic of China,
Joseph Stalin supported cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communists—including pressuring the Nationalist Government to grant the Communists state and military positions in the government.
This was continued into the 1930s that fell in line with the Soviet Union's subversion policy of
popular fronts to increase communists' influence in governments.
The Soviet Union urged military and cooperation between Soviet China and Nationalist China during China's war against Japan.
Initially
Mao Zedong accepted the demands of the Soviet Union and in 1938 had recognized Chiang Kai-shek as the "leader" of the "Chinese people".
[Dieter Heinzig. The Soviet Union and communist China, 1945–1950: the arduous road to the alliance. M.E. Sharpe, 2004. Pp. 9.] In turn, the Soviet Union accepted Mao's tactic of "continuous guerilla warfare" in the countryside that involved a goal of extending the Communist bases, even if it would result in increased tensions with the Nationalists.
After the breakdown of their cooperation with the Nationalists in 1941, the Communists prospered and grew as the war against Japan dragged on, building up their sphere of influence wherever opportunities were presented, mainly through rural mass organizations, administrative, land and tax reform measures favoring poor peasants; while the Nationalists attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence by military blockade and fighting the Japanese at the same time.
The Communist Party's position in China was boosted further upon the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945 against the Japanese puppet state of
Manchukuo and the Japanese
Kwantung Army in China and
Manchuria. Upon the intervention of the Soviet Union against Japan in World War II in 1945, Mao Zedong in April and May 1945 had planned to mobilize 150,000 to 250,000 soldiers from across China to work with forces of the Soviet Union in capturing Manchuria.
Other affiliated state combatants
Albania
Albania was retroactively recognized as an "Associated Power" at the 1946 Paris conference and officially signed the treaty ending WWII between the "Allied and Associated Powers" and Italy in Paris, on 10 February 1947.
Australia
Australia was a sovereign Dominion under the
Australian monarchy
The monarchy of Australia is Australia's form of government embodied by the Australian sovereign and head of state. The Australian monarchy is a constitutional monarchy, modelled on the Westminster system of parliamentary government, while ...
, as per the
Statute of Westminster 1931. At the start of the war Australia followed Britain's foreign policies and accordingly declared war against Germany on 3 September 1939. Australian foreign policy became more independent after the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms th ...
formed government in October 1941, and Australia separately declared war against Finland, Hungary and Romania on 8 December 1941 and against Japan the next day.
Belgium
Before the war, Belgium had pursued a policy of
neutrality and only became an Allied member after
being invaded by Germany on 10 May 1940. During the ensuing fighting, Belgian forces fought alongside French and British forces against the invaders. While the British and French were struggling against
the fast German advance elsewhere on the front, the Belgian forces were pushed into a pocket to the north. Finally, on 28 May, the
King Leopold III
Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasi ...
surrendered himself and his military to the Germans, having decided the Allied cause was lost. The legal Belgian government was reformed as
a government in exile in London. Belgian troops and pilots continued to fight on the Allied side as the
Free Belgian Forces. Belgium itself was occupied, but a sizeable
Resistance was formed and was loosely coordinated by the government in exile and other Allied powers.
British and Canadian troops arrived in Belgium in September 1944 and the capital,
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, was liberated on 6 September. Because of the
Ardennes Offensive, the country was only fully liberated in early 1945.
Colonies and dependencies
Belgium held the colony of the
Belgian Congo and the League of Nations mandate of
Ruanda-Urundi. The Belgian Congo was not occupied and remained loyal to the Allies as an important economic asset while its deposits of uranium were useful to the Allied efforts to develop the atomic bomb. Troops from the Belgian Congo participated in the
East African Campaign against the Italians. The colonial ''
Force Publique
The ''Force Publique'' (, "Public Force"; nl, Openbare Weermacht) was a gendarmerie and military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885 (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of Be ...
'' also served in other theatres including Madagascar, the Middle-East, India and Burma within British units.
Brazil
Initially,
Brazil maintained a position of neutrality, trading with both the Allies and the
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
, while Brazilian president
Getúlio Vargas's quasi-
Fascist policies indicated a leaning toward the Axis powers. However, as the war progressed, trade with the Axis countries became almost impossible and the United States initiated forceful diplomatic and economic efforts to bring Brazil onto the Allied side.
At the beginning of 1942, Brazil permitted the United States to set up air bases on its territory, especially in
Natal, strategically located at the easternmost corner of the
South American
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
continent, and on 28 January the country severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Japan and Italy. After that, 36 Brazilian merchant ships were sunk by the German and Italian navies, which led the Brazilian government to declare war against Germany and Italy on 22 August 1942.
Brazil then sent a 25,700 strong
Expeditionary Force to Europe that fought mainly on the
Italian front, from September 1944 to May 1945. Also, the
Brazilian Navy
)
, colors= Blue and white
, colors_label= Colors
, march= " Cisne Branco" ( en, "White Swan") (same name as training ship '' Cisne Branco''
, mascot=
, equipment= 1 multipurpose aircraft carrier7 submarines6 frigates2 corvettes4 amphibious warf ...
and
Air Force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
acted in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
from the middle of 1942 until the end of the war. Brazil was the only South American country to send troops to fight in the European theatre in the Second World War.
Canada
Canada was a sovereign Dominion under the
Canadian monarchy
The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional Canadian federalism, federal structure and Westminster system, Westminster-style Parliamentar ...
, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931. In a symbolic statement of autonomous foreign policy Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King delayed parliament's vote on a declaration of war for seven days after Britain had declared war. Canada was the last member of the Commonwealth to declare war on Germany on 10 September 1939.
Cuba
Because of
Cuba's geographical position at the entrance of the
Gulf of Mexico,
Havana's role as the principal trading port in the
West Indies, and the country's natural resources, Cuba was an important participant in the
American Theater of World War II, and subsequently one of the greatest beneficiaries of the
United States'
Lend-Lease program. Cuba declared war on the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were N ...
in December 1941,
making it one of the first
Latin American countries to enter the conflict, and by the war's end in 1945 its military had developed a reputation as being the most efficient and cooperative of all the Caribbean states.
On 15 May 1943, the Cuban patrol boat CS-13 sank the German submarine ''
U-176
German submarine ''U-176'' was a Type IXC U-boat in Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II.
Built at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, she was laid down on 6 February 1941, launched on 12 September and commissioned on ...
''.
Czechoslovakia
In 1938, with the
Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom, and France sought to resolve German irredentist claims to the
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the b ...
region. As a result, the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany began on 1 October 1938. Additionally, a small northeastern part of the border region known as
Zaolzie
Trans-Olza ( pl, Zaolzie, ; cs, Záolží, ''Záolší''; german: Olsa-Gebiet; Cieszyn Silesian: ''Zaolzi''), also known as Trans-Olza Silesia (Polish: ''Śląsk Zaolziański''), is a territory in the Czech Republic, which was disputed betwee ...
was occupied by and annexed to
Poland. Further, by the
First Vienna Award
The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on 2 November 1938 pursuant to the Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace. The arbitration and award were direct consequences of the previous month's Munich Agreement, which ...
,
Hungary received southern territories of Slovakia and
Carpathian Ruthenia.
A
Slovak State was proclaimed on 14 March 1939, and the next day Hungary occupied and annexed the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia, and the German ''
Wehrmacht'' moved into the remainder of the Czech Lands. On 16 March 1939 the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German occ ...
was proclaimed after negotiations with
Emil Hácha
Emil Dominik Josef Hácha (12 July 1872 – 27 June 1945) was a Czech lawyer, the president of Czechoslovakia from November 1938 to March 1939. In March 1939, after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, Hácha was the nominal president of the newly pro ...
, who remained technically head of state with the title of State President. After a few months, former Czechoslovak President Beneš organized a committee in exile and sought diplomatic recognition as the legitimate government of the
First Czechoslovak Republic. The committee's success in obtaining intelligence and coordinating actions by the
Czechoslovak resistance
Resistance to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II began after the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the formation of the protectorate on 15 March ...
led first Britain and then the other Allies to recognize it in 1941. In December 1941 the
Czechoslovak government-in-exile declared war on the Axis powers. Czechoslovakian military units took part in the war.
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic was one of the very few countries willing to accept mass Jewish immigration during
World War II. At the
Évian Conference
The Évian Conference was convened 6–15 July 1938 at Évian-les-Bains, France, to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees wishing to flee persecution by Nazi Germany. It was the initiative of United States President Franklin D ...
, it offered to accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees. The DORSA (Dominican Republic Settlement Association) was formed with the assistance of the JDC, and helped settle Jews in
Sosúa
Sosúa is a beach town in the Puerto Plata province of the Dominican Republic. Located approximately from the Gregorio Luperón International Airport in San Felipe de Puerto Plata.
The town is divided into three sectors: ''El Batey'', which i ...
, on the northern coast. About 700 European Jews of
Ashkenazi Jewish descent reached the settlement where each family received of land, 10 cows (plus 2 additional cows per children), a mule and a horse, and a
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
10,000 loan (about dollars at prices) at 1% interest.
The Dominican Republic officially declared war on the Axis powers on 11 December 1941, after the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...
. However, the Caribbean state had already been engaged in war actions since before the formal declaration of war. Dominican sailboats and schooners had been attacked on previous occasions by German submarines as, highlighting the case of the 1,993-ton merchant ship, ''"San Rafael"'', which was making a trip from
Tampa, Florida to
Kingston, Jamaica, when 80 miles away from its final destination, it was torpedoed by the
German submarine U-125, causing the command to abandon the ship by the commander. Although the crew of ''San Rafael'' managed to escape the event, it would be remembered by the Dominican press as a sign of the ''infamy of the German submarines and the danger they represented in the Caribbean.''
Recently, due to a research work carried out by the Embassy of the United States of America in Santo Domingo and the
Institute of Dominican Studies of the City of New York (CUNY), documents of the
Department of Defense were discovered in which it was confirmed that around 340 men and women of Dominican origin were part of the US Armed Forces during the World War II. Many of them received medals and other recognitions for their outstanding actions in combat.
Ethiopia
The Ethiopian Empire was
invaded
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
by
Italy on 3 October 1935. On 2 May 1936, Emperor
Haile Selassie I fled into exile, just before the Italian occupation on 7 May. After the outbreak of World War II, the Ethiopian government-in-exile cooperated with the British during the
British Invasion of Italian East Africa beginning in June 1940. Haile Selassie returned to his rule on 18 January 1941. Ethiopia declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan in December 1942.
Greece
Greece was
invaded by Italy on 28 October 1940 and subsequently joined the Allies. The Greek Army managed to stop the Italian offensive from Italy's protectorate of Albania, and Greek forces pushed Italian forces back into Albania. However, after the
German invasion of Greece in April 1941, German forces managed to occupy mainland Greece and, a month later,
the island of Crete. The Greek government
went into exile, while the country was placed under
a puppet government and divided into occupation zones run by Italy, Germany and Bulgaria. From 1941, a strong resistance movement appeared, chiefly in the mountainous interior, where it established a "Free Greece" by mid-1943. Following the Italian capitulation in September 1943, the Italian zone was taken over by the Germans. Axis forces left mainland Greece in October 1944, although some Aegean islands, notably Crete, remained under German occupation until the end of the war.
Luxembourg
Before the war, Luxembourg had pursued a policy of
neutrality and only became an Allied member after
being invaded by Germany on 10 May 1940. The government in exile fled, winding up in England. It made Luxembourgish language broadcasts to the occupied country on
BBC radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
.
In 1944, the government in exile signed
a treaty with the Belgian and Dutch governments, creating the
Benelux
The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: ...
Economic Union and also signed into the
Bretton Woods system
The Bretton Woods system of Monetary system, monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agree ...
.
Mexico
Mexico declared war on Germany in 1942 after German submarines attacked the Mexican oil tankers ''
Potrero del Llano'' and ''
Faja de Oro
SS ''Faja de Oro'' ("Strip of Gold", which is a petroleum rich area in Mexico) was an oil tanker built in 1914. She sailed for a number of companies, and survived service in the First World War, only to be torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine ...
'' that were transporting crude oil to the
United States. These attacks prompted
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Manuel Ávila Camacho to declare war on the Axis powers.
Mexico formed
Escuadrón 201
The 201st Fighter Squadron ( es, Escuadrón Aéreo de Pelea 201) is a fighter squadron of the Mexican Air Force, part of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force that aided the Allied war effort during World War II. The squadron was known by the ...
fighter squadron as part of the
Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana (FAEM—"Mexican Expeditionary Air Force"). The squadron was attached to the
58th Fighter Group of the
United States Army Air Forces and carried out tactical air support missions during the liberation of the main Philippine island of
Luzon in the summer of 1945.
Some 300,000 Mexican citizens went to the United States to work on farms and factories. Some 15,000 U.S. nationals of Mexican origin and Mexican residents in the US enrolled in the US Armed Forces and fought in various fronts around the world.
Netherlands
The Netherlands became an Allied member after being invaded on 10 May 1940 by Germany. During the
ensuing campaign, the Netherlands were defeated and occupied by Germany. The Netherlands was liberated by Canadian, British, American and other allied forces during the campaigns of 1944 and 1945. The
Princess Irene Brigade
During the Second World War, the Royal Netherlands Motorized Infantry Brigade, later known as the Princess Irene Brigade ( nl, Prinses Irene Brigade) was a Dutch military unit initially formed from approximately 1,500 troops, including a small gro ...
, formed from escapees from the German invasion, took part in several actions in 1944 in Arromanches and in 1945 in the Netherlands. Navy vessels saw action in the British Channel, the North Sea and the Mediterranean, generally as part of Royal Navy units. Dutch airmen flying British aircraft participated in the air war over Germany.
Colonies and dependencies
The
Dutch East Indies (modern-day
Indonesia) was the principal Dutch colony in Asia, and was seized by Japan in 1942. During the
Dutch East Indies Campaign
The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–1942 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) by forces from the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Forces from the Allies attempted ...
, the Netherlands played a significant role in the Allied effort to halt the Japanese advance as part of the
American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command. The ABDA fleet finally encountered the Japanese surface fleet at the
Battle of Java Sea, at which Doorman gave the order to engage. During the ensuing battle the ABDA fleet suffered heavy losses, and was mostly destroyed after several naval battles around
Java; the ABDA Command was later dissolved. The Japanese
finally occupied the Dutch East Indies in February–March 1942. Dutch troops, aircraft and escaped ships continued to fight on the Allied side and also mounted a
guerrilla campaign in Timor.
New Zealand
New Zealand was a sovereign Dominion under the
New Zealand monarchy, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931. It quickly entered World War II, officially declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939, just hours after Britain. Unlike Australia, which had felt obligated to declare war, as it also had not ratified the Statute of Westminster, New Zealand did so as a sign of allegiance to Britain, and in recognition of Britain's abandonment of its
former appeasement policy, which New Zealand had long opposed. This led to then Prime Minister
Michael Joseph Savage
Michael Joseph Savage (23 March 1872 – 27 March 1940) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of New Zealand, heading the First Labour Government from 1935 until his death in 1940.
Savage was born in the Colony ...
declaring two days later:
''"With gratitude for the past and confidence in the future we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand. We are only a small and young nation, but we march with a union of hearts and souls to a common destiny."''
Norway
Because of its strategic location for control of the sea lanes in the
North Sea and the
Atlantic, both the Allies and Germany worried about the other side gaining control of the neutral country. Germany ultimately struck first with
Operation Weserübung on 9 April 1940, resulting in the two-month-long
Norwegian Campaign, which ended in a German victory and their war-long
occupation of Norway
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...
.
Units of the Norwegian Armed Forces evacuated from Norway or raised abroad continued participating in the war
from exile.
The Norwegian merchant fleet, then the fourth largest in the world, was organized into
Nortraship to support the Allied cause. Nortraship was the world's largest shipping company, and at its height operated more than 1000 ships.
Norway was neutral when Germany invaded, and it is not clear when Norway became an Allied country. Great Britain, France and
Polish forces in exile supported Norwegian forces against the invaders but without a specific agreement. Norway's cabinet signed a military agreement with Britain on 28 May 1941. This agreement allowed all Norwegian forces in exile to operate under UK command. Norwegian troops in exile should primarily be prepared for the liberation of Norway, but could also be used to defend Britain. At the end of the war German forces in Norway surrendered to British officers on 8 May and
allied troops occupied Norway until 7 June.
[Skodvin, Magne (red.) (1984): ''Norge i krig.'' Bind 7. Oslo: Aschehoug.]
Poland
The
Invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
on 1 September 1939, started the war in Europe, and the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany on 3 September. Poland fielded the third biggest army among the European Allies, after the Soviet Union and United Kingdom, but before France.
Polish Army suffered a series of defeats in the first days of the invasion. The Soviet Union unilaterally considered the flight to Romania of President
Ignacy Mościcki and Marshal
Edward Rydz-Śmigły
Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły (11 March 1886 – 2 December 1941; nom de guerre ''Śmigły, Tarłowski, Adam Zawisza''), also called Edward Śmigły-Rydz, was a Polish politician, statesman, Marshal of Poland and Commander-in-Chief of Poland's ...
on 17 September as evidence of ''
debellatio'' causing the extinction of the Polish state, and consequently declared itself allowed to invade (according to the Soviet position: "to protect") Eastern Poland starting from the same day. However, the
Red Army had invaded the
Second Polish Republic several hours before the Polish president fled to Romania. The Soviets invaded on 17 September at 3 a.m., while president Mościcki crossed the Polish-Romanian border at 21:45 on the same day. The Polish military continued to fight against both the Germans and the Soviets, and the last major battle of the war, the
Battle of Kock, ended at 1 a.m. on 6 October 1939 with the Independent Operational Group "Polesie," a field army, surrendering due to lack of ammunition. The country never officially surrendered to
Nazi Germany, nor to the Soviet Union, primarily because neither of the totalitarian powers requested an official surrender, and continued the war effort under the
Polish government in exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
.
Polish soldiers fought under their own flag but under the command of the British military. They were major contributors to the Allies in the
theatre of war west of Germany and in the theatre of
war east of Germany, with the Soviet Union. The
Polish armed forces in the West created after the fall of Poland played minor roles in the
Battle of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second Wor ...
, and larger ones in the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional It ...
and
North African Campaigns.
[At the ]siege of Tobruk
The siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941, after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from El Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against Allied forces in Libya, during the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World Wa ...
The Soviet Union recognized the London-based government at first. But it broke
diplomatic relations after the
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
of Polish nationals was revealed. In 1943, the Soviet Union organized the
Polish People's Army
The Polish People's Army ( pl, Ludowe Wojsko Polskie , LWP) constituted the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state ( from 1952, the Polish Pe ...
under
Zygmunt Berling
Zygmunt Henryk Berling (27 April 1896 – 11 July 1980) was a Polish general and politician. He fought for the independence of Poland in the early 20th century. Berling was a co-founder and commander of the First Polish Army, which fought on th ...
, around which it constructed the post-war
successor state People's Republic of Poland. The Polish People's Army formed in USSR took part in a number of battles of the Eastern Front, including the
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II.
After the Vistula–O ...
, the closing battle of the European theater of war.
The
Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) es ...
, loyal to the London-based government and the largest underground force in Europe, as well other smaller resistance organizations in occupied Poland provided intelligence to the Allies and led to uncovering of
Nazi war crimes
The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) ordered, organized and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and then in the First and Second World Wars. The most notabl ...
(i.e.,
death camps).
South Africa
South Africa was a sovereign Dominion under the
South African monarchy, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931. South Africa held authority over the mandate of
South-West Africa.
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia entered the war on the Allied side after
the invasion of Axis powers on 6 April 1941. The
Royal Yugoslav Army
The Yugoslav Army ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslovenska vojska, JV, Југословенска војска, ЈВ), commonly the Royal Yugoslav Army, was the land warfare military service branch of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (originally Kingdom of Serbs, ...
was thoroughly defeated in less than two weeks and the country was occupied starting on 18 April. The Italian-backed Croatian fascist leader
Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelić (; 14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and served as dictator of the Independent State of Croatia ( hr, li ...
declared the
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...
before the invasion was over.
King Peter II and much of the Yugoslavian government had left the country. In the
United Kingdom, they joined numerous other governments in exile from Nazi-occupied Europe. Beginning with the
uprising in Herzegovina in June 1941, there was continuous anti-Axis resistance in Yugoslavia until the end of the war.
Resistance factions
Before the end of 1941, the anti-Axis resistance movement split between the royalist
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav royali ...
and the communist
Yugoslav Partisans
The Yugoslav Partisans, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобо� ...
of
Josip Broz Tito who fought both against each other during the war and against the occupying forces. The Yugoslav Partisans managed to put up considerable resistance to the Axis occupation, forming various liberated territories during the war. In August 1943, there were over 30 Axis divisions on the territory of Yugoslavia, not including the forces of the
Croatian puppet state and other quisling formations. In 1944, the leading Allied powers persuaded Tito's Yugoslav Partisans and the royalist Yugoslav government led by Prime Minister
Ivan Šubašić
Ivan Šubašić (; 7 May 1892 – 22 March 1955) was a Yugoslav Croat politician, best known as the last Ban of Croatia and prime minister of the royalist Yugoslav Government in exile during the Second World War.
Early life
He was born in Vuko ...
to sign the
Treaty of Vis that created the
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia.
=Partisans
=
The Partisans were a major Yugoslav resistance movement against the Axis occupation and partition of Yugoslavia. Initially, the Partisans were in rivalry with the Chetniks over control of the resistance movement. However, the Partisans were recognized by both the Eastern and Western Allies as the primary resistance movement in 1943. After that, their strength increased rapidly, from 100,000 at the beginning of 1943 to over 648,000 in September 1944. In 1945 they were transformed into the
Yugoslav army
The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska a ...
, organized in four field armies with 800,000 fighters.
=Chetniks
=
The Chetniks, the short name given to the movement titled the ''Yugoslav Army of the Fatherland'', were initially a major Allied Yugoslav resistance movement. However, due to their royalist and anti-communist views, Chetniks were considered to have begun collaborating with the Axis as a tactical move to focus on destroying their Partisan rivals. The Chetniks presented themselves as a Yugoslav movement, but were primarily a
Serb movement. They reached their peak in 1943 with 93,000 fighters. Their major contribution was
Operation Halyard
Operation Halyard (or Halyard Mission), known in Serbian as Operation Air Bridge ( sr, Операција Ваздушни мост), was an Allied airlift operation behind Axis lines during World War II. In July 1944, the Office of Strategic S ...
in 1944. In collaboration with the
OSS
OSS or Oss may refer to:
Places
* Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands
* Osh Airport, IATA code OSS
People with the name
* Oss (surname), a surname
Arts and entertainment
* ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...
, 413 Allied airmen shot down over Yugoslavia were rescued and evacuated.
Client and occupied states
British
Egypt
The
Kingdom of Egypt
The Kingdom of Egypt ( ar, المملكة المصرية, Al-Mamlaka Al-Miṣreyya, The Egyptian Kingdom) was the legal form of the Egyptian state during the latter period of the Muhammad Ali dynasty's reign, from the United Kingdom's recog ...
was nominally sovereign since 1922 but effectively remained in the British sphere of influence; the
British Mediterranean Fleet
The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between ...
was stationed in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
while British Army forces were based in the Suez Canal zone. Egypt was a neutral country for most of World War II, but the
Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 permitted British forces in Egypt to defend the
Suez Canal. The United Kingdom controlled Egypt and used it as a major base for Allied operations throughout the region, especially the battles in North Africa against Italy and Germany. Its highest priorities were control of the Eastern Mediterranean, and especially keeping the Suez Canal open for merchant ships and for military connections with India and Australia.
Egypt faced an Axis campaign led by Italian and German forces during the war. British frustration over
King Farouk
Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 193 ...
's reign over Egypt resulted in the
Abdeen Palace incident of 1942
The Abdeen Palace Incident was a military confrontation that took place on 4 February 1942 at Abdeen Palace in Cairo, and almost resulted in the forced abdication of King Farouk I. It is considered a landmark in the history of Egypt.
Following a ...
where British Army forces surrounded the royal palace and demanded a new government be established, nearly forcing the abdication of Farouk until he submitted to British demands. The Kingdom of Egypt joined the United Nations on 24 February 1945.
India (British Raj)
At the outbreak of World War II, the
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...
numbered 205,000 men. Later during World War II, the Indian Army became the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 2.5 million men in size. These forces included tank, artillery and airborne forces.
Indian soldiers earned 30 Victoria Crosses during the Second World War. During the war, India suffered more civilian casualties than the United Kingdom, with the
Bengal famine of 1943
The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 0.8 to 3.8 million Bengalis perished, out of a population of 60.3 milli ...
estimated to have killed at least 23 million people. In addition, India suffered 87,000 military casualties, more than any Crown colony but fewer than the United Kingdom, which suffered 382,000 military casualties.
Burma
Burma was a British colony at the start of World War II. It was later invaded by Japanese forces and that contributed to the Bengal Famine of 1943. For the native Burmese, it was an uprising against colonial rule, so some fought on the Japanese's side, but most minorities fought on the Allies side. Burma also contributed resources such as rice and rubber.
Soviet sphere
Bulgaria
After a period of neutrality,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...
joined the Axis powers from 1941 to 1944. The Orthodox Church and others convinced King Boris to not allow the Bulgarian Jews to be exported to concentration camps. The king died shortly afterwards, suspected of being poisoned after a visit to Germany. Bulgaria abandoned the Axis and joined the Allies when the Soviet Union invaded, offering no resistance to the incoming forces. Bulgarian troops then fought alongside Soviet Army in Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria. In the 1947 peace treaties, Bulgaria gained a small area near the Black Sea from Romania, making it the only former German ally to gain territory from WWII.
Central Asian and Caucasian Republics
Among the Soviet forces during World War II, millions of troops were from the
Soviet Central Asian Republics. They included 1,433,230 soldiers from
Uzbekistan, more than 1million from
Kazakhstan, and more than 700,000 from
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
, among other Central Asian Republics.
Mongolia
Mongolia fought against Japan during the
Battles of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 and the
Soviet–Japanese War in August 1945 to protect its independence and to liberate
Southern Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
from Japan and China. Mongolia had been in the Soviet sphere of influence since the 1920s.
Poland
By 1944, Poland entered the Soviet sphere of influence with the establishment of
Władysław Gomułka's communist regime. Polish forces fought alongside Soviet forces against Germany.
Romania
Romania had initially been a member of the Axis powers but switched allegiance upon facing invasion by the
Soviet Union. In a radio broadcast to the Romanian people and army on the night of 23 August 1944
King Michael issued a cease-fire,
proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies, announced the acceptance of an armistice (to be signed on 12 September) offered by the
Soviet Union, the
United Kingdom, the
United States, and declared war on Germany. The coup accelerated the
Red Army's advance into Romania, but did not avert a rapid Soviet occupation and capture of about 130,000 Romanian soldiers, who were transported to the Soviet Union where many perished in prison camps.
The armistice was signed three weeks later on 12 September 1944, on terms virtually dictated by the Soviet Union.
Under the terms of the armistice, Romania announced its unconditional surrender to the USSR and was placed under the occupation of the Allied forces with the Soviet Union as their representative, in control of the media, communication, post, and civil administration behind the front.
Romanian troops then fought alongside the Soviet Army until the end of the war, reaching as far as
Slovakia and
Germany.
Tuva
The
Tuvan People's Republic was a partially recognized state founded from the former Tuvan protectorate of Imperial Russia. It was a client state of the Soviet Union and was annexed into the Soviet Union in 1944.
Co-belligerent state combatants
Finland
Following the
Moscow Armistice
The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, with a number of modi ...
of September 1944, Finland fought on the side of the Allies against Axis forces until April 1945 in the
Lapland War
During World War II, the Lapland War ( fi , Lapin sota; sv, Lapplandskriget; german: Lapplandkrieg) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. ...
.
Italy
Italy initially had been a leading member of the Axis powers, however after facing multiple military losses including the loss of
all of Italy's colonies to advancing Allied forces, ''
Duce''
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
was deposed and arrested in July 1943 by order of
King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy in co-operation with members of the
Grand Council of Fascism
The Grand Council of Fascism (, also translated "Fascist Grand Council") was the main body of Benito Mussolini, Mussolini's Italian Fascism, Fascist government in Italy, that held and applied great power to control the institutions of governmen ...
who viewed Mussolini as having led Italy to ruin by allying with Germany in the war. Victor Emmanuel III dismantled the remaining apparatus of the
Fascist regime and appointed
Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio as
Prime Minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...
. On 8 September 1943, Italy signed the
Armistice of Cassibile
The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II.
It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brig ...
with the Allies, ending Italy's war with the Allies and ending Italy's participation with the Axis powers. Expecting immediate German retaliation, Victor Emmanuel III and the Italian government relocated to southern Italy under Allied control. Germany viewed the Italian government's actions as an act of betrayal, and German forces immediately occupied all Italian territories outside of Allied control, in some cases even
massacring Italian troops.
Italy became a co-belligerent of the Allies, and the
Italian Co-Belligerent Army was created to fight against the German occupation of Northern Italy, where German paratroopers
rescued Mussolini from arrest and he was placed in charge of a German puppet state known as the
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...
(RSI). Italy
descended into civil war until the end of hostilities after his deposition and arrest, with Fascists loyal to him allying with German forces and helping them against the Italian armistice government and
partisans.
Legacy
Charter of the United Nations
The
Declaration by United Nations
The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during the Arcadia Conference, the Allied "Four Policemen, Big Fo ...
on 1 January 1942, signed by the
Four Policemen – the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China – and 22 other nations laid the groundwork for the future of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
.
At the
Potsdam Conference of July–August 1945, Roosevelt's successor,
Harry S. Truman, proposed that the foreign ministers of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States "should draft the peace treaties and boundary settlements of Europe", which led to the creation of the
Council of Foreign Ministers
Council of Foreign Ministers was an organisation agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 and announced in the Potsdam Agreement and dissolved upon the entry into force of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1991.
Th ...
of the "Big Five", and soon thereafter the establishment of those states as the
permanent members of the UNSC.
The Charter of the United Nations was agreed to during the war at the
United Nations Conference on International Organization, held between April and July 1945. The Charter was signed by 50 states on 26 June (Poland had its place reserved and later became the 51st "original" signatory), and was
formally ratified shortly after the war on 24 October 1945. In 1944, the United Nations was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and China at the
Dumbarton Oaks Conference where the formation and the
permanent seats (for the "Big Five", China, France, the UK, US, and USSR) of the
United Nations Security Council were decided. The Security Council met for the first time in the immediate aftermath of war on 17 January 1946.
[United Nations Security Council: Official Records: First Year, First Series, First Meeting]
These are the original 51 signatories (UNSC permanent members are asterisked):
*
Argentine Republic
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
*
Commonwealth of Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
*
Kingdom of Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to t ...
*
Republic of Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
*
United States of Brazil
The First Brazilian Republic, also referred to as the Old Republic ( pt, República Velha ), officially the Republic of the United States of Brazil, refers to the period of Brazilian history from 1889 to 1930. The Old Republic began with the de ...
*
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
*
Dominion of Canada
*
Republic of Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east ...
*
Republic of China*
*
Republic of Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
*
Republic of Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
*
Republic of Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean ...
*
Czechoslovak Republic
Czechoslovak Republic (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá republika, ČSR''), was the official name of Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1939 and between 1945 and 1960. See:
*First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)
*Second Czechoslovak Republic ...
*
Kingdom of Denmark
*
Dominican Republic
*
Republic of Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Ekua ...
*
Kingdom of Egypt
The Kingdom of Egypt ( ar, المملكة المصرية, Al-Mamlaka Al-Miṣreyya, The Egyptian Kingdom) was the legal form of the Egyptian state during the latter period of the Muhammad Ali dynasty's reign, from the United Kingdom's recog ...
*
Republic of El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...
*
Ethiopian Empire
*
French Republic
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area e ...
*
*
Kingdom of Greece
*
Republic of Guatemala
*
Republic of Haiti
*
Republic of Honduras
*
Indian Empire
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himse ...
*
Imperial Kingdom of Iran
*
Kingdom of Iraq
The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq ( ar, المملكة العراقية الهاشمية, translit=al-Mamlakah al-ʿIrāqiyyah ʾal-Hāshimyyah) was a state located in the Middle East from 1932 to 1958.
It was founded on 23 August 1921 as the Kingdo ...
*
Lebanese Republic
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...
*
Republic of Liberia
*
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
*
United Mexican States
*
Kingdom of the Netherlands
*
Dominion of New Zealand
*
Republic of Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to ...
*
Kingdom of Norway
*
Republic of Panama
*
Republic of Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
*
Republic of Peru
*
Commonwealth of the Philippines
The Commonwealth of the Philippines ( es, Commonwealth de Filipinas or ; tl, Komonwelt ng Pilipinas) was the administrative body that governed the Philippines from 1935 to 1946, aside from a Government in exile of the Commonwealth of the Phil ...
*
Republic of Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populo ...
*
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Arab ...
*
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Tra ...
*
Syrian Republic
*
Republic of Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
*
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
*
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics*
*
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland*
*
United States of America*
*
Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
*
United States of Venezuela
The United States of Venezuela ( es, Estados Unidos de Venezuela) was the official name of Venezuela, adopted in its 1864 constitution under the Juan Crisóstomo Falcón government. This remained the official name until 1953, when the constitutio ...
*
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia
Cold War
Despite the successful creation of the United Nations, the alliance of the Soviet Union with the United States and
with the United Kingdom ultimately broke down and evolved into the
Cold War, which took place over the following half-century.
Summary table
Timeline of allied nations entering the war
The following list denotes dates on which states declared war on the Axis powers, or on which an Axis power declared war on them. The
Indian Empire
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himse ...
had a status less independent than the Dominions.
1939
*
Poland: 1 September 1939
*
France: 3 September 1939
—On 22 June 1940,
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
under
Marshal Pétain formally capitulated to Germany, and became neutral. This capitulation was denounced by
General de Gaulle, who established the
Free France government-in-exile, which continued to fight against Germany. This led to the
Provisional Government of the French Republic, which was officially recognized by the other Allies as the legitimate government of France on 23 October 1944. Pétain's 1940 surrender was also legally nullified, so France is considered an Ally throughout the war.
*
United Kingdom: 3 September 1939
**
India: 3 September 1939
*
Australia: 3 September 1939
*
New Zealand: 3 September 1939
*
Nepal: 4 September 1939
*
South Africa: 6 September 1939
*
Canada: 10 September 1939
*
Sultanate of Muscat and Oman
The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman ( ar, سلطنة مسقط وعمان, Salṭanat Masqaṭ wa-‘Umān), also known briefly as the State of Muscat and Oman () during the rule of Taimur bin Feisal, was a sovereign state that encompassed the prese ...
: 10 September 1939
1940
*
Norway: 8 April 1940
—German invasion of a neutral country without declaration of war. The Allies supported Norway during the
Norwegian Campaign. Norway did not officially join the Allies until later.
[Tamelander, M. og N. Zetterling (2001): ''9. April.'' Oslo: Spartacus.]
*
Denmark 9 April 1940—German invasion without declaration of war
*
Belgium: 10 May 1940
*
Luxembourg: 10 May 1940
*
Netherlands: 10 May 1940
*
Greece: 28 October 1940
1941
*
Yugoslavia: 6 April 1941 (Yugoslavia signed the
Tripartite Pact, becoming a nominal member of the Axis on 25 March; but was attacked by the Axis on 6 April 1941.)
*
Soviet Union: 22 June 1941; Despite membership of the Soviet Union,
Ukraine and
Belarus were recognized as separate fighting states by the United Kingdom and the United States at the end of the war.
*
Panama: 7 December 1941
*
United States: 8 December 1941 (war declared on Japan)
**
Philippines: 8 December 1941
*
Costa Rica: 8 December 1941
*
Dominican Republic: 8 December 1941
*
El Salvador: 8 December 1941
*
Haiti: 8 December 1941
*
Honduras: 8 December 1941
*
Nicaragua: 8 December 1941
*
China: 9 December 1941
(at war with Japan since 1937)
*
Cuba: 9 December 1941
*
Guatemala: 9 December 1941
*
United States: 11 December 1941 (war declared on the U.S. by Germany and Italy)
Provisional governments or governments-in exile that declared war against the Axis in 1941:
* Vietnam (
Viet Minh): 7 December 1941
*
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea: 10 December 1941
*
Czechoslovakia (government-in-exile): 16 December 1941
1942
*
Mexico: 22 May 1942
*
Brazil: 22 August 1942
*
Ethiopia: 14 December 1942
1943
*
Iraq: 16 January 1943
—former Axis power
*
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
: 7 April 1943
*
Colombia: 26 July 1943
*
Iran: 9 September 1943
*
Italy: 10 October 1943
—former Axis power;
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...
was founded in September 1943 and continued on the Axis side
1944
*
Liberia: 27 January 1944
*
Romania: 25 August 1944
—former Axis power
*
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...
: 8 September 1944—former Axis power
*
Finland: 19 September 1944—former co-belligerent on the Axis side
1945
*
Ecuador: 2 February 1945
*
Paraguay: 7 February 1945
*
Peru: 12 February 1945
*
Uruguay: 15 February 1945
*
Venezuela: 15 February 1945
*
Turkey: 23 February 1945
*
Egypt: 24 February 1945
*
Syria: 26 February 1945
*
Lebanon: 27 February 1945
*
Saudi Arabia: 1 March 1945
*
Finland: 3 March 1945
—former co-belligerent of Germany in the
Continuation War. On 3 March 1945, Finland retroactively declared war on Germany from 15 September 1944.
*
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
: 27 March 1945
[Decree 6945/45]
*
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
: 11 April 1945 declared war on Japan
*
Mongolia: August 1945 declared war on Japan
See also
*
Allied leaders of World War II
The Allied leaders of World War II listed below comprise the important political and military figures who fought for or supported the Allies during World War II. Engaged in total war, they had to adapt to new types of modern warfare, on the mi ...
*
Allied war crimes during World War II
Allied war crimes include both alleged and legally proven violations of the laws of war by the Allies of World War II against either civilians or military personnel of the Axis powers. At the end of World War II, many trials of Axis war criminal ...
*
Free World (World War II)
*
Military production during World War II
Military production during World War II was the arms, ammunition, personnel and financing which were produced or mobilized by the belligerents of the war from the occupation of Austria in early 1938 to the surrender and occupation of Japan in ...
*
Participants in World War II
500px, , thumb
Almost every country in the world participated in World War II. Most were neutral at the beginning, but only a relatively few nations remained neutral to the end. The Second World War pitted two alliances against each other, the ...
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
Davies, Norman (2006), ''
Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory''. London: Macmillan.
* Dear, Ian C. B. and Michael Foot, eds. ''The Oxford Companion to World War II'' (2005), comprehensive encyclopedia for all countries
* Holland R. (1981), ''Britain and the Commonwealth alliance, 1918–1939'', London: Macmillan.
* Leonard, T. M. (2007). ''Latin America during World War II''. Lanham Md: Rowman & Littlefield.
*
Overy, Richard (1997), ''Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945''. New York: Penguin. .
* Smith, Gaddis. ''American Diplomacy During the Second World War, 1941–1945'' (1965
online* Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1994). ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II''. Comprehensive coverage of the war with emphasis on diplomac
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Further reading
* Omnibus o
Volume I: ''The European Theater'' and Volume II: ''The Asian Theater''.
External links
The Atlantic Conference: Resolution of 24 September 1941
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20th-century military alliances
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Politics of World War II
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