Allies of World War 2

Allies of World War IIUnited NationsMilitary alliance

19391945

Allied Powers Allies entering after the Attack on PearlHarbor Axis Powers Neutral Powers

Allies (combatant states): United States Soviet Union United Kingdom China France Poland India Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa Norway Yugoslavia Greece Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg Czechoslovakia Mexico Brazil Cuba Philippines Mongolia

Capital Not specifiedPolitical structure Military allianceHistorical era World War II - Established 1939 - Disestablished 1945

Allies of World War IIFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Allies of World War II, called the United Nationsfrom the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries thatopposed the Axis powers together during the Second WorldWar (19391945). The Allies promoted the alliance asseeking to stop German, Japanese and Italian aggression.

The anti-German coalition at the start of the war (1September 1939) consisted of France, Poland and GreatBritain, soon to be joined by the British Commonwealth(Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.)[1] Afterfirst having cooperated with Germany in partitioning Polandwhilst remaining neutral in the Allied-Axis conflict, theSoviet Union joined the Allies in June 1941 after beinginvaded by Germany and its allies in Operation Barbarossa.The United States joined in December 1941 after theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As of 1942, the "Big Three"leaders of Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United Statescontrolled Allied policy; relations between Britain and theU.S. were especially close, the latter replacing France asBritain's prime partner after the Entente Cordiale dissolvedin the aftermath of the Fall of France, despite last ditchefforts to save it by turning it into a fully fledged Franco-British Union. China was already at war with Japan since1937 but officially joined the Allies in 1941. The Big Threeand China were referred as a "trusteeship of the powerful",[2]then were recognized as the Allied "Big Four" in Declarationby United Nations[3] and later the "Four Policemen" of"United Nations" for the Allies. Other key Allies includedBritish India, the Netherlands, Norway and Yugoslavia aswell as Free France; there were numerous others. Togetherthey called themselves the "United Nations" (and in 1945created the modern UN).[4]

Contents1 Origins and creation2 Major affiliated state combatants

2.1 Britain2.2 China2.3 France2.4 Soviet Union2.5 United States

3 Minor affiliated state combatants3.1 Australia

3.2 Belgium

3.2 Belgium3.3 Brazil3.4 Canada3.5 Cuba3.6 Czechoslovakia3.7 Greece3.8 Luxembourg3.9 Mexico3.10 Netherlands3.11 New Zealand3.12 Norway3.13 Poland3.14 South Africa3.15 Yugoslavia

4 Client states4.1 British4.2 Chinese4.3 Soviet

5 Co-belligerent state combatants5.1 Italy

6 Associated power6.1 Albania

7 United Nations7.1 Declaration by United Nations7.2 Alliance growing7.3 Charter of the United Nations

8 Timeline of nations entering war on the AxisPowers

8.1 19398.2 19408.3 19418.4 19428.5 19438.6 19448.7 1945

9 See also10 Footnotes11 Bibliography12 External links

Origins and creationThe origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I and cooperation of the victoriouspowers at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Germany deeply resented being forced to sign the Treaty ofVersailles. The new Weimar republic's legitimacy became shaken. However the 1920s were peaceful.

With the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, political unrest in Europe soaredincluding the rise in support of revanchist nationalists in Germany who blamed the severity of the economiccrisis on the Treaty of Versailles. By the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became thedominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi

Poland first to fight British wartime postersupporting Poland after theGerman invasion, 1939

regime demanded the immediate cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles, and made claims to German-populated Austria, and German-populated territories of Czechoslovakia. The likelihood of war was high, andthe question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement.

In Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression againstChina. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933. After four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemnedJapan's actions and initiated sanctions on Japan. The United States in particular was angered at Japan andsought to support China.

In March 1939, Germany annexed Czechoslovakia, violating the MunichAgreement signed six months before, and demonstrating that theappeasement policy was a failure. Britain and France decided that Hitler hadno intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparingfor war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish militaryalliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country. Also, the Frenchhad a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Western powersalso sought an alliance with the Soviet Union, but Hitler ended the risk of awar with Stalin by signing the NaziSoviet non-aggression pact in August1939. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of easternEurope between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for theGerman war machine. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland; twodays later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then on 17September 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. A Polishgovernment-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, amodel followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germanyin April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium,Holland and France. Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler andMussolini. In June 1941, Hitler broke the non-aggression agreement withStalin and Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In December, Japan attackedthe US and Britain. The main lines of World War II had formed.

Major affiliated state combatantsDuring December 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt devised the name "United Nations" for theAllies. He referred to the Big Three and China as a "trusteeship of the powerful", and then later the "FourPolicemen".[2] The Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942 was the basis of the modern UnitedNations (UN).[5] At the Potsdam Conference of JulyAugust 1945, Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman,proposed that the foreign ministers of China, France, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the UnitedStates "should draft the peace treaties and boundary settlements of Europe", which led to the creation of theCouncil of Foreign Ministers of the "Big Five", and soon thereafter the establishment of those states as thepermanent members of the UNSC.[6]

BritainWar declared

British Supermarine Spitfire fighteraircraft (left) flying past a GermanHeinkel He-111 bomber aircraft(right) during the Battle of Britain

British tanks during the North AfricanCampaign

British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royalunder attack from Italian aircraftduring the Battle of Cape Spartivento.

Great Britain and other members of the British Commonwealth, most known as the Dominions, declaredwar on Germany separately from 3 September 1939 with the UK first, all within one week of each other;these countries were Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.

Colonies and dependencies

In Africa

British West Africa and the British colonies in East and SouthernAfrica participated, mainly in the North African, East African andMiddle-Eastern theatres. Two West African and one East Africandivision served in the Burma Campaign.

Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing colony, having receivedresponsible government in 1923. It was not a sovereign dominion. Itgoverned itself internally and controlled its own armed forces, buthad no diplomatic autonomy, and therefore was officially at war assoon as Britain was at war. The Southern Rhodesian colonialgovernment issued a symbolic declaration of war nevertheless on 3September 1939, which made no difference diplomatically, butpreceded the declarations of war made by all other British dominionsand colonies.[7]

In the Americas

These included: the British West Indies, British Honduras, BritishGuiana and the Falkland Islands.

Newfoundland was ruled as a royal colony 1933-49, with a governorappointed by London who made the decisions.

In Asia

British India included the areas and peoples covered by later India,Bangladesh, Pakistan and Burma/Myanmar.

British Malaya covers the area of today Peninsular Malaysia whileBritish Borneo covers the area of Brunei, including Sabah andSarawak of Malaysia.

Territories controlled by the Colonial Office, namely the CrownColonies, were controlled politically by the UK and therefore alsoentered hostilities with Britain's declaration of war. At the outbreakof World War II, the British Indian army 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.[10]These forces included tank, artillery and airborne forces. Indiansoldiers earned 30 Victoria Crosses during the Second World War. It suffered 1,500,000 civilian casualties

British soldiers in Northwest Europe,1944 or 1945

Chiang Kai-shek (first row, secondfrom left side), Mao Zedong (firstrow, third from left), United Statesambassador Patrick J. Hurley (firstrow, first on left), 1945.

(more than the United Kingdom), mainly from the Bengal famine of 1943 caused by the fall of Burma to theJapanese[8] and the transfer of food to the war effort, and 87,000 military casualties (more than any Crowncolony but fewer than the United Kingdom). The UK suffered 382,000 military casualties.

Protectorates included: the Kuwait was a protectorate of the UnitedKingdom formally established in 1920. The Trucial states wereprotectorates in the Persian Gulf.

Palestine was a mandate dependency created in the peace agreementsafter World War I from former territory of the Ottoman Empire. Iraq

In Europe

The Cyprus Regiment was formed by the British Government duringthe Second World War and made part of the British Army structure.It was mostly Greek Cypriots volunteers and Turkish speakingCypriot inhabitants of Cyprus but also included otherCommonwealth nationalities. On a brief visit to Cyprus in 1943,Winston Churchill praised the "soldiers of the Cyprus Regiment whohave 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 verystart and served at Dunkirk, in the Greek Campaign (Battle of Greece) (about 600 soldiers were captured inKalamata in 1941), North Africa (Operation Compass), France, the Middle East and Italy. Many soldierswere taken prisoner especially at the beginning of the war and were interned in various POW camps (Stalag)including Lamsdorf (Stalag VIII-B), Stalag IVC at Wistritz bei Teplitz and Stalag 4b near Most in the CzechRepublic. The soldiers captured in Kalamata were transported by train to prisoner of war camps.

ChinaIn the 1920s the Soviet Union provided military assistance toKuomintang, or the Nationalists and helped reorganize their partyalong Leninist lines: a unification of party, state, and army. Inexchange the Nationalists agreed to let members of the ChineseCommunist Party join the Nationalists on an individual basis.However, following the nominal unification of China at the end ofthe Northern Expedition in 1928, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shekpurged leftists from his party and fought against the revoltingChinese Communist Party, former warlords, and other militaristfactions. A fragmented China provided easy opportunities for Japanto gain territories piece by piece without engaging in total war.Following the 1931 Mukden Incident, the puppet state of Manchukuowas established. Throughout the early to mid-1930s, Chiang's anti-communist and anti-militarist campaigns continued while he foughtsmall, incessant conflicts against Japan, usually followed byunfavorable settlements and concessions after military defeats.

In 1936 Chiang was forced to cease his anti-communist military campaigns after his kidnap and release byZhang Xueliang, and reluctantly formed a nominal alliance with the Communists, while the Communistsagreed to fight under the nominal command of the Nationalists against the Japanese. Following the MarcoPolo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, China and Japan became embroiled in a full-scale war. The SovietUnion, wishing to keep China in the fight against Japan, supplied China with military assistance until 1941,

Soldiers of the NationalRevolutionary Armyassociated with NationalistChina, during the Sino-Japanese War.

when it signed a non aggression pact with Japan. Continuous clashes between the Communists andNationalists behind enemy lines cumulated in a major military conflict between these two former allies thateffectively ended their cooperation against the Japanese, and China had been divided between theinternationally recognized Nationalist China under the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and theCommunist 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 NationalistGovernment held close relations with both Germany and Italy. In the early1930s, Sino-German cooperation between the Nationalist Government andGermany in military and industrial matters. Nazi Germany provided thelargest proportion of Chinese arms imports and technical expertise. Relationsbetween the Nationalist Government and Italy during the 1930s varied,however even after the Nationalist Government followed League of Nationssanctions against Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia, the international sanctionsproved unsuccessful, and relations between the Fascist government in Italyand the Nationalist Government in China returned to normal shortlyafterwards.[9] Up until 1936, Mussolini had provided the Nationalists withItalian military air and naval missions to help the Nationalists fight againstJapanese incursions and communist insurgents.[9] Italy also held strongcommercial interests and a strong commercial position in China supportedby the Italian concession in Tianjin.[9] However, after 1936 the relationshipbetween the Nationalist Government and Italy changed due to a Japanesediplomatic proposal to recognize the Italian Empire that included occupiedEthiopia within it in exchange for Italian recognition of Manchukuo, Italian Foreign Minister GaleazzoCiano accepted this offer by Japan, and on 23 October 1936 Japan recognized the Italian Empire and Italyrecognized Manchukuo, as well as discussing increasing commercial links between Italy and Japan.[10]

The Nationalist Government held close relations with the United States. The United States opposed Japan'sinvasion of China in 1937 that it considered an illegal violation of China's sovereignty, and offered theNationalist Government diplomatic, economic, and military assistance during its war against Japan. Inparticular, the United States sought to bring the Japanese war effort to a complete halt by imposing a fullembargo on all trade between the United States to Japan, Japan was dependent on the United States for 80percent of its petroleum, resulting in an economic and military crisis for Japan that could not continue itswar effort with China without access to petroleum.[11] In November 1940, American military aviator ClaireLee Chennault upon observing the dire situation in the air war between China and Japan, set out to organizea volunteer squadron of American fighter pilots to fight alongside the Chinese against Japan, known as theFlying Tigers.[12] US President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted dispatching them to China in early 1941.[12]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 Communist Party ofChina and inclusion of Communists in the government.[13] The Soviet Union also urged military andcooperation between Nationalist China and Communist China during the war.[13]

Soldiers of the First Workers' andPeasants' Army associated withCommunist China, during the Sino-Japanese War.

Even though the Republic of China had been fighting the longest among all the Allied powers, it onlyofficially joined the Allies after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941. China fought the JapaneseEmpire before joining the Allies In the Pacific War. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek thought Allied victorywas assured with the entrance of the United States into the war, and he declared war on Germany and theother Axis nations. However, Allied aid remained low because the Burma Road was closed and the Alliessuffered a series of military defeats against Japan early on in the campaign. General Sun Li-jen led theR.O.C. forces to the relief of 7,000 British forces trapped by the Japanese in the Battle of Yenangyaung. Hethen reconquered North Burma and re-established the land route to China by the Ledo Road. But the bulk ofmilitary aid did not arrive until the spring of 1945. More than 1.5 million Japanese troops were trapped inthe China Theatre, troops that otherwise could have been deployed elsewhere if China had collapsed andmade a separate peace.

Communists

Communist China had been tacitly supported by the Soviet Unionsince the 1920s, though the Soviet Union diplomatically recognisedthe Republic of China, Joseph Stalin supported cooperation betweenthe Nationalists and the Communistsincluding pressuring theNationalist Government to grant the Communists state and militarypositions in the government.[13] This was continued into the 1930sthat fell in line with the Soviet Union's subversion policy of popularfronts to increase communists' influence in governments.[13] TheSoviet Union urged military and cooperation between Soviet Chinaand Nationalist China during China's war against Japan.[13] InitiallyMao Zedong accepted the demands of the Soviet Union and in 1938had recognized Chiang Kai-Shek as the "leader" of the "Chinesepeople".[14] In turn, the Soviet Union accepted Mao's tactic of"continuous guerilla warfare" in the countryside that involved a goalof extending the Communist bases, even if it would result in increased tensions with the Nationalists.[14]

After the breakdown of their cooperation with the Nationalists in 1941, the Communists prospered and grewas the war against Japan dragged on, building up their sphere of influence wherever opportunities werepresented, mainly through rural mass organizations, administrative, land and tax reform measures favoringpoor peasants; while the Nationalists attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence by militaryblockade and fighting the Japanese at the same time.[15]

The Communist Party's position in China was boosted further upon the Soviet invasion of Manchuria inAugust 1945 against the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and the Japanese Kwantung Army in Chinaand Manchuria. Upon the intervention of the Soviet Union against Japan in World War II in 1945, MaoZedong in April and May 1945 had planned to mobilize 150,000 to 250,000 soldiers from across China towork with forces of the Soviet Union in capturing Manchuria.[16]

FranceWar declared

After Germany invaded Poland, France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939.[17] In January1940, French Prime Minister douard Daladier made a major speech denouncing the actions of Germany:

Free French forces at the Battle of BirHakeim.

FAFL Free French GC II/5"LaFayette" receiving ex-USAAFCurtiss P-40 fighters at Casablanca,French Morocco.

The French fleet scuttled itself ratherthan fall into the hands of the Axisafter their invasion of Vichy Franceon 11 November 1942.

At the end of five months of war, one thing has become moreand more clear. It is that Germany seeks to establish adomination of the world completely different from any knownin world history.

The domination at which the Nazis aim is not limited to thedisplacement of the balance of power and the imposition of thesupremacy of one nation. It seeks the systematic and totaldestruction of those conquered by Hitler and it does not treatywith the nations which it has subdued. He destroys them. Hetakes from them their whole political and economic existenceand seeks even to deprive them of their history and culture. Hewishes only to consider them as vital space and a vacantterritory over which he has every right.

The human beings who constitute these nations are for himonly cattle. He orders their massacre or migration. He compelsthem to make room for their conquerors. He does not even takethe trouble to impose any war tribute on them. He just takes alltheir wealth and, to prevent any revolt, he scientifically seeksthe physical and moral degradation of those whoseindependence he has taken away.[17]

France experienced several major phases of action during World WarII:

The "Phoney War" of 19391940, also called drle de guerrein France, dziwna wojna in Poland (both meaning "StrangeWar"), or the "Sitzkrieg" ("Sitting War") in Germany.

The fall of Damascus to the Allies,late June 1941. A car carrying FreeFrench commanders General GeorgesCatroux and General Paul Louis LeGentilhomme enters the city, escortedby French Circassian cavalry (GardesTcherkess).

The Battle of France in MayJune 1940, which resulted in the defeat of the Allies, the fall of theFrench Third Republic, the German occupation of northern and western France, and the creation of therump state Vichy France, which received diplomatic recognition from the Axis and most neutralcountries including the United States.[18]The period of resistance against the occupation and Franco-French struggle for control of the coloniesbetween the Vichy regime and the Free French, who continued the fight on the Allies' side after theAppeal of 18 June by General Charles de Gaulle, recognized by the United Kingdom as France'sgovernment-in-exile. It culminated in the Allied landings in North Africa on 11 November 1942, whenVichy ceased to exist as an independent entity after having been invaded by both the Axis and theAllies simultaneously, being thereafter only the nominal government in charge during the occupationof France. Vichy forces in French North Africa switched allegiance and merged with the Free Frenchto participate in the campaigns of Tunisia and of Italy campaigns and the invasion of Corsica in 1943-44.The liberation of mainland France beginning with D-Day on 6 June 1944 and operation Overlord, andthen with operation Dragoon on 15 August 1944, leading to the Liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944by the Free French 2e Division Blinde and the installation of the Provisional Government of theFrench Republic in the newly liberated capital.Participation of the re-established provisional French Republic's First Army in the Allied advancefrom Paris to the Rhine and the Western Allied invasion of Germany until V-E Day on 8 May 1945.


In Africa

In Africa these included: French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, the League of Nations mandates ofFrench Cameroun and French Togo, Madagascar, French Somaliland, and the protectorates of FrenchTunisia and French Morocco.

French Algeria was then not a colony or dependency but a fully-fledged part of metropolitan France.

In Asia and Oceania

In Asia these included: French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, NewCaledonia, the New Hebrides, French Indochina, French India, themandates of Greater Lebanon and French Syria. The Frenchgovernment in 1936 attempted to grant independence to its mandateof Syria in the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence of 1936 signedby France and Syria. However opposition to the treaty grew inFrance and the treaty was not ratified. Syria had become an officialrepublic in 1930 and was largely self-governing. In 1941, a British-led invasion supported by Free French forces expelled Vichy Frenchforces in operation Exporter.

In the Americas

In the Americas these included: Martinique, Guadeloupe, FrenchGuiana and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

Soviet UnionWar justifications

Soviet soldiers and T-34 tanksadvance in skirmish near Bryansk in1942.

Soviet soldiers fighting in the ruins ofStalingrad during the Battle ofStalingrad.

Soviet Il-2 ground attack aircraftattacking German ground forcesduring the Battle of Kursk.

General Secretary Joseph Stalin and the government of the Soviet Union justified the Soviet war effort thatresulted from the German invasion of the Soviet Union withOperation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, as a defensive war beingfought by patriotic Soviet people for their survival.[19] Stalin hadsupported popular front movements of anti-fascists includingcommunists and non-communists from 1935 to 1939.[20] Thepopular front strategy was terminated from 1939 to 1941 when theSoviet Union cooperated with Germany in 1939 in the occupationand partitioning of Poland while the Soviet Union refused to endorseeither the Allies or the Axis from 1939 to 1941, as it called theAllied-Axis conflict an "imperialist war".[20] After the invasion ofthe Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin endorsed the Western Allies as partof a renewed popular front strategy against Germany and called forthe international communist movement to make a coalition with allthose who opposed the Nazis.[20]

The Soviet Union intervened against Japan and its client state inManchuria in 1945, cooperating with the Nationalist Government ofChina and Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai Shek; though alsocooperating, preferring, and encouraging the Communist Party led byMao Zedong to take effective control of Manchuria after expellingJapanese forces.[21]

History

In the lead up to the war between the Soviet Union and Germany,relations between the Soviet Union and Germany underwent severalstages. Stalin studied Hitler, including reading Mein Kampf and fromit knew of Hitler's desire to destroy the Soviet Union.[22] In 1933, theSoviet Union had immediate concerns with the threat of a potentialGerman invasion of the country should Germany attempt a conquestof the Baltic states, and in December of that year, Polish-Sovietnegotiations began for the issuing of a joint declaration by the twocountries guaranteeing the sovereignty of the Baltic states.[23]However Poland withdrew from the negotiations following Germanand Finnish objections.[23] The Soviet Union and Germany at thistime competed with each other for influence in Poland.[24] TheSoviet government also was concerned with the anti-Sovietsentiment in Poland and particularly Jzef Pisudski's proposedPolish federation that would include the territories of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine within it thatthreatened the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union.[25]

On 20 August 1939, forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under General Georgy Zhukov,together with the People's Republic of Mongolia eliminated the threat of conflict in the east with a decisivevictory over Japan at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in eastern Mongolia.

American Douglas SBD Dauntlessdive-bomber aircraft attacking theJapanese cruiser Mikuma during theBattle of Midway in June 1942.

On the same day, Soviet party leader Joseph Stalin received a telegram from German Chancellor AdolfHitler, suggesting that German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop fly to Moscow for diplomatictalks. (After receiving a lukewarm response throughout the spring and summer, Stalin abandoned attemptsfor a better diplomatic relationship with France and the United Kingdom.)[26]

On 23 August, Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov signed the non-aggression pactincluding 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 politicalrearrangement".[27]

On 15 September 1939, Stalin concluded a durable ceasefire with Japan, to take effect the following day (itwould be upgraded to a nonaggression pact in April 1941).[28] The day after that, 17 September, Sovietforces invaded Poland from the east. Although some fighting continued until 5 October, the two invadingarmies held at least one joint military parade on 25 September, and reinforced their non-military partnershipwith a GermanSoviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation on 28 September.

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 focussed upon the German invasion of Franceand Norway,[29] the USSR militarily[30] occupied the Baltic states[31] of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania aswell as parts of Romania.

German-Soviet treaties were brought to an end by the German surprise attack on the USSR on 22 June 1941.The Soviet Union soon entered in alliance with the United Kingdom. Following the USSR, a number ofother communist, pro-Soviet or Soviet-controlled forces fought against the Axis powers during the SecondWorld War. They were as follows: the Albanian National Liberation Front, the Chinese Red Army, theGreek National Liberation Front, the Hukbalahap, the Malayan Communist Party, the People's Republic ofMongolia, the Polish People's Army, the Tuvan People's Republic (annexed by Soviet Union in 1944),[32]the Viet Minh and the Yugoslav Partisans.

United StatesWar justifications

The United States had indirectly supported Britain's war effortagainst Germany up to 1941 and declared its opposition to territorialaggrandizement. Material support to Britain was provided while theU.S. was officially neutral via the Lend Lease Act starting in 1941.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister WinstonChurchill in August 1941 promulgated the Atlantic Charter thatpledged commitment to achieving "the final destruction of Nazityranny".[33] Signing the Atlantic Charter, and thereby joining the"United Nations" was the way a nation joined the Allies, and alsobecame eligible for membership in the United Nations world bodythat formed in 1945.

The US strongly supported the Nationalist Government in China in its war with Japan, and provided militaryequipment, supplies, and volunteers to the Nationalist Government of China to assist in its war effort.[34] InDecember 1941 Japan opened the war with its attack on Pearl Harbor, the US declared war on Japan, and

American Marines during theGuadalcanal Campaign in November1942 .

American Consolidated B-24Liberator bomber aircraft during thebombing of oil refineries in Ploieti,Romania on 1 August 1943 duringOperation Tidal Wave.

American soldiers depart landing craftduring the Normandy landings on 6June 1944 known as D-Day, in theBattle of Normandy.

Japan's allies Germany and Italy declared war on the US, bringing the US into World War II.

History

On 8 December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, theUnited States Congress declared war on Japan at the request ofPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was followed by Germany andItaly declaring war on the United States on 11 December, bringingthe country into the European theatre.

The US led Allied forces in the Pacific theatre against Japaneseforces from 1941 to 1945. From 1943 to 1945, the US led andcoordinated the Western Allies' war effort in Europe under theleadership of General Dwight Eisenhower.

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor followed by Japan's swift attackson Allied locations throughout the Pacific, resulted in major USlosses in the first several months in the war, including losing controlof the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and several Aleutian islandsincluding Attu and Kiska to Japanese forces. American naval forcesattained some early successes against Japan. One was the bombing ofJapanese industrial centres in the Doolittle Raid. Another wasrepelling a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby in New Guinea duringthe Battle of the Coral Sea.[35] A major turning point in the PacificWar was the Battle of Midway where American naval forces wereoutnumbered by Japanese forces that had been sent to Midway todraw out and destroy American aircraft carriers in the Pacific andseize control of Midway that would place Japanese forces in closeproximity to Hawaii.[36] However American forces managed to sinkfour of Japan's six large aircraft carriers that had initiated the attackon Pearl Harbor along with other attacks on Allied forces.Afterwards the US began an offensive against Japanese-capturedpositions. The Guadalcanal Campaign from 1942 to 1943 was amajor contention point where American and Japanese forcesstruggled to gain control of Guadalcanal.


In the Americas and the Pacific

The United States held multiple dependencies in the Americas, suchas Alaska, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. VirginIslands.

In the Pacific it held multiple island dependencies such as AmericanSamoa, Guam, Hawaii, Midway Islands, Wake Island and others.These dependencies were directly involved in the Pacific campaignof the war.

In Asia

Members of the Belgian resistancewith a Canadian soldier in Bruges,September 1944 during the Battle ofthe Scheldt.

The Commonwealth of the Philippines was a sovereign protectorate referred to as an "associated state" ofthe United States. The Philippines were occupied by Japanese forces from late 1941 to 1944 who establisheda client regime there during their military occupation.

Minor affiliated state combatantsAustraliaAustralia was a sovereign Dominion under the Australian monarchy, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931.

BelgiumBefore the war, Belgium had pursued a policy of neutrality and onlybecame an Allied member after being invaded by Germany on 10May 1940. During the ensuing fighting, Belgian forces foughtalongside French and British forces against the invaders. While theBritish and French were struggling against the fast German advanceelsewhere on the front, the Belgian forces were pushed into a pocketto the north. Finally on 28 May, the King Leopold III surrenderedhimself and his military to the Germans, having decided the Alliedcause was lost. The legal Belgian government was reformed as agovernment in exile in London. Belgian troops and pilots continuedto fight on the Allied side as the Free Belgian Forces. Belgium itselfwas occupied, but a sizeable Resistance was formed and was looselycoordinated by the government in exile and other Allied powers.

British and Canadian troops arrived in Belgium in September 1944and the capital, Brussels, was liberated on 6 September. Because ofthe Ardennes Offensive, the country was only fully liberated in early 1945.


Belgium had the colony of the Belgian Congo and the League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. TheBelgian Congo was not occupied and remained loyal to the Allies as an important economic asset while itsdeposits of uranium were useful to the Allied efforts to develop the atomic bomb. Troops from the BelgianCongo participated in the East African Campaign against the Italians. The colonial Force Publique alsoserved in other theatres including Madagascar, the Middle-East, India and Burma within British units.

BrazilInitially, Brazil maintained a position of neutrality, trading with both the Allies and the Axis Powers, whileBrazilian president Getlio 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 UnitedStates 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 inNatal, strategically located at the easternmost corner of the South American continent, and on 28 January thecountry severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Japan, and Italy. After that, 36 Brazilian merchant shipswere sunk by the German and Italian navies, which led the Brazilian government to declare war againstGermany and Italy on 22 August 1942.

Brazilian soldiers of the BrazilianExpeditionary Force greet civilians inthe city of Massarosa, Italy,September 1944.

Ludvk Svoboda with Czechoslovaksoldiers of the 1st CzechoslovakArmy Corps on the Eastern Front in1943.

Brazil then sent a 25,700 strong Expeditionary Force to Europe thatfought mainly on the Italian front, from September 1944 to May1945. Also, the Brazilian Navy and Air Force acted in the AtlanticOcean from the middle of 1942 until the end of war. Brazil was theonly South American country to send troops to fight in the Europeantheatre in the Second World War.

CanadaCanada was a sovereign Dominion under the Canadian monarchy, asper the Statute of Westminster 1931. In a symbolic statement ofautonomous foreign policy Prime Minister William Lyon MackenzieKing delayed parliament's vote on a declaration of war for sevendays after Britain had declared war. Canada was the last member ofthe Commonwealth to declare war on Germany on 10 September1939.[37]

CubaBecause of Cuba's geographical position at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, Havana's role as the principaltrading port in the West Indies, and the country's natural resources, Cuba was an important participant in theAmerican 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 in December 1941[38] , making it one of thefirst Latin American countries to enter the conflict, and by the war's end in 1945 its military had developed areputation as being the most efficient and cooperative of all the Caribbean nations.[39] On 15 May 1943, theCuban patrol boat CS-13 sank the German submarine U-176.[40][41]

CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia along with the United Kingdom and Franceattempted to resolve German irredentist claims to the Sudetenlandregion in 1938 with the Munich Agreement, however in March 1939,Czechoslovakia was invaded by Germany and partitioned betweenGermany, Hungary, Poland, and a German client state of Slovakia.The Czechoslovak government-in-exile joined the Allies, theoccupation and partition of Czechoslovakia amongst the Axis powerswas not accepted by the Allied powers. Czechoslovakian militaryunits took part in the war.

GreeceGreece was invaded by Italy on 28 October 1940 and subsequentlyjoined 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 inApril 1941, German forces managed to occupy mainland Greece and, a month later, the island of Crete. TheGreek government went into exile, while the country was placed under a puppet government and dividedinto occupation zones run by Italy, Germany and Bulgaria. From 1942, a strong Resistance movementappeared, chiefly in the mountainous interior, where it established a "Free Greece" by mid-1943. Following

Greek soldiers in March 1941 duringthe Greco-Italian War.

Soldiers from Luxembourg training inBritain, 1943.

the Italian capitulation in September 1943, the Italian zone was taken over by the Germans. Axis forces leftmainland Greece in October 1944, although some Aegean islands, notably Crete, remained under Germanoccupation until the end of the war.

LuxembourgFree Luxembourgish Forces and the Government in Exile

Before the war, Luxembourg had pursued a policy of neutrality andonly became an Allied member after being invaded by Germany on10 May 1940. The Government in Exile first fled to Paris, then afterthe Fall of France, to Lisbon and then the United Kingdom.[42] Whilethe Government established itself in Wilton Crescent in the Belgraviaarea of London, the Grand Duchess and her family moved toFrancophone Montreal in Canada.[42] The government in exile wasvocal in stressing the Luxembourgish cause in newspapers in alliedcountries and succeeded in obtaining Luxembourgish languagebroadcasts to the occupied country on BBC radio.[43] In 1944, thegovernment in exile signed a treaty with the Belgian and Dutchgovernments, creating the Benelux Economic Union and also signedinto the Bretton Woods system.

Luxembourgish military involvement could play only a "symbolicrole" for the allied cause, and numerous Luxembourgers fought inallied armies. From March 1944, Luxembourgish soldiers operatedfour 25 pounder guns, christened Elisabeth, Marie Adelaide, MarieGabriele and Alix after the Grand duchess' daughters, as part of CTroop, 1st Belgian Field Artillery Battery of the 1st Belgian InfantryBrigade, commonly known as the "Brigade Piron" after itscommander Jean-Baptiste Piron.[44] The Troop numbered some 80men.[45] The battery landed in Normandy with the Brigade Piron on6 August 1944[45] and served in the Battle of Normandy and wasinvolved in the Liberation of Brussels in September 1944.[44]

Prince Jean, son of the Grand Duchess and future Grand Duke, served in the Irish Guards from 1942.

MexicoMexico declared war on Germany in 1942 after German submarines attacked the Mexican oil tankersPotrero del Llano and Faja de Oro that were transporting crude oil to the United States. These attacksprompted President Manuel vila Camacho to declare war on the Axis powers.

Mexico formed Escuadrn 201 fighter squadron as part of the Fuerza Area Expedicionaria Mexicana(FAEM"Mexican Expeditionary Air Force"). The squadron was attached to the 58th Fighter Group of theUnited States Army Air Forces and carried out tactical air support missions during the liberation of the mainPhilippine island of Luzon in the summer of 1945.[46]

Some 300,000 Mexican citizens went to the United States to work in factories that produced war suppliesand to help in any way that would benefit the Allies. Around 15,000 US nationals of Mexican origin andMexican residents in the US enrolled in the US Armed Forces and fought in various fronts around theworld.[47]

NetherlandsThe Netherlands became an Allied member after being invaded on 10 May 1940 by Germany. During theensuing campaign, the Netherlands were defeated and occupied by Germany. The Netherlands was liberatedby Canadian, British, American and other allied forces during the campaigns of 1944 and 1945. The PrinsesIrene brigade, formed from escapees from the German invasion, took part in several actions in 1944 inArromances and in 1945 in the Netherlands. Navy vessels saw action in the British Channel, the North Seaand the Mediterranean, generally as part of Royal Navy units. Dutch airmen flying British aircraftparticipated in the air war over Germany.


The Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) was the principal Dutch colony in Asia, and was attacked byJapan in 1942. During the Dutch East Indies Campaign, the Netherlands played a significant role in theAllied 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 whichDoorman gave the order to engage. During the ensuing battle the ABDA fleet suffered heavy losses, and wasmostly destroyed after several naval battles around Java; the ABDA Command was later dissolved. TheJapanese finally occupied the Dutch East Indies in FebruaryMarch 1942. Dutch troops, aircraft and escapedships continued to fight on the Allied side and also mounted a guerrilla campaign in Timor.

New ZealandNew Zealand was a sovereign Dominion under the New Zealand monarchy, as per the Statue of Westminster1931.

NorwayBecause of its strategic location for control of the sea lanes in the North Sea and the Atlantic, both the Alliesand Germany worried about the other side gaining control of the neutral country. Germany ultimately struckfirst with operation Weserbung on 9 April 1940, resulting in the two-month-long Norwegian Campaign,which ended in German victory and their war-long occupation of Norway.

Units of the Norwegian Armed Forces evacuated from Norway or raised abroad continued participating inthe war from exile.

PolandThe invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, started the war in Europe, and the United Kingdom andFrance declared war on Germany on 3 September. Poland fielded the third biggest army[48] among theEuropean Allies, after the Soviet Union and United Kingdom, but before France. The country neverofficially surrendered to the Third Reich, nor to the Soviet Union, primarily because either of the totalitarianpowers did not request an official surrender, and continued the war effort under the Polish government inexile. However, the Soviet Union unilaterally considered the flight to Romania of President Ignacy Mocickiand Marshal Edward Rydz-migy on 17 September as an evidence of debellatio causing the extinction of

Pilots of the No. 303 "Kociuszko"Polish Fighter Squadron during theBattle of Britain.

Polish Home Armyresistance fighters from the"Kiliski" Battalion duringthe Warsaw Uprising.

Polish State, and consequently declared itself allowed to invade (according to Soviet position: "to protect")Eastern Poland starting from the same day.[49] It must be noted that the Red Army had invaded the SecondPolish Republic several hours before Polish president fled to Romania. The Soviets invaded on Sept. 17 at 3a.m.,l [50] while president Mocicki crossed the Polish-Romanian border at 21:45 on the same day.[51] ThePolish military continued to fight, and the last major battle of the war, the battle of Kock, ended at 1 a.m. onOctober 6, 1939 with the Independent Operational Group "Polesie," a field army, surrendering due to lack ofammunition.

Polish soldiers fought under their own flag but under the commandof the British military. They were major contributors to the allies inthe theatre of war west of Germany and in the theatre of war east ofGermany, with the Soviet Union. The Polish armed forces in theWest created after the fall of Poland played minor roles in the Battleof France, and important ones in the Italian and North AfricanCampaigns.[52] The Polish People's Army took part in the Battle ofBerlin, the closing battle of the European theater of war. Theyoccupied the city alongside the Soviet Red Army.

Home Army, the largest underground force in Europe, and otherresistance organizations in occupied Poland provided intelligencethat enabled successful operations later in the war and led to uncovering ofNazi war crimes (i.e., death camps) to the Western Allies. Notable Polishunits fought in every campaign in Europe and North Africa (outside theBalkans). The Soviet Union recognized the London-based government atfirst. But it broke diplomatic relations after the Katyn massacre of Polishnationals was revealed. In 1943, the Soviet Union organized the PolishPeople's Army under Zygmunt Berling, around which it constructed the post-war successor state People's Republic of Poland.

South AfricaSouth Africa was a sovereign Dominion under the South African monarchy,as per the Statue of Westminster 1931. South Africa held authority over themandate of South-West Africa.

YugoslaviaYugoslavia entered the war on the Allied side after invasion by the Axispowers on 6 April 1941. Royal Yugoslav Army was thoroughly defeated in less than two weeks and thecountry was occupied. The Italian-backed Croatian fascist leader Ante Paveli declared the IndependentState of Croatia before the invasion was even over. King Peter II and much of the Yugoslavian governmenthad left the country. In 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-Axisresistance 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 and thecommunist Yugoslav Partisans of Josip Broz Tito who fought both against each other during the war andagainst the occupying forces. The Yugoslav Partisans managed to put up considerable resistance to the Axis

The Partisans and the Chetniks carriedcaptured Germans through Uice,autumn 1941.

Partisan leader Marshal Josip BrozTito with Winston Churchill in 1944.

Chetniks leader General Mihailovicwith the members of the US militarymission, Operation Halyard 1944.

occupation, forming various liberated territories during the war. InAugust 1943, there were over 30 Axis divisions on the territory ofYugoslavia, not including the forces of the Croatian puppet state andother quisling formations.[53] In 1944, the leading Allied powerspersuaded Tito's Yugoslav Partisans and the royalist Yugoslavgovernment led by Prime Minister Ivan ubai to sign the Treaty ofVis that created Democratic Federal Yugoslavia.

Partisans

The Partisans were a major Yugoslav resistance movement againstthe Axis occupation and partition of Yugoslavia. Initially thePartisans were in rivalry with the Chetniks over control of theresistance movement. However the Partisans were recognized byboth the Eastern and Western Allies as the primary resistancemovement in 1943. After that, their strength increased rapidly, from100,000 at the beginning of 1943 to over 648,000 in September1944. In 1945 they were transformed into Yugoslav army, organizedin 4 field armies with 800,000[54] fighters.

Chetniks

The Chetniks, the short name given to the movement titled theYugoslav Army of the Fatherland, were initially a major AlliedYugoslav resistance movement. However, due to their royalist andanti-communist views, Chetniks were considered to have beguncollaborating with the Axis as a tactical move to focus on destroyingtheir Partisan rivals. The Chetniks presented themselves as aYugoslav movement, but were primarily a Serb movement. Theyreached their peak in 1943 with 93,000 fighters.[55] Their majorcontribution was Operation Halyard in 1944. In collaboration withthe OSS, 413 Allied airmen shot down over Yugoslavia were rescuedand evacuated.

Client statesBritishEgypt

The Kingdom of Egypt was nominally an independent state since1922 but effectively remained in a British sphere of influence withthe British Mediterranean fleet being stationed in Alexandria andBritish army forces being stationed in the Suez Canal zone. Egyptfaced an Axis campaign led by Italian and German forces during the war. Frustration by the UK over Egypt'sKing Farouk's rule resulted in the Abdeen Palace Incident of 1942 where British army forces surrounded theAbdeen palace, a residence of King Farouk, demanding a new government be established, that nearly forcedthe abdication of Farouk until he submitted to British demands.

British Raj (India)

Iraq

Iran

ChineseKorea (Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea)

The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea formed in 1919 on China following the occupation ofthe peninsular by the Japanese was not recognized by the major powers. A Korean Liberation Army wasformed in 1941 though it was reliant on the Chinese, was part of Chinese forces and only numbered about1,000 by the end of the war.[56]

SovietBulgaria

Bulgaria had been a member of the Axis powers from 1941 to 1944, but abandoned the Axis and joined theAllies upon facing invasion by the Soviet Union.

Mongolia

Mongolia fought against Japan during Battles of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 and the SovietJapanese War inAugust 1945 to protect its independence and to liberate Southern Mongolia from Japan and China. Mongoliahad been a Soviet sphere of influence since the 1920s.

Poland (Gomuka regime)

By 1944 Poland entered the Soviet sphere of influence with Wadysaw Gomuka forming a communistgovernment. 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 bythe Soviet Union. In a radio broadcast to the Romanian people and army on the night of 23 August 1944King Michael issued a cease-fire,[57] proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies, announced the acceptanceof an armistice (to be signed on September 12)[58] offered by Great Britain, the United States, and theUSSR, and declared war on Germany.[59] The coup accelerated the Red Army's advance into Romania, butdid not avert a rapid Soviet occupation and capture of about 130,000 Romanian soldiers, who weretransported to the Soviet Union where many perished in prison camps. The armistice was signed three weekslater on 12 September 1944, on terms virtually dictated by the Soviet Union.[57] Under the terms of thearmistice, Romania announced its unconditional surrender[60] to the USSR and was placed under occupationof the Allied forces with the Soviet Union as their representative, in control of media, communication, post,and civil administration behind the front.[57]

The dead bodies of Benito Mussolini,his mistress Clara Petacci, and severalFascist leaders, hanging for publicdisplay after they were executed byItalian partisans in 1945.

Tannu Tuva

Tannu Tuva 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 combatantsItalyItaly initially had been a leading member of the Axis powers,however after facing multiple military losses including the loss of allof Italy's colonies to advancing Allied forces, Duce Benito Mussoliniwas deposed and arrested in July 1943 by order of King VictorEmmanuel III of Italy in co-operation with members of the GrandCouncil of Fascism who viewed Mussolini as having led Italy to ruinby allying with Germany in the war. Victor Emmanuel III dismantledthe remaining apparatus of the Fascist regime and appointed FieldMarshal Pietro Badoglio as Prime Minister of Italy. On 8 September1943, Italy signed the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies, endingItaly's war with the Allies and ending Italy's participation with theAxis powers. Expecting immediate German retaliation, VictorEmmanuel III and the Italian government relocated to southern Italyunder Allied control. Germany viewed the Italian government'sactions as an act of betrayal, and German forces immediatelyoccupied all Italian territories outside of Allied control.

Italy became a co-belligerent of the Allies, and the Italian Co-Belligerent Army was created to fight againstthe German occupation of Northern Italy, where German paratroopers rescued Mussolini from arrest and hewas placed in charge of a German puppet state known as the Italian Social Republic (RSI). Italy descendedinto civil war until the end of hostilities after his deposition and arrest, with Fascists loyal to him allyingwith German forces and helping them against the Italian armistice government and partisans.

Associated powerAlbania

Albania was recognized as an "Associated Power" at the 1946 Paris conference [61] and officially signed thetreaty ending WWII between the "Allied and Associated Powers" and Italy in Paris, on February 10,1947.[62][63]

United NationsDeclaration by United NationsThe alliance was formalised in the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942. There were 26signatories:

Wartime poster for the UnitedNations, created in 1942 by theUS Office of War Information,showing the 26 members ofthe alliance

Australia Belgium Canada China Costa Rica Cuba Czechoslovakia Dominican Republic El Salvador Greece Guatemala Haiti Honduras India Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Panama Poland Soviet Union South Africa United Kingdom United States of America Yugoslavia

Wartime poster for the UnitedNations, created in 1943 by theUS Office of War Information

The first version of the flag of theUnited Nations, introduced in April1945

Alliance growingThe United Nations began growing immediately after their formation. In1942, Mexico, the Philippines and Ethiopia adhered to the declaration. TheAfrican nation had been restored in its independence by British forces afterthe Italian defeat on Amba Alagi in 1941, while the Philippines, stilldependent on Washington but granted international diplomatic recognition,was allowed to join on 10 June despite their occupation by Japan.

During 1943, the Declaration was signed by Iraq, Iran, Brazil, Bolivia andColombia. A Tripartite Treaty of Alliance with Britain and USSRformalised Iran's assistance to the Allies.[64] In Rio de Janeiro, Braziliandictator Getlio Vargas was considered near to fascist ideas, butrealistically joined the United Nations after their evident successes.

In 1944, Liberia and France signed. The French situation was veryconfused. Free French forces were recognized only by Britain, while theUnited States considered Vichy France to be the legal government of thecountry until Operation Overlord, while also preparing US occupationfrancs. Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status ofa major Power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944; the PrimeMinister feared that after the war, Britain could remain the sole great Power in Europe facing the Communistthreat, 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 nations by Britishoccupation troops, despite big protests by Ptain before, and De Gaulle after) and Ecuador becamesignatories. Ukraine and Belarus, which were not independent nations but parts of the Soviet Union, wereaccepted as members of the United Nations as way to provide greater influence to Stalin, who had onlyYugoslavia as a communist partner in the alliance.

Charter of the United NationsThe Charter of the United Nations was agreed to during the war atthe United Nations Conference on International Organization, heldbetween April and July 1945. The Charter was signed by 50 nationson 26 June (Poland had its place reserved and later became the 51st"original" signatory), and was formally ratified shortly after the waron 24 October 1945. In 1944, the United Nations was formulated andnegotiated among the delegations from the Soviet Union, the UnitedKingdom, the United States and China at the Dumbarton OaksConference [65][66] where the formation and the permanent seats (forthe "Big Five", China, France, the UK, USA and USSR) of theUnited Nations Security Council were decided. The Security Councilmet for the first time in the immediate aftermath of war on17 January 1946.[67]

These are the original 51 signatories (UNSC permanent members are asterisked):

"The Big Three": Joseph Stalin,Franklin D. Roosevelt and WinstonChurchill meeting at the TehranConference in 1943

The Allied leaders of the Asian andPacific Theater: GeneralissimoChiang Kai-shek, Franklin D.Roosevelt, and Winston Churchillmeeting at the Cairo Conference in1943

ArgentineRepublic

Commonwealthof Australia

Kingdom ofBelgium

Republic ofBolivia

Republic of theUnited States ofBrazil

ByelorussianSoviet SocialistRepublic

Dominion ofCanada

Republic ofChile

Republic ofChina*

Republic ofColombia

Republic ofCosta Rica

Republic ofCuba

CzechoslovakRepublic

Kingdom ofDenmark

Dominican

Imperial Kingdom ofIran

Kingdom of Iraq Lebanese Republic Republic of Liberia Grand Duchy of

Luxembourg United Mexican States Kingdom of the

Netherlands Dominion of New

Zealand Republic of Nicaragua Kingdom of Norway Republic of Panama Republic of Paraguay Republic of Peru Commonwealth of the

Philippines Republic of Poland Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia Union of South Africa Syrian Republic Republic of Turkey Ukrainian Soviet

Socialist Republic Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics* United Kingdom of

Great Britain and Northern

Charles de Gaulle sits down with rivalHenri Giraud (left) after shakinghands with him in the presence ofFranklin Roosevelt and WinstonChurchill at the CasablancaConference, 14 January 1943.

A British poster from 1941,promoting the greater alliance againstGermany.

Republic Republic of

Ecuador Kingdom of

Egypt Republic of El

Salvador Ethiopian

Empire French

Republic* Kingdom of

Greece Republic of

Guatemala Republic of Haiti Republic of

Honduras Indian Empire

Ireland* United States of

America* Oriental Republic of

Uruguay United States of

Venezuela Democratic Federal

Yugoslavia

Timeline of nations entering war on the Axis PowersThe following list denotes dates on which nations declared war on Axis powers, or on which an Axis powerdeclared war on them. Newfoundland was a British Dominion in 193449, while Nepal was formallyindependent. Indian Empire had a status less independent than the Dominions. There was no declaration ofwar by the government of Denmark.

1939

Poland: 1 September 1939[68] France: 3 September 1939[69] Philippe Ptain's

government formally capitulated on 22 June 1940 and theVichy regime was later an Axis supporter. The ProvisionalGovernment of the French Republic was officially recognizedby the Allies as the legitimate government of France on 23October 1944.[70] Ptain's demand of surrender in 1940 wasalso legally nullified, as was the Vichy regime as a whole.[71]

United Kingdom: 3 September 1939[69] Australia: 3 September 1939[72][73] New Zealand: 3 September 1939[73][74] India: 3 September 1939[73][75] Union of South Africa: 6 September[76] Canada: 10 September 1939[76]

Nepal: 4 September 1939[77] sixteen battalions of the Royal Nepalese Army fought Japan on theBurmese front. In addition to that many Nepali citizens fought from British Indian army as Gurkharegiment.

1940

Norway: 8 April 1940[76] Belgium: 10 May 1940 Luxembourg: 10 May 1940 Netherlands: 10 May 1940 Greece: 28 October 1940

1941 Yugoslavia: 6 April 1941 Formally member of Axis from 25 March to 6 April 1941. Soviet Union: 22 June 1941; Despite members 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 thewar.

United States of America: 8 December 1941[78] Commonwealth of the Philippines: 8 December 1941[79]

Panama: 7 December 1941 Costa Rica: 8 December 1941[76] Dominican Republic: 8 December 1941[76] El Salvador: 8 December 1941[76] Haiti: 8 December 1941[76] Honduras: 8 December 1941[76] Nicaragua: 8 December 1941[76] China: 9 December 1941[76] (At war with the Empire of Japan since 1937) Cuba: 9 December 1941[76] Guatemala: 9 December 1941[76] Czechoslovakia (government-in-exile): 16 December 1941[76][80]

1942

Mexico: 22 May 1942[76] Brazil: 22 August 1942[76] Ethiopia: 14 December 1942[76]

1943

Iraq: 16 January 1943[76] Bolivia: 7 April 1943 Colombia: 26 July 1943 Iran: 9 September 1943[76]

1944

Liberia: 27 January 1944[76] Peru: 12 February 1944 Romania: 25 August 1944[76] former Axis power. Bulgaria: 8 September 1944[81] former Axis power.

1945

Hungary: 20 January 1945[76] former Axis power. Ecuador: 2 February 1945 Paraguay: 7 February 1945[76] Uruguay: 15 February 1945 Venezuela: 15 February 1945 Turkey: 23 February 1945[76] Egypt: 24 February 1945[76] Syria: 26 February 1945[76] Lebanon: 27 February 1945[76] Saudi Arabia: 1 March 1945[76] Finland: 3 March 1945[76] former co-belligerent of Germany in the Continuation War. On 3

March 1945, Finland retroactively declared war on Germany from 15 September 1944. Argentina: 27 March 1945 Chile: 11 April 1945 (only declares war on Japan)[76]

See alsoDiplomatic history of World War IIAllies of World War INeutral powers during World War IIParticipants in World War IIFree World (World War II)Military production during World War II

Footnotes

1. Davies 2006, pp 150151.2. Doenecke, Justus D.; Stoler, Mark A. (2005). Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policies, 19331945

(http://books.google.com/books?id=xdMF9rX6mX8C&pg=PA62). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-9416-X.Retrieved 7 September 2009.

3. Hoopes, Townsend, and Douglas Brinkley. FDR and the Creation of the U.N. New Haven: Yale University Press,1997. ISBN 978-0-300-06930-3.

4. Ian C. B. Dear and Michael Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (2005), pp 29, 11765. Douglas Brinkley, FDR & the Making of the U.N.6. Churchill, Winston S. (1981) [1953]. The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy. Houghton-Mifflin

Company. p. 561.7. Wood, J R T (June 2005). So Far And No Further! Rhodesia's Bid For Independence During the Retreat From

Empire 19591965. Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing. pp. 89. ISBN 978-1-4120-4952-8.8. Gordon, Leonard A., Review of Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: The Famine of 19431944 by Greenough,

Paul R., The American Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Oct. 1983), p. 1051 9. G. Bruce Strang. On the fiery march: Mussolini prepares for war. Westport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood

Publishing Group, Inc., 2003. Pp. 5859.10. G. Bruce Strang. On the fiery march: Mussolini prepares for war. Westport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood

Publishing Group, Inc., 2003. Pp. 5960.11. Euan Graham. Japan's sea lane security, 19402004: a matter of life and death? Oxon, England, UK; New York,

New York, USA: Routledge, 2006. Pp. 77.12. 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. 16.13. Frederic J. Fleron, Erik P. Hoffmann, Robbin Frederick Laird. Soviet Foreign Policy: Classic and Contemporary

Issues. Third paperback edition. New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA: Transaction Publishers, 2009. Pp. 236.14. Dieter Heinzig. The Soviet Union and communist China, 19451950: the arduous road to the alliance. M.E. Sharpe,

14. Dieter Heinzig. The Soviet Union and communist China, 19451950: the arduous road to the alliance. M.E. Sharpe,2004. Pp. 9.

15. "Crisis" (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801570-4,00.html). Time. 13 November 1944.16. Dieter Heinzig. The Soviet Union and communist China, 19451950: the arduous road to the alliance. M.E. Sharpe,

2004. Pp. 79.17. Speeches that Reshaped the World.18. "When the US wanted to take over France-Le Monde diplomatique-English edition"

(http://mondediplo.com/2003/05/05lacroix). Le Monde diplomatique. May 2003. Archived(https://web.archive.org/web/20101127123523/http://mondediplo.com/2003/05/05lacroix) from the original on 27November 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2010.

19. Helen Rapport. Joseph Stalin: A Biographical Companion. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, 1999. P.104.

20. Paul Bushkovitch. A Concise History of Russia. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2012. P. 390391.

21. The Soviet Union and Communist China, 19451950: The Road to Alliance. P. 78.22. Kees Boterbloem. A History of Russia and Its Empire: From Mikhail Romanov to Vladimir Putin. P235.23. David L. Ransel, Bozena Shallcross. Polish Encounters, Russian Identity. Indiana University Press, 2005. P184.24. Jan Karski. The Great Powers and Poland: From Versailles to Yalta. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. P197.25. David L. Ransel, Bozena Shallcross. Polish Encounters, Russian Identity. Indiana University Press, 2005. P184.26. Overy 1997, pp 41, 437.27. Davies 2006, pp 14851.28. Davies 2006, pp 16, 154.29. Khudoley, Konstantin K. (2009). "The Baltic factor". In Hiden, John. The Baltic question during the Cold War.

Vahur Made, David J. Smith. Psychology Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-415-37100-1.30. Geoffrey, Roberts (2004). "Ideology, calculation, and improvisation. Sphere of influence and Soviet foreign policy

19391945" (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=E-w9nzoRI3wC&pg=PA88#v=onepage&q&f=false). In Martel,Gordon. The World War Two reader. Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-415-22402-4.

31. Roberts, Geoffrey (1995). "Soviet policy and the Baltic States, 19391940 a reappraisal". Diplomacy & Statecraft(Francis & Taylor) 6 (3): 672700. doi:10.1080/09592299508405982(https://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F09592299508405982).

32. Toomas Alatalu. Tuva. A State Reawakens. Soviet Studies, Vol. 44, No. 5 (1992), pp. 88189533. Frank Freidel (2009). Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny (http://books.google.com/books?

id=fRN2zUV5zNEC&pg=PT350). p. 350.34. Jonathan G. Utley (2005). Going to War with Japan, 1937-1941 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=zCZj934XUK8C). Fordham Univ Press.35. Chris Henry. The Battle of the Coral Sea. London, England, UK: Compendium Publishing; Annapolis, Maryland,

USA: Naval Institute Press, 2003. P. 84.36. Keegan, John. "The Second World War." New York: Penguin, 2005. (275)37. Phillip Alfred Buckner (2008). Canada and the British Empire (http://books.google.com/books?

id=KmXnLGX7FvEC&pg=PA105). Oxford U.P. pp. 1056.38. "Second World War and the Cuban Air Force" (http://www.urrib2000.narod.ru/Mil1-4-e.html). Retrieved 2013-02-06.39. Polmar, Norman; Thomas B. Allen. World War II: The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945.40. Morison, Samuel Eliot (2002). History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: The Atlantic. University

of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252070615.41. "Cubans Sunk a German Submarine in WWII" (http://www.cubanow.net/articles/cubans-sunk-german-submarine-

wwii). Cubanow. Retrieved 2013-02-06.42. Various (2011). Les Gouvernements du Grand-Duch de Luxembourg depuis 1848

(http://www.gouvernement.lu/publications/gouvernement/gouvernements_depuis_1848/Les_gouvernements_depuis_1848.pdf) (PDF). Luxembourg: Government of Luxembourg. pp. 1101. ISBN 978-2-87999-212-9.

43. Various (2011). Les Gouvernements du Grand-Duch de Luxembourg depuis 1848(http://www.gouvernement.lu/publications/gouvernement/gouvernements_depuis_1848/Les_gouvernements_depuis_1848.pdf) (PDF). Luxembourg: Government of Luxembourg. p. 112. ISBN 978-2-87999-212-9.

44. "The 1st Belgian Field Artillery Battery, 19411944" (http://www.be4046.eu/1Aie.htm). Be4046.eu. Retrieved11 May 2013.

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46. Klemen, L. "201st Mexican Fighter Squadron" (http://www.dutcheastindies.webs.com/201squadron.html). TheNetherlands East Indies 19411942.201st Mexican Fighter Squadron

47. Plascencia de la Parra, E. La infantera Invisible:Mexicanos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.Mxico. Ed. UNAM.

47. Plascencia de la Parra, E. La infantera Invisible:Mexicanos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.Mxico. Ed. UNAM.Retrieved 27 April 2012 [1] (http://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=422&f=29)

48. "Military contribution of Poland to World War II Wojsko Polskie Departament Wychowania i PromocjiObronnoci" (http://www.wojsko-polskie.pl/articles/view/2339). Wojsko-polskie.pl. Retrieved 15 May 2010.

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rocznica-sowieckiej-napasci-na-polske,nId,635347)51. Prezydent Ignacy Mocicki cz 3 prof. dr hab. Andrzej Garlicki Uniwersytet Warszawski

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ISBN 0-19-517429-1.55. Borkovi, Milan (1979). Kontrarevolucija u Srbiji Kvislinka uprava 19411944 (Volume 1, in Serbo-Croatian).

Sloboda. p. 9.56. Jongsuk ChayUnequal Partners in Peace and War: The Republic of Korea and the United States p2757. Country Studies: Romania (http://countrystudies.us/romania/23.htm), Chap. 23, Library of Congress58. (Romanian) Delia Radu, "Serialul 'Ion Antonescu i asumarea istoriei' (3)"

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news/story/2008/08/080801_serial_antonescu_episod3.shtml), BBC Romanianedition, August 1, 2008

59. (Romanian) "The Dictatorship Has Ended and along with It All Oppression" - From The Proclamation to TheNation of King Michael I on The Night of August 23 1944 (http://www.curierulnational.ro/Specializat/2004-08-07/Dictatura+a+luat+sfarsit+si+cu+ea+inceteaza+toate+asupririle), Curierul Naional, August 7, 2004

60. "King Proclaims Nation's Surrender and Wish to Help Allies" (http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4081FF93D5B1B7B93C6AB1783D85F408485F9&scp=1), The New York Times, August 24, 1944

61. United States Department of State, Foreign relations of the United States, 1946. Paris Peace Conference : documents(1946), page 802, Article 26.a) 'Memoranda submitted by Albanian Government on the Draft Peace Treaty withItaly' "proposed amendment...For the purposes of this Treaty, Albania shall be considered as an Associated Power.",web http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1946v04/reference/frus.frus1946v04.i0011.pdf

62. Treaties in Force, A List of Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States in Force on January 1,2013", Page 453, accessible online from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/218912.pdf

63. Axelrod, John (5 February 2015). Encylopedia of World War II (https://books.google.de/books?id=LbWFgjW6KX8C&pg=PA824&lpg=PA824&dq=WW2+allied+and+associated+powers+albania&source=bl&ots=ehfHi5vpFh&sig=IZ3bXd3OKFo71jBU3Abay6tt6ao&hl=en&sa=X&ei=h1bSVLe5OoT0UKCdgPAH&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=WW2%20allied%20and%20associated%20powers%20albania&f=false). Volume 1. HW Fowler. p. 824. ISBN 978-1-84511-308-7. "The first peace treaty concluded between the Allies and a former Axisnation was with Italy . It was signed in Paris on February 10 , by representatives from Albania , Australia ...."

64. Motter, T.H. Vail (2000) [1952]. "Chapter I: Experiment in Co-operation"(http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/persian/chapter01.htm#b2). The Persion Corridor and Aid to Russia(http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/persian/index.htm#contents). United States Army in World War II. UnitedStates Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 8-1. Archived(https://web.archive.org/web/20100505141525/http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/persian/index.htm) from theoriginal on 5 May 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2010.

65. Bohlen, C.E. (1973). Witness to History, 19291969. New York. p. 159.66. Video: Allies Study Post-War Security Etc. (1944) (http://www.archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.39024). Universal

Newsreel. 1944. Retrieved November 28, 2014.67. United Nations Security Council: Official Records: First Year, First Series, First Meeting68. Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005) A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (2nd ed.). Cambridge University

Press. pp. 6.69. "1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany"

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70. Ordre de la Libration (http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_doc/1_1_1_1.html)71. [2]

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72. Morgan, Kenneth (2012). Australia: A Very Short Introduction (https://books.google.rs/books?id=gz6BI-

BibliographyDavies, Norman (2006), Europe at War 19391945: No Simple Victory. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-69285-3Dear, Ian C. B. and Michael Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (2005), comprehensiveencyclopedia for all countriesOvery, Richard (1997), Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 19411945. New York: Penguin.ISBN 0-14-027169-4.R. Holland (1981), Britain and the Commonwealth alliance, 19181939, London: Macmillan. ISBN978-0-333-27295-4Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (1994) comprehensivecoverage of the war with emphasis on diplomacy excerpt and text search(http://www.amazon.com/World-Arms-Global-History-War/dp/0521618266/)

External linksChanging Alliances In the International Arena (http://www.uglychinese.org/war.htm#SleepingLion)

72. Morgan, Kenneth (2012). Australia: A Very Short Introduction (https://books.google.rs/books?id=gz6BI-4jl_oC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=%22Fellow+Australians,+it+is+my+melancholy+duty+to+inform+you+officially%22&source=bl&ots=L1MmNrjKUh&sig=OerkA77bDQDr__X38PN87rKGHKQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T6LiVMvVG-PRywPWvIKYCA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22Fellow%20Australians%2C%20it%20is%20my%20melancholy%20duty%20to%20inform%20you%20officially%22&f=false). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 89.ISBN 9780199589937.

73. Connelly, Mark (2012). The IRA on Film and Television: A History (https://books.google.rs/books?id=TzJtY1Mlu_4C&pg=PA68&dq=%22India+declared+war+on+Germany%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Bq_iVO-6I-HOygPc74HIDA&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22India%20declared%20war%20on%20Germany%22&f=false). McFarland. p. 68. ISBN 9780786489619.

74. 'New Zealand declares war on Germany', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/new-zealand-declares-war-on-germany,(Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 14-Oct-2014

75. Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (https://books.google.rs/books?id=xlsrAxuWekQC&pg=PA65&dq=%22India+declared+war+on+Germany%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Bq_iVO-6I-HOygPc74HIDA&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22India%20declared%20war%20on%20Germany%22&f=false). Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 9780521618267.

76. Martin, Chris (2011). World War II: The Book of Lists (https://books.google.rs/books?id=jCQ7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=%22Norway+Declares+war+on+GErmany%22&source=bl&ots=gEbAullmGV&sig=uEVHeThY6ReY25Lj12kUkOV3OnE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=76TiVLSnNIOHygPr3IGoAg&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Norway%20Declares%20war%20on%20GErmany%22&f=false). Stroud: TheHistory Press. pp. 811. ISBN 9780752467047.

77. Selley, Ron; Cocks, Kerrin (2014). I Won't Be Home Next Summer: Flight Lieutenant R.N. Selley DFC (19171941)(https://books.google.rs/books?id=AOiZBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=%22nepal+declared+war+on+germany%22&source=bl&ots=JLJx2o2ra4&sig=c0-trGPl2SZojUG7OxckVT_fxbE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BLHiVP7vNaLcywOcrIHwDw&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22nepal%20declared%20war%20on%20germany%22&f=false). Pinetown: 30 Degrees South Publishers.p. 89. ISBN 9781928211198.

78. Kluckhohn, Frank L. (8 December 1941). "U.S. Declares War, Pacific Battle Widens"(http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1208.html). The New York Times: 1.

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id=qC7pvX2M39AC&pg=PA45&dq=bulgaria+declared+war+1944&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CE4hVayzAsTbPIqlgagP&ved=0CEsQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=bulgaria%20declared%20war%201944&f=false)

The Atlantic Conference: Resolution of 24 September 1941(http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/atlantic/at17.htm)WWII: Key Allied Figures (http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/22975/wwii-key-allied-figures) slideshow by Life magazine

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