The participants in World War II were those nations who either participated directly in or were affected by any of the theaters or events of World War II.
World War II was primarily fought between two large military alliances. The Axis powers were a group of countries led by Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy (however, in the final years, only its northern part, as the Italian Social Republic) and the Empire of Japan. They were considered the aggressors of the conflict. The Allies, led by the United Kingdom and until its defeat, France, were joined in the European theatre by the Soviet Union in June 1941 and by the United States in December 1941. In the Asia-Pacific theater, the Allies were led by the Republic of China, following the 1937 invasion of China by Japan, and the United States and the British Commonwealth, following the 1941-1942 Japanese attacks.
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Originally founded on the concept of the Rome-Berlin-axis (the Pact of Steel) and later on, the Tripartite Pact, the Axis was not primarily a formal alliance. Each of the major countries went to war on their own initiative, (Nazi Germany in 1939, Italy in 1940, Japan in 1937 against China and in 1941 against the United States and the British Commonwealth) and not necessarily to assist each other. There was little sharing of technology or resources and little in the way of cooperative strategic planning between the major Axis powers.[1]
With the demise of Italy, Germany and Japan functioned as wholly separate powers, each conducting the war in their theatre (Germany in the European and Japan in the Pacific). There were a number of smaller powers on the side of the Axis, although for the most part, the war effort was directed and powered by Germany and Japan.
The countries involved in or affected by World War II are listed, with a brief description of their role in the conflict.
Listed alphabetically:
Andorra remained officially neutral for the duration of World War II. At the beginning of the war, a small detachment of French troops was stationed in the country which was left over from the Spanish Civil War, but these forces were withdrawn in 1940. When France fell, Philippe Pétain of the Vichy regime was declared the new French Co-prince. After the German invasion of Vichy France in 1942, a German military force moved to the Andorran border near Pas de la Casa but did not cross. In response, a Spanish force was established at La Seu d'Urgell, but it too remained outside Andorran territory. In 1944, Charles de Gaulle established a new provisional government, and assumed the position of French Co-Prince. He ordered French forces to occupy Andorra as a "preventative measure" to secure order. Throughout the war, Andorra was used as a smuggling route between Spain and Vichy France, and an escape route for people fleeing German-occupied areas.
During the period of World War II, Argentina was ruled by a series of fraudulent conservative governments and dictatorial military juntas. While a large majority of the Argentine economic elite was considerably anglophilic and wanted Argentina to join the Allied side, neutralist feelings prevailed in the military, which saw the war as a potential source of economic benefit for the country, by exporting supplies and agricultural products to both sides of the conflict. The government of Edelmiro Julián Farrell eventually caved in to international pressure, and Argentina joined other Latin American countries and declared war on Germany and Japan, but by this time the war was all but over (March 27, 1945).
It is worth noting that many citizens opposed the nation's official neutralist stance. Over 750 Argentine volunteers fought in the British, South African and Canadian Air Forces, mainly in the 164 Argentine-British RAF squadron, which saw action in Northern France and Belgium.[2] Nearly 4,000 Argentine volunteers fought on the Allied side.[3]
During World War II, Armenia was part of the Soviet Union as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Over five hundred thousand Armenians fought for the Soviet army, and half of them fell in battles.[4] Five Armenian infantry divisions were formed. Armenia gave 4 marshals and 60 generals. The Armenian Church and overseas Armenian donated large sums of money. After the war, the Armenian and Georgian Republics laid territorial claims to Turkey. However, the Soviet government was not willing to return the Armenian lands and shortly thereafter stated to have no claims to Turkey.
Some captured Armenians chose to fight for the Axis. They fought in the following units:
Australia was among the first countries to declare war on Germany, on September 3, 1939. More than one million Australian men and women served in the war out of a total population of around seven million. Although it was ill-prepared for war, the Australian government had soon dispatched Royal Australian Air Force squadrons and personnel to serve with the Royal Air Force. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) commenced operations against Italy after its entry into the war in June 1940. Later that year the Australian Army entered campaigns against Italy and Germany in North Africa and Europe. German submarines and raiding ships operated in Australian waters throughout the war. The most intensive and numerically largest part of Australia's war effort came after the outbreak of hostilities with Japan in late 1941. The Australian mainland came under direct attack for the first time in 1942, when Japanese aircraft launched a major bombing attack on Darwin in February, and attacked many other towns in northern Australia. Axis covert raiding ships and submarines struck at shipping and shore targets around Australia, including a submarine attack on Sydney Harbour.
For the remainder of the war, the Australian war effort was concentrated in south-east Asia and the South West Pacific Area: they were involved from January 1942 in Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and the Australian territory of New Guinea. Before the bulk of the Australian Army had returned from overseas, from July onwards a small number of Militia troops fought a stubborn rearguard action in the trying conditions of the Kokoda Track. In August 1942, at the Battle of Milne Bay, Australian infantry became the first Allied soldiers to defeat Japanese ground forces during the war. The bitter and deadly New Guinea campaign came to occupy the attention of most of the Australian armed forces until 1945. Later that year, as the war drew to a close, Australian forces led the campaign to retake Borneo.
Austria became a full part of nazi Germany in 1938 among popular acclaim during the Anschluss. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Allies occupied Austria in four occupation zones set up at the end of World War II until 1955, when the country again became a fully-independent republic under the condition that it remained neutral. The four occupations zones were French, American, British, and Soviet, with Vienna also divided among the four powers. This paralleled the situation in post-war Germany.
Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, therefore on the side of the Allies in June 1941. Around 75% of oil supplies of Soviet Army came from Baku oil stations. Because of this reason Baku was protected by special Air Defense unit.
The Sheikh of Bahrain declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939. Bahraini forces fought[citation needed] under British command in the Middle East theater.
Like the Netherlands, Belgium declared its neutrality in an effort to avoid being caught in another war between Germany and France. Germany, however, did not respect Belgium's neutrality and marched through Belgium as part of the invasion of France in 1940. Thus, Belgium joined the Allies and maintained a government-in-exile with control over its colonial possessions until the country was liberated in 1944.
Bolivia was one of many Latin American countries to declare war on Germany later on in the war, joining the Allies on April 7, 1943. It was the only country to declare war in 1943. Shortly after war was declared, the President of Bolivia, Enrique Peñaranda, was overthrown in a coup. The new ruler, Gualberto Villarroel, had fascist and anti-Semitic leanings, but foreign pressure compelled Villarroel to remain at war and to purge the more extreme Nazi sympathizers from among his supporters. Bolivian mines were a supplier of the war material, tin, to the Allies. Bolivia has no coastline and no navy, and it did not send any troops or warplanes overseas.
Brazil was under the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas and maintained its neutrality until August 1942. There were several German submarine attacks against Brazilian ships between February and August that year in the Atlantic Ocean. In response, Brazil sided with the Allies, declaring war against Germany and Italy on August 22, 1942. Brazilian naval forces helped to patrol the South and Central Atlantic Oceans, combating Germanys U-boats and commerce raiders. Northeastern Brazil hosted at Natal the largest single American air base outside of its own territory, and at Recife, the U.S. Fourth Fleet. This air base gave support to the North Africa campaign, and a route for USAAF airplanes to fly to India and China to fight the Japanese. In 1944, Brazil sent the 25,000-man Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) to fight in Europe, thus becoming the only Latin American nation to send troops to overseas. This force joined the U.S. Fifth Army under American general Mark Clark in Italy, and it participated in the Italian campaign until the end of war. Brazil also sent two Brazilian Air Force groups (one of them a fighter group) to Italy, becoming the only South American country to send any air force unit overseas.
Bulgaria was a minor German ally, signing the Tripartite Pact on March 1, 1941, their main contribution being transit rights for German units involved against Yugoslavia and Greece. Bulgaria occupied portions of Greece and Yugoslavia to recreate the 19th century boundaries of Greater Bulgaria, but it did not participate in the Invasion of the Soviet Union.
After the Communist-dominated coup d'état of September 9, 1944 and the simultaneous arrival of Soviet troops in the country, the Bulgarian government declared war on Germany. Four Bulgarian armies attacked the German positions in Yugoslavia. An armistice was signed with the Allies in Moscow on October 28, 1944. After the Nazis fled Yugoslav territory, the 1st Bulgarian Army continued its offensive in Hungary and Austria under the command of Major Georgi Marinov Mandjev from the village of Goliamo Sharkovo (Elhovo). It withstood the Wehrmacht offensive on the Drava River. Bulgaria's participation in WW II ended when its soldiers met British troops in Klagenfurt, Austria, in May 1945.
Within days of the invasion of Poland, Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939. As in World War I, Canadian formations fought under British theater command, and they played an important role in the Allied campaigns in Europe. Canadian forces contributed heavily with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in the Battle of Britain, in the air raids against Germany, by the Royal Canadian Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic, by the army in the Italian campaign, the Raid on Dieppe, the Invasion of Normandy (including the landing on Juno Beach on D-Day), and the Scheldt.
The Canadian Army in Europe after Normandy fought its way up through coastal France, into western Belgium, overrunning many German V-1 and V-2 bases, and then into southern and eastern Holland. The Canadian Army received the surrender of all German forces The Netherlands in May 1945. In Italy, a Corps was fielded beginning in January 1944, and the Canadian Army in Normandy built up from a single division in June 1944, to a full Corps in July 1944, and next, to a field Army in August 1944, under which several foreign national formations were under its command, including at various times British, Polish, Dutch, and American forces. The Canadian Army in western Europe was a part of the British 21st Army Group under Field Marshall Bernard L. Montgomery.
In March 1945, both I and II Canadian Corps came under command of the First Canadian Army in Belgium and The Netherlands. From 1941, Canadian forces had also participated in the defense of British territories against Japanese forces, especially Hong Kong where an understrength brigade had been deployed before the war broke out in the Pacific, and it was ultimately destroyed/captured. As the war in Europe wound down, from late 1944, many Royal Canadian Navy ships and personnel were transferred from the Atlantic to join the British Pacific Fleet. About one million Canadians served in uniform during WW II.
Ceylon (later known as Sri Lanka), was a British colony and a major Allied naval base. On April 5, 1942 over 300 aircraft from Japanese carriers bombed the island. Winston Churchill called it "the most dangerous moment" of World War II, because the Japanese wished to replicate a grander success of the attack at Pearl Harbor. The British ships, however, were moved to Addu Atoll, Maldives Islands, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of Ceylon. Nevertheless, the British lost an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and two destroyers, while the Royal Air Force squadrons on Ceylon suffered severe losses. The British fleet retreated to East Africa until 1944.
The Ceylon Garrison Artillery Regiment was stationed on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands, to defend it from Japanese attack. However, following agitation by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the regiment mutinied on the night of 8 May 1942, intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese. The mutiny was suppressed and three of the Ceylonese soldiers became the only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for mutiny during World War II. Bombardier Gratien Fernando, the leader of the mutiny, was defiant to the end.
Following the Cocos Islands Mutiny, no Ceylonese combat unit was deployed in a front-line combat situation, although Supply & Transport Corps troops were used in rear areas in the Middle East. The defences of Sri Lanka were beefed up to three Allied army divisions because the island was strategically important, as a producer of rubber. Rationing was instituted so that Sri Lankans were comparatively better fed than their Indian neighbours, in order to prevent disaffection among the ordinary people.
Sri Lankans in Japanese-occupied Malaya and Singapore were recruited by the Japanese for the Lanka Regiment of the Indian National Army, to fight against the Allies. While there was a plan to land them in Sri Lanka to start a guerrilla war, they never actually saw action.
Initially, Chile chose to remain neutral in the war, having close trading links with Germany. Later in the war, however, Chile distanced itself from the Axis powers, and the Chilean government took steps to dismiss pro-German military officers. Relations with Axis countries were broken in 1943, and in 1945, Chile declared war on Japan. As with Argentina, by this time the war was almost over.
The Republic of China had been fighting Japan intermittently since the 1931 Mukden Incident, when Japan annexed Manchuria. On July 7, 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident led the two countries to full-scale war. Already engaged in war with Japan, as well as enduring a civil conflict between the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) and the Communist Party of China, the Chinese Nationalist Government's full attention was within its borders in resisting the Japanese during the war. However, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek still managed to send troops to Britain's aid in Burma, in early 1942. China's participation in the war was also pivotal in a sense that more than 1.5 million Japanese military personnel were sent to China and bogged down. Japanese casualties in China are estimated at 1.1-1.9 million.
While China had rather warm relations with Germany (see Sino-German cooperation), following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, China formally joined the Allies and declared war on Germany on December 9, 1941.
Many of China's urban centers, industrial resources, and coastal regions were occupied by Japan for most of the war. China suffered a large death toll from the war, both military and civilian. The Chinese Nationalist army suffered some 3.2 million casualties, and 17 million civilians died in the crossfire. After the war, China became one of the main victorious countries and gained one of the permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council.
After the war ended, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Nationalists and the Communists. The Nationalist government, with its military strength greatly reduced and its economy devastated by the war against Japan, was defeated by the Communists in 1949. The Republic of China retreated to Taiwan while the communist People's Republic of China was established on the mainland.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Colombia broke diplomatic relations with the Axis powers. Colombia provided the Allies with petroleum products. Then, in 1943, the German submarine U-505 destroyed a Colombian schooner, which caused Colombia to declare a "status of belligerency" against Germany on November 26. The German ambassador left the country, and measures of control were implemented, including internment of German citizens in designated areas. Photographs and reconnaissance airplanes belonging to the Colombian-German company Scadta, who used to take aerial shots of Colombian and German cities were also handed to the United States. During the recovery years, Colombia sent Nestle products (coffee, baby food, etc.) and carbon for heating all over Europe.
Costa Rica joined the Allies on December 8, 1941. The leftist administration of President Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia was hostile to Nazism and introduced numerous measures to decrease German influence in the country. Costa Rica declared war on Japan the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and on Germany and Italy shortly afterwards. It allowed the United States to establish an airfield on Cocos Island.
Cuba joined the Allies on December 8, 1941, when it declared war on Japan. On December 11, it also declared war on Germany and Italy. The United States naval station at Guantanamo Bay served as an important base for protecting Allied shipping in the Caribbean, and on May 15, 1943, a Cuban warship sank a German submarine in waters near Havana. Cuba began to plan a conscription program in order to contribute troops, but this had not materialized by the end of the war.
Czechoslovakia was dismembered by Nazi Germany, starting with Neville Chamberlain's Munich Agreement with Hitler in 1938 and the German–Italian Vienna Awards. The Czech part (western) of the country became the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under so-called State-President Emil Hácha, the newly separated Slovak Republic, a Nazi-dependent puppet regime, led by Roman Catholic priest Jozef Tiso was ultimately inserted in Slovakia. Part of southern Slovakia as well as the complete Ruthenia (the former most eastern part of Czechoslovakia) was annexed by Hungary. Zaolzie was annexed by Poland, only to be snatched from them by the Germans 11 months later. In 1945 the victorious Soviet Union returned Zaolzie to Czechoslovakia. From 1940, a government-in-exile in London under former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš was recognized as an Allied power. The Slovak National Uprising, commenced in August 1944, was suppressed by German forces at the end of October, however partisans continued fighting in the mountains till the end of the war. In April 1945, the Red Army defeated the Germans and ousted Tiso's government, annexing Carpathia Ruthenia to the USSR.
Denmark remained neutral from the outbreak of the war. It was invaded and occupied by Germany on April 9, 1940, as part of Operation Weserübung, surrendering after a few hours of fighting and never declaring war on the Germans. The Danish government remained in office in Copenhagen until 1943 and signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. On August 29, 1943, the government handed in its resignation to the King as a response to German demands for more concessions. Each Permanent Secretary took control of his own ministry. On May 10, 1940, the British occupied Iceland. Shortly before they had occupied the Faroe Islands. The United States occupied Greenland, a position later supported by the Danish envoy in Washington, Henrik Kauffmann. Iceland, which was later transferred from British to American control, declared its independence in 1944. On May 4, 1945, the German forces in Denmark surrendered to the British army. Since the German commander on Bornholm refused to surrender to the Soviet Union, two local towns were bombed and the garrison forced to surrender. Bornholm remained under Soviet control until 1946.
The Dominican Republic declared war on Germany and Japan following the attacks of Pearl Harbor and the Nazi declaration of war on the U.S. However, it did not contribute with troops, aircraft, or ships.
Ecuador was another of the South American nations to join the Allies late in the war (joined against Germany on February 2, 1945). Ecuador let the U.S. use Baltra Island for a naval base. [1], [2]
Egypt had become fully independent in 1936, but British troops remained to protect the Suez Canal, and a treaty provision allowed British troops to use the country as a military base in time of war. Egypt was seen by both the Axis and the Allies as a vital strategic point, because of access to the Suez Canal. The Egyptian government remained officially neutral during the war, but King Farouk allowed British troops to use Egypt as a base of operations and placed his Navy at the disposal of the British. Initially Egypt was targeted by Italy, but after a heavy defeat by the British forces under the command of General Wavell, the Germans were compelled to enter the fray with a division under the command of General Erwin Rommel.
Rommel's successes in the deserts of Libya and west Egypt, and the fact that they came to within 160 kilometres (100 mi) of Cairo, gave the Allied forces (in particular the British) a major fright. The revolutionary officers that eventually came to power in 1952 (led by Colonel Abdel Nasser) plotted to support the Germans in their push for Cairo, seeing a German victory as an opportunity to liberate Egypt from the British colonial occupation.
From 1931 to 1944, El Salvador was ruled by Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, an admirer of Hitler and Mussolini. Nonetheless, the dictator declared war on both Japan (December 8, 1941) and Germany (December 12, 1941) shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, for economic reasons. El Salvador's economy depended heavily on the United States. Martinez removed Germans from the government and interned Japanese, German, and Italian nationals. The Second World War made Salvadorans leery of their dictatorship, and a general national strike in 1944 forced Martinez to resign and flee to ariva los salvis Guatemala. [3]
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union left Estonia in the Soviet sphere of interest. The Soviet Union threatened Estonia with war if Estonia did not agree with the mutual assistance pact, which required allowing the Soviet Union to build military bases into Estonia. Estonian government, convinced that winning a war against the Soviet Union was impossible, agreed on September 28, 1939. The Soviets conducted a coup d'état with support of the Red Army in June 1940, and a sham election was held under Soviet control. The new government took office and the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed on July 2, 1940. The puppet state was formally accepted into the Soviet Union on August 6. Estonia was occupied by Germany in 1941 after war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union. With the return of the Soviet Armed Forces, 70,000 Estonians joined the German side to fight the Soviets. The National Committee failed to restore the national government in September 1944 due to the Soviet reoccupation. Estonia was part of the USSR until 1991.
At the outbreak of the war, Emperor Haile Selassie was in exile in England trying in vain to obtain Allied support for his nation’s cause. The Ethiopian Patriots Movement had begun its guerilla war against the occupying Italian forces the day Addis Ababa fell in May 1936.
Upon the emperor's flight into exile, remnants of Ethiopia's disbanded imperial army had transformed into guerilla units. Urban city residents throughout the country formed underground movements to aid the Patriots as the overall population led a passive resistance campaign aimed at stifling Mussolini's economic agenda for the region. As a result, the Italians were never able to successfully occupy and secure the entire country including the emperor's relocated capital at Gore in the southwest. Throughout the occupation and into the beginning of the Second World War, the constant harassment of Italian columns and communication and supply lines reduced their fighting capabilities and their morale. A state of paranoia among Italian troops and civilians alike had sunk in as they became increasingly isolated from Rome. Fascist retaliation to Patriot attacks were brutal and often targeted the civilian population, which only further filled the ranks of the Patriots creating a cycle that lead to the eventual demise of Mussolini’s Italian East Africa.
Britain’s declaration of war against Italy reinvigorated the Patriot movement and paved the way for the final ousting of the Italians in Ethiopia and in the Horn of Africa. The Allied liberation campaign of Ethiopia began in the winter of 1940. Emperor Haile Selassie, with the support and cooperation of the British, was transported to the Sudan to work alongside Major Orde Wingate to organize and lead the main Ethiopian Patriot divisions that had fled fascist-controlled Ethiopia upon news of Britain’s declaration of war.
The East African Campaign was conducted by a largely multi-African force and consisted of Ethiopian, Eritrean, British, Sudanese, Kenyan, Rhodesian, South African, Indian, Nigerian, Ghanaian and Free French Forces. Within months, the liberation of Ethiopia was achieved, and on May 5, 1941, five years to the day that the Emperor fled his capital, Haile Selassie was restored to his throne. The defeat of fascists in Ethiopia marked the first victory for the Allies in the Second World War and allowed for the remaining forces to be quickly moved up to Egypt to confront the Axis advance towards Cairo.
Fiji was a British colony during World War II. The Fiji Defence Force served with New Zealand Army formations, under the Allied Pacific Ocean Areas command.
Finland was left to the Soviet sphere of interest in Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and when it refused to allow the Soviet Union to build bases on its territory, it was attacked by Soviet forces in the Winter War (30 November 1939 - 13 March 1940). After this war, Finland unsuccessfully sought protection
