Allies of World War II

Origins

Following the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles (1919) established the League of Nations in an attempt to create a system of collective security and prevent war. The League's covenant obliged members to protect the political and territorial integrity of all members against aggression. Four of the major allies of the First World War—the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan—became permanent members of the league's council. The league, however, was weakened by the failure of the United States to join and by the cumbersome rules for enforcing sanctions for breaches of its security provisions.

France attempted to further protect itself against possible future German attack with the Franco-Polish alliance (1921) and the Franco-Czechoslovak alliance (1924). Under the Locarno treaties (1925), France, Britain, Belgium, Germany and Italy also guaranteed the borders between Germany and France and Germany and Belgium as defined in the Treaty of Versailles.

The system of collective security was weakened when Japan withdrew from the League in February 1933, following the League's criticism of Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931. A further blow came when Nazi Germany withdrew from the League and the world disarmament conference in October 1933. In May 1935, France signed a mutual defence agreement with the Soviet Union, which Germany saw as directed against it. In October 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia and the league responded with weak, short-lived sanctions.

Germany remilitarised the Rhineland in March 1936 in contravention of the Versailles and Locarno treaties but Britain, France and the League of Nations imposed no sanctions. Britain, however, announced that it would aid France and Belgium if they were the victims of aggression, and France stated that it would assist Britain and Belgium in the same circumstances. In July 1937, Japan began an undeclared war in China. The league found Japan's actions illegal and invited its members to impose sanctions. In November, Italy joined the German and Japanese Anti-Comintern pact, and in December it left the league.

In March 1938, Germany invaded and annexed Austria in contravention of the Versailles treaty. France and Britain issued formal protests but took no further action. Britain declined a Soviet offer to form a defensive alliance against Germany and also declined a French request to provide a security guarantee to Czechoslovakia, which was subject to German threats over its alleged mistreatment of the German-speaking majority in its Sudetenland region. Instead, Britain continued its policy of appeasing Germany by putting pressure on Czechoslovakia to negotiate a solution acceptable to Hitler. As the crisis deepened, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy signed the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, whereby the Sudetenland was ceded to Germany against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, and the signatories guaranteed the territorial integrity of the rump Czechoslovak state.

Grand Alliance

Formation

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and on 3 September, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on 17 September but remained officially neutral in the war between Germany and the western allies. Italy, Japan and the United States were also formally neutral in the conflict, although Italy eventually declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940.

Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada declared war on Germany in the two weeks following the British declaration. An Anglo-French Supreme War Council was established to coordinate military decisions and it first met on 12 September 1939. By 1 October, Warsaw had fallen and the Polish government had escaped into exile. Following a lull in fighting between Germany and the western allies, Germany began its invasion of western Europe in April 1940, quickly overrunning Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, and France. The governments of these occupied countries, except France, fled, establishing governments-in-exile in London which Britain recognized as allies. Britain recognized Charles de Gaulle as leader of the Free-French forces in London, which opposed the collaborationist French Vichy government. The Free French, however, were not recognized as a government-in-exile until 1944. Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Greece also established governments-in-exile in 1941 following the German advances towards eastern Mediterranean.

The First Inter-Allied Meeting took place in London in early June 1941 between the United Kingdom, the four allied British Dominions, the eight governments in exile, and Free France. The meeting culminated with the Declaration of St James's Palace, which committed the signatories to work together until victory was achieved and an enduring peace secured.

On 22 June 1941, Hitler broke the non-aggression agreement with Stalin and Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union. Britain formed an alliance with the Soviet Union in July, whereby they agreed to assist one another by any means, and to never negotiate a separate peace. The following August saw the Atlantic Conference between American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which defined a common Anglo-American vision of the post-war world, as formalized by the Atlantic Charter.

At the Second Inter-Allied Meeting in London in September 1941, the Soviet Union joined the other Allies in adopting the Atlantic Charter. On 7–8 December, Japan attacked American and British territories in Asia and the Pacific, resulting in the US entering the war as an Allied power. China, which had been resisting a Japanese invasion since 1937, formally declared war on the Axis on 9 December.

The Big Three and Big Four

Winston Churchill called the association of the United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union and other Allies the "Grand Alliance". The "Big Three"—the United Kingdom, United States and Soviet Union—were the principal contributors of manpower, resources and strategy, each playing a key role in achieving victory. The United States also saw China and its leader Chiang Kai-shek as its main ally in Asia and considered it one of the "Big Four" allied powers, a view not always shared by the United Kingdom and Soviet Union.

Declaration by United Nations

In December 1941, at the First Washington Conference, Roosevelt proposed the name "United Nations" for the Allies and Churchill agreed. On 1 January 1942, Roosevelt, Churchill and representatives of the Soviet Union and China signed the Declaration by United Nations. The following day, representatives of 22 other allied countries signed the declaration. The Free French were not invited to sign because the United States recognized the Vichy government in France. The 26 original signatories were:

From this time, countries that adopted the declaration were considered allies. Mexico, the Philippines and Ethiopia adopted the declaration later in 1942, followed by Iraq, Brazil, Bolivia, Iran and Colombia in 1943, and Liberia in February 1944. Following the liberation of France, the French provisional government signed the declaration on 26 December 1944 and France officially became one of the allied nations. Eleven nations adhered to the declaration in early 1945, when an allied victory over Germany was assured and the Big Four powers were preparing to invite signatories to the San Francisco Conference to prepare a charter for the new United Nations organization.

Major conferences

A series of conferences between the major allied leaders, diplomats, and military officials shaped the strategic direction of the war and the post-war international order. Churchill and Roosevelt attended the first Washington Conference (December 1941 – January 1942) where they established the Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee and agreed to prioritize the European and North African theatres in the war. Churchill and Roosevelt met again at Casablanca (January 1943) and Washington (May 1943) where they decided on an invasion of Sicily, the postponement of a landing in France until May 1944, and began planning a counter-offensive against Japan in Asia and the Pacific. At the first Quebec Conference (August 1943) Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to a new command structure in South-East Asia.

Churchill, Roosevelt and Chiang met at the Cairo Conference (November 1943) where they discussed operations against Japan and issued the Cairo Declaration outlining their vision for post-war Asia whereby Japan would lose all the territories it had gained since 1914. Stalin declined to attend or send representatives as the Soviet Union was not at war with Japan. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met for the first time at the Tehran Conference (November – December 1943) where they decided that the full-scale offensive in France in mid-1944 was the allied priority and where Stalin announced that he would declare war on Japan once Hitler was defeated. At the Yalta Conference (February 1945) Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin agreed to zones of occupation for the soon-to-be-defeated Germany and made plans for the post-war settlement of Europe and the United Nations organization. Following the allied victory in Europe, the new US president, Harry S. Truman, and new British prime minister, Clement Attlee, attended the final summit of the Big Three leaders at Potsdam (July – August 1945) where they discussed the final operations against Japan and issued a demand for its unconditional surrender.

Cooperation and tensions among Big Four

Relations between the United Kingdom and United States were especially close. Before they were formally allied, they had cooperated in a number of ways, notably through the destroyers-for-bases deal in September 1940 and the American Lend-Lease program, which provided Britain and the other allies with war materiel from March 1941. The British Commonwealth and empire obtained about half of the $42 to $50 billion in lend-lease aid during the war. The British Commonwealth and, to a lesser extent, the French empire and Soviet Union reciprocated with a smaller Reverse Lend-Lease program worth about $8 billion. After the United States entered the war, the United Kingdom and the United States established a Combined Chiefs of Staff to harmonize military planning, and Combined Boards to co-ordinate shipping, raw materials, and war production.

Churchill and Roosevelt also met nine times in conferences without the presence of the other Big Four leaders. At the First Washington Conference, held soon after the United States entered the war, they agreed that Germany should be first defeated before focusing their forces on Japan. Nevertheless, divisions between the United Kingdom and United States soon arose over strategy for the defeat of Germany. American planners pushed for a landing in France in 1942 followed by a full scale invasion 1943. Britain, however, argued that an early invasion of France risked being repulsed with heavy allied losses. Instead, they argued for weakening Germany through strategic bombing and economic warfare and dispersing Axis forces by opening fronts in French north Africa, Italy, and possibly the Balkans. The United States and United Kingdom ultimately agreed to delay a full scale of invasion of France until May or June 1944, which angered Stalin because the Soviet Union was suffering heavy losses on its front with Germany.

There were also significant disagreements between the United Kingdom and United States about the Asia-Pacific front. While Churchill prioritized the recovery of British imperial possessions such as Burma, Malaya, Hong Kong and Singapore, the Americans were more focused on supporting China by reopening its overland supply lines from India through the Burma road. Roosevelt and Chiang were hostile to imperialism and pressed Churchill to reach an agreement with the leaders of the Indian independence movement and to agree to post-war mandates for British and French imperial possessions to prepare them for full independence.

Despite their ideological differences and severe tensions over the timing of an invasion of France, the Soviet Union and its western allies cooperated in a number of ways. On the political front, the Soviet Union signed the Anglo-Soviet Agreement in July 1941, endorsed the Atlantic Charter in September, signed the Declaration by United Nations in January 1942, the Anglo-Soviet Treaty in May 1942, and the Four Powers Declaration in October 1943. In May 1943, Stalin agreed to dissolve the Comintern as a gesture of goodwill. On the strategic front, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and United States agreed at the Tehran conference of late 1943 that an invasion of France was the military priority for 1944. On the military front, in August 1941, British and Soviet forces invaded neutral Iran, which they suspected was pro-Axis, to secure oil supplies and the overland supply route into the Soviet Union. The western allies sought to relieve pressure on the Soviet front by its strategic bombing campaign and economic warfare on Germany and by diverting Axis forces to the north African and Italian fronts. Western food and materiel aid to the Soviet Union was also of great importance. The United States supplied the Soviet Union with $10 billion worth of aid under lend-lease: equivalent to 7% of Soviet war production. The Soviet Union, in turn, prosecuted the bulk of the ground war in which an estimated 5 million Axis soldiers were killed or missing in action on the eastern front.

Major Allied states

United Kingdom and British Empire

At the outbreak of the war, the British Empire comprised over 60 countries including the dominions, India, Burma, and numerous Crown colonies and protectorates. Following Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939, most of the empire was automatically at war. However, the dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa separately declared war in the following two weeks.

Following the defeat of Poland in October 1939 and of France in June 1940, the UK took the lead in coordinating the war effort of its empire and the allied governments-in-exile in London. When the Soviet Union joined the Allies after the Axis invasion of June 1941 and the United States and China joined in December that year, the UK was the de facto representative of the empire and allied governments-in-exile in their dealings with the other Big Four powers.

Britain sustained its war effort by drawing on the population, raw material and strategic bases of its colonies throughout the world. In 1939, the population of the empire, including the dominions, was about 484 million, making it the second most populous belligerent after China. Britain’s colonies accounted for 42% of the empire’s economic output. After Japan occupied most of Britain's Asia-Pacific colonies – including Hong Kong, Burma, Malaya and Singapore – from December 1941, Britain expanded the production of food and manufacturing in India and the African colonies.

Britain’s colonies also made a significant contribution to the allied military effort. By 1945, 25% of the allied South-East Asia Command was African and about 4% of the empire's military dead were from the colonies other than India.

In 1939 Britain had the second largest navy and largest merchant navy in the world, and these played a vital role in transporting troops, armaments, food and raw materials for the Allies. The British military played a major role in defeating the Axis powers in North Africa, Italy and the Western Front British and colonial troops also cleared Japanese forces from Burma. Britain and the United States conducted the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany from 1943 which diverted German resources from the Eastern Front and retarded German war production.

France

After Germany invaded Poland, France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. In January 1940, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier made a major speech denouncing the actions of Germany:

At the end of five months of war, one thing has become more and more clear. It is that Germany seeks to establish a domination of the world completely different from any known in world history.

The domination at which the Nazis aim is not limited to the displacement of the balance of power and the imposition of the supremacy of one nation. It seeks the systematic and total destruction of those conquered by Hitler and it does not treaty with the nations which it has subdued. He destroys them. He takes from them their whole political and economic existence and seeks even to deprive them of their history and culture. He wishes only to consider them as vital space and a vacant territory over which he has every right.

The human beings who constitute these nations are for him only cattle. He orders their massacre or migration. He compels them to make room for their conquerors. He does not even take the trouble to impose any war tribute on them. He just takes all their wealth and, to prevent any revolt, he scientifically seeks the physical and moral degradation of those whose independence he has taken away.

France experienced several major phases of action during World War II:

The "Phoney War" of 1939–1940, also called drôle de guerre in France, dziwna wojna in Poland (both meaning "Strange War"), or the Sitzkrieg ("Sitting War", a pun on Blitzkrieg) in Germany.

The Battle of France in May–June 1940, which resulted in the defeat of the Allies, the fall of the French Third Republic, the German occupation of northern and western France, and the creation of the rump state Vichy France, which received diplomatic recognition from the Axis and most neutral countries including the United States.

The period of resistance against the occupation and Franco-French struggle for control of the colonies between the Vichy regime and the Free French, who continued the fight on the Allies' side after the Appeal of 18 June by General Charles de Gaulle, recognized by the United Kingdom as France's government-in-exile. It culminated in the Allied landings in North Africa on 11 November 1942, when Vichy ceased to exist as an independent entity after having been invaded by both the Axis and the Allies simultaneously, being thereafter only the nominal government in charge during the occupation of France. Vichy forces in French North Africa switched allegiance and merged with the Free French to participate in the campaigns of Tunisia and of Italy and the invasion of Corsica in 1943–44.

Soviet Union

In the lead-up to the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, relations between the two states underwent several stages. General Secretary Joseph Stalin and the government of the Soviet Union had supported so-called popular front movements of anti-fascists including communists and non-communists from 1935 to 1939. The popular front strategy was terminated from 1939 to 1941, when the Soviet Union cooperated with Germany in 1939 in the occupation and partitioning of Poland. The Soviet leadership refused to endorse either the Allies or the Axis from 1939 to 1941, as it called the Allied-Axis conflict an "imperialist war".

Stalin had studied Hitler, including reading Mein Kampf, and from it knew of Hitler's motives for destroying the Soviet Union. As early as in 1933, the Soviet leadership voiced its concerns with the alleged threat of a potential German invasion of the country should Germany attempt a conquest of Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia, and in December 1933 negotiations began for the issuing of a joint Polish-Soviet declaration guaranteeing the sovereignty of the three Baltic countries. However, Poland withdrew from the negotiations following German and Finnish objections. The Soviet Union and Germany at this time competed with each other for influence in Poland.

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 victory over Imperial Japan at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in eastern Mongolia.

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

On 23 August, Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov signed the non-aggression pact including secret protocols dividing Eastern Europe into defined "spheres of influence" for the two regimes, and specifically concerning the partition of the Polish state in the event of its "territorial and political rearrangement".

United States

The United States had indirectly supported Britain's war effort against Germany up to 1941 and declared its opposition to territorial aggrandizement. Materiel support to Britain was provided while the U.S. was officially neutral via the Lend-Lease Act starting in 1941.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in August 1941 promulgated the Atlantic Charter that pledged commitment to achieving "the final destruction of Nazi tyranny". Signing the Atlantic Charter, and thereby joining the "United Nations" was the way a state joined the Allies, and also became eligible for membership in the United Nations world body that formed in 1945.

The United States strongly supported the Nationalist Government in China in its war with Japan, and provided military equipment, supplies, and volunteers to the Nationalist Government of China to assist in its war effort. In December 1941 Japan opened the war with its attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan, and Japan's allies Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, bringing the United States into World War II.

The United States played a central role in liaising among the Allies and especially among the Big Four. At the Arcadia Conference in December 1941, shortly after the United States entered the war, the United States and Britain established a Combined Chiefs of Staff, based in Washington, which deliberated the military decisions of both the United States and Britain.

On 8 December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Congress declared war on Japan at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was followed by Germany and Italy declaring war on the United States on 11 December, bringing the country into the European theatre.

The United States led Allied forces in the Pacific theatre against Japanese forces from 1941 to 1945. From 1943 to 1945, the United States also led and coordinated the Western Allies' war effort in Europe under the leadership of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor followed by Japan's swift attacks on Allied locations throughout the Pacific, resulted in major United States losses in the first several months in the war, including losing control of the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and several Aleutian islands including Attu and Kiska to Japanese forces. American naval forces attained some early successes against Japan. One was the bombing of Japanese industrial centres in the Doolittle Raid. Another was repelling a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby in New Guinea during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

China

In the 1920s the Soviet Union provided military assistance to the Kuomintang, or the Nationalists, and helped reorganize their party along Leninist lines: a unification of party, state, and army. In exchange the Nationalists agreed to let members of the Chinese Communist Party join the Nationalists on an individual basis. However, following the nominal unification of China at the end of the Northern Expedition in 1928, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek purged leftists from his party and fought against the revolting Chinese Communist Party, former warlords, and other militarist factions.

A fragmented China provided easy opportunities for Japan to gain territories piece by piece without engaging in total war. Following the 1931 Mukden Incident, the puppet state of Manchukuo was established. Throughout the early to mid-1930s, Chiang's anti-communist and anti-militarist campaigns continued while he fought small, incessant conflicts against Japan, usually followed by unfavorable settlements and concessions after military defeats.

In 1936 Chiang was forced to cease his anti-communist military campaigns after his kidnap and release by Zhang Xueliang, and reluctantly formed a nominal alliance with the Communists, while the Communists agreed to fight under the nominal command of the Nationalists against the Japanese. Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, China and Japan became embroiled in a full-scale war. The Soviet Union, wishing to keep China in the fight against Japan, supplied China with military assistance until 1941, when it signed a non-aggression pact with Japan.

In December 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, China formally declared war on Japan, as well as Germany and Italy. As part of the war's Pacific theater, China became the only member of the Allies to commit more troops than one of the Big Three, exceeding even the number of Soviet troops on the Eastern Front.

Continuous clashes between the Communists and Nationalists behind enemy lines cumulated in a major military conflict between these two former allies that effectively ended their cooperation against the Japanese, and China had been divided between the internationally recognized Nationalist China under the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Communist China under the leadership of Mao Zedong until the Japanese surrendered in 1945.

Other Allied states

Australia

Australia was a sovereign Dominion under the Australian monarchy, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931. At the start of the war Australia followed Britain's foreign policies and accordingly declared war against Germany on 3 September 1939. Australian foreign policy became more independent after the Australian Labor Party formed government in October 1941, and Australia separately declared war against Finland, Hungary and Romania on 8 December 1941 and against Japan the next day.

Belgium

Before the war, Belgium had pursued a policy of neutrality and only became an Allied member after being invaded by Germany on 10 May 1940. During the ensuing fighting, Belgian forces fought alongside French and British forces against the invaders. While the British and French were struggling against the fast German advance elsewhere on the front, the Belgian forces were pushed into a pocket to the north. On 28 May, the King Leopold III surrendered himself and his military to the Germans, having decided the Allied cause was lost.

The legal Belgian government was reformed as a government in exile in London. Belgian troops and pilots continued to fight on the Allied side as the Free Belgian Forces. Belgium itself was occupied, but a sizeable Resistance was formed and was loosely coordinated by the government in exile and other Allied powers.

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

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

Brazil

Initially, Brazil maintained a position of neutrality, trading with both the Allies and the Axis, while Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas's quasi-Fascist policies indicated a leaning toward the Axis powers. However, as the war progressed, trade with the Axis countries became almost impossible and the United States initiated forceful diplomatic and economic efforts to bring Brazil onto the Allied side.

At the beginning of 1942, Brazil permitted the United States to set up air bases on its territory, especially in Natal, strategically located at the easternmost corner of the South American continent, and on 28 January the country severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Japan and Italy. After that, 36 Brazilian merchant ships were sunk by the German and Italian navies, which led the Brazilian government to declare war against Germany and Italy on 22 August 1942.

Brazil then sent a 25,700 strong Expeditionary Force to Europe that fought mainly on the Italian front, from September 1944 to May 1945. Also, the Brazilian Navy and Air Force acted in the Atlantic Ocean from the middle of 1942 until the end of the war. Brazil was the only South American country to send troops to fight in the European theatre in the Second World War.

Canada

Canada was a sovereign Dominion under the Canadian monarchy, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931. In a symbolic statement of autonomous foreign policy Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King delayed parliament's vote on a declaration of war for seven days after Britain had declared war. Canada was the last member of the Commonwealth to declare war on Germany on 10 September 1939.

Cuba

Because of Cuba's geographical position at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, Havana's role as the principal trading port in the West Indies, and the country's natural resources, Cuba was an important participant in the American Theater of World War II, and subsequently one of the greatest beneficiaries of the United States' Lend-Lease program. Cuba declared war on the Axis powers in December 1941, making it one of the first Latin American countries to enter the conflict, and by the war's end in 1945 its military had developed a reputation as being the most efficient and cooperative of all the Caribbean states. On 15 May 1943, the Cuban patrol boat CS-13 sank the German submarine U-176.

Czechoslovakia

In 1938, with the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom, and France sought to resolve German irredentist claims to the Sudetenland region. As a result, the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany began on 1 October 1938. Additionally, a small northeastern part of the border region known as Trans-Olza was occupied by and annexed to Poland. Further, by the First Vienna Award, Hungary received southern territories of Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia.

A Slovak State was proclaimed on 14 March 1939, and the next day Hungary occupied and annexed the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia, and the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of the Czech Lands. On 16 March 1939 the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed after negotiations with Emil Hácha, who remained technically head of state with the title of State President. After a few months, former Czechoslovak President Beneš organized a committee in exile and sought diplomatic recognition as the legitimate government of the First Czechoslovak Republic. The committee's success in obtaining intelligence and coordinating actions by the Czechoslovak resistance led first Britain and then the other Allies to recognize it in 1941. In December 1941 the Czechoslovak government-in-exile declared war on the Axis powers. Czechoslovak military units took part in the war.

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic was one of the very few countries willing to accept mass Jewish immigration during World War II. At the Évian Conference, it offered to accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees. The DORSA (Dominican Republic Settlement Association) was formed with the assistance of the JDC, and helped settle Jews in Sosúa, on the northern coast. About 700 European Jews of Ashkenazi Jewish descent reached the settlement where each family received 33 hectares (82 acres) of land, 10 cows (plus 2 additional cows per children), a mule and a horse, and a US$10,000 loan (equivalent to about $219,000 in 2025) at 1% interest.

The Dominican Republic officially declared war on the Axis powers on 11 December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the Caribbean state had already been engaged in war actions since before the formal declaration of war. Dominican sailboats and schooners had been attacked on previous occasions by German submarines as, highlighting the case of the 1,993-ton merchant ship, San Rafael, which was making a trip from Tampa, Florida to Kingston, Jamaica, when 80 miles away from its final destination, it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-125, causing the commander to order the ship abandoned. Although the crew of San Rafael managed to escape the event, it would be remembered by the Dominican press as a sign of the "infamy of the German submarines and the danger they represented in the Caribbean".

Recently, due to a research work carried out by the Embassy of the United States of America in Santo Domingo and the Institute of Dominican Studies of the City of New York (CUNY), documents of the Department of Defense were discovered in which it was confirmed that around 340 men and women of Dominican origin were part of the US Armed Forces during the World War II. Many of them received medals and other recognitions for their outstanding actions in combat.

Egypt

The Kingdom of Egypt had been nominally an independent state since 1922 but, under the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, British forces were permitted in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal, the major trade route between the United Kingdom, India and Australia. On 1 September 1939, Britain invoked another clause in the treaty allowing Britain to effectively occupy the country in the event of war. Although Egypt subsequently severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Vichy France, it remained formally neutral, even after Italy invaded the country on 17 September 1940. Britain considered King Farouk an Axis sympathiser and, in the Abdeen Palace incident of February 1942, forced him to appoint a pro-British government which clamped down on Axis sympathisers. The Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein in November 1942, secured Egypt from the Axis. On 26 February 1945, Egypt declared war on Germany and Japan, and the following day signed the United Nations declaration.

Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Empire was invaded by Italy on 3 October 1935. On 2 May 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie I fled into exile, just before the Italian occupation on 7 May. After the outbreak of World War II, the Ethiopian government-in-exile cooperated with the British during the British Invasion of Italian East Africa beginning in June 1940. Haile Selassie returned to his rule on 18 January 1941. Ethiopia declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan in December 1942.

Greece

Greece was invaded by Italy on 28 October 1940 and subsequently joined the Allies. The Greek Army managed to stop the Italian offensive from Italy's protectorate of Albania, and Greek forces pushed Italian forces back into Albania. However, after the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, German forces managed to occupy mainland Greece and, a month later, the island of Crete. The Greek government went into exile, while the country was placed under a puppet government and divided into occupation zones run by Italy, Germany and Bulgaria.

From 1941, a strong resistance movement appeared, chiefly in the mountainous interior, where it established a "Free Greece" by mid-1943. Following the Italian capitulation in September 1943, the Italian zone was taken over by the Germans. Axis forces left mainland Greece in October 1944, although some Aegean islands, notably Crete, remained under German occupation until the end of the war.

Luxembourg

Before the war, Luxembourg had pursued a policy of neutrality and only became an Allied member after being invaded by Germany on 10 May 1940. The government in exile fled, winding up in England. It made Luxembourgish language broadcasts to the occupied country on BBC Radio. In 1944, the government in exile signed a treaty with the Belgian and Dutch governments, creating the Benelux Economic Union and also signed into the Bretton Woods system.

Mexico

Mexico declared war on Germany in 1942 after German submarines attacked the Mexican oil tankers Potrero del Llano and Faja de Oro that were transporting crude oil to the United States. These attacks prompted President Manuel Ávila Camacho to declare war on the Axis powers.

Mexico formed the Escuadrón 201 fighter squadron as part of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana (FAEM—"Mexican Expeditionary Air Force"). The squadron was attached to the 58th Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Forces and carried out tactical air support missions during the liberation of the main Philippine island of Luzon in the summer of 1945.

Some 300,000 Mexican citizens went to the United States to work on farms and factories. Some 15,000 U.S. nationals of Mexican origin and Mexican residents in the US enrolled in the US Armed Forces and fought in various fronts around the world.

Netherlands

The Netherlands became an Allied member after being invaded on 10 May 1940 by Germany. During the ensuing campaign, the Netherlands were defeated and occupied by Germany. The Netherlands was liberated by Canadian, British, American and other allied forces during the campaigns of 1944 and 1945. The Princess Irene Brigade, formed from escapees from the German invasion, took part in several actions in 1944 in Arromanches and in 1945 in the Netherlands. Navy vessels saw action in the British Channel, the North Sea and the Mediterranean, generally as part of Royal Navy units. Dutch airmen flying British aircraft participated in the air war over Germany.

The Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) was the principal Dutch colony in Asia, and was seized by Japan in 1942. During the Dutch East Indies Campaign, the Netherlands played a significant role in the Allied effort to halt the Japanese advance as part of the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command. The ABDA fleet finally encountered the Japanese surface fleet at the Battle of Java Sea, at which Doorman gave the order to engage. During the ensuing battle the ABDA fleet suffered heavy losses, and was mostly destroyed after several naval battles around Java; the ABDA Command was later dissolved. The Japanese finally occupied the Dutch East Indies in February–March 1942. Dutch troops, aircraft and escaped ships continued to fight on the Allied side and also mounted a guerrilla campaign in Timor.

New Zealand

New Zealand was a sovereign Dominion under the New Zealand monarchy, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931. It quickly entered World War II, officially declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939, just hours after Britain. Unlike Australia, which had felt obligated to declare war, as it also had not ratified the Statute of Westminster, New Zealand did so as a sign of allegiance to Britain, and in recognition of Britain's abandonment of its former appeasement policy, which New Zealand had long opposed. This led to then Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage declaring two days later:

With gratitude for the past and confidence in the future we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand. We are only a small and young nation, but we march with a union of hearts and souls to a common destiny.

Norway

Because of its strategic location for control of the sea lanes in the North Sea and the Atlantic, both the Allies and Germany worried about the other side gaining control of the neutral country. Germany ultimately struck first with Operation Weserübung on 9 April 1940, resulting in the two-month-long Norwegian Campaign, which ended in a German victory and their war-long occupation of Norway.

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

The Norwegian merchant fleet, then the fourth largest in the world, was organized into Nortraship to support the Allied cause. Nortraship was the world's largest shipping company, and at its height operated more than 1000 ships.

Norway was neutral when Germany invaded, and it is not clear when Norway became an Allied country. Great Britain, France and Polish forces in exile supported Norwegian forces against the invaders but without a specific agreement. Norway's cabinet signed a military agreement with Britain on 28 May 1941. This agreement allowed all Norwegian forces in exile to operate under British command. Norwegian troops in exile should primarily be prepared for the liberation of Norway, but could also be used to defend Britain. At the end of the war German forces in Norway surrendered to British officers on 8 May and allied troops occupied Norway until 7 June.

Poland

The Invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, started the war in Europe, and the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany on 3 September. Poland fielded the third biggest army among the European Allies, after the Soviet Union and United Kingdom, but before France.

Polish Army suffered a series of defeats in the first days of the invasion. The Soviet Union unilaterally considered the flight to Romania of President Ignacy Mościcki and Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły on 17 September as evidence of debellatio causing the extinction of the Polish state, and consequently declared itself allowed to invade Poland starting from the same day. However, the Red Army had invaded the Second Polish Republic several hours before the Polish president fled to Romania. The Soviets invaded on 17 September at 3 a.m., while president Mościcki crossed the Polish-Romanian border at 21:45 on the same day.

The formation of the Polish armed forces in France began as early as September 1939. By June 1940, their numbers had reached 85,000 soldiers. These forces took part in the Norwegian campaign and the Battle of France. After the defeat of France, the reconstitution of the Polish army had to start from scratch. Polish pilots played a key role in the Battle of Britain, separate Polish units took part in the North African Campaign. After the conclusion of the Polish-Soviet agreement on 30 July 1941, the formation of the Polish army in the Soviet Union (II Corps) also began. The II Corps, numbering 83,000 along with civilians, began to be evacuated from the Soviet Union in mid-1942. It later took part in the fighting in Italy.

After breaking off relations with the Polish government, the Soviet Union began forming its own Polish communist government and its armed forces in mid-1943, from which the 1st Polish Army, under Zygmunt Berling, was formed on 16 March 1944. That army was fighting on the eastern front, alongside the Soviet forces, including the Battle of Berlin, the closing battle of the European theater of war.

The Home Army, loyal to the London-based government and the largest underground force in Europe, as well other smaller resistance organizations in occupied Poland provided intelligence to the Allies and led to uncovering of Nazi war crimes (i.e., death camps).

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic contacts with Germany on 11 September 1939, and with Japan in October 1941. The Saudis provided the Allies with large supplies of oil. Diplomatic relations with the United States were established in 1943. King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud was a personal friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Americans were then allowed to build an air force base near Dhahran. Saudi Arabia declared war on Germany and Japan in 1945.

South Africa

South Africa was a sovereign Dominion under the South African monarchy, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931. South Africa held authority over the mandate of South-West Africa. Due to significant pro-German feeling and the presence of fascist sympathizers within the Afrikaner nationalist movement (such as the Grey Shirts and the Ossewabrandwag), South Africa's entry into the war was politically divisive. Initially the government of J. B. M. Hertzog tried to maintain official neutrality after the outbreak of war. This caused a revolt by the governing United Party caucus which voted against Hertzog's position on the war and resulted in Hertzog's coalition partner, Jan Smuts, forming a new government and becoming prime minister. Smuts was then able to lead the country into war on the side of the Allies.

Around 334,000 South Africans volunteered to fight in the war with 11,023 recorded wartime deaths.

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia entered the war on the Allied side after the invasion of Axis powers on 6 April 1941. The Royal Yugoslav Army was thoroughly defeated in less than two weeks and the country was occupied starting on 18 April. The Italian-backed Croatian fascist leader Ante Pavelić declared the Independent State of Croatia before the invasion was over. King Peter II and much of the Yugoslavian government had left the country. In the United Kingdom, they joined numerous other governments in exile from Nazi-occupied Europe. Beginning with the uprising in Herzegovina in June 1941, there was continuous anti-Axis resistance in Yugoslavia until the end of the war.

Before the end of 1941, the anti-Axis resistance movement split between the royalist Chetniks and the communist Yugoslav Partisans of Josip Broz Tito who fought both against each other during the war and against the occupying forces. The Yugoslav Partisans managed to put up considerable resistance to the Axis occupation, forming various liberated territories during the war. In August 1943, there were over 30 Axis divisions on the territory of Yugoslavia, not including the forces of the Croatian puppet state and other quisling formations. In 1944, the leading Allied powers persuaded Tito's Yugoslav Partisans and the royalist Yugoslav government led by Prime Minister Ivan Šubašić to sign the Treaty of Vis that created the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia.

The Partisans were a major Yugoslav resistance movement against the Axis occupation and partition of Yugoslavia. Initially, the Partisans were in rivalry with the Chetniks over control of the resistance movement. However, the Partisans were recognized by both the Eastern and Western Allies as the primary resistance movement in 1943. After that, their strength increased rapidly, from 100,000 at the beginning of 1943 to over 648,000 in September 1944. In 1945 they were transformed into the Yugoslav army, organized in four field armies with 800,000 fighters.

The Chetniks, the short name given to the movement titled the Yugoslav Army of the Fatherland, were initially a major Allied Yugoslav resistance movement. However, due to their royalist and anti-communist views, Chetniks were considered to have begun collaborating with the Axis as a tactical move to focus on destroying their Partisan rivals. The Chetniks presented themselves as a Yugoslav movement, but were primarily a Serb movement. They reached their peak in 1943 with 93,000 fighters. Their major contribution was Operation Halyard in 1944. In collaboration with the OSS, 413 Allied airmen shot down over Yugoslavia were rescued and evacuated.

Associated powers and other states fighting Axis

The Paris peace treaties of 1947 distinguished between "Associated Powers" of the Allies, and enemy states that had switched sides and become "co-belligerents" of the Allies or otherwise "took an active part in the war against Germany."

Albania

Italy invaded Albania on 7 April 1939 and annexed the country. King Zog of Albania fled to London, but Britain recognized the Italian annexation. Various resistance groups emerged in Albania including the Balli Kombëtar (National Front) and partisans led by the Communist Party. Following Italy's withdrawal from the Axis in September 1943, Germany invaded Albania and installed a new collaborationist government. In October 1944, Germany began evacuating Albania, harried by the partisans who, supplied by the Allies, were now the dominant resistance army. Tirana fell to the partisans on 28 November 1944 and the Communist-dominated National Liberation Movement took control of the country. Albania was recognized as an "Associated Power" of the Allies in the peace treaty with Italy of February 1947.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria signed the Tripartite Pact on 1 March 1941, and on 13 December declared war on the United Kingdom and the United States. Bulgaria did not declare war on the Soviet Union, but as the Soviet army advanced to its border in 1944, it submitted to Soviet pressure and declared war on Germany on 8 September. A new Bulgarian government, dominated by communists, committed over 300,000 troops to the war against Germany. These troops fought alongside Soviet forces in the Balkans, Hungary and Austria. Bulgaria remained technically at war with the Allies until the ratification of its treaty of February 1947 with them.

Finland

Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union on 30 November 1939 and forced to cede territory in the subsequent peace treaty of 12 March 1940. On 26 June 1941, Finland joined Germany in its invasion of the Soviet Union, leading to the United Kingdom declaring war on Finland on 5 December. Finland sought peace when Soviet troops entered the country in 1944. The Soviet Union demanded that Finland break off relations with Germany and expel or disarm German troops in Finland as preconditions for an armistice. Finland severed relations with Germany on 3 September 1944, and signed the Moscow Armistice with the Soviet Union on 19 September. Under pressure from the Soviet Union, Finland escalated skirmishing with the German troops evacuating Finland into warfare in the Lapland region by 2 October. Finland's war against Germany ended when the last German soldiers left Finland for Norway in April 1945. Finland, however, was not recognised as an allied power. It remained technically at war with the Soviet Union and United Kingdom until ratification of its 1947 peace treaty with them.

Italy

Italy entered the war as an Axis power on 10 June 1940. Following the Allied invasion of Sicily, Italy's fascist leader Benito Mussolini was deposed on 25 July 1943, and the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III, appointed Pietro Badoglio prime minister. The new government signed an armistice on 3 September 1943 ending Italy's war against the Allies. The Italian government moved to the south of the country and declared war on Germany on 13 October, becoming a co-belligerent of the Allies. The Italian Co-Belligerent Army participated in the Allied campaign against German forces in Italy and Mussolini's Italian Social Republic in the north of the country. The co-belligerent army's participation in the fighting was initially limited until, in January 1945, four divisions were deployed on the frontline from Bologna to the Adriatic. Italy remained technically at war with the Allies until ratification of its 1947 peace treaty with the Allied and Associated Powers.

Romania

Initially neutral in the war, Romania joined the Axis powers when it signed the Tripartite Pact on 23 November 1940. It joined the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, leading to the United Kingdom declaring war on Romania on 7 December. Romania declared war on the United States on 12 December. As the war turned against the Axis powers, King Michael of Romania deposed the government of Ion Antonescu on 23 August 1944, and Romania entered the war against Germany and Hungary. Romania signed an armistice with the Allies on 12 September under which it was required to deploy 12 infantry divisions against the remaining Axis powers. Romania eventually deployed 16 to 20 divisions, assisting the Soviet Union in driving Axis forces from Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The Romanian army was the fourth largest engaged against Axis forces in Europe at that time. The Soviet Union compelled the Romanian government of Petru Groza to demobilise its forces in March 1945, and Romania remained formally at war with the Allies until the ratification of its 1947 peace treaty with them.

Legacy

Charter of the United Nations

The Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942, signed by the Four Policemen – the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China – and 22 other countries laid the groundwork for the future of the United Nations.

At the Potsdam Conference of July – August 1945, Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman, proposed that the foreign ministers of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States "should draft the peace treaties and boundary settlements of Europe", which led to the creation of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the "Big Five", and soon thereafter the establishment of those states as the permanent members of the UNSC.

The Charter of the United Nations was agreed to during the war at the United Nations Conference on International Organization, held between April and July 1945. The Charter was signed by 50 states on 26 June (Poland had its place reserved and later became the 51st "original" signatory), and was formally ratified shortly after the war on 24 October 1945. In 1944, the United Nations was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and China at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference where the formation and the permanent seats (for the "Big Five", China, France, the United Kingdom, US, and Soviet Union) of the United Nations Security Council were decided. The Security Council met for the first time in the immediate aftermath of war on 17 January 1946.

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

Cold War

Despite the successful creation of the United Nations, the alliance of the Soviet Union with the United States and with the United Kingdom ultimately broke down and evolved into the Cold War, which took place over the following half-century.

Summary

The Big Four:

United Kingdom (from 3 September 1939)

India

Australia

New Zealand

South Africa

Canada

Soviet Union (from 22 June 1941)

United States (from 7 December 1941)

China (from 9 December 1941)

Allied combatant states and allied governments in exile:

Free France

Poland

Czechoslovakia

Belgium

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Norway

Greece

Yugoslavia

Ethiopian Empire

Philippines

Minor sovereign Allied combatant states:

Mexico

Brazil

Associated powers of the Allies:

Nepal

Albania (from 20 October 1944)

Timeline of Allied states entering the war

The following list denotes dates on which states declared war on the Axis powers, or on which an Axis power declared war on them.

1939

Poland: 1 September 1939

France: 3 September 1939

French Equatorial Africa: 27 October 1940

French Cameroon: 27 August 1940

United Kingdom: 3 September 1939

India: 3 September 1939

Australia: 3 September 1939

New Zealand: 3 September 1939

Nepal: 4 September 1939

South Africa: 6 September 1939

Canada: 10 September 1939

Muscat and Oman: 10 September 1939

1940

Norway: 8 April 1940

Denmark 9 April 1940 – German invasion without declaration of war

Belgium: 10 May 1940

Luxembourg: 10 May 1940

Netherlands: 10 May 1940

Greece: 28 October 1940

1941

Yugoslavia: 6 April 1941 (Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact, becoming a nominal member of the Axis on 25 March. The signing of the pact was met with coup d'état on 27 March by pro-western forces which led to an invasion by the Axis on 6 April 1941.)

Soviet Union: 22 June 1941; Despite membership of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Belarus were recognized as separate fighting states by the United Kingdom and the United States at the end of the war.

Panama: 7 December 1941

United States: 8 December 1941 (war declared on Japan after the Pearl Harbor attack)

Philippines: 8 December 1941

Costa Rica: 8 December 1941

Dominican Republic: 8 December 1941

El Salvador: 8 December 1941

Haiti: 8 December 1941

Honduras: 8 December 1941

Nicaragua: 8 December 1941

China: 9 December 1941 (at war with Japan since 1937)

Cuba: 9 December 1941

Guatemala: 9 December 1941

United States: 11 December 1941 (war declared on the U.S. by Germany and Italy)

Provisional governments or governments-in exile that declared war against the Axis

Korea (government in exile): 10 December 1941

1942

Mexico: 22 May 1942

Brazil: 22 August 1942

Ethiopia: 14 December 1942

1943

Iraq: 16 January 1943

Bolivia: 7 April 1943

Colombia: 26 July 1943

Iran: 9 September 1943

Italy: 10 October 1943 – former Axis power; Italian Social Republic was founded in September 1943 and continued on the Axis side

1944

Liberia: 27 January 1944

Romania: 25 August 1944 – former Axis power

Bulgaria: 8 September 1944 – former Axis power

Hungary: 30 December 1944 – former Axis power

1945

Ecuador: 2 February 1945

Paraguay: 7 February 1945

Peru: 12 February 1945

Uruguay: 15 February 1945

Venezuela: 15 February 1945

Turkey: 23 February 1945

Egypt: 24 February 1945

Syria: 26 February 1945

Lebanon: 27 February 1945

Saudi Arabia: 1 March 1945

Finland: 3 March 1945 – former ally 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 declared war on Germany and Japan.

Italy: On 14 July 1945 the Kingdom of Italy formally declared war on Japan (Italy and Japan after the surrender)