Allies of World War II

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 Warthe United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japanbecame 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. 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 and France also began negotiations for a defence treaty with the Soviet Union but little progress was made. Two days later, Britain signed a military alliance with Poland. == 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. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada declared war on Germany in the two weeks following the British declaration. 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. 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. The 26 original signatories were: • United States • United Kingdom • Soviet Union • China • Australia • Belgium • Canada • Costa Rica • Cuba • Czechoslovakia • Dominican Republic • El Salvador • Greece • Guatemala • Haiti • Honduras • British India • Luxembourg • Netherlands • New Zealand • Nicaragua • Norway • Panama • Poland • South Africa • Yugoslavia 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 , created in 1941 by the U.S. Office of War InformationA 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. 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. 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. 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. A rift developed between the Soviet Union and the western allies over the political settlement of postwar Europe. The Soviet Union pressed the United Kingdom and United States to recognise the territorial gains it had made in the Baltic states, Finland, Bessarabia and eastern Poland before the German invasion. The United Kingdom and United States rejected these demands as incompatible with the Atlantic Charter principle of no territorial changes without the consent of the people concerned. Chiang's standing with the other allied leaders was weakened by the poor performance of his army during this offensive and by the US adoption of the island hopping strategy against Japan which reduced the importance of bases in China. Chiang was not invited to the Yalta and Potsdam conferences of 1945. ==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. File:Spitfire and He 111 during Battle of Britain 1940.jpg|British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft (bottom) flying past a German Heinkel He 111 bomber aircraft (top) during the Battle of Britain in 1940 File:IWM-E-6724-Crusader-19411126.jpg|British Crusader tanks during the North African Campaign File:HMS Ark Royal attack.jpg|British aircraft carrier under attack from Italian aircraft during the Battle of Cape Spartivento (27 November 1940) File:The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 B15008.jpg|British soldiers of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in Elst, Netherlands on 2 March 1945 India About two-thirds of India was under the direct rule of the United Kingdom exercised by a viceroy representing the British crown. The other third mostly consisted of princely states, nominally under Indian rulers subordinate to the British crown. Nevertheless, India separately signed the Declaration by United Nations on 2 January 1942, and signed the Paris Peace Treaties of February 1947 as an Allied Power. India was an important supply base for Commonwealth, American and Chinese forces and itself produced about £286.5 million worth of military equipment and other supplies. By 1945, the Indian army numbered 2.5 million people the largest volunteer army in history. Indian troops played a major role in the Burma campaign and in other theaters. Its military losses were about 100,000 killed, wounded or missing, and almost 80,000 taken prisoner. An estimated 3 million Indian people died in the Bengal famine of 1943. France forces at the Battle of Bir Hakeim, 1942 War declared fighters at Casablanca, French Morocco rather than fall into the hands of the Axis after their invasion of Vichy France on 11 November 1942. 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: France experienced several major phases of action during World War II: • The "Phoney War" of 1939–1940, also called in France, in Poland (both meaning "Strange War"), or the ("Sitting War", a pun on ) 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. • The liberation of mainland France beginning with D-Day on 6 June 1944 and operation Overlord, and then with operation Dragoon on 15 August 1944, leading to the Liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 by the Free French 2e Division Blindée and the installation of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in the newly liberated capital. • Participation of the re-established provisional French Republic's First Army in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine and the Western Allied invasion of Germany until V-E Day on 8 May 1945. Colonies and dependencies Africa In Africa these included: French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, the League of Nations mandates of French Cameroun and French Togoland, French Madagascar, French Somaliland, and the protectorates of French Tunisia and French Morocco. French Algeria was then not a colony or dependency but a fully-fledged part of metropolitan France. Asia and Oceania to the Allies, late June 1941. A car carrying Free French commanders General Georges Catroux and General Paul Louis Le Gentilhomme enters the city, escorted by French Circassian cavalry (Gardes Tcherkess). In Asia and Oceania France has several territories: French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, French Indochina, French India, Guangzhouwan, the mandates of Greater Lebanon and French Syria. The French government in 1936 attempted to grant independence to its mandate of Syria in the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence of 1936 signed by France and Syria. However, opposition to the treaty grew in France and the treaty was not ratified. Syria had become an official republic in 1930 and was largely self-governing. In 1941, a British-led invasion supported by Free French forces expelled Vichy French forces in Operation Exporter. Americas France had several colonies in America, namely Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Soviet Union tanks advancing near Bryansk in 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad ground attack aircraft attacking German ground forces during the Battle of Kursk, 1943 History In the lead-up to the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, relations between the two states underwent several stages. General Secretary Joseph Stalin and the government of the Soviet Union had supported so-called popular front movements of anti-fascists 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". 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. 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". On 15 September 1939, Stalin concluded a durable ceasefire with Japan, to take effect the following day (it would be upgraded to a non-aggression pact in April 1941). On 30 November, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, for which it was expelled from the League of Nations. In the following year of 1940, while the world's attention was focused upon the German invasion of France and Norway, the Soviet Union militarily occupied and annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as well as parts of Romania. German-Soviet treaties were brought to an end by the German surprise attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin endorsed the Western Allies as part of a renewed popular front strategy against Germany and called for the international communist movement to make a coalition with all those who opposed the Nazis. the Viet Minh and the Yugoslav Partisans. The Soviet Union intervened against Japan and its client state in Manchuria in 1945, cooperating with the Nationalist Government of China and the Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai-shek; though also cooperating, preferring, and encouraging the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong to take effective control of Manchuria after expelling Japanese forces. Central Asian and Caucasian Republics Among the Soviet forces during World War II, millions of troops were from the Soviet Central Asian Republics. They included 1,433,230 soldiers from Uzbekistan, more than 1million from Kazakhstan, and more than 700,000 from Azerbaijan, among other Central Asian Republics. United States History dive-bombers onboard the USS Enterprise during the Battle of Midway, 4 June 1942 on 6 June 1944 known as D-Day 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. A major turning point in the Pacific War was the Battle of Midway where American naval forces were outnumbered by Japanese forces that had been sent to Midway to draw out and destroy American aircraft carriers in the Pacific and seize control of Midway that would place Japanese forces in proximity to Hawaii. However American forces managed to sink four of Japan's six large aircraft carriers that had initiated the attack on Pearl Harbor along with other attacks on Allied forces. Afterwards, the United States began an offensive against Japanese-captured positions. The Guadalcanal Campaign from 1942 to 1943 was a major contention point where Allied and Japanese forces struggled to gain control of Guadalcanal. Colonies and dependencies at Fort William McKinley firing a 37 mm anti-tank gun in training, circa 1941 The United States held multiple dependencies in the Americas, such as Alaska, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the Pacific it held multiple island dependencies such as American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Midway Islands, Wake Island and others. These dependencies were directly involved in the Pacific campaign of the war. The Commonwealth of the Philippines was a sovereign protectorate referred to as an "associated state" of the United States. From late 1941 to 1944, the Philippines was occupied by Japanese forces, who established the Second Philippine Republic as a client state that had nominal control over the country. China In the 1920s the Soviet Union provided military assistance to the Kuomintang, 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. Factions Nationalists associated with Nationalist China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War Prior to the alliance of Germany and Italy to Japan, the Nationalist Government held close relations with both Germany and Italy. In the early 1930s, Sino-German cooperation existed between the Nationalist Government and Germany in military and industrial matters. Nazi Germany provided the largest proportion of Chinese arms imports and technical expertise. Relations between the Nationalist Government and Italy during the 1930s varied, however even after the Nationalist Government followed League of Nations sanctions against Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia, the international sanctions proved unsuccessful, and relations between the Fascist government in Italy and the Nationalist Government in China returned to normal shortly afterwards. Up until 1936, Mussolini had provided the Nationalists with Italian military air and naval missions to help the Nationalists fight against Japanese incursions and communist insurgents. The Nationalist Government held close relations with the United States. The United States opposed Japan's invasion of China in 1937 that it considered an illegal violation of China's sovereignty, and offered the Nationalist Government diplomatic, economic, and military assistance during its war against Japan. In particular, the United States sought to bring the Japanese war effort to a complete halt by imposing a full embargo on all trade between the United States to Japan, Japan was dependent on the United States for 80 per cent of its petroleum, resulting in an economic and military crisis for Japan that could not continue its war effort with China without access to petroleum. In November 1940, American military aviator Claire Lee Chennault upon observing the dire situation in the air war between China and Japan, set out to organize a volunteer squadron of American fighter pilots to fight alongside the Chinese against Japan, known as the Flying Tigers. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted dispatching them to China in early 1941. The Soviet Union also urged military and cooperation between Nationalist China and Communist China during the war. In turn, the Soviet Union accepted Mao's tactic of "continuous guerilla warfare" in the countryside that involved a goal of extending the Communist bases, even if it would result in increased tensions with the Nationalists. The Communist Party's position in China was boosted further upon the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945 against the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and the Japanese Kwantung Army in China and Manchuria. Upon the intervention of the Soviet Union against Japan in World War II in 1945, Mao Zedong in April and May 1945 had planned to mobilize 150,000 to 250,000 soldiers from across China to work with forces of the Soviet Union in capturing Manchuria. ==Other 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 , September 1944 during the Battle of the Scheldt 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. Colonies and dependencies Belgium held the colony of the Belgian Congo and the League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. The Belgian Congo was not occupied and remained loyal to the Allies as an important economic asset while its deposits of uranium were useful to the Allied efforts to develop the atomic bomb. Troops from the Belgian Congo participated in the East African Campaign against the Italians. The colonial Force Publique 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 of land, 10 cows (plus 2 additional cows per children), a mule and a horse, and a US$10,000 loan (equivalent to about $ in ) 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. Colonies and dependencies The Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) was the principal Dutch colony in Asia, and was seized by Japan in 1942. During the Dutch East Indies Campaign, the 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: Norway , May 1940 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 during the Battle of Britain 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 Polish military continued to fight against both the Germans and the Soviets, and the last major battle of the war, the Battle of Kock, ended at 1 a.m. on 6 October 1939 with the Independent Operational Group "Polesie", a field army, surrendering due to lack of ammunition. The country never officially surrendered to Nazi Germany, nor to the Soviet Union, and continued the war effort under the Polish government-in-exile. (AK), "Jędrusie" unit, holding a Browning wz.1928 light machine gun 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. 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 , autumn 1941 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. Resistance factions with Winston Churchill in 1944 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. Partisans The Partisans were a major Yugoslav resistance movement against the Axis occupation and partition of Yugoslavia. Initially, the Partisans were in rivalry with the Chetniks over control of the resistance movement. However, the Partisans were recognized by both the Eastern and Western Allies as the primary resistance movement in 1943. After that, their strength increased rapidly, from 100,000 at the beginning of 1943 to over 648,000 in September 1944. In 1945 they were transformed into the Yugoslav army, organized in four field armies with 800,000 fighters. Chetniks with members of the U.S. military mission, Operation Halyard, 1944 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 was recognized as an "Associated Power" of the Allies in the peace treaty with Italy of February 1947. Bulgaria remained technically at war with the Allies until the ratification of its treaty of February 1947 with them. 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. 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 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. 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): • Argentine Republic • Commonwealth of Australia • Kingdom of Belgium • Republic of Bolivia • United States of Brazil • Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic • Dominion of Canada • Republic of Chile • Republic of China* • Republic of Colombia • Republic of Costa Rica • Republic of Cuba • Czechoslovak Republic • Kingdom of Denmark • Dominican 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 • India • Imperial State of Iran • 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 Ireland* • United States of America* • Oriental Republic of Uruguay • United States of Venezuela • Democratic Federal Yugoslavia Cold War Despite the successful creation of the United Nations, the alliance of the Soviet Union with the United States and with the United Kingdom ultimately broke down and evolved into the Cold War, which took place over the following half-century. ==Summary==

The Big Four: • (from 3 September 1939) • • • • • • (from 22 June 1941) • (from 7 December 1941) • (from 9 December 1941) Allied combatant states and allied governments in exile: • Free France • • • • • • Norway • • Yugoslavia • • Philippines Minor sovereign Allied combatant states: • • Brazil Associated powers of the Allies: • Nepal • Albania (from 20 October 1944) Co-belligerent states fighting the Axis: • (from 8 September 1943) • (from 25 August 1944) • (from 5 September 1944) • (from 15 September 1944) • (30 December 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 • Australia: 3 September 1939 • New Zealand: 3 September 1939 • Nepal: 4 September 1939 • South Africa: 6 September 1939 • Canada: 10 September 1939 • 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.) , 1942 • 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 • Cuba: 9 December 1941 • Czechoslovakia (government-in-exile): 16 December 1941 1942 • Mexico: 22 May 1942former Axis power • Hungary: 30 December 1944former Axis power 1945 • Ecuador: 2 February 1945 • Paraguay: 7 February 1945 • Uruguay: 15 February 1945 • Venezuela: 15 February 1945 • Turkey: 23 February 1945 • Chile: 11 April 1945 declared war on Japan (Italy and Japan after the surrender) ==See also==

• • Dear, Ian C. B. and Michael Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (2005), comprehensive encyclopedia for all countries; online • • Holland R. (1981), Britain and the Commonwealth alliance, 1918–1939, London: Macmillan. . • • • Leonard, T. M. (2007). Latin America during World War II. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield. . • • Overy, Richard (1997), ''Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945''. New York: Penguin. . • Smith, Gaddis. American Diplomacy During the Second World War, 1941–1945 (1965) online • • ==Further reading==