Allied leaders of World War II
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 | It has been suggested that this article be merged with World War II Allied Leaders and Talk:Allied leaders of World War II#Merger. (Discuss) Proposed since April 2007. |
The Allied Leaders of World War II consists of the important political and military figures during the war.
British Commonwealth
- King George VI was the reigning monarch of the British Commonwealth during the war. Despite only having the role of a figurehead, George VI was seen as a symbol of national unity during the war. Throughout the war, the King provided moral support throughout the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. He and his family would visit bomb sites and munitions factories.
Australia
- John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia, 1941-45. In January 1942, facing Japanese attacks, he wrote in a historic New Year message that Australia looked to the US for its security, rather than the UK. Curtin also insisted that the army's I Corps return from North Africa to defend Australia. He ratified the Statute of Westminster and backdated it to 1939, emphasizing Australia's independence in foreign policy. Curtin also formed a close working relationship with General MacArthur and directed the Australian military to follow MacArthur's orders as if they were his own.
- Thomas Blamey was the commander in chief of the Australian military during the war. Commander of Allied land forces in the South West Pacific, 1942-45. He was Australia's first and only Field Marshal. In 1945 he signed the Japanese surrender document on behalf of Australia.
Canada
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- William Lyon Mackenzie King was the Prime Minister of Canada during the war. He secured greater autonomy for the Commonwealth Realms, allowing them to enter the war of their own accord. Despite initially favouring appeasement of Hitler, he asked Parliament to declare war on Germany after the Invasion of Poland.
- Harry Crerar was a general and the de facto commander-in-chief of the Canadian military during the war.
- Mahatma Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of the Indian National Congress. An opponent of Nazism and Fascism, prior to the war Gandhi sent an open letter to Hitler, touting tolerance. When the war broke out Gandhi had favored offering "non-violent moral support" to the British effort. Gandhi declared that India couldn't be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom, while that freedom was denied in India herself. As the war progressed, Gandhi increased his demands for independence.
South Africa
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- Jan Smuts was the Prime Minister of the South Africa during the war. He served in the Imperial War Cabinet and became South Africa’s first Field Marshal. After the war he represented South Africa at the drafting of the United Nations Charter.
United Kingdom
- Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during most of the war, from 1940 to 1945. An early opponent of Hitler, he came into power after the Invasion of Poland. During the Battle of Britain, Churchill's speeches boosted the British morale during the darkest moments.
- Neville Chamberlain, who had formerly led a policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany, was Prime Minister during the first stages of the world, taking office in 1937 and resigning on 10 May, 1940 after the failed Norwegian Campaign. Chamberlain then became Lord President of the Council. He died of cancer on 9 November, 1940, half a year after resigning.
- Clement Attlee succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister on 27 July, 1945, after the Allied victory in Europe, but before the surrender of Japan.
- Harold Alexander was a Field Marshal commanding the 15th Army Group and all Allied ground forces in Italy. In 1940 he was the last division commander to be evacuated from Dunkirk. Alexander received the surrender of German forces in Italy on April 29 1945.
- Bernard Montgomery was a Field Marshal who led the Allied forces in North Africa. Under his command, the Allies were able to defeat the Afrika Korps. He later commanded the 21st Army Group and all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord.
- Archibald Wavell when the war broke out, was in charge of the Middle East Command. The Italian forces in North Africa greatly outnumbered the Allies. Wavell, however, was able not only to repel Italian attacks, but to defeat them and occupy their colonies in Somaliland and Ethiopia. He also led a successful offensive against the Italians in Libya. Wavell was replaced by Claude Auchinleck in 1941. During early 1942, he led the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command in South East Asia and the Pacific, before resuming his previous position, as head of the India Command (later South East Asia Command).
China
- Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the National Government of the Republic of China and the supreme commander of the China Theatre, which also included Burma. He was the chairman of the National Military Council, the highest political organ of the wartime Chinese government. He wished to defeat communism first before taking on Japan, but after the Xi'an Incident Chiang Kai-shek made a temporary truce with the communists to form a united front against Japan. After the war the truce ended and hostilities continued until his government retreated to Taiwan.
- Mao Zedong was leader of the Communist Party of China. He formed an alliance with the Nationalist Government after the Xi'an Incident. After the war, the truce ended and hostilities continued until the communists gained control of the mainland.
France
- Charles de Gaulle was a Brigade General and political leader who led the Free French Forces from 1940 to 1944. After the fall of France, de Gaulle was one of the French military leaders who refused to accept the surrender and the government of Marshal Pétain, the latter became Chief of the short lived French State replacing the Republic. He gave his Appeal of 18 June via BBC to rally the French against the German occupation. In June 1944, de Gaulle formed the Provisional Government of the French Republic and acted as its chairman for the rest of the war.
- Albert Lebrun was the last President of the Third Republic. In 1940, he was forced to accept the German terms of surrender of France and was replaced by Philippe Pétain as head of the Vichy France. In 1944, Lebrun acknowledged de Gaulle's leadership of the restored French, provisional, government. In 1945, since he had not resigned from his presidential office, and that Petain was not president, Lebrun thought he could had been be able to return to power after the liberation [1].
- Édouard Daladier was Prime Minister from 1938 to 1940. He led his country during the opening stages of the war. Daladier resigned on 9 May, 1940, the day before the German invasion of France, because of his failure to aid Finland's defence in the Winter War.
- Paul Reynaud succeeded Daladier as Prime Minister in 1940 and led France during the Battle of France. After Germany had occupied large parts of France, Reynaud was advised by his newly appointed Minister of State Philippe Pétain to come to separate peace with Germany. Reynaud refused to do so, and resigned.
- Maurice Gamelin commanded the French military during the critical days of May 1940, before being removed from his position after failing to defend France from the Germans.
- Maxime Weygand replaced Gamelin as commander of the French army in May 1940. He eventually favoured an armistice with Germany.
- Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque was one of the central leaders of the Free French forces, and commanded forces both in Africa and in France. After the war ended in Europe, he commanded the French Far East Expeditionary Corps in the ongoing Pacific War. He signed the armistice with Japan on behalf of France on September 2, 1945.
- Henri Giraud was de Gaulle's rival and Western Allies favourite. He escaped from Germany where he was Prisoner of war and became second to de Gaulle in the French Forces head of staff after the Casablanca Conference of 1943.
Poland
- Władysław Sikorski was Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile and Commander of the Polish Armed Forces. A staunch advocate of the Polish cause on the diplomatic scene, he supported the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, which had been severed after the Soviet alliance with Germany. In July 1943, Sikorski was killed when his plane crashed into the sea 16 seconds after takeoff from Gibraltar.
- Edward Rydz-Śmigły was Marshal of Poland and commander of the Polish armed forces during the invasion of Poland. After the invasion; Śmigły-Rydz took complete responsibility for Poland's military defeat. He later resigned and joined the resistance movement as a common underground soldier.
Soviet Union
- Joseph Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during WWII. It was during Stalin’s reign that the USSR emerged as a superpower that rivaled the United States. After the war Stalin put communist leaders in power in Eastern Europe triggering the Cold War.
- Vyacheslav Molotov was Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union from 1939-1949. He was responsible for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which governed Soviet-German relations until June 1941 when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Molotov conducted urgent negotiations with Britain and, later, the United States for wartime alliances. He secured Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill's agreement to create a "second front" in Europe.
- Georgy Zhukov was a Soviet Field Marshal who led the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from Nazi occupation. He would lead the Soviets to overrun much of Eastern Europe, and to the capture of Berlin. After the war Zhukov was the supreme Military Commander of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany.
- Mikhail Kalinin was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR during the war, and thus held one of the highest political offices in the Soviet Union.
- Vasily Chuikov commanded the 64th Army and later the 62nd Army, which defended Stalingrad during the crucial Battle of Stalingrad.
- Leonid Govorov became Soviet commander in Leningrad in 1942, and commanded Leningrad's forces in Operation Spark. In 1944, he was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.
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United States
- Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. Roosevelt had come into power during the Great Depression on a promise to heal the country. Prior to the Bombing of Pearl Harbor; he attempted to aid the Allies without declaring war. He died in office two weeks before the surrender of Germany.
- Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 until 1953. It was Truman who ordered the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He oversaw post war recovery.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower nicknamed "Ike," was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of France and Germany. Following the German unconditional surrender , Eisenhower was appointed Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone.
- George Marshall was General of the Army and the Chief of Staff during the war. After the war Marshall became Secretary of State and led the post-war reconstruction effort in Europe, which became known as the Marshall Plan. For his role in the recovery he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Douglas MacArthur was Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the South West Pacific Area, 1942-45. He was commander of US and Filipino forces in the Philippines, before relocating to Australia. He accepted the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 and then became Supreme Commander Allied Powers.
- Omar Bradley was General of the Army in North Africa and Europe during World War II. He led the First United States Army during Operation Overlord and the invasion of Europe. He was informally known as "the soldier's general."
- George S. Patton was a leading general in World War II during the campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, France and Germany. He commanded the Third United States Army in North Africa, Sicily, and the European Theater of Operations.
- Chester W. Nimitz was Admiral of the United States Pacific Fleet in 1941-42 and became supreme commander of Allied forces in the Pacific Ocean Area, 1942-45.
- William D. Leahy, former US ambassador in Vichy France, was effectively chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1942 to 1949. In 1944, he became the first US Fleet Admiral. He also appeared at the Yalta Conference. Leahy criticized the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- Ernest King was Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet (1941-45) as well as Chief of Naval Operations (1942-45) and Fleet Admiral (from 1944).
- William Halsey, Jr. commanded the Third Fleet, formed in 1943, and appeared in the Guadalcanal campaign and the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
