Allies of World War II

The group of countries known as the Allies of World War II, were those nations opposed to the Axis Powers during the Second World War.

Pearl Harbor: December 7,1941

China

Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War

By the time World War II began, Chinese forces began fighting the Empire of Japan on and off since 1894.

During the 1920s, the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party; KMT) government was supported by the Soviet Union, which sought to hinder Japanese attempts to threaten Siberia. However, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek purged leftists from his party and refused to ally with the Communist Party of China (CCP) to fight against the Japanese, and instead opted to fight both at once. This remained the case even after the Mukden Incident and the puppet regime of Manchuria set by Japanese troops in 1931.

Starting in the late 1920s, Germany and China became close partners in areas of military and industrial exchange. After 1933, because of Chiang's anti-communist policies, Nazi Germany provided the largest proportion of Chinese arms imports. German military advisors assisted the Kuomintang armies; Chinese officers (including Chiang's second son) were trained by and served with the German Wehrmacht. The Nazis denounced Japanese war crimes in China, such as the Nanking Massacre of 1937. However the Nazis broke off the cooperation in May 1938 when they recognised the existence of Manchukuo.

Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 8, 1937, Chinese forces engaged the Empire of Japan in full-scale hostilities which continued until 1945. In 1936, KMT generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng (with the support of the Communist leader Zhou Enlai), kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek in the Xi'an Incident and forced him to join a united front with the Communists against the Japanese. Even though the ceasefire was in effect, the armies were never under a united command, as both armies were trying to conserve their own strength for a coming showdown with each other.

Even though China had been fighting longest among all the Allied powers, it only officially joined the Allies after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941. Chiang Kai-shek felt Allied victory was assured with the entrance of the United States into the war and he declared war on Germany and the other Axis nations.

Pre-war alliances in Europe

France and the United Kingdom were already linked by the Entente Cordiale (since 1904) and had been members of the Triple Entente during The Great War.

In 1938, Czechoslovakia had formal alliances with the Soviet Union (USSR) and France, but when Nazi Germany sought to annex Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, neither France nor the USSR was willing and/or able to offer military support. France and the United Kingdom instead approved the annexation, under the Treaty of Munich. Other areas of Czechoslovakia were subsequently annexed by Poland (in October 1938) and Hungary (in November 1938). The remaining territory was occupied by Nazi Germany in March 1939.

The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared that if Hitler attacked Poland, which was considered to be at risk of an assault by the Third Reich, then Britain and France would give Poland "all support in their power". This promise was extended to Greece and Romania, after Italy's conquest of Albania on April 7, 1939. A formal military alliance was concluded between the UK, France and Poland on April 6, 1939.

Meanwhile, attempts by the Soviet Union to negotiate an alliance with France and Britain proved unsuccessful. Furthermore, in both mid-1938 and between May-August, 1939, the Soviets were involved in localised conflicts with Japan (see Battle of Lake Khasan and Battle of Halhin Gol). Wishing to avoid war with Germany, on August 23, 1939, the USSR signed the German-Soviet non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany.

Key alliances are formed

On September 1, the German invasion of Poland began World War II. Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand all declared war on Germany on September 3. Nepal, Newfoundland, Tonga, South Africa and Canada followed suit within days. On September 17, the Soviets invaded Poland from the East. The following year, the USSR annexed the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) together with parts of Romania, and attacked Finland. The German-Soviet agreement was brought to an end by the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941.

The United States of America joined the Allies following the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. The Declaration by United Nations, on January 1, 1942, officially united 26 nations as Allies. (The Declaration also formed the basis for the United Nations.) The informal Big 3 alliance of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States emerged in the latter half of the war, and their decisions determined Allied strategy around the world.

Dates on which states joined the Allies

Formal alliances during the war

Original allies

These countries were allied to each other by a net of common defence pacts and military alliance pacts signed before the war. The Franco-British Alliance dated back to the Entente Cordiale of 1904 and the Triple Entente of 1907, active during the World War I. The Franco-Polish Alliance was signed in 1921 and then amended in 1927 and 1939. The original allies were the states that declared war on Nazi Germany in September of 1939, thus starting World War II.

The Polish government in exile after 1939 continued the Polish contribution to World War II on several fronts with hundreds of thousand of members in the Polish Army in France and UK, as well as the Home Army in occupied Poland. The Soviet Union however, did not recognize the government and in 1943 organized the Polish People's Army under Rokossovsky, around which eventually it constructed the post-war successor state.

British, Dutch and French colonies fought alongside their metropolitan countries, and many continued their contribution also when the mother countries were occupied.

The Commonwealth

In addition to the United Kingdom, several independent members of the Commonwealth of Nations, known as the Dominions, declared war on Germany separately, either on the same day, or soon afterwards.

British India

British India, a crown colony of Great Britain which included modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma declared war on the Axis powers soon after Britain's entry into the World War 2.

The Oslo Group

The Oslo Group was an organisation of officially neutral countries. Four members later joined the Allies, as governments in exile: the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The Republic of Finland was invaded by the USSR on November 30 1939 [1]. Later Finland and the Kingdom of Denmark officially joined the Axis Anti-Comintern Pact. The Kingdom of Sweden remained officially neutral.

Iceland and Greenland, respectively in union with Denmark and a Danish colony, were occupied by the Allies for most of the war. British forces took control in Iceland in 1940, and it was used to facilitate the movement of Lend Lease equipment. Forces from the United States, although they were officially neutral at the time, occupied Greenland on April 9, 1941. The US also took over in Iceland on July 7, 1941. Iceland declared full independence from Denmark in 1944, but never declared war on any of the Axis powers.

Atlantic Charter

The Atlantic Charter was negotiated at the Atlantic Conference by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, aboard warships in a secure anchorage at Argentia, Newfoundland (located on Placentia Bay) and was issued as a joint declaration on August 14, 1941.

The Atlantic Charter established a vision for a post-World War II world, despite the fact the United States had yet to enter the war.

In brief, the nine points were:

no territorial gains sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;
territorial adjustments must be in accord with wishes of the people;
the right to self-determination of peoples;
trade barriers lowered;
global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;
freedom from want and fear;
freedom of the seas;
disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament
defeat of Germany and other Axis powers

The Atlantic Charter proved to be one of the first steps towards the formation of the United Nations.

Comintern

The following socialist and pro-Soviet forces also fought against the Axis powers before or during the Second World War.

Declaration by United Nations

Declaration by United Nations, January 1, 1942
(26 signatories)

(Note: During 1942 the declaration was adhered to by Mexico, the Commonwealth of the Philippines, and Ethiopia; in the first four months of 1943, it was adhered to by Iraq, Brazil, and Bolivia.

===Tripartite Treaty of Alliance === 29 January 1942

United Kingdom
Soviet Union
Iran [4]

Pan American Union

[5] (21 members)

Havana Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics, July 21-30, 1940

(Final Act of the Second Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics at Habana, Cuba, July 30, 1940)

From July 1944, a Brazilian Expeditionary Force of 25,000 personnel joined the Allies in the Italian campaign. The other countries in this group contributed support units, small combat forces, or to lesser degrees.

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