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Allies of World War II
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This article is about the independent states that comprised the Allies. For information about other countries that took part in World War II, see Participants in World War II.

The "Big Three": Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meeting at the Tehran Conference to discuss the European Theatre in 1943.The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. From the ranks of the many Allied powers, the leaders of the United Kingdom, Soviet Union and United States of America were known, colloquially, as "The Big Three".[1] France, before its defeat in 1940 and after Operation Torch in 1942, as well as the Polish government-in-exile, were considered major allies.[2][3] Other allies included Australia, Albania, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Greece, India, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, and Yugoslavia.

During December 1941, Roosevelt devised the name "United Nations" for the Allies. He referred to The Big Three and China as a "trusteeship of the powerful", and then later "the Four Policemen".[4] The Declaration by United Nations, on 1 January 1942, was the basis of the modern UN.[5] 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.[6]

Contents [hide]
1 Dates on which independent states joined the Allies
1.1 After the German invasion of Poland
1.2 After the Phony War
1.3 After the invasion of the USSR
1.4 After the attack on Pearl Harbor
1.5 After the Declaration by United Nations
1.6 After D-Day
2 History
2.1 China
2.2 Key alliances are formed
3 Formal alliances during the war
3.1 Original Allies
3.2 Poland
3.3 British Commonwealth
3.4 France
3.5 Oslo Group
3.6 Portugal
3.7 Pan American Union
3.8 Comintern
3.9 Atlantic Charter
3.10 United Nations
3.10.1 Declaration by United Nations
3.10.2 Charter of the United Nations
3.11 Iran
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 External links



[edit] Dates on which independent states joined the Allies

The Allied leaders of the Asian and Pacific Theatres: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill meeting at the Cairo Conference in 1943.
German Nazi-Soviet military parade, September 22, 1939 after German-Soviet invasion of Poland.
[edit] After the German invasion of Poland
Further information: Invasion of Poland (1939)
Poland: 1 September 1939
Australia: 3 September 1939
France: 3 September 1939 (capitulated on 25 June, 1940)
New Zealand: 3 September 1939
United Kingdom: 3 September 1939, including:
Newfoundland
South Africa: 6 September 1939
Canada: 10 September 1939
Czechoslovakia (government-in-exile): 2 October 1939
Norway: 9 April 1940 (following invasion by Germany)

[edit] After the Phony War
Further information: Phony War
Belgium: 10 May 1940
Luxembourg: 10 May 1940
Netherlands: 10 May 1940
Free France: 18 June 1940
Kingdom of Greece: 28 October 1940
Yugoslavia[7]

[edit] After the invasion of the USSR
Further information: Operation Barbarossa
Further information: Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet Union: 22 June 1941 (in 1939 cooperated with Nazi Germany during Invasion of Poland)

[edit] After the attack on Pearl Harbor
Further information: Attack on Pearl Harbor
Panama: 7 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
United States: 8 December 1941
China : 9 December 1941 (at war with the Empire of Japan since 1937)
Guatemala: 9 December 1941
Cuba: 9 December 1941
Philippine Commonwealth : 9 December 1941[8][9]

[edit] After the Declaration by United Nations
Main article: Declaration by United Nations
British Raj: 1 January 1942 [8][9]
Bahawalpur: (formally on 2 February 1945)
Mexico: 22 May 1942
Brazil: 22 August 1942
Ethiopia: 14 December 1942 (formerly occupied by Italy)
Iraq: 17 January 1943 (occupied by Allies in 1941)
Bolivia: 7 April 1943
Colombia: 26 July 1943
Iran: 9 September 1943 (occupied by Allies in 1941)
Yugoslavia: 1 December 1943[7]
Liberia: 27 January 1944
Peru: 12 February 1944
Italy except for the German puppet Italian Social Republic in northern Italy

[edit] After D-Day
Main article: Operation Overlord
Romania: 23 August 1944 (formerly a member of the Axis)
Bulgaria: 8 September 1944 (formerly a member of the Axis)
San Marino: 21 September 1944 (formerly a co-belligerent of the Axis)
Albania: 26 October 1944 (formerly occupied by Italy and later Germany)
Ecuador: 2 February 1945
Paraguay: 7 February 1945
Uruguay: 15 February 1945
Venezuela: 15 February 1945
Turkey: 23 February 1945
Egypt: 27 February 1945
Lebanon: 27 February 1945
Syria: 27 February 1945
Saudi Arabia: 1 March 1945
Argentina: 27 March 1945
Chile: 11 April 1945

[edit] History

[edit] China
Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War
During the 1920s, the Kuomintang (KMT) government led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was aided by the Soviet Union, which helped to reorganise the party, superficially at least, along Leninist lines: A unification of party, state, and army. However, following the nominal unification of China in 1928, Chiang Kai-shek purged leftists from his party and fought against the 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.

In the early 1930s, Germany and China became close partners in military and industrial matters. Nazi Germany provided the largest proportion of Chinese arms imports and technical expertise. Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, China and Japan became embroiled in a full-scale war which continued until 1945. The Soviet Union, wishing to keep China in the fight against Japan, supplied China with some military assistance until 1941, until it made peace with Japan to prepare for the war against Germany.

Even though China had been fighting the 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. However, Allied aid remained low because the Burma Road was closed and the Allies suffered a series of military defeats against Japan early on in the campaign. The bulk of military aid did not arrive until the spring of 1945. More than 1.5 million Japanese troops were trapped in the China Theatre; troops that otherwise could have been deployed elsewhere if China had collapsed and made a separate peace with Japan.


[edit] Key alliances are formed

Monument to Allies of World War II in MurmanskOn the day 1 September 1939, the German invasion of Poland began World War II. The United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany on the third of September. The British declaration also covered the Indian Empire and other states which were British Crown Colonies at the time.

Following the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the Dominions of the British Commonwealth had independence in foreign policy. Australia and New Zealand accepted and reiterated the British declaration. Nepal, another independent Kingdom, declared war against imperialism on 4 September. The South African Prime Minister, Barry Hertzog, refused to declare war, leading to the collapse of his coalition government on 6 September; the new Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, declared war that same day. Canada declared war on Germany on 10 September; this was necessary as Canada had ratified the Statute of Westminster.

On 17 September, USSR invaded Poland from the East, and on 30 November, the Soviet Union attacked Finland. The following year the USSR annexed the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — together with parts of Romania. The German-Soviet agreement was brought to an end by the German invasion of the USSR on 22 June 1941.

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


[edit] Formal alliances during the war

[edit] Original Allies
The original Allies were those countries that declared war on Nazi Germany following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Poland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[10] and the Commonwealth Dominions.
France
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 Polish-British Common Defence Pact, signed on 25 August 1939, contained promises of mutual military assistance between the nations in the event either was attacked by Nazi Germany.


[edit] Poland
Main article: Polish contribution to World War II
The invasion of Poland started the war in Europe. Poland fielded the third biggest army[11] among the European Allies, after the Soviet Union and Great Britain, but before France. The country never officially surrendered to the Third Reich and continued the war effort under the Polish government in exile. Home Army, the biggest underground force in Europe, and other resistance organizations in occupied Poland provided intelligence that enabled successful operations later in the war and led to uncovering the Nazi war crimes (i.e., death camps) to the Western Allies. Notable Polish units fought in every campaign in Europe and North Africa (outside the Balkans). Polish Armed Forces in the West were created in France and, after its fall, in the United Kingdom. The Soviet Union recognized the London-based government but broke diplomatic relations after the revelation of the Katyn massacre. In 1943, the Soviet Union organized the Polish People's Army under Zygmunt Berling, around which it constructed the post-war successor state People's Republic of Poland. The Polish People's Army took part in the Battle of Berlin, the closing battle of the European theater of war.


[edit] British Commonwealth
Further information: India during World War 2
The United Kingdom and other independent members of the British Commonwealth, known as the Dominions, declared war on Germany separately, either on the same day, or soon afterwards; these countries were Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Newfoundland had given up self-rule and was at the time under effective rule from the UK; it did not become part of Canada until 1949. Southern Rhodesia, while self-governing did not have independence in foreign policy or military matters.

The Indian Empire (including the areas and peoples covered by the later Republic of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and territories controlled by the Colonial Office, namely the Crown Colonies, were controlled politically by the UK and therefore also entered hostilities with Britain's declaration of war. The Indian Empire contributed about 2,500,000 personnel. It suffered 1,500,000 civilian casualties (more than the United Kingdom), mainly from the Bengal famine of 1943 caused by the fall of Burma to the Japanese,[12] and 87,000 military casualties (more than any Commonwealth country but fewer than the United Kingdom). The UK suffered 382,000 military casualties.


[edit] France
Main article: Military history of France during World War II
France experienced several major phases of action during World War II:

The "Phony War" (US: "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") in Germany.
The Battle of France in May–June 1940, which resulted in the defeat of the French Army, the fall of the French Third Republic and the creation of the rump state Vichy France.
The period of French Resistance and Free French Forces, from 1940–1944, until the June 1944 D-Day invasions part of the Battle of Normandy and the August 1944 invasion of southern France in Operation Dragoon, which led to the Liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 and the liberation of France by the allies.
The political creation of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and the military actions following the redesignation of "French Army B" as the First French Army, including the final drive on Germany, which culminated in V-E Day, on 7 May 1945.

[edit] 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 attacked by the USSR on 30 November 1939.[13] Later Finland and the Kingdom of Denmark officially joined the Axis Anti-Comintern Pact. The Kingdom of Sweden remained officially neutral. Following the Moscow armistice of September 1944, Finland effectively joined the Allies and expelled German forces. This led to a series of armed clashes called the Lapland War.

Denmark was invaded by Germany on 9 April 1940. The Danish government did not declare war and it surrendered the same day, on the understanding that it retain control of domestic affairs. No government-in-exile was formed. Danes fought with both Allied and Axis forces. Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland, which were 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 on 10 May 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 9 April 1941. The U.S. Also took over in Iceland on 7 July 1941. Iceland declared full independence from Denmark in 1944, but never declared war on any of the Axis powers.


[edit] Portugal
Although Portugal remained officially neutral, and the Salazar Dictatorship admired Fascist regimes, there was the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance — the world's oldest military alliance (1373) — reactivated by the United Kingdom during World War II, leading to the establishment of an Anglo-American base in Lajes, Terceira Island, Azores, which Salazar finally accepted (December 1943), though he was not in position to refuse anyway. Since 1940, both Churchill and Roosevelt were facing the possibility of a preventive occupation of Azores.[14] Portugal also protested the occupation of Portuguese Timor by Allied forces in 1942 but did not actively resist. The colony was subsequently occupied by Japan. Timorese and Portuguese civilians assisted Australian commandos in resisting the Japanese.


[edit] Pan American Union
The members of the Pan American Union, who were all neutral between 1939 and 1941, formed a mutual defense pact at a conference of foreign ministers at Havana, on 21 July 1940 – 30 July 1940. The "Declaration on Reciprocal Assistance and Cooperation for the Defense of the Nations of the Americas" was part of the Final Act of the Second Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics at Havana, Cuba, July 30, 1940.[15] There were twenty-one signatories:

Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
United States
From this group, three countries contributed military forces to the Allied war effort:

USA
Brazil, from 1942, participated in anti-submarine warfare in the South and Central Atlantic and; in July 1944 sent an Expeditionary Force of 25,000 army and air force personnel to the Italian campaign;
Mexico, in March 1945 sent an air force unit, Escuadrón 201 to join the U.S. Far East Air Force, during the Philippines campaign.
The other 18 countries from this group contributed given support in many ways on lesser degrees or limited to war declaration.


[edit] Comintern
The following socialist, pro-Soviet or Soviet controlled forces fought against the Axis powers before or during the Second World War:

Popular Front
Spain
Spanish Civil War - International Brigades
Albania - Albanian National Liberation Front
Chinese Red Army (a.k.a 8th Route Army; ROC 18th Army or; New Fourth Army)
Greece - Greek National Liberation Front
Communist Party of Germany and near groups of the German Resistance
Philippines - Hukbalahap
Malaysia - Malayan Communist Party
Mongolia
Poland - Ludowe Wojsko Polskie (Polish People's Army)
Tuvinian People's Republic
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Vietnam - Viet Minh
Yugoslavia - Yugoslav Partisans

[edit] 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 NS Argentia, Newfoundland (located on Placentia Bay) and was issued as a joint declaration on 14 August 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.


[edit] United Nations

[edit] Declaration by United Nations

Wartime poster for the United Nations, created in 1943 by the U.S. Office of War Information.Main article: Declaration by United Nations
The alliance was formalised in the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942. There were 27 signatories, as follows:

Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Republic of China
Canada
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Czechoslovakia
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Greece
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
India
Luxembourg
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Norway
Panama
Peru
Philippine Commonwealth
Poland
South Africa
United Kingdom
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
United States of America
/[7] Yugoslavia


Later in 1942, Mexico, Philippine Commonwealth and Ethiopia adhered to the declaration. During 1943, it was signed by Iraq, Iran, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia. In 1944, Liberia and France signed . During the early part of 1945, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Uruguay, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Ecuador became signatories.


[edit] Charter of the United Nations
Main article: Charter of the United Nations
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 nations 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. The five leading Allied nations, namely China, France[citation needed], the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States met repeatedly during the war, such as at the 1944 conference at Dumbarton Oaks where the formation and permanent seats 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.[16]


The first version of the UN flag, introduced in April 1945.These are the original 51 signatories (Security Council Permanent members are asterisked).:

Republic of Argentina
Commonwealth of Australia
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
Kingdom of Belgium
Republic of Bolivia
Republic of the United States of Brazil
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
Imperial State of Ethiopia
French Republic*
Kingdom of Greece
Republic of Guatemala
Republic of Haiti
Republic of Honduras
Indian Empire
Imperial Kingdom of Iran
Kingdom of Iraq
Lebanon
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
Second Polish Republic
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Union of South Africa
Republic of Syria
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
Republic of Venezuela
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia



[edit] Iran
On 29 January 1946, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union agreed to end their occupation of Iran, six months after the end of the war. The Tripartite Treaty of Alliance also formalised Iran's assistance to the Allies.[17]


[edit] See also
World War II portal
War portal
History portal
Participants in World War II

[edit] Footnotes
^ "The Real History of World War II: A ... - Google Books". Books.google.co.uk. books.google.co.uk Retrieved 2009-09-02.  
^ Polish veterans to take pride of place in victory parade, Financial Times, 2005-07-05. Access date: 2008-05-02.
^ Hakim, Joy (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509514-6.  
^ Doenecke, Justus D.; Stoler, Mark A. (2005). Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policies, 1933-1945. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 084769416X. books.google.com Retrieved 7 September 2009.  
^ Douglas Brinkley, FDR & the Making of the U.N.
^ Churchill, Winston S. (1981) [1953]. The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy. Houghton-Mifflin Company. P. 561.  
^ a b c Yugoslavia was intially represented as an Ally by the government-in-exile of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a signatory to the Declaration by the United Nations. Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, which would succeed the kingdom, was founded on 29 November 1943 by the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans, who were recognised as the official Yugoslav armed resistance force two days later at the Tehran Conference.
^ a b www.britannica.com
^ a b www.ibiblio.org
^ effectively the British Empire but excluding the Dominions.
^ www.wojsko-polskie.pl
^ Gordon, Leonard A., Review of Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: The Famine of 1943-1944 by Greenough, Paul R., The American Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Oct., 1983), p. 1051 (www.jstor.org
^ LEAGUE OF NATIONS' EXPULSION OF THE U.S.S.R., DECEMBER 14, 1939
^ Kenneth G. Weiss, The Azores in Diplomacy and Strategy, 1940-1945, Center for Naval Analyses, 1980, Alexandria, VA
^ www.yale.edu
^ United Nations Security Council: Official Records: First Year, First Series, First Meeting
^ www.army.mil

[edit] External links
Changing Alliances In the International Arena
The Atlantic Conference: Resolution of September 24, 1941