The participants in World War II were those nations who either participated directly in or were affected by any of the theaters or events of World War II. World War II was primarily fought between two large military alliances, the Axis powers, and the Allies. This forum is dedicated to the Countries and People who played thier part in this War.
Early in 1942 America entered the War joining her Allies and quickly proved that they were a force to reckon with. American industry had to support the nation's Allies as well as its own military expansion sending more than $50 billion worth of war materiel to the Allies.
For almost six years from 1939 to 1945 Britain fought the toughest war it had ever experienced. World War II was total war, every person, every business, every service was involved. The Second World War was the most turbulent and eventful period in the history of the 20th century. It affected the lives of millions of people all over the world. How did it really feel to be a British citizen during the Second World War? What did people eat and wear? The answers can be found in this forum ...
The military history of Canada during the Second World War began with a declaration of war on Germany on September 10, 1939 and encompassed major campaigns in Italy and Northern Europe. Over the course of the war, the army enlisted 730,000; the air force 260,000; and the navy 115,000 personnel. In addition, thousands of Canadians served in the Royal Air Force. Canadian workers produced raw materials, farm products, and manufactured goods needed to fight the war; and this was all done in a volume unprecedented in Canadian history.
De Gaulle founded the Free French as the true government of France. The number of Free French troops grew with Allied success in North Africa, Italy, and the invasions of France in 1944. On October 23, 1944, the Allies officially recognised de Gaulle's regime as the provisional government of France. By the end of the war in May 1945, France had 1,250,000 troops, 10 divisions of which were fighting in Germany.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, it was this invasion that led to the start of World War II. The war soon turned into a global military conflict between 1939 and 1945, which involved most of the world's nations, including all great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.
Mussolini's response to the German invasion was to declare that Italy was neutral and a "non-belligerent". However, on June 10, 1940, as Rommel reached the English Channel, Mussolini felt the war was coming to an end and declared war on Britain and France. By the end of the war, the Italian economy was devasted and over 300,000 Italian men and boys were killed.
In December 1941, Japan attacked the Allied powers at Pearl Harbour and several other points throughout the Pacific. This attack was the calling card that brought the USA into the war. The turning point in the Pacific War was the battle of Midway in June 1942. From then on, the Allied forces slowly won back the territories occupied by Japan. On August 14, Emperor Showa finally decided to surrender unconditionally after US military forces dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
On September 1st., 1939, 1.8 million German troops invaded Poland on three fronts; East Prussia in the north, Germany in the west and Slovakia in the south. Over half a million fighting men and women, and 6 million civilians died. Approximately 5,384,000 of Polish war losses were the victims of prisons, death camps, raids, executions, annihilation of ghettos, epidemics, starvation, excessive work and ill treatment. So many Poles were sent to concentration camps that virtually every family had someone close to them who had been tortured or murdered there.
The Germans invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, and looked poised to take Moscow by October that year. The German Blitzkrieg technique was as devastating in Russia as it had been in the rest of Europe. However the tables were soon turned when the Russians began to employ a new tactic "the fighting retreat" By the end of 1944, the front had moved beyond the Soviet frontiers into eastern Europe. Soviet forces drove into eastern Germany, capturing Berlin in May 1945. The war with Germany ended triumphantly for the Soviet Union.
During World War II much of the Nordic and Baltic region was occupied by foreign military powers: Norway and Denmark by Nazi Germany and the Baltic States alternately by the Soviet Union and Germany. In alliance with Germany, Finland waged war against the Soviet Union in order to defend Finnish sovereignty. For Germany the advantages were substantial for invading these countries one instance was the Norwegian ice-free port of Narvik.
Invasion of Belgium by Nazi Germany started on May 10, 1940 under the operational plan Fall Gelb and formed part of the greater Battle of France together with invasions of the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The Belgians put up a short lived resistance and it took three weeks of fighting before the country was subdued. The Netherlands hoped to stay neutral when World War II broke out in 1939 but this failed to come true when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. Dutch resistance grew in the course of the five years of the occupation.
Almost a million Australians, both men and women, served in the Second World War fighting in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, as well as against Japan in the Pacific. New Zealand provided personnel for service in the Royal Air Force and in the Royal Navy as well as the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
