The Axis Powers of World War II

Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations. Many people are ignorant of the eight allies of world war ii years China spent fighting Japan before the United States formally joined World War II. One of the most heinous and devastating conflicts of the 20th century was the fight between China and Japan, which started in 1937. In spite of overwhelming odds, the Chinese people during this period showed incredible resilience and tenacity. An estimated 26 million people lost their lives in the Soviet Union during the war, making it the Allied nation with the most fatalities.

• It seeks the systematic and total destruction of those conquered by Hitler and it does not treaty with the nations which it has subdued.
• In April 1941 Rashid Ali, on seizing power in a coup, repudiated the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 and demanded that the British abandon their military bases and withdraw from the country.
• The Yugoslav Partisans managed to put up considerable resistance to the Axis occupation, forming various liberated territories during the war.
• Many Anti-Comintern countries were allowed to remain neutral or required to send only volunteer troops to join the Nazi army.

Expecting immediate German retaliation, Victor Emmanuel III and the Italian government relocated to southern Italy under Allied control. Germany viewed the Italian government’s actions as an act of betrayal, and German forces immediately occupied all Italian territories outside of Allied control,151 in some cases even massacring Italian troops. In 1943 the Milice, a paramilitary force which had been founded by Vichy, was subordinated to the Germans and assisted them in rounding up opponents and Jews, as well as fighting the French Resistance. Partly as a result of the great animosity of many right-wingers against the pre-war Front Populaire, volunteers joined the German forces in their anti-communist crusade against the USSR. The LVF then formed the cadre of the Waffen-SS Division Charlemagne in 1944–1945, with a maximum strength of some 7,500. In November 1943 Thailand signed the Greater East Asia Joint Declaration, formally aligning itself with the Axis Powers.

China

• New Zealand sent over 140,000 men and women to serve in the war despite the fact that it is a small nation; over 11,000 of them died.
• From 1943 to 1945, the US also led and coordinated the Western Allies’ war effort in Europe under the leadership of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• However the Banjica Concentration Camp was jointly run by the German Army and Nedic’s regime.190 50,000 to 80,000 were killed during this period.
• Following the German invasion of Greece and the flight of the Greek government to Crete and then Egypt, the Hellenic State was formed in May 1941 as a puppet state of both Italy and Germany.

Under King Michael I and the military government of Antonescu, Romania signed the Tripartite Pact on November 23, 1940. German troops entered the country on 10 October 1941, officially to train the Romanian Army. Victor Emmanuel III dismantled the remaining apparatus of the Fascist regime and appointed Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio as Prime Minister of Italy. On 8 September 1943, Italy signed the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies, ending Italy’s war with the Allies and ending Italy’s participation with the Axis powers.

The Free French forces fought against the Axis powers

The country never officially surrendered to Nazi Germany, nor to the Soviet Union, and continued the war effort under the Polish government-in-exile. 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. At the Second Inter-Allied Meeting in London in September 1941, the eight European governments in exile, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter. In December, Japan attacked American and British territories in Asia and the Pacific, resulting in the U.S. formally entering the war as an Allied power. Still reeling from Japanese aggression, China declared war on all the Axis powers shortly thereafter.

But when considered in light of the Allies’ original goals, the balance sheet at the end of the war remained ambiguous. The Inner Mongolians had several grievances against the central Chinese government in Nanjing, including their policy of allowing unlimited migration of Han Chinese to the region. Several of the young princes of Inner Mongolia began to agitate for greater freedom from the central government, and it was through these men that Japanese saw their best chance of exploiting Pan-Mongol nationalism and eventually seizing control of Outer Mongolia from the Soviet Union. He died on 4 February 1946 after either jumping or falling out of the window of a Belgrade hospital, under circumstances which remain unclear.

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 September 1940, Vichy France was forced to allow Japan to occupy French Indochina, a federation of French colonial possessions and protectorates encompassing modern day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Since Japan had made the first move, Germany and Italy were not obliged to aid her until the United States counterattacked. Racial laws were introduced in all occupied territories with immediate effects on Jews and Roma people, as well as causing the imprisonment of those opposed to Nazism. Several concentration camps were formed in Serbia and at the 1942 Anti-Freemason Exhibition in Belgrade the city was pronounced to be free of Jews (Judenfrei). An estimated 120,000 people were interned in German-run concentration camps in Nedić’s Serbia between 1941 and 1944. However the Banjica Concentration Camp was jointly run by the German Army and Nedic’s regime.190 50,000 to 80,000 were killed during this period. Serbia became the second country in Europe, following Estonia, to be proclaimed Judenfrei (free of Jews).

Norway

The area containing the Shan States and Kayah State was annexed by Thailand in 1942, and four northern states of Malaya were also transferred to Thailand by Japan as a reward for Thai co-operation. The king’s aunt, Queen Rambai Barni, was the nominal head of the British-based organization, and Pridi Banomyong, the regent, headed its largest contingent, which was operating within Thailand. Aided by elements of the military, secret airfields and training camps were established, while American Office of Strategic Services and British Force 136 agents slipped in and out of the country. Relations between Germany and the regency of Miklós Horthy collapsed in 1944 when Horthy attempted to negotiate a peace agreement with the Soviets and jump out of the war without German approval. Horthy was forced to abdicate after German commandos, led by Colonel Otto Skorzeny, held his son hostage as part of Operation Panzerfaust. Hungary was reorganized following Horthy’s abdication in December 1944 into a totalitarian regime called the Government of National Unity, led by Ferenc Szálasi.

Soviet Victory Day

In April 1941 Rashid Ali, on seizing power in a coup, repudiated the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 and demanded that the British abandon their military bases and withdraw from the country. The Ba Maw regime established the Burma Defence Army (later renamed the Burma National Army), which was commanded by Aung San which fought alongside the Japanese in the Burma campaign. The Ba Maw has been described as a state having “independence without sovereignty” and as being effectively a Japanese puppet state.153 On 27 March 1945 the Burma National Army revolted against the Japanese. Some countries colluded with Germany, Italy, and Japan without signing either the Anti-Comintern Pact, or the Tripartite Pact.

For reasons still debated today, Germany declared war on the United States as well, on December 11. Where once the United States had participated in the war only as a source of arms and other supplies for the Allies—serving as what Pres. D. Roosevelt memorably called “an arsenal of democracy”—these aggressions brought it fully into the Allied fold. The Allies began as an agreement between Poland, the United Kingdom, and France that the latter two would come to Poland’s aid if it were invaded by Germany. When Germany did attack on September 1, 1939, the United Kingdom and France fulfilled their promise, declaring war against Germany on September 3. The independent British dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa followed the United Kingdom’s lead, declaring war either that same day or a few days later.

Which Countries Joined the Axis Powers in World War II?

The Axis powers were initially united by a treaty called the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936. The term “Comintern” referred to the Communist International, a global organization of communist parties working to foment worldwide revolution led by the Soviet Union. World War II was the most destructive conflict in human history and claimed the lives of millions of people all over the world.

In 1931, Japan invaded the Chinese region of Manchuria and established a puppet state called Manchukuo. Japan’s expansion in the east would inevitably target European colonial possessions in the region. In addition, both Germany and Japan were avowedly anticommunist, both had banned the Communist Party domestically, and both might be physically threatened by the Soviet Union.

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. 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.