page_title: Allies of World War II
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Allies of World War II / Major affiliated state combatants / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: Captions and Titles from Published Works 2003: One of the most famous images of World War II shows The Sandman, piloted by Robert Sternfels, as it emerges from a pall of smoke during the TIDALWAVE mission.&#91;1&#93; 2002: The Sandman barely clears the stacks of the Astra Romana refinery.&#91;2&#93; 1944 (unreversed):Note 1 HITLERS NO.&#32;&#91;sic&#93; 1 oil source, Ploesti, Rumania, was bombed Aug. 1, 1943, by a large force (177) of B-24s which came in at smokestack level, braved oil and bombs exploding close beneath them to hit refineries, tanks, cracking plants. 53 aircraft and 660 air crewmen were lost.&#91;3&#93;
context_page_description: The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as a means to control German, Japanese and Italian aggression.
  At the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, as well as their dependent states, such as British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. After the start of the German invasion of North Europe until the Balkan Campaign, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and Yugoslavia joined the Allies. After first having cooperated with Germany in invading Poland whilst remaining neutral in the Allied-Axis conflict, the Soviet Union perforce joined the Allies in June 1941 after being invaded by Germany. The United States provided war materiel and money to the Allies all along, and officially joined in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
caption: American Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft during the bombing of oil refineries in Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943 during Operation Tidal Wave
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