Allies of World War II

1939-1941 
Poland was invaded by Germany on 1 September 1939, so Britain and France declared war two days later.

Many more countries joined the alliance after Germany invaded them. France fell after a German invasion from May - June 1940 and a puppet state was put in place, so the British and the remaining forces of the exiled governments later invaded the Vichy french territories.  These freed lands were called Free France

Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 and the Soviets allied with the British and the other allies.

The United States joined the war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

 Declaration by the United Nations 
The alliance was formalised in the Declaration by United Nations signed on 1 January 1942. There were the 26 original signatories of the declaration; the Big Four were listed first:

  United States
  United Kingdom
  Soviet Union
  China
  Australia
  Belgium
  Canada
  Costa Rica
  Cuba
  Czechoslovakia
  Dominican Republic
  El Salvador
  Greece
  Guatemala
  Haiti
  Honduras
  India
  Luxembourg
  Netherlands
  New Zealand
  Nicaragua
  Norway
  Panama
  Poland
  South Africa
  Yugoslavia

 Major Allied Powers 







 Other Allied Powers 

  Albania



















 Client and occupied states 

 British 





 Soviet sphere 

  Bulgaria





 Co-belligerent states 




 1942-1945 
Advances in Eastern Europe and North Africa in late 1942 changed the course of the war and continued on other fronts until the war ended. (there were also slow advances in the pacific)

The allies invaded italy in 1943, after driving the axis out of Africa. And so Italy changed sides on 8 September 1943. and with German forces staying, a civil war began.

The Soviet Red Army continued advances against the axis, ending the siege of Leningrad, liberating Crimea, and invading Romania. On June 22 1944, operation Bargration was launched advancing to the Hungarian border and to Warsaw.

Meanwhile in Western Europe, D-Day was launched on June 6 1944 and the allies started advancing rapidly in august.

Romania changed sides in August after the Soviets were advancing. Bulgaria changed sides in September with the Soviets invading. Finland also changed sides in September.

The allies had advances in the Pacific. In the Solomon Islands, in Burma, and other Pacific islands.

On May 7 1945, Germany surrendered after 5 years and 8 months of fighting. In the Pacific, the allied liberated Burma and advanced in China, the Philippines, and Borneo. Atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and around the same time, the Soviets invaded Manchuria (a Japanese puppet state) and Japan surrendered on September 2 1945, ending World War II.

 United Nations 

The United Nations was formed on 24 October 1945, with France, China, The United Kingdom, The United States, and The USSR as the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (which met for the first time on 17 January 1946).right|frameless|123x123px

 Members 
These are the original 51 signatories (UNSC permanent members are asterisked):

  Argentine Republic
  Commonwealth of Australia
  Kingdom of Belgium
  Republic of Bolivia
  United States of Brazil
  Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
  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
  Ethiopian Empire
  French Republic*
  Kingdom of Greece
  Republic of Guatemala
  Republic of Haiti
  Republic of Honduras
  British Raj
  Imperial State of Iran
  Kingdom of Iraq
  Lebanese Republic
  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
  Republic of Poland
  Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  Union of South Africa
  Syrian Republic
  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
  United States of Venezuela
  Democratic Federal Yugoslavia

Summary table

The Big Four






Allied combatants with governments-in-exile

  Free FranceFrance declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, two days after the German invasion of Poland. It was a member of the Allies until its defeat in the German invasion of France in June 1940. Unlike the other governments-in-exile in London, which were legitimate governments that had escaped their respective countries and continued the fight, France had surrendered to the Axis. The "Free French Forces" were a section of the French army which refused to recognize the armistice and continued to fight with the Allies. They worked towards France being seen and treated as a major allied power, as opposed to a defeated and then liberated nation. They struggled with legitimacy vis-a-vis the German client state "Vichy France", which was the internationally recognized government of France even among the Allies. A National Liberation Committee was formed by the Free French after the gradual liberation of Vichy colonial territory, which led to the full German occupation of Vichy France in 1942. This started a shift in Allied policy from trying to improve relations with the Vichy regime into full support to what was now the Provisional Government of the French Republic.
 The Polish Underground State was allied with United Kingdom and United States. It fought against Axis Powers (mostly Germany), Soviet Union and the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN). However the PKWN was allied with the Soviet Union and fought against Germany and the Polish Underground State.
  CzechoslovakiaEdvard Beneš, president of the First Czechoslovak Republic, fled the country after the 1938 Munich Agreement saw the Sudetenland region annexed by Germany. In 1939 a German sponsored Slovak Republic seceded from the post-Munich Second Czechoslovak Republic, providing justification for the establishment of a German protectorate over the remaining Czech lands (the rump Carpathian Ruthenia region being annexed by Hungary). Following the outbreak of war later the same year, Beneš, in his exile, formed a Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee which after some months of negotiations regarding its legitimacy became regarded as the Czechoslovak government-in-exile by the Allies.

  Luxembourg
  Netherlands
  Norway
  Greece

  EthiopiaThe Ethiopian Empire was invaded by Italy on 3 October 1935. On 2 May 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie I fled into exile, just before the Italian occupation on 7 May. After the outbreak of World War II, the United Kingdom recognized Haile Selassie as the Emperor of Ethiopia in July 1940 and his Ethiopian exile government cooperated with the British during their invasion of Italian East Africa in 1941. Through the invasion Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia on 18 January, with the liberation of the country being completed by November the same year.
  Philippines

Other Allied combatant states









  Nigeria
  Malta



















  Costa Rica







  Oman
  French Indochina




Former Axis powers

  (from January 1943)
  (from September 1943)
  (from August 1944)
  (from September 1944)
  (from September 1944)
  (, 1945)

 Cold War 

Despite the successful creation of the United Nations, the alliance of the Soviet Union with the United States and with the United Kingdom ultimately broke down and evolved into the Cold War, which took place over the following half-century.

 Timeline of allied nations entering the war 

The following list denotes dates on which states declared war on the Axis powers, or on which an Axis power declared war on them. The Indian Empire had a status less independent than the Dominions.

 1939 
  (September 1 1939)
  (September 3 1939)
  (September 3 1939)

  (September 3 1939)
  (September 3 1939)
  (September 4 1939)
  (September 6 1939)
  (September 10 1939)
  Oman (September 10 1939)

 1940 
  (April 8 1940)
  (April 9 1940)
  (May 10 1940)
  (May 10 1940)
  (May 10 1940)
  (October 28 1940)

 1941 
  (April 6 1941)
  (June 22 1941)
  (December 7 1941)
  (December 8 1941)

  (December 8 1941)
  (December 8 1941)
  (December 8 1941)
  (December 8 1941)
  (December 8 1941)
  (December 8 1941)
  China (December 9 1941)
  (December 9 1941)
  (December 9 1941)
Provisional governments or governments-in exile that declared war against the Axis in 1941

   Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (December 10 1941)
  Czechoslovakia (government-in-exile) (December 16 1941)

 1942 
  (May 22 1942)
  (August 22 1942)
  ( December 14 1942)

 1943 
  (January 16 1943) - former axis power
  (April 7 1943)
  (July 26 1943)
  (September 9 1943)
  (October 10 1943) - former axis power

 1944 
  (January 27 1944)
  (August 25 1944) - former axis power
  (September 9 1944) - former axis power
  (December 30 1944) - former axis power

 1945 
  (February 2 1945)
  (February 7 1945)
  (February 12 1945)
  (February 15 1945)
  (February 15 1945)
  (February 23 1945)
  (February 24 1945)
  (February 26 1945)
  (February 27 1945)
  (March 1 1945)
  (March 3 1945) - former ally of Germany in the Continuation War. Finland retroactively declared war on Germany from 15 September 1944.
  (March 27 1945)
  (April 11 1945)
  (August 10 1945)

 References 

Category:World War II
Category:Military alliances