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Feb 18, 2013
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The Grand Alliance in London (13 Jan 1941)

Several European countries joined the Western Allies at different times during World War 2. In total 19 European countries joined the Allies from 1939 to 1945.The very first European countries to join the Allies and which were the original Allies were Poland, United Kingdom and France. The alliances between these three original allies pre-date WWII. After WWII other countries joined the Allies: Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands (these four countries joined as "governments in exile"), Greece, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Later on during the war other European countries joined the Western Allied Forces: Italy, Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, San Marino, Albania, Hungary and Finland which was the last European country to join the Allies during the war in 1945 as co-belligerent.The USA joined the Western Allies in 1941 after the attack to Pearl Harbour.
The Grand Alliance in London (13 Jan 1941)
Allies-France, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway (Italy after 1944), Greece, Russia
Axis-Germany, Italy (Before 1944), Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland (Before 1944), Albania, Austria and the Czech Republic were dissolved into greater Germany

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  1. FaisalFebruary 19, 2013 at 1:35 PM

    Muslims never started any war in world in past and never they start any war

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Item Reviewed: The Grand Alliance in London (13 Jan 1941) Description: During World War II, Germany overran much of Europe using a new tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). Blitzkrieg involved the massing of planes, tanks, and artillery. These forces would break through enemy defenses along a narrow front. Air power prevented the enemy from closing the breach. German forces encircled opposing troops, forcing them to surrender. Using the Blitzkrieg tactic, Germany defeated Poland (attacked in September 1939), Denmark (April 1940), Norway (April 1940), Belgium (May 1940), the Netherlands (May 1940), Luxembourg (May 1940), France (May 1940), Yugoslavia (April 1941), and Greece (April 1941). Yet Germany did not defeat Great Britain, which was protected from ground attack by the English Channel. German forces attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, pushing more than 600 miles to the gates of Moscow. A second German offensive in 1942 brought German soldiers to the shores of the Volga River and the city of Stalingrad. But the Soviet Union, together with Great Britain and the United States, which had entered the war against Germany in December 1941, turned the tide of battle against Germany. In the east, the battle for Stalingrad proved a decisive turning point. After the defeat at Stalingrad in winter of 1942-43, German troops began the long retreat. In April 1945 Soviet forces entered Berlin. In the west, Allied soldiers landed on June 6, 1944 (known as D-Day) in Normandy, France. More than two million Allied soldiers poured into France. In July, Allied forces broke out of the Normandy beachhead. The Allies continued the attack into Germany. In March 1945, Allied forces crossed the Rhine, advancing into the heart of Germany. Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945. Key Dates SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 GERMAN FORCES INVADE POLAND German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and 1,000 planes, break through Polish defenses along the border and advance on Warsaw in a massive encirclement. Britain and France, standing by their guarantee of Poland's border, declare war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Warsaw surrenders to the Germans on September 28, 1939. The Polish army is defeated within weeks of the German invasion. APRIL 9, 1940 GERMANY CONQUERS NORWAY AND DENMARK In a lightning attack, German forces attack Norway and Denmark. Denmark is occupied in one day. German forces land in Norway near Oslo, the capital, and in other places, securing the south. Germany also moves to secure the ports of Narvik and Trondheim in the north. British forces intervene, landing at Narvik, Namsos, and Andalsnes, but will be forced to withdraw by the first week of June 1940. Norway surrenders to Germany on June 10. MAY 10, 1940 GERMAN FORCES INVADE WESTERN EUROPE The campaign against the Low Countries and France lasts less than six weeks. The Germans concentrate their attack through Luxembourg and the Ardennes Forest near the French city of Sedan. German tanks and infantry burst through the French defensive lines and advance to the coast, trapping the British and French armies in the north. The Allies successfully evacuate over 300,000 troops from Dunkerque (Dunkirk) to Britain, but France is decisively defeated. Paris, the French capital, will fall to the Germans on June 14, 1940. As part of the armistice agreement France signs with Germany on June 22, Germany occupies northern France while southern France remains unoccupied. A new French government (situated in Vichy) declares neutrality in the war, but promises cooperation with Germany. 1941 GERMAN FORCES INVADE YUGOSLAVIA AND GREECE German forces invade Yugoslavia and Greece, supported by contingents from Germany's allies (Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania), and quickly subdue the Balkans. British forces, sent to aid the Greeks, are forced to withdraw to the island of Crete. In mid-May, German paratroopers land on Crete and, after heavy fighting, defeat the British there. Yugoslavia and Greece are partitioned among the victors. JUNE 22, 1941 GERMAN FORCES ATTACK THE SOVIET UNION More than three million German soldiers, reinforced by half a million auxiliaries from Germany's allies (Finnish, Romanian, Hungarian, Italian, Slovakian, and Croatian troops, and a contingent from Spain), attack the Soviet Union across a broad front, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Three German army groups advance deep into Soviet territory. Millions of Soviet soldiers are encircled and forced to surrender. German troops continue to advance to the outskirts of Moscow. In December 1941, the Soviet Union launches a counteroffensive, forcing a German retreat from Moscow. June 28, 1942 GERMAN FORCES DRIVE TO THE VOLGA German forces begin a new drive to the east. This time the goals are the oil fields of the Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad on the Volga River. By the beginning of July, German forces cross the Don River and by mid-September reach the suburbs of Stalingrad. The Soviet army command decides to defend the city, no matter what the cost. Soviet forces fight for every street in the city. By the middle of November 1942, the Germans gain control of most of the city, but the Soviet defense has not been broken. The Soviet army launches a counteroffensive against the German forces arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November 1942. They quickly encircle an entire German army, some 250,000 soldiers. FEBRUARY 2, 1943 GERMAN 6TH ARMY SURRENDERS AT STALINGRAD The Soviet army launched a counteroffensive against the German forces arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November 1942. They quickly encircled an entire German army, some 250,000 soldiers. After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, the surviving German forces, now only about 91,000 soldiers, surrender. Soviet forces push the Germans back to the banks of the Dnieper River in 1943. The Soviet army remains on the offensive for the remainder of the war, despite some temporary setbacks. JUNE 6, 1944 (D-DAY) ALLIED FORCES LAND IN FRANCE More than 150,000 Allied soldiers under the command of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower land on the beaches of Normandy, France. The Allies break out of the Normandy beachheads, and will enter Paris on August 25, 1944. They liberate most of France by the end of August. The western Allies are surprised in December 1944 when German forces attack through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium in an attempt to divide and destroy Allied forces. Allied air forces, together with a fierce American defense, block the advance of German troops and force them into a general retreat. The Allies win a decisive victory in what becomes known as the Battle of the Bulge, and continue the attack into Germany itself. JUNE 22, 1944 SOVIET FORCES LAUNCH CRUSHING OFFENSIVE Soviet forces launch a powerful offensive along the entire eastern front. German forces are pushed back nearly to Warsaw by the end of July 1944. In August and September 1944, Germany's remaining eastern European allies (Romania, Bulgaria, Finland) leave the war effort. Hungary, occupied by Germany in March, remains in the German camp. MAY 7, 1945 GERMAN FORCES SURRENDER In mid-April 1945, Soviet forces launched a massive offensive toward Berlin. On April 25, 1945, Soviet forces linked up with American forces attacking from the west at Torgau, on the Elbe River, in central Germany. As Soviet forces neared his command bunker in central Berlin on April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Berlin surrendered to Soviet forces on May 2, 1945. The German armed forces surrender unconditionally in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945. Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) is proclaimed for May 8, 1945. The belligerents during World War II fought as partners in one of two major alliances: the Axis and the Allies. The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. These three countries recognized German hegemony over most of continental Europe; Italian hegemony over the Mediterranean Sea; and Japanese hegemony over East Asia and the Pacific. Although the Axis partners never developed institutions to coordinate foreign or military policy as the Allies did, the Axis partners had two common interests: 1) territorial expansion and foundation of empires based on military conquest and the overthrow of the post-World War I international order; and 2) the destruction or neutralization of Soviet Communism. On November 1, 1936, Germany and Italy, reflecting their common interest in destabilizing the European order, announced a Rome-Berlin Axis one week after signing a treaty of friendship. Nearly a month later, on November 25, 1936, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan signed the so-called Anti-Comintern Pact directed at the Soviet Union. Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact on November 6, 1937. On May 22, 1939, Germany and Italy signed the so-called Pact of Steel, formalizing the Axis alliance with military provisions. Finally, on September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which became known as the Axis alliance. Even before the Tripartite Pact, two of the three Axis powers had initiated conflicts that would become theaters of war in World War II. On July 7, 1937, Japan invaded China to initiate the war in the Pacific; while the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, unleashed the European war. Italy entered World War II on the Axis side on June 10, 1940, as the defeat of France became apparent. OTHER COUNTRIES JOIN THE AXIS ALLIANCE In July 1940, just weeks after the defeat of France, Hitler decided that Nazi Germany would attack the Soviet Union the following spring. In order to secure raw materials, transit rights for German troops, and troop contributions for the invasion from sympathetic powers, Germany began to cajole and pressure the southeast European states to join the Axis. Nazi Germany offered economic aid to Slovakia and military protection and Soviet territory to Romania, while warning Hungary that recent German support for Hungarian annexations of Czechoslovak and Romanian territory might change to the benefit of Slovakia and Romania. Italy’s failed effort to conquer Greece in the late autumn and winter of 1940-1941 exacerbated German concerns about securing their southeastern flank in the Balkans. Greek entry into the war and victories in northern Greece and Albania allowed the British to open a Balkan front against the Axis in Greece that might threaten Romania’s oil fields, which were vital to Nazi Germany’s invasion plans. To subdue Greece and move the British off the European mainland, Nazi Germany now required troop transport through Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. After the Italo-Greek front opened on October 28, 1940, German pressure on Hungary and the Balkan States intensified. Hoping for preferential economic treatment, mindful of recent German support for annexation of northern Transylvania, and eager for future Axis support for acquiring the remainder of Transylvania, Hungary joined the Axis on November 20, 1940. Having already requested and received a German military mission in October 1940, the Romanians joined on November 23, 1940. They hoped that loyal support for a German invasion of the Soviet Union and faithful oil deliveries would destroy the Soviet threat, return the provinces annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940, and win German support for the return of northern Transylvania. Both politically and economically dependent on Germany for its very existence as an “independent” state, Slovakia followed suit on November 24. Bulgaria, whose leaders were reluctant to get involved in a war with the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia, which was nominally an ally of Greece, stalled, resisting German pressure. After the Germans offered Greek territory in Thrace and exempted it from participation in the invasion of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria joined the Axis on March 1, 1941. When the Germans agreed to settle for Yugoslav neutrality in the war against Greece, without demanding transit rights for Axis troops, Yugoslavia reluctantly joined the Axis on March 25, 1941. Two days later, Serbian military officers overthrew the government that had signed the Tripartite Pact. After the subsequent invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia by Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria in April, the newly established and so-called Independent State of Croatia joined the Axis on June 15, 1941. On June 26, 1941, four days after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Finland, seeking to regain territory lost during the 1939-1940 Winter War, entered the war against the USSR as a “co-belligerent.” Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact. After Japan’s surprise attack on the United States fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and the declaration of war on the United States by Germany and the European Axis powers within a week, the Atlantic and Pacific wars became a truly world war. AXIS DEFEAT The Allied Powers, led by Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, defeated the Axis in World War II. Italy was the first Axis partner to give up: it surrendered to the Allies on September 8, 1943, six weeks after leaders of the Italian Fascist Party deposed Fascist leader and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. On August 23, 1944, following the overthrow of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, Romania switched sides: Romanian troops fought alongside Soviet troops for the remainder of the war. After the Soviets rejected its offer of an armistice, Bulgaria surrendered on September 8, 1944, as the Communist-led Fatherland Front seized power from the Axis government in a coup and then declared war on Nazi Germany. On September 19, 1944, Finland signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. The German occupation of Hungary in March 1944 succeeded in its primary purpose: to prevent the Hungarian leaders from deserting the Axis as the Romanians would later do. Hungary never surrendered; the war ended for Hungary only when Soviet troops drove the last pro-Axis Hungarian troops and police units and the members of the Arrow Cross government across Hungary’s western border into Austria in early April 1945. Slovakia, which German troops occupied in the summer of 1944 to suppress the Slovak uprising, remained in the Axis as a puppet state until the Soviets captured the capital, Bratislava, in early April. Fanatical remnants of the Croat Ustasa remained in Croatia until Tito’s Partisans captured or drove them across the border into German-occupied Slovenia and Austria itself in the last days of April 1945. On May 7, 1945, seven days after Hitler committed suicide, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Japan fought on alone, surrendering formally on September 2, 1945. Despite deep-seated mistrust and hostility between the Soviet Union and the Western democracies, Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 created an instant alliance between the Soviets and the two greatest powers in what the Soviet leaders had long called the "imperialist camp": Britain and the United States. Three months after the invasion, the United States extended assistance to the Soviet Union through its Lend-Lease Act of March 1941. Before September 1941, trade between the United States and the Soviet Union had been conducted primarily through the Soviet Buying Commission in the United States. Lend-Lease was the most visible sign of wartime cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union. About $11 billion in war matériel was sent to the Soviet Union under that program. Additional assistance came from U.S. Russian War Relief (a private, nonprofit organization) and the Red Cross. About seventy percent of the aid reached the Soviet Union via the Persian Gulf through Iran; the remainder went across the Pacific to Vladivostok and across the North Atlantic to Murmansk. Lend- Lease to the Soviet Union officially ended in September 1945. Joseph Stalin never revealed to his own people the full contributions of Lend-Lease to their country's survival, but he referred to the program at the 1945 Yalta Conference saying, "Lend-Lease is one of Franklin Roosevelt's most remarkable and vital achievements in the formation of the anti-Hitler alliance." Lend-Lease matériel was welcomed by the Soviet Union, and President Roosevelt attached the highest priority to using it to keep the Soviet Union in the war against Germany. Nevertheless, the program did not prevent friction from developing between the Soviet Union and the other members of the anti-Hitler alliance. The Soviet Union was annoyed at what seemed to it to be a long delay by the allies in opening a "second front" of the Allied offensive against Germany. As the war in the east turned in favor of the Soviet Union, and despite the successful Allied landings in Normandy in 1944, the earlier friction intensified over irreconcilable differences about postwar aims within the anti-Axis coalition. Lend-Lease helped the Soviet Union push the Germans out of its territory and Eastern Europe, thus accelerating the end of the war. With Stalin's takeover of Eastern Europe, the wartime alliance ended, and the Cold War began. Rating: 5 Reviewed By: Unknown
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