Diplomatic history of World War II

The Diplomatic history of World War II includes the major foreign policies and interactions inside the major coalitions, the Allies and the Axis powers.

Allies

See also: Allies of World War II

Britain, France (until 1940), the Soviet Union (after 1941) and the United States were the main Allies. They were joined by numerous smaller countries, such as Canada, as well as governments in exile, such as the Netherlands. Top Allied leaders met in a series of conferences to discuss strategy.

Britain

Britain - United States

See also: Lend-Lease, Destroyers for Bases Agreement, and Manhattan Project

Though much of the American people were sympathetic to Britain during its dangerous confrontation with Nazi Germany, there was widespread opposition to possible American intervention in European affairs. This was put into law in a series of Neutrality Acts which were ratified by the United States Congress in 1935, 1936, and 1937 respectively. However,President Roosevelt's policy of cash-and-carry still allowed Britain and France to order munitions from the United States and carry them home.

Roosevelt and Churchill drafted the Atlantic Charter aboard the HMS Prince of Wales in August 1941

Churchill, who had long warned agauinst Germany and demanded rearmament, became prime minister after Chambelain [policy of appeasement had totally collapsed and Britain was unable to reverse the German invasion of Norway. After the fall of France in spring 1940, Roosevelt gave Britain all aid short of war. The Destroyers for Bases Agreement which was signed in September 1940, gave the United States a ninety-nine-year rent-free lease of numerous land and air bases in the Atlantic in exchange for the Royal Navy receiving fifty old destroyers. Roosevelt also sold (for cash) munitions that were carried away in British ships, including over half a million rifles, 85,000 machine guns, 25,000 automatic rifles, mortars, hundreds of field guns, with supplies of the necessary ammunition. The British needed these munitions to reequip the soldiers who lost all their arms when Dunkirk was evacuated in June 1940.

Beginning in March 1941, the United States enacted Lend-Lease in the form of tanks, fighter airplanes, munitions, bullets, food, and medical supplies. Britain received $31.4 billion out of a total of $50.1 billion sent to the Allies.

Combined Chiefs of Staff

In summer 1941, two American destroyers shadowing German submarines had already been torpedoed in the North Atlantic Ocean. During the war the senior military commanders of both sides formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff to coordinate action and plan policy, which had to be approved by Roosevelt and Churchill. At the Quebec Conference, 1943 held in Canada in August 1943, Churchill, Roosevelt and the Combined Chiefs plotted strategy against Germany. They began planning the invasion of France, codenamed Overlord using a report by the Combined Chiefs. They also discussed an increase of the bombing offensive against facilities Germany was using in France and the Low Countries. They decided to continue the buildup of American forces in Britain prior to an invasion of France. Churchill kept drawing attention to the advantages of operations in the Mediterranean theatre. They agreed to use more force to force Italy out of the war, and to occupy it along with Corsica. Military cooperation was close and successful.

Technical collaboration

Technical collaboration was even closer, as the two nations shared secrets and weapons regarding the proximity fuze and radar, as well as airplane engines, Nazi codes, and the atomic bomb.

Millions of American servicemen were based in Britain during the war, which led to a certain amount of friction with British men and intermarriage with British women. This animosity was explored in art and film, most particularly A Matter of Life and Death and A Canterbury Tale.

In 1945 Churchill sent British fleet to help the United States attack and invade Japan.

Casablanca conference

Main article: Casablanca Conference

In January 14-24 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill and the Combined Staff met in Casablanca, Morocco, in North Africa. They decided on the major Allied strategy for 1943 in Europe, especially the invasion of Italy and planning for the invasion of France. At Roosevelt's suggestion they agreed on a policy of "Unconditional surrender. This policy uplifted Allied morale, but it also made the Nazis resolve to fight to the bitter end. Roosevelt also tried to establish a working relationship between the two main French allies, Henri Giraud, the French high commissioner in North Africa, and General de Gaulle, leader of the Free French.

India

Serious tension erupted over American demands that India be given independence, a proposition Churchill vehemently rejected. For years Roosevelt had encouraged Britain's disengagement from India. The American position was based on principled opposition to colonialism, practical concern for the outcome of the war, and the expectation of a large American role in a post-colonial era. However in 1942 when the Congress Party launched a Quit India movement, the British authorities immediately arrested tens of thousands of activists (including Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi) and imprisoned them until 1945. Meanwhile India became the main American staging base for aid to China. Churchill threatened to resign if Roosevelt pushed too hard regarding independence, so Roosevelt backed down.

Britain and France

In spring 1939 both Britain and France formally announced they would defend the integrity of Poland. Hitler did not believe they would fight in such a faraway hopeless cause, and he invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France declared war on September 3, 1939. But there was little they could or did do to help Poland. When Germany began its attack on France in April 1940, British troops and French troops again fought side by side, but defeat came quickly. The Royal Navy evacuated 198,000 British and 140,000 French soldiers in the Dunkirk evacuation in late May/early June 1940. Tens of thousands of tanks, trucks and artillery guns were left behind, as well as all of the radios, machine guns, spare parts and other gear. The new Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged that Britain would continue to fight for France's freedom, even if it must do so alone.

Prime Minister Churchill and General de Gaulle at Marrakesh, January 1944

Britain and Soviet Union

In October 1944 Churchill and his Foreign Minister Anthony Eden met in Moscow with Stalin and his foreign minister Molotov. They planned who would control what in postwar Eastern Europe. They agreed to give 90% of the influence in Greece to Britain and 90% in Romania to Russia. Russia gained a 80%/20% division in Bulgaria and Hungary. There was a 50/50 division in Yugoslavia, and no Russian share in Italy.

United States

US-China

Chiang Kai-shek of China with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in 1943.

File:Mao, Hurley and Chiang.jpg

Mao Zedong, Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley, and Chiang Kai-shek in 1945.

See also: Second Sino-Japanese War and Chiang Kai-shek

The United States was a strong supporter of China after Japan invaded in 1937. Even the isolationists who opposed war in Europe supported a hard-line against Japan. The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 saw aid flow into the Republic of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek.

American public sympathy for the Chinese was aroused by reports from missionaries, novelists such as Pearl Buck, and Time Magazine of Japanese brutality in China, including reports surrounding the Nanking Massacre, also known as the 'Rape of Nanking'. Japanese-American relations were further soured by the USS Panay Incident during the bombing of Nanjing. Roosevelt demanded an apology from the Japanese, which was received, but relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate. By early 1941 the U.S. was preparing to send American planes flown by American pilots under American command, but wearing Chinese uniforms, to fight the Japanese invaders and even to bomb Japanese cities. The "Flying Tigers" under Claire Chennault arrived just as the U.S. entered the war.

To augment Chennault's 100 P-40Bs, in May 1941 Washington decided to send 144 Vultee P-48's, 125 P-43's and 66 Lockheed and Douglas medium bombers. The goal was to give China by early 1942, a respectable air force, judged by Far Eastern standards, sufficient to "(a) protect strategic points, (b) permit local army offensive action, (c) permit the bombing of Japanese air bases and supply dumps in China and Indo-China, and the bombing of coastal and river transport, and (d) permit occasional incendiary bombing of Japan."

A year before the U.S. officially entered the war (after Dec. 7, 1941), Chennault developed an ambitious plan for a sneak attack on Japanese bases. His Flying Tigers would use American bombers and American pilots, all with Chinese markings. The U.S. military was opposed to his scheme, and kept raising obstacles, but it was adopted by top civilian officials including Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (the Secretary of the Treasury who financed China) and especially President Roosevelt himself, who made it a high priority to keep China alive. By October, 1941, bombers and crews were on their way to China. However the American attack never took place. The bombers and crews arrived after Pearl Harbor and were used for the war in Burma, for they lacked the range to reach China.

Wartime

After the formal declaration of war in December 1941, the U.S. stepped up the flow of aid, but it had to be routed through India and over the Himalayan Mountains because Japan blocked the other routes. Chiang's beleaguered government was now headquartered in remote Chongqing. Madame Chiang Kaishek, who had been educated in the United States, addressed the US Congress and toured the country to rally support for China. Congress amended the Chinese Exclusion Act and Roosevelt moved to end the unequal treaties. However, the perception that Chiang's government, with his poorly equipped and ill-fed troops was unable to effectively fight the Japanese or that he preferred to focus more on defeating the Communists grew. China Hands such as Joseph Stilwell argued that it was in American interest to establish communication with the Communists to prepare for a land-based counteroffensive invasion of Japan. The Dixie Mission, which began in 1943, was the first official American contact with the Communists. Other Americans, such as Claire Chennault, argued for air power. In 1944, Generalissimo Chiang acceded to Roosevelt's request that an American general take charge of all forces in the area, but demanded that Stilwell be recalled. General Albert Wedemeyer replaced Stilwell, Patrick Hurley became ambassador, and Us-China relations became much smoother.

After World War II ended in 1945, the showdown came between the Nationalists and the COmmunists in a full-scale civil war. American general George C. Marshall tried to broker a truce but he failed. The Kuomintang (Nationalist) military position steadily worsened and by 1949, the Communists were victorious and drove the Nationalists from the onto the island of Taiwan. and other islands. Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China, while the Republic of China remains in Taiwan to this day.

Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin controlled the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, with Vyacheslav Molotov as his foreign minister. Their policy was neutrality until August 1939, followed by friendly relations with Germany in order to carve up Eastern Europe. After he ignored repeated warnings, Stalin was stunned when Hitler invaded in June 1941. Stalin quickly came to terms with Britain and the United States, cemented through a series of summit meetings. The U.S. and Britain supplied war materials in large quantity through Lend Lease. There was some coordination of military action, especially in summer 1944. At war's end the central issue was whether Stalin would allow free elections in eastern Europe.

France

French Republic

France and Britain collaborated closely in 1939, and together declared war against Germany two days after it invaded France. Apart from the British Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), no independent nation joined their cause. Britain and France took a defensive posture, fearing German air attacks on cities. France hoped the Maginot Line woulod protect it from an invasion. There was little fighting between the fall of Poland in mid-Spetember and the following spring; it was the Phoney War in Britain or Drôle de guerre – the funny sort of war – in France. Britain tried several peace feelers, but Hitler did not respond.

When Germany had its hands free for an attack in the west, its launched its Blitzkrieg against Denmark and Norway, easily pushing the British out. Then it invaded the Low Countries and tricked Britain and France into sending its best combat units deep into the Netherlands, where they became trapped in the Battle of France in May 1940. The Royal Navy rescued over 300,000 British and French soldiers from Dunkirk, but left behind all the equipment.

Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June 1940, and the government surrendered on 24 June 1940. Nazi Germany occupied three-fifths of France's territory, leaving the rest in the southeast to the new Vichy government, which was a bit more than a puppet state since it still had a navy. However nearly 2 million French soldiers became prisoners of war in Germany. They served as hostages and forced laborers in German factories. The United States suddenly realized Germany was on the verge of controlling practically all of Europe, and it determined to rapidly build up its small Army and Air Force, and expand its Navy. Sympathy with Britain was high, and many were willing to send munitions, but few Americans called for war.

Vichy France

Main article: Foreign relations of Vichy France

The fall of France in June 1940 brought a new regime known as Vichy France. Theoretically it was neutral, but in practice it was partly controlled by Germany until November 1942, when Germany took full control. Vichy was intensely conservative and anti-Communist, but it was practically helpless with Germany controlling half of France directly and holding nearly two million French POWs as hostages. Vichy finally collapsed when the Germans fled in summer 1944.

The United States granted Vichy full diplomatic recognition, sending Admiral William D. Leahy to Paris as American ambassador. President Roosevelt hoped to use American influence to encourage those elements in the Vichy government opposed to military collaboration with Germany. Vichy still controlled its overseas colonies and Washington encouraged Vichy to resist German demands such as for air bases in Syria or to move war supplies through French North Africa. The essential American position was that France should take no action not explicitly required by the armistice terms that could adversely affect Allied efforts in the war. When Germany took full control the U.S. and Canada cut their ties.

French fleet

Britain feared that the French naval fleet could wind up in German hands and be used against its own naval forces, which were so vital to maintaining north Atlantic shipping and communications. Under the armistice, France had been allowed to retain the French Navy, the Marine Nationale, under strict conditions. Vichy pledged that the fleet would never fall into the hands of Germany, but refused to send the fleet beyond Germany's reach by sending it to Britain or to far away territories of the French empire such as the West Indies. Shortly after France gave up it attacked a large French naval contingent in Mers-el-Kebir, killing 1,297 French military personnel. Vichy severed diplomatic relations but did not declare war on Britain. Churchill also French ships in British ports to be seized by the Royal Navy. The French squadron at Alexandria, Egypt, under Admiral René-Emile Godfroy, was effectively interned until 1943.

The American position towards Vichy France and Free France was inconsistent. President Roosevelt disliked and distrusted de Gaulle, and agreed with Ambassador Leahy's view that he was an "apprentice dictator."

North Africa

Preparing for a landing in North Africa in late 1942, the US looked for a top French ally. It turned to Henri Giraud shortly before the landing on 8 November 1942, but he had little local support. By hapstance the Vichy leader Admiral François Darlan was captured and supported the Americans. The Allies, with General Dwight D. Eisenhower in charge, signed a deal with Admiral Darlan on 22 November 1942 in which the Allies recognized Darlan as high commissioner for North Africa and West Africa. The Allied world was stunned at giving a high command to man who days before had been collaborating with the Nazis; Roosevelt and Churchill supported Eisenhower, for he was following a plan that had been worked out in London and had been approved by Roosevelt and Churchill. Darlan was assassinated on 24 December 1942, so Washington turned again towards Giraud, who was made High Commissioner of French North and West Africa. Giraud failed to build a political base and was displaced by the last man with any standing, de Gaulle.

Free France

See also: Free French Forces

General de Gaulle speaking on BBC Radio during the war

Free France was the insurgent French government based in London and the overseas French colonies and led by charismatic general Charles de Gaulle. He was the most senior French military officer to reject the June 1940 surrender ("Armistice") and oppose the Vichy government of Marshall Pétain. From London on 18 June 1940 he gave an impassioned radio address exhorting the patriotic French people to resist Nazi Germany He organized the Free French Forces from soldiers that had escaped with the British at Dunkirk. With British military support the Free French gradually gained control of all French colonies except Indochina, which the Japanese controlled. The U.S., Britain and Canada wanted Vichy to keep nominal control of the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon for reasons of prestige, but de Gaulle seized them anyway in late 1941.

When the British and Americans landed in France in June 1944 de Gaulle headed a government in exile based in London, but he continued to create diplomatic problems fro the U.S. and Britain. He refused to allow French soldiers to land on D-Day, and insisted that France be treated as a great power by the other Allies, and that he himself was the only representative of France. Roosevelt disliked him, but he had Churchill's support. The U.S. and Britain allowed de Gaulle the honor of being the first to march into Paris at the head of his army after the Germans had fled.

Neutrals

The main neutrals were Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The Soviet Union was officially neutral until June 1941 in Europe, and until August 1945 in Asia, when it attacked Japan in cooperation with the U.S.

Latin America

All but three countries in Latin America remained neutral. Cuba declared war in December 1941 and actively helped in the defense of the Panama Canal. It did not send forces to Europe. Mexico declared war on Germany in 1942 after u-boats sank Mexican tankers carrying crude oil to the United States. It sent a 300-man fighter squadron to the war against Japan in 1945. Brazil declared war against Germany and Italy on 22 August 1942 and sent a 25,700-man infantry force that fought mainly on the Italian front, from September 1944 to May 1945. Its Navy and Air Force acted in the Atlantic Ocean.

Argentina

Main article: Argentina during World War II

Argentina hosted a strong, very-well-organized pro-Nazi element before the war that was controlled by the German ambassador. Brazil, Chile and Mexico had smaller movements. The Argentine government remained neutral in the war but quietly tolerated entry of Nazi leaders fleeing Germany, Belgium and Vichy France in 1945. Indeed a conspiracy theory grew up after the war that greatly exaggerated the Nazi numbers and amount of gold they brought. Historians have show there was little gold and probably not many Nazis, but the myths live on.

Sweden

Main article: Sweden during World War II

Sweden remained neutral during World War II, avoiding the fate of its neighbors, occupied Norway and defeated Finland. The dominant historiography for decades after the war ignored issues of the Holocaust and depended on the "small state realist" argument. It held that that neutrality and cooperation with Germany were necessary for survival, for Germany was vastly more powerful, concessions were limited and were only made where the threat was too great; neutrality was bent but not broken; national unity was paramount; and in any case Sweden had the neutral right to trade with Germany. Germany needed Swedish iron and had nothing to gain--and much iron to lose--by an invasion. The nation was run by a unity government that included all major parties in the Riksdag. Its key leaders included Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson and Foreign Minister Christian Günther. King Gustav V had pro-Nazi proclivities that the government had to keep in check.

Axis

Main article: Axis powers

The dictators of Germany and Italy, Hitler and Mussolini, had numerous conferences. Neither ever met with top Japanese leaders. The Japanese ambassador to Germany handled many of the negotiations between Germany and Japan, but his coded messages home were intercepted and decrypted by the United States starting in 1941. The U.S. shared them with Britain. They revealed important German plans.

Germany

Germany's foreign policy during the war involved the creation of allied governments under direct or indirect control from Berlin. A main goal was obtaining soldiers from the senior allies, such as Italy and Hungary, and millions of workers and ample food supplies from subservient allies such as Vichy France. By the fall of 1942, there were 24 divisions from Romania on the Eastern Front, 10 from Italy and 10 from Hungary. When a country was no longer dependable, Germany would assume full control, as it did with France in 1942, Italy in 1943, and Hungary in 1944. Full control allowed the Nazis to achieve their high priority of sending all the Jews to extermination camps. Although Japan was officially a powerful ally, the relationship was distant and there was little coordination or cooperation. For example, Germany refused to share the secret formula for making synthetic oil from coal until late in the war.

DiNardo argues that in Europe Germany’s foreign-policy was dysfunctional during the war, as Hitler treated each ally separately, and refused to create any sort of combined staff that would synchronize policies, armaments, and strategies. Italy, Finland, Romania, and Hungary each dealt with Berlin separately, and never coordinated their activities. Germany was reluctant to share its powerful weapons systems, or to train Axis officers. Compromise was not one of Hitler's techniques, but fighting to the death without retreat was a favorite tactic. The result was inefficient use of military forces, as well as highly inefficient use of industrial resources located in the axis powers or and conquered territories. There were some exceptions, such as the close collaboration between the German and Italian forces in North Africa.

Hitler

Hitler devoted most of his attention during the war to military and diplomatic affairs. He frequently met with foreign leaders. For example, on January 10, 1943 he met with Rumanian Premier Marshal Ion Antonescu at German field headquarters, with top-ranking generals on both sides. On 9 August 1943, Hitler summoned Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria to a stormy meeting at field headquarters, and demanded he declare war on Russia. The tsar refused, but did agree to declare war on far-away Britain and the U.S. News reports said Hitler tried to hit him and the tsar suffered a heart attack at the meeting; he died three weeks later.

Poland

Main articles: Second Polish Republic and History of Poland (1939–45)

Between 1919 and 1939 Poland pursued a policy of balance between Soviet Union and Nazi Germany seeking non-aggression treaties with both Although the German foreign ministry had a negative view of Poland, Hitler had a positive view and wanted Poland as an ally against the Soviets. In early 1939 Germany asked Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact as a satellite state of Germany. Germany proposed to create an extraterritorial highway connecting Germany proper with Danzig and then East Prussia, but Poland refused. Germany also pressed for the incorporation of Danzig, a Nazi ruled city-state with a 90% German population that had been separated from Germany in 1920 and functioning as a Free City in a customs union with Poland ever since. After Poland rejected German proposals regarding Danzig and the Corridor, Hitler turned against Poland in early 1939 and started plans for an invasion later that year. Poland had few friends and no allies.

Two critical developments caught Poland by surprise. At the end of March 1939 Britain and France announced that if Germany invaded Poland they would declare war. In terms of helping Poland in an actual war everyone realized they could do very little. The hope was that the threat of a two-front war would deter Germany, especially since it had to worry about the role of the Soviet Union. Hitler thought Britain and France were bluffing, but he handled the Soviet problem in late August, by a stunning agreement with Stalin in what amounted to a friendly alliance, which included secret provisions to partition Poland—and indeed divide up much of eastern Europe The British and French offer was not a bluff—they did indeed declare war on Germany when it invaded Poland, but neither was in a position to provide serious help. Poland itself had a million-man army (and another million in the reserves), but fell far short in terms of training, air power, artillery, tanks, machine guns, radios and trucks. The Polish military budget was about 2% of Germany's; its commanding general Marshal Smigly-Rydz was not well prepared for the challenge.

Poland suffered yet another partition in 1939. The western aand northern areas with 10 million people (including a large German minority) became part of Germany. The eastern and areas with large Belorussian or Ukrainian populations became part of the Soviet Union. The remainder became the General Government with its capital at Kraków. Under Generalplan Ost the Germans planned to destroy Polish society and culture, and most of the population, and replace them with German settlers. Millions of Jews were hunted down and killed. The rest--Polish Catholics--were deliberately starved.

The Poles formed an underground resistance movement and a Polish government in exile, based in London, which was recognized by the Soviet Union. During the war about 400,000 Poles joined the underground Polish Home Army, about 200,000 went into combat on western fronts in units loyal to the Polish government in exile, and about 300,000 fought under the Soviet command in the last stages of the war.

Italy

Allied policy was to be friendly with Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, in the hopes he would either remain neutral or moderate Hitler's expansion plans. However when France was in the last stages of collapse Mussolini entered the war and gained some spoils. He brought along a powerful navy that could challenge the British for control of the Mediterranean. Roosevelt denounced the move: "On this 10th day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor." Only Britain and its Commonwealth stood against Hitler; Roosevelt now moved to mobilize American economic resources on behalf of Britain. Italy was increasingly drawn into the Nazi orbit, although it was poorly prepared for military action.

Balkans

Main articles: Balkans Campaign (World War II), Yugoslavia § World War II, and Hungary § World War II 1941–1945

Hitler, preparing to invade the Soviet Union, diverted attention to make sure the southern or Balkan flank was secure. Rumania was under heavy pressure, and was forced to cede 40,000 square miles of territory with 4 million people to the USSR, Hungary and Bulgaria; German troops came in to protect the vital oil fields (Germany's only source of oil besides the USSR). Rumania signed the Axis Pact and became a Germany ally (November 1940). So too did Hungary (November 1940) and Bulgaria (March, 1941).

Greece

Main articles: Greco-Italian War and Battle of Greece

Greek counteroffensive against Italian-controlled Albania, late 1940.

By the middle of 1940, Mussolini was jealous of Hitler's conquests and wanted to prove he could lead Italy to similar military triumphs. Italy had occupied Albania in the spring of 1939 as well as the Italian conquest of British Somaliland near Ethiopia. Mussolini also wanted to reassert Italy's interests in the Balkans, to secure bases from which British outposts in the eastern Mediterranean could be attacked. On 28 October 1940, after Greece rejected an Italian ultimatum, Italy invaded Greece. The Greek army counterattacked and forced the Italians to retreat. By mid-December, 1940, the Greeks occupied nearly a quarter of Albania, tying down 530,000 Italian troops. In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack failed, humiliating Italian military pretensions. In April 1941 Germany came to Italy's aid by invading Greece through Bulgaria. The Greek army soon surrendered.

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia signed on as a German ally in March, 1941, but within hours an anti-Nazi coup, led by Serbians with British help, overthrew the prince regent, repudiated the Nazis, and installed the 17 year old heir as King Peter II. Germany marched in and set off an extremely bloody, long civil war that killed over a million people.

Croatia's dictator Ante Pavelić (left) with Mussolini in 1941; Croatia was a new Axis state

The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was heavily Catholic and conservative. It became an Axis ally ruled by the fascist militia known as the Ustaše; it controlled Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ethnic cleansing was its policy. The Ustaše murdered around 500,000 people (mostly Serbs, along with 37,000 Jews), expelled 250,000, and forced another 200,000 to convert to Catholicism. Kosovo was given to Albania (then under Italian control). Macedonia went to Bulgaria and Hungary got part of Vojvodina. Serbia became a German puppet state and was the cockpit of the resistance.

Yugoslavia had a weak government in exile based in London that included the king. However, power inside the country was divided three ways between the Germans and their allies, and two Serbian resistance groups. The royalist anti-Communist Chetniks under Draža Mihailović, was nominally under the control of the government in exile. Chetniks were opposed to the Nazis but sometimes did collaborate with the Germans and Ustaša in their fierce guerrilla battles with the National Liberation Army, a Communist-controlled resistance headed by Josip Broz Tito. Tito's strength grew in 1943, and Mihailović and the monarchists fell far behind. Churchill reversed course in December 1943, ended his support for the royalist forces of Mihailović, and backed instead Tito.

Tito drove out the Germans in 1945 and liquidated the Mihailovic forces. This allowed the formation of a Communist state independent of Moscow. Historians believe that Germany's intervention in the Balkans in spring 1941 probably delayed its invasion of Russia long enough to give the Soviets a chance to survive.

Japan

Japan had conquered all of Manchuria and most of China by 1939 in the Second Sino-Japanese War, but the Allies refused to recognize the conquests. Japan joined the Axis with Germany, but shared little information. Japan depended on imports from the Allies for 90% of its oil, and the cutoff of oil shipments in mid-1941 left Japan with supplies for only a year or two of serious combat by its warships and warplanes unless it came to terms regarding China, or seized oil fields controlled by Britain and the Netherlands. The latter course meant war, and was urged by army officials who had been bloodied in border conflicts and were reluctant to engage the Soviets. Some admirals and many civilians, including Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, believed that a war with the U.S. would end in defeat. The alternative was loss of honor and power. Diplomats proposed political compromises in the form of the "Amau Doctrine", dubbed the "Japanese Monroe Doctrine" which would have given the Japanese free rein with regard to China. These proposals were rejected by the U.S.; the Japanese Army now demanded a military solution.

Imperial conquests

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in 1942.

Japan launched its own blitzkriegs in East Asia. In 1937, the Japanese Army invaded and captured most of the coastal Chinese cities such as Shanghai. Japan took over French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), British Malaya (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore) as well as the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Thailand managed to stay independent by becoming a satellite state of Japan. In December 1941 to May 1942, Japan sank major elements of the American, British and Dutch fleets, captured Honk Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, and reached the borders of India and Australia. Japan suddenly had achieved its goal of ruling the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Imperial rule

1935 poster of the puppet state of Manchukuo promoting harmony among peoples. The caption reads: "With the help of Japan, China, and Manchukuo, the world can be in peace."

The ideology of Japan's colonial empire, as it expanded dramatically during the war, contained two somewhat contradictory impulses. On the one hand, it preached the unity of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a coalition of Asian races, directed by Japan, against the imperialism of Britain, France, the Netherlands, the United States, and European imperialism generally. This approach celebrated the spiritual values of the East in opposition to the crass materialism of the West. In practice, however, the Japanese installed organizationally-minded bureaucrats and engineers to run their new empire, and they believed in ideals of efficiency, modernization, and engineering solutions to social problems. It was fascism based on technology, and rejected Western norms of democracy. After 1945, the engineers and bureaucrats took over, and turned the wartime techno-fascism into entrepreneurial management skills.

Japan set up puppet regimes in Manchuria and China; they vanished at the end of the war. The Army operated ruthless governments in most of the conquered areas, but paid more favorable attention to the Dutch East Indies. The main goal was to obtain oil, but Jaan sponsored an Indonesian nationalist movement under Sukarno. Sukarno finally came to power in the late 1940s after several years of battling the Dutch. The Dutch destroyed their oil wells but the Japanese reopened them. However most of the tankers taking oil to Japan were sunk by American submarines, so Japan's oil shortage became increasing acute.

Military defeats

The attack on Pearl Harbor, initially appeared to be a major success that knocked out the American battle fleet—but it missed the aircraft carriers that were at sea and ignored vital shore facilities whose destruction could have crippled US Pacific operations. Ultimately, the attack proved a long-term strategic disaster that actually inflicted relatively little significant long-term damage while provoking the United States to seek revenge in an all-out total warin which no terms short of unconditional surrender would be entertained.

Atomic cloud over Hiroshima, 1945

However as Admiral Yamamoto warned, Japan's six-month window of military advantage following Pearl Harbor ended with the Japanese Navy's offensive ability being crippled at the hands of the American Navy in the Battle of Midway. As the war became one of mass production and logistics, the U.S. built a far stronger navy with more numerous warplanes, and a superior communications and logistics system. The Japanese had stretched too far and were unable to supply its forward bases—many soldiers died of starvation. Japan built warplanes in large quantity but the quality plunged, and the performance of poorly trained pilots spiraled downward. The Imperial Navy lost a series of major battles, from Midway (1942) to the Philippine Sea (1944) and Leyte Gulf (1945), which put American long-range B-29 bombers in range. A series of massive raids burned out much of Tokyo and 64 major industrial cities beginning in March 1945 while Operation Starvation seriously disrupted the nation's vital internal shipping lanes. Regardless of how the war was becoming hopeless, the circle around the Emperor held fast and refused to open negotiations. Finally in August, two atomic bombs and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria demonstrated the cause was futile, and Hirohito authorized a surrender whereby he kept his throne.

Deaths

Total Japanese military fatalities between 1937 and 1945 were 2.1 million; most came in the last year of the war. Starvation or malnutrition-re­lated illness accounted for roughly 80 percent of Japanese military deaths in the Philippines, and 50 percent of military fatalities in China. The aerial bombing of a total of 65 Japanese cities appears to have taken a minimum of 400,000 and possibly closer to 600,000 civilian lives (over 100,000 in Tokyo alone, over 200,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and 80,000–150,000 civilian deaths in the battle of Okina­wa). Civilian death among settlers who died attempting to re­turn to Japan from Manchuria in the winter of 1945 were probably around 100,000.

Finland

Main article: Military history of Finland during World War II

Hitler and Finnish commander-in-chief Field Marshal Mannerheim (right)

Although Finland officially was not a part of the Axis, it was aligned with Germany in a war against the Soviet Union. The August 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union contained a secret protocol dividing much of eastern Europe and assigning Finland to the Soviet sphere of influence. Finland before 1918 had been a province of Russia, and many Finnish speakers lived in neighboring parts of Russia. After unsuccessfully attempting to force territorial and other concessions on the Finns, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939 during the Winter War, intending to establish a communist puppet government in Finland. Finland won very wide popular support in Britain and the United States. The arms-length collaboration with Germany stemmed from a precarious balance struck by the Finns in order to avoid antagonizing Britain and the United States. In the end Britain declared war to satisfy the needs of its Soviet policy, but did not engage in combat against Finland. Finland concluded armistice negotiations with the USSR under strong German pressure to continue the war, while British and American acted in accord with their own alliances with the Soviets.

Soviet success in Finland would threaten Germany's iron-ore supplies and offered the prospect of Allied interference in the region. The Soviets overwhelmed the Finnish resistance in the Winter War, and a peace treaty was signed in March 1940. It ceded some Finnish territory to the Soviet Union, including the Karelian Isthmus, containing Finland's second-largest city, Viipuri, and the critical defensive structure of the Mannerheim Line.

After the Winter War war, Finland sought protection and support from the Britain and Sweden without success. Finland drew closer to Germany, first with the intent of enlisting German support as a counterweight to thwart continuing Soviet pressure, and later to help regain lost territories. Finland declared war against the Soviet Union on 25 June 1941 in what is called the Continuation War. To meet Stalin's demands, Britain reluctantly declared war on Finland on 6 December 1941, although no other military operations followed. War was never declared between Finland and the United States, though relations were severed between the two countries in 1944 as a result of the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement.

Finland maintained command of its armed forces and pursued war objectives independently of Germany. Germans and Finns did work closely together during Operation Silverfox, a joint offensive against Murmansk. Finland refused German requests to participate actively in the Siege of Leningrad, and also granted asylum to Jews, while Jewish soldiers continued to serve in its army.

The relationship between Finland and Germany more closely resembled an alliance during the six weeks of the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement, which was presented as a German condition for help with munitions and air support, as the Soviet offensive coordinated with D-Day threatened Finland with complete occupation. The agreement bound Finland not to seek a separate peace with Moscow.

After Soviet offensives were fought to a standstill, Ryti's successor as president, Marshall Mannerheim, dismissed the agreement and opened secret negotiations with the Soviets, which resulted in the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. Under the terms of the armistice, Finland was obliged to expel German troops from Finnish territory, which resulted in the Lapland War. Finland signed a peace treaty with the Allied powers in 1947.

Further reading

• Dear, Ian C. B. and Muichael Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (2005), comprehensive encyclopedia for all countries
• Overy, Richard J. The Origins of the Second World War (3rd ed. 2008)
• Steiner, Zara. The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933-1939 (Oxford History of Modern Europe) (2011) 1248pp; comprehensive coverage of Europe heading to war excerpt and text search
• Watt, Donald Cameron. How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War 1938-1939 (1990) highly detailed coverage
• Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (1994) comprehensive coverage of the war with emphasis on diplomacy excerpt and text search

Allies

• Beschloss, Michael. The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941–1945 (2002).
• Burns, James. Roosevelt: the Soldier of Freedom (1970).
• Churchill, Winston. The Second World War (6 vol 1948)
• Charmley, John. Churchill's Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940–57 (1996)
• Dallek, Robert. Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945 (1995).
• Fenby, Jonathan. Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost (2005).
• Gibson, Robert. Best of Enemies (2nd ed. 2011). Britain and France
• Glantz, Mary E. FDR and the Soviet Union: The President's Battles over Foreign Policy (2005)
• Langer, William and S. Everett Gleason. The Challenge to Isolation, 1937–1940 (1952); The Undeclared War, 1940–1941 (1953) highly influential, wide-ranging semi-official American diplomatic history
• Louis, William Roger; Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941–1945 (1978)
• McNeill, William Hardy. America, Britain, & Russia: their co-operation and conflict, 1941-1946 (1953), 820pp
• Nasaw, David. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (2012), US ambassador to Britain, 1937-40; pp 281-486
• Reynolds, David. From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s (2007) excerpt and text search
• Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953 (2006).
• Taylor, Jay. The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China (2009).
• Woods, Randall Bennett. Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941–1946 (1990)
• Young, Robert. France and the Origins of the Second World War (1996)

Axis

• Bix, Herbert P. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (2001) excerpt and text search
• DiNardo, Richard L. "The dysfunctional coalition: The Axis Powers and the Eastern Front in World War II," Journal of Military History (1996) 60#4 pp 711-730
• DiNardo, Richard L. Germany and the Axis Powers: From Coalition to Collapse (2005) excerpt and text search
• Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich at War (2010), a comprehensive history excerpt and text search
• Feis, Herbert. The Road to Pearl Harbor: The coming of the war between the United States and Japan (1950). classic history by senior American official.
• Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis (2001), 1168pp; excerpt and text search
• Knox, MacGregor. Hitler’s Italian Allies: Royal Armed Forces, Fascist Regime, and the War of 1940-1943 (2000)
• Leitz, Christian. Nazi Foreign Policy, 1933-1941: The Road to Global War (2004) 201pp online
• Mallett, Robert. Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War, 1933 - 1940 (2003) excerpt and text search
• Martin, Bernd. Japan and Germany in the Modern World (1995)
• Mazower, Mark. Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe (2009) excerpt and text search
• Noakes, Jeremy and Geoffrey Pridham, eds. Nazism 1919-1945, vol. 3: Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination (1991), primary sources
• Thorne, Christopher G. The Issue of War: States, Societies, and the Coming of the Far Eastern Conflict of 1941-1945 (1985) sophisticated analysis of each major power facing Japan
• Tooze, Adam. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (2008), 848pp excerpt and text search
• Weinberg, Gerhard L. Hitler's Foreign Policy 1933-1939: The Road to World War II (2005)
• Wright, Jonathan. Germany and the Origins of the Second World War (2007) 223pp

Historiography

• Lee, Loyd, ed. World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1997) excerpt and text search
• Lee, Loyd, ed. World War II in Asia and the Pacific and the War's Aftermath, with General Themes: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1998) excerpt and text search