Navy Dept U S Norman Polmar Edward J Mar Popular Books

Navy Dept U S Norman Polmar Edward J Mar Biography & Facts

Almost every country in the world participated in World War II. Most were neutral at the beginning, but only a relative few nations remained neutral to the end. The Second World War pitted two alliances against each other, the Axis powers and the Allied powers. It is estimated that 74 million people died, with estimates ranging from 40 million to 90 million dead (including Holocaust causalities). The leading Axis powers were Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Italy; while the British Empire, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were the "Big Four" Allied powers. The countries involved in or affected by World War II are listed alphabetically, with a description of their role in the conflict: Participants/Non-Participants During WW2 Neutral Powers Axis Powers Allied Powers Afghanistan Under Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Khan, Afghanistan stayed neutral. The kingdom had close relations with all three Axis powers and had agreements with them for assistance with infrastructure and trade. Despite British pressure, Afghanistan maintained friendly relations with the Axis during the war, in the hopes that the Axis would help stop British influence in the region, which came from the British Raj and Mesopotamia. In 1940, the Afghanistan legation in Berlin asked whether Germany would cede land in British Raj to Afghanistan if it should win the war; specifically, the king and minister wanted to acquire all the ethnic Pashtun land between the Durand Line and the Indus River. Despite this stated goal, Afghanistan stayed out of the war, neither suffering an attack nor attacking any other country. In 1941, Western press reported that Amanullah Khan, a former king who lost his throne in a civil war in the 1920s, was working as an agent for Nazi Germany in Berlin. It is believed he was involved in plans to regain his throne with Axis help. Following the Axis loss in Stalingrad in 1943, the plans cooled off and were never executed. Albania After the Italian invasion of Albania in April 1939, 100,000 Italian soldiers and 11,000 Italian colonists who wanted to integrate Albania into the Italian Empire settled in the country. Initially the Albanian Fascist Party received support from the population, mainly because of the unification of Kosovo and other Albanian-populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece by the Axis in Spring 1941. Benito Mussolini boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania long wanted by the Tirana nationalists. On June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and on June 28 Albania also declared war on the USSR. In October 1941, small Albanian Communist groups established an Albanian Communist Party in Tirana of 130 members under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. In mid-1942, however, party leaders increased their popularity by calling young people to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy. In September 1942, the party organized the Albanian National Anti-Fascist Front, from a number of resistance groups, including several that were strongly anti-communist. They assembled a National Liberation Army. Germany occupied Albania in September 1943, dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital, and soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. Many Balli Kombëtar units and leaders collaborated. The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on November 29, 1944. The Albanian partisans also helped in the liberation of Kosovo and parts of Yugoslavia. Algeria After the Fall of France, Algeria, along with France's other possessions in Africa, were under the control of Nazi Germany and Vichy France. Next, the British Empire launched a squadron of the Royal Navy to attack the port of Mers-El-Kébir, near Oran because it was full of French warships. On November 8, 1942, the Allies launched a major offensive codenamed Operation Torch. Afterwards, the Italians bombed Algiers. Then, the Allies attempted to capture the cities of Oran and Algiers by naval landing but the French troops and navy were in large quantity. So, they first took Morocco and then Algeria along the way, establishing the liberation of northern Africa. During the War, large numbers of both Muslim and European Algerians served with the French Army. Algerian troops particularly distinguished themselves in the French Expeditionary Corps under General Juin during the Italian campaign of 1943 and in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France in 1944. Andorra Andorra remained politically neutral throughout the war but was used as a smuggling route by Axis Vichy French and Axis-aligned Spanish personnel. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan The condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was at war from the time of the United Kingdom's declaration in 1939. Fighting reached Sudan in 1940 when Italy entered the war. Sudan had a long border with Italian East Africa and therefore became the Northern Front in the East African Campaign. Italian forces captured the railway junction at Kassala and other towns and raided as far north as Port Sudan. Units of the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) were combined with the Indian 1st Horse to form Gazelle Force, which helped drive the Italian forces out of Sudanese territory in January 1941. Another SDF battalion was part of Gideon Force, which invaded Ethiopia, while others took part in the invasion of Eritrea. The SDF took part in the Western Desert Campaign along the northern Sudanese border with Libya, supplying the Free French and then the Long Range Desert Group stationed there. Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Before the start of World War II in 1939, Argentina had maintained a long tradition of neutrality regarding European wars, which had been upheld and defended by all major political parties since the 19th century. One of the main reasons for this policy was related to Argentina's economic position as one of the world's leading exporters of foodstuffs and agricultural products, to Europe in general and to the United Kingdom in particular. Thus, initially, even though the government of Argentina was sympathetic to the Allies and provided economic assistance to the United Kingdom, the country's political tradition of neutralism prevailed. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent American declaration of war upon Japan, American pressure for Argentine entry into the war begun to increase. Relations worsened further following a military coup in 1943, as the plotters were accused of holding Axis sympathies. Because of strong divisions and internal disputes between members of the Argentine military, the country would continue to remain neutral, even after American sanctions. However, Argentina e.... Discover the Navy Dept U S Norman Polmar Edward J Mar popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Navy Dept U S Norman Polmar Edward J Mar books.