title: Truth or Dare (2018 film)

text: Bruce DeMara of the "Toronto Star" gave the film 2.5/4 stars, saying that it "isn't all that daring, although it is not without its twisted charm." Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Hackneyed horror tropes persist throughout and so does some crushingly exposition-heavy dialogue... but it rattles along at a fair lick, never resting for too long before another nasty surprise."


title: Truth or Dare (2018 film)

text: In April 2018, Jeff Wadlow discussed ideas of a sequel, stating, "If the movie is a success and I'm asked to come up with other good ideas, there are other stories that could be told through the filter of a supernatural game of truth or dare."


title: Michael Dell

text: Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies. He is ranked the 24th richest person in the world by "Bloomberg Billionaires Index", with a net worth of $45 billion as of October 2022.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 2011, his 243.35 million shares of Dell stock were worth $3.5 billion, giving him 12% ownership of the company. His remaining wealth of roughly $10 billion is invested in other companies and is managed by MSD Capital, which incorporates his initials. In January 2013 it was announced that he had bid to take Dell Inc. private for $24.4 billion in the biggest management buyout since the Great Recession. Dell Inc. officially went private in October 2013. The company once again went public in December 2018.


title: Michael Dell

text: Dell was born in 1965 in Houston, to a Jewish family. His parents were Lorraine Charlotte (née Langfan), a stockbroker, and Alexander Dell, an orthodontist. Michael Dell attended Herod Elementary School in Houston. He would go on to attend Memorial High School. In a bid to enter business early, he applied to take a high school equivalency exam at age eight. In his early teens, he invested his earnings from part-time jobs in stocks and precious metals.


title: Michael Dell

text: Dell purchased his first calculator at age seven and encountered an early teletype terminal in junior high. At age 15, after playing with computers at Radio Shack, he got his first computer, an Apple II, which he promptly disassembled to see how it worked. Dell attended Memorial High School in Houston, selling subscriptions to the "Houston Post" in the summer. Dell's parents wanted him to be a doctor and in order to please them, he took up pre-med at the University of Texas in 1983. Dell continued learning to target specific populations for newspaper subscriptions rather than just making cold calls, and earned $18,000 that summer. He hired several employees, and after earning a gross profit of nearly $200,000 in his first year of business, Dell dropped out of the University of Texas at age 19.


title: Michael Dell

text: While a freshman pre-med student at the University of Texas, Dell started an informal business putting together and selling upgrade kits for personal computers in Room 2713 of the Dobie Center residential building. He then applied for a vendor license to bid on contracts for the State of Texas, winning bids by not having the overhead of a computer store.


title: Michael Dell

text: In January 1984, Dell banked on his conviction that the potential cost savings of a manufacturer selling PCs directly had enormous advantages over the conventional indirect retail channel. In January 1984, Dell registered his company as "PC's Limited". Operating out of a condominium, the business sold between $50,000 and $80,000 worth of PC upgrades, kits, and add-on components. In May, Dell incorporated the company as "Dell Computer Corporation" and relocated to a business center in North Austin. The company employed a few people as order takers, a few more to fill the orders, and, as Dell recalled, a manufacturing staff consisting of "three guys with screwdrivers sitting at six-foot tables". The venture's capitalization cost was $1,000.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 1992, aged 27, he became the youngest CEO of a company ranked in "Fortune" magazine's list of the top 500 corporations. In 1996, Dell started selling computers over the Web, the same year his company launched its first servers. Dell Inc. soon reported about $1 million in sales per day from dell.com. In the first quarter of 2001, Dell Inc. reached a world market share of 12.8 percent, surpassing Compaq to become the world's largest PC maker. The metric marked the first time the rankings had shifted over the previous seven years. The company's combined shipments of desktops, notebooks and servers grew 34.3 percent worldwide and 30.7 percent in the United States at a time when competitors' sales were shrinking.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 1998, Dell founded MSD Capital L.P. to manage his family's investments. Investment activities include publicly traded securities, private equity activities, and real estate. The firm employs 80 people and has offices in New York, Santa Monica and London. Dell himself is not involved in day-to-day operations. On March 4, 2004, Dell stepped down as CEO, but stayed as chairman of Dell Inc.'s board, while Kevin Rollins, then president and COO, became president and CEO. On January 31, 2007, Dell returned as CEO at the request of the board, succeeding Rollins.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 2013, Michael Dell with the help of Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft, and a consortium of lenders took Dell, Inc. private. The deal was reportedly worth $25 billion and faced difficulties during its execution. Notable resistance came from Carl Icahn, but after several months he stepped aside. Michael Dell received a 75% stake in the private company.


title: Michael Dell

text: On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire the enterprise software and storage company EMC Corporation. At $67 billion, it has been labeled the "highest-valued tech acquisition in history". The acquisition was finalized September 7, 2016.


title: Michael Dell

text: In July 2010 Dell Inc. agreed to pay a $100 million penalty to settle SEC charges of disclosure and accounting fraud in relation to undisclosed payments from Intel Corporation. Michael Dell and former CEO Kevin Rollins agreed to pay $4 million each and former CFO James Schneider agreed to pay $3 million to settle the charges.


title: Michael Dell

text: Accolades for Dell include "Entrepreneur of the Year" (at age 24) from "Inc." magazine; "Top CEO in American Business" from "Worth" magazine; "CEO of the Year" from "Financial World", "Industry Week" and "Chief Executive" magazines. Dell also received the 1998 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement and the 2013 Franklin Institute's Bower Award for Business Leadership.


title: Michael Dell

text: Dell serves on the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, the executive committee of the International Business Council, the U.S. Business Council. He previously served as a member of the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.


title: Michael Dell

text: In April 2020, Governor Greg Abbott named Dell to the Strike Force to Open Texas – a group "tasked with finding safe and effective ways to slowly reopen the state" during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Michael Dell

text: Dell's 1999 book, "Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry" (by HarperBusiness), is an account of his early life, his company's founding, growth and missteps, as well as lessons learned. The book was written in collaboration with Catherine Fredman.


title: Michael Dell

text: Dell's second book, "Play Nice But Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader" (by Portfolio), is a story of inside battles that defined him as a leader. The book was written in collaboration with James Kaplan.


title: Michael Dell

text: In February 2018, it was reported that in 2014, Dell had paid $100.5 million for Manhattan's One57 penthouse, which was then a record for the most expensive home ever sold in the city.


title: Michael Dell

text: Dell married Susan Lieberman on October 28, 1989, in Austin, Texas; the couple reside there with their four children.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 1999, Michael and Susan Dell established the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, which focuses on, among other causes, grants, urban education, childhood health and family economic stability. In 2006, the foundation provided $50 million in grants to three health-related organizations associated with the University of Texas: the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living, the Dell Pediatric Research Institute to complement the Dell Children's Medical Center, as well as funding for a new computer science building at the University of Texas at Austin campus. In 2013, the foundation provided an additional $50 million commitment to establish the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 1999, the MSDF has committed $1.23 billion to non-profits and social enterprises in the United States, India and South Africa. Dell is also behind the founding of the Dell Jewish Community Campus in the Northwest Hills neighborhood of Austin.


title: Michael Dell

text: By 2011, the foundation had committed more than $650 million to children's issues and community initiatives in the United States, India and South Africa. Today the foundation has over $466 million assets under management.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 2002, Dell received an honorary doctorate in Economic Science from the University of Limerick in honor of his investment in Ireland and the local community and for his support for educational initiatives.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 2012, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation committed $50 million for medical education. The Dell Medical School began enrolling students in 2016.


title: Michael Dell

text: In 2017, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Dell, a Houston native, pledged $36 million to relief efforts.


title: Michael Dell

text: In May 2017, Dell donated $1 billion to his foundation, which focuses on child poverty; it makes both impact investments and charitable donations.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: Little Fires Everywhere is an American drama streaming television series, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Celeste Ng. It premiered on Hulu on March 18, 2020 and consists of eight episodes. The series stars Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, both of whom were also executive producers, alongside Liz Tigelaar, Lauren Neustadter, and Pilar Savone. Set in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio during the late 1990s, it features Witherspoon and Washington as mothers from different socioeconomic backgrounds.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: "Little Fires Everywhere" follows "the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. The story explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger in believing that following the rules can avert disaster."


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: The book was discovered by Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter before it was published. Witherspoon went on to choose the book as her September 2017 book club pick and soon after it was published it became a bestseller. Witherspoon then brought the book to Kerry Washington, and together the pair approached Liz Tigelaar to adapt and showrun the novel as a limited series. The project began its development at ABC Signature, the cable/streaming division of ABC Studios where Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine has a network-only deal and Washington's Simpson Street has an overall deal.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: On March 2, 2018, the production was officially announced but a network had yet to be determined. The series was set to be written and showrun by Tigelaar who will also executive produce alongside Witherspoon, Washington, Lauren Neustadter, and Pilar Savone. The author of the novel, Ng, would act as producer. Production companies involved in the series included Hello Sunshine, Simpson Street, ABC Signature Studios. On March 12, 2018, Hulu gave the production an eight episode order. This series order came after a multiple-outlet bidding war involving various networks and streaming services.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: In April 2019, Lynn Shelton was chosen to direct the series and serve as an executive producer. Shelton died of a blood disorder shortly after the final episode of the series aired.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: Alongside the initial series announcement, it was reported that in addition to executive producing the series Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington had been cast in the series' lead roles. In April 2019, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jade Pettyjohn, Jordan Elsass, Gavin Lewis, Megan Stott and Lexi Underwood


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: joined the cast of the series. In May 2019, Joshua Jackson also joined the cast as the husband of Witherspoon's character. In June 2019, Paul Yen, Huang Lu, and Geoff Stults had been cast in recurring roles. In July 2019, Jaime Ray Newman joined the cast in a recurring role. In September 2019, Obba Babatundé and Byron Mann were cast in recurring capacities, with AnnaSophia Robb, Tiffany Boone, Alona Tal, Matthew Barnes, Andy Favreau, Luke Bracey, and Anika Noni Rose cast in guest roles. In October 2019, Jesse Williams, Britt Robertson, Kristoffer Polaha, Austin Basis and Reggie Austin joined the cast of the series, in recurring capacities; however, Polaha and Austin were not credited in the series.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: Principal photography took place in Los Angeles, California and ran from May 31 to October 23, 2019. The exterior of the Warren home is located in Pasadena, with the exterior of the Richardson home in Hancock Park.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: The score was composed by Mark Isham and Florence & the Machine keyboardist Isabella Summers. The series' official soundtrack was released on April 17, 2020 by Hollywood Records and featured cover songs recorded for the drama and performed by Judith Hill, BELLSAINT, Ruby Amanfu, Lauren Ruth Ward and an original song written by Ingrid Michaelson.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: "Little Fires Everywhere" premiered on March 18, 2020 on Hulu. Hulu's corporate sibling Disney+ Hotstar premiered the series in India concurrent with US telecast. Internationally, the series premiered on Amazon Prime Video instead of Disney+ in Europe, Latin America, Canada, Malaysia and Australia on May 22, 2020 as an Amazon Exclusive.


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 78% based on 78 reviews, with an average rating of 7.09/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Though "Little Fires Everywhere" at times plays it too safe, sparks fly when it lets well-matched leads Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon dig into the difficult questions it does dare to ask." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Little Fires Everywhere (miniseries)

text: According to Hulu, in its first 60 days online "Little Fires Everywhere" was the most-watched drama ever on the streaming service. "Deadline" also reported that the fourth episode was viewed by more subscribers and generated more hours of viewing on its first day than the premiere of the first episode did on first day.


title: World War II by country

text: Almost every country in the world participated in World War II. Most were neutral at the beginning, but only a relatively few nations remained neutral to the end. The Second World War pitted two alliances against each other, the Axis powers and the Allied powers; the Soviet Union served 35 million men and women, with the U.S serving 16 million, Germany 13 million, the British Empire 8.5 million and Japan 6 million. It is estimated that in total 127 million people were mobilised during the war. It is generally estimated that a total of 72 million people died, with the lowest estimate being 40 million dead and the highest estimate being 90 million dead. The leading Axis powers were Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Italy; while the British Empire, the United States and the Soviet Union were the "Big Three" Allied powers.


title: World War II by country

text: The countries involved or affected by World War II are listed here alphabetically, with a description of their role in the conflict.


title: World War II by country

text: Under the 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 1940, the Afghanistan legation in Berlin asked whether Germany would cede land in British India 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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 boats. 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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.


title: World War II by country

text: Andorra remained politically neutral throughout the war but was used as a smuggling route by Axis Vichy French and Axis-aligned Spanish personnel.


title: World War II by country

text: 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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.


title: World War II by country

text: 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 eventually gave in to the Allies' pressure, broke relations with the Axis powers on January 26, 1944, and declared war on March 27, 1945. Over 4,000 Argentine volunteers fought on the Allied side.


title: World War II by country

text: Australia was among the first countries to announce it was at war with Germany, on 3 September 1939. The Prime Minister, Robert Menzies considered that the British declaration legally bound Australia, and he announced a state of war between Australia and Germany as a direct consequence of the British declaration.


title: World War II by country

text: More than one million Australian men served in the war out of a total population of around seven million. Although it was ill-prepared for war, the Australian government soon dispatched squadrons and personnel to serve with the Royal Air Force. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) commenced operations against Italy in June 1940. Later that year the Australian Army entered the North Africa campaign and fought in Greece. German submarines and raiding ships operated in Australian waters throughout the war. After the outbreak of hostilities with Japan in late 1941, Japanese aircraft launched a bombing attack on Darwin in February, and smaller Air raids on Australia, 1942–43.


title: World War II by country

text: For the remainder of the war, the Australian war effort was concentrated in south-east Asia and the South West Pacific Area: they were involved from January 1942 in Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and the Australian territory of New Guinea. During mid-1942 Militia troops fought the Kokoda Track campaign, and the New Guinea campaign came to occupy the attention of most of the Australian armed forces until 1945.


title: World War II by country

text: What is now Papua New Guinea consisted of two territories under Australian administration, the Territories of Papua and New Guinea. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles were organized as a militia unit of white expatriates in the New Guinea territory, while the bulk of the Australian military was deployed in the Mediterranean. Japanese forces invaded beginning in January 1942 with the Battle of Rabaul; in the following months Japan occupied most of the Territory of New Guinea. From late 1942 until the Japanese surrender, the Allies, mostly Australian and US forces, cleared the Japanese first from Papua, then the Territory of New Guinea, and finally from Dutch West New Guinea. The campaign resulted in heavy losses for Japan. Disease and starvation claimed more Japanese lives than combat. Allied forces effectively besieged enemy garrisons, cutting them off from food and medical supplies.


title: World War II by country

text: During the war, civil administration in both territories ceased and the whole area was placed under martial law. Only a single battalion, the Papuan Infantry Battalion, was ever recruited from the native Papuan population. Many other people were recruited to bring supplies up to the front and carry injured Australian troops: the so-called Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. Civil government was restored after the war, and in 1949 the two territories were united as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.


title: World War II by country

text: As part of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement of 1940, the United States Navy established a base and airstrip at George Town on Great Exuma. Some Bahamians enlisted in the Caribbean Regiment and other British units.


title: World War II by country

text: The Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, was installed as Governor of the Bahamas in August 1940. It is widely believed that the Duke and Duchess sympathised with fascism before and during the war, and were moved to the Bahamas to minimise their opportunities to act on those feelings. The Duke was praised for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands, although he was as contemptuous of the Bahamians as he was of most non-white peoples of the Empire. He was also praised for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages in Nassau in June 1942, when there was a "full-scale riot", even though he blamed the trouble on "mischief makers – communists" and "men of Central European Jewish descent". The Duke resigned the post on 16 March 1945. In April 1942 the United Kingdom asked Canada to provide military support in Nassau, in part to protect the Duke. A company of the Veterans Guard of Canada served in the Bahamas, followed by a company of the Pictou Highlanders. The Canadian garrison left Nassau in 1946


title: World War II by country

text: The Sheikh of Bahrain declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939. On October 19, 1940, four Italian planes bombed Bahrain to destroy oil refineries supplying the Allies. The raid caused minimal damage to the oil refineries but made the Allies increase the defense around Bahrain (being a UK protectorate).


title: World War II by country

text: Bangladesh was part of British India during World War II. See this article's section on India and Bengal famine of 1943.


title: World War II by country

text: In 1936 Belgium had declared its neutrality in the event of war in Europe. Nevertheless, in May 1940, Germany launched a surprise attack during its wider blitzkrieg against France. Belgian forces resisted the invasion in the Battle of Belgium for 18 days, but the Belgian army and its commander, King Leopold III, surrendered on 28 May 1940. A few Belgian soldiers escaped via Dunkirk, but the King and most of the army were made prisoners of war. Many remained imprisoned until the end of World War II.


title: World War II by country

text: Germany occupied Belgium and installed a military government. The occupiers imposed harsh taxes and strict rationing. Hundreds of thousands of Belgians laboured in Germany during the war, most as part of Germany's forced labour programme. Around 25,000 Jews and Romani were deported during the Holocaust in Belgium, most passing through the Mechelen transit camp. Nearly all lost their lives in the Nazi death camps. A number of Nazi collaborationist groups operated in Flanders and Wallonia; other Belgians collaborated through the national administration and the Flemish and Walloon Legions of the Waffen-SS. In opposition, the Belgian Resistance comprised numerous groups that fought against the occupation in various ways. Groupe G ran a successful campaign of sabotage against railroads, while other groups worked to protect Jewish people from deportation or help downed Allied airmen escape from the country.


title: World War II by country

text: Belgium's elected government fled the occupation, relocating to France and then London, where it established the Belgian government in exile under Hubert Pierlot and the Free Belgian Forces under Victor van Strydonck de Burkel. Belgian forces participated in the D-Day campaign, the Italian Campaign, the landings on Walcheren Island, and the Battle of the Atlantic. Britain and the United States targeted occupied Belgium with strategic bombing, which caused many civilian casualties. The Liberation of Belgium began in September 1944 when Allied forces, including Free Belgians, entered the country. German troops counterattacked in December with the Ardennes Offensive; the failure of that offensive forced all German troops out of Belgium by February 1945. German V-bomb attacks continued until the end of the war.


title: World War II by country

text: Postwar Belgium joined NATO and the Benelux customs union, while accusations of collaboration by King Leopold sparked the political crisis called the Royal Question.


title: World War II by country

text: The Belgian Colonial Empire stayed loyal to the Allies: after Belgium's surrender, both the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi remained under the authority of the Belgian government in exile and the Free Belgian Forces. The Congo played an important role as an economic asset, producing large amounts of raw materials for the Allies, notably gold and uranium. The nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were made with uranium from Congolese mines. Congolese troops also fought as the "Force Publique", which saw combat against Italian forces in the East African Campaign. Medical troops were also brought on the east-Asian front.


title: World War II by country

text: The colonial government's demands on the Congolese population provoked strikes, riots and other forms of resistance. These were repressed, often violently, by the colonial authorities. The Congo's comparative prosperity during the conflict led to a wave of post-war immigration from Belgium, bringing the white population to 100,000 by 1950, as well as a period of industrialisation and urbanisation that continued throughout the 1950s.


title: World War II by country

text: Belgium's mandate of Ruanda-Urundi consisted of the modern nations of Rwanda and Burundi. There, the war years were marked by the Ruzagayura famine. Though initially caused by a drought, the famine's effects were made worse by the Belgian war effort as authorities tried to send agricultural produce to the Congo to support the Allies. The famine killed between a fifth and a third of the colony's population and displaced many thousands more.


title: World War II by country

text: Although Bhutan was under British suzerainty, it remained independent; and under the reign of Jigme Wangchuck the kingdom continued to maintain almost complete isolation from the outside world with only limited relations with the British Raj in India. Despite his policy of neutrality, upon the outbreak of the war the king sent the government of India a gift of 100,000 rupees as a gesture of friendship.


title: World War II by country

text: Bolivia was one of many Latin American countries to declare war on Germany later on in the war, joining the Allies on 7 April 1943. It was one of the three countries to declare war in 1943, the others being Chile and Colombia. Shortly after war was declared, the President of Bolivia, Enrique Peñaranda, was overthrown in a coup. The new ruler, Gualberto Villarroel, had fascist and anti-Semitic leanings, but foreign pressure compelled him to remain at peace and to suppress his more extreme pro-Nazi supporters. Bolivian mines supplied needed tin to the Allies, but with no coastline, the landlocked country did not send troops or warplanes overseas.


title: World War II by country

text: Brazil was under its second civilian-military dictatorship led by Getúlio Vargas, maintaining its official neutrality until 1941, when it allowed US forces to use bases to patrol the South Atlantic. The United States built several airfields on Brazilian soil with the understanding that shortly after the war ended, they would be turned over to Brazil. In the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the declarations of war of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy against the US, in January 1942 at the 9th Pan-American Conference held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil helped to influence other American countries to cut diplomatic relations with Axis Powers. In retaliation, Germany and Italy extended their submarine warfare against them. In the first half of 1942 Axis submarines sank Brazilian merchant ships, and Brazilian naval forces chased and attacked these submarines. When seven merchant ships were sunk by the German Submarine U-507, Vargas decided to make official the state of war against Germany and Italy.


title: World War II by country

text: Northeastern Brazil hosted at Natal the largest single American air base outside of its own territory, and at Recife, the U.S. 4th Fleet "Headquarter" under Admiral Ingram's command. The air base in Natal gave support to the North Africa campaign, and a route for USAAF airplanes to fly to India and China.


title: World War II by country

text: Brazilian naval forces in the Battle of the Atlantic helped US and British Navies to patrol the South and Central Atlantic Ocean, combating Axis U-boats and raiders. In 1943, Allied naval forces sunk most of the Axis submarines which were active in the West of the South Atlantic, the among them. After this intense campaign, the South Atlantic became a lost battle to Germany.


title: World War II by country

text: After two years of preparation, a complete infantry Division (about 25,000 troops, called the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF)) was sent in July 1944 to fight in the Italian campaign. They fought in the last two stages of the Italian campaign: the slow breakdown of the Gothic Line and the final Allied offensive in that front.


title: World War II by country

text: Borneo was divided into five territories: four in the north under the British – Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan island, and British North Borneo – and the remainder and bulk of the island to the south under the jurisdiction of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).


title: World War II by country

text: The Japanese invasion plan called for the British territories to be taken and held by the Imperial Japanese Army and the southern Dutch territory to be taken and held by the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 8 December 1941, the Brooke government instructed that the oilfields at Miri and Seria and refinery at Lutong be quickly demolished. At dawn on 16 December, two Japanese landing units secured Miri and Seria with little resistance from British forces. A few hours later, Lutong was captured.


title: World War II by country

text: Bulgaria gave up neutrality and became a German ally, signing the Tripartite Pact on 1 March 1941. Their main contribution was transit rights for German units involved against Yugoslavia and Greece. Bulgaria occupied portions of Greece and Yugoslavia to recreate the 19th-century boundaries of Greater Bulgaria, but it did not participate in the Invasion of the Soviet Union.


title: World War II by country

text: After the Communist-dominated Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944 of 9 September and the simultaneous arrival of Soviet troops, the Bulgarian government declared war on Germany. Bulgarian armies attacked the German positions in Yugoslavia. An armistice was signed with the Allies in Moscow on 28 October 1944. After the Nazis fled Yugoslav territory, the Bulgarian Army continued its offensive in Hungary and Austria. Bulgaria's participation in World War II ended when its soldiers met British troops in Klagenfurt, Austria in May of 1945.


title: World War II by country

text: Burma was separated from British India in 1937 as a Crown Colony with a constitutional government. The colony was important for sending supplies to China via the Burma Road, which was completed in 1938. Nevertheless, it was left lightly defended at the outbreak of World War II: the British considered it a backwater and unlikely target of attack. Japan began its conquest of Burma with small raids in December 1941, launching a full invasion the following January. Japan held most of the country by April and ceded the Shan states to its ally Thailand.


title: World War II by country

text: Many Burmese hoped to gain support of the Japanese in expelling the British, so that Burma could become independent. Japan had already trained the Thirty Comrades, who now formed the nucleus of the Burma Independence Army. Japan declared the colony independent as the State of Burma on 1 August 1943. A puppet government led by Ba Maw was installed. However, many Burmese began to believe the Japanese had no intention of giving them real independence. Aung San and other nationalist leaders formed the Anti-Fascist Organisation in August 1944, which asked the United Kingdom to form a coalition with the other Allies against the Japanese.


title: World War II by country

text: Allied forces launched offensives into Burma beginning in late 1944. They captured Rangoon following the Battle of Elephant Point in May 1945. Subsequently, negotiations began between the Burmese and the British for independence. Under Japanese occupation, 170,000 to 250,000 civilians died.


title: World War II by country

text: On 10 September 1939, Canada likewise declared war on Germany, this was the beginning of Canada's participation in the largest combined national effort in its history. Canada's military was active mainly in Italy, Northwestern Europe, and the North Atlantic.


title: World War II by country

text: Over the course of the war, 1.1 million Canadians served in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Of these more than 45,000 lost their lives and another 54,000 were wounded. The financial cost was $21,786,077,519.13, between the 1939 and 1950 fiscal years. By the end of the War, Canada had the world's fourth largest air force, and third largest navy. As well, the Canadian Merchant Navy completed over 25,000 voyages across the Atlantic. Many Allied pilots trained in Canada during the war. Canadians also served in the militaries of various Allied countries.


title: World War II by country

text: Canadian forces deployed to the United Kingdom in 1939. One corps fought in the Italian campaign while the other fought in Northwest Europe beginning with the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, invading Juno Beach. The 1st Canadian Army ended the war on German soil with five Canadian divisions and a host of allied formations under direct command.


title: World War II by country

text: During the war, Canada was subject to direct attack in the Battle of the St. Lawrence, and in the shelling of a lighthouse at Estevan Point in British Columbia.


title: World War II by country

text: The war had significant cultural, political and economic effects on Canada, including the conscription crisis. However, the war effort not only strengthened the Canadian economy but further established Canada as a major actor on the world stage.


title: World War II by country

text: Over the course of World War II, the United States assumed Britain's defense responsibilities in the Caribbean. In September 1940, the two countries agreed to the Lend-Lease Agreement (also called the Bases-for-Destroyers Agreement). It involved the loan of American destroyers in return for leasing, rent free for ninety-nine years, eleven naval and air bases on British territory, including the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, British Guiana, and Bermuda, as well as Newfoundland. The eastern Caribbean became the forward edge of American defense strategy, formalized in the Panama Declaration of 1939. American strategists called the West Indies as "the bulwark that we watch."


title: World War II by country

text: More than 50 percent of the supplies sent to Europe and Africa from the United States were shipped from ports in the Gulf of Mexico and passed through the Caribbean. One year after the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States Caribbean Defense Command reached a total of 119,000 personnel, half of them stationed in Panama to protect the canal from an anticipated Japanese attack. Meanwhile, the German Kriegsmarine inflicted massive damage on shipping in the Caribbean in 1942. By the end of that year, U-boats operating in the Caribbean had sunk 336 ships, at least half of which were oil tankers.


title: World War II by country

text: Parts of the Caribbean had been colonized by countries that now came under Axis occupation. Aruba and Curaçao remained loyal to the Dutch government-in-exile, but because they housed valuable refineries that processed Venezuelan petroleum, they were placed under British protection. Both islands were subjected to German attacks in Operation Neuland. In 1942 they were transferred to the United States, which had also stationed troops in Surinam in 1941 to secure its bauxite mines. Martinique and Guadeloupe came under the control of Vichy France. American and British pressure ensured that several French ships, including its only aircraft carrier, "Béarn", remained interned at Martinique. Thousands of refugees fled, many going to Dominica, while an anti-Vichy resistance movement grew. The islands, along with French Guiana, switched to Free France in 1943.


title: World War II by country

text: See also this article's sections on Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas, and Puerto Rico.


title: World War II by country

text: Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), was a British colony and a major Allied naval base. On 5 April 1942, over 300 aircraft from Japanese carriers bombed the island. Winston Churchill called it "the most dangerous moment" of World War II, because the Japanese wished to replicate a grander success of the attack at Pearl Harbor. British ships, however, were moved to Addu Atoll, Maldives Islands. Nevertheless, the British lost an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and two destroyers, while the Royal Air Force squadrons on Ceylon suffered severe losses.


title: World War II by country

text: The Ceylon Garrison Artillery Regiment was stationed on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands, to defend it from Japanese attack. However, the regiment mutinied on the night of 8 May 1942, intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese. The mutiny was suppressed and three of the Ceylonese soldiers were executed.


title: World War II by country

text: Following the Cocos Islands Mutiny, no Ceylonese combat unit was deployed in front-line combat, although Supply & Transport Corps troops were used in rear areas in the Middle East. The defences of Sri Lanka were beefed up to three Allied army divisions because the island was strategically important, as a producer of rubber. Ceylonese in Japanese-occupied Malaya and Singapore were recruited by the Japanese for the Lanka Regiment of the Indian National Army, to fight against the Allies. They never actually saw action.


title: World War II by country

text: Chile declared its neutrality upon the outbreak of war in Europe, having close trading links with Germany. Later in the war, however, as Argentina grew closer to Germany, Chile actively distanced itself from the Axis powers, and the Chilean government took steps to dismiss pro-German military officers. An attempted Nazi-backed coup in September 1938 turned most of the Chilean population against the German community within Chile. Following the sinking of the "Toltén" by a Nazi submarine off the coast of New Jersey and anti-German demonstrations in Chile, relations with Axis countries were broken and war was declared in 1943. Throughout the duration of the war, Chilean naval presence around Easter Island was strengthened to ward-off a feared Japanese attack (as the Japanese had territorial ambitions for all the islands of Polynesia to be under their rule), and bolstered defensive capabilities at the vital harbors of Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Valparaíso and Talcahuano. Chilean merchant naval ships also aided Peruvian, Colombian and Cuban ships in patrolling the area around the Panama Canal Zone during the Battle of the Caribbean. From 1943 to 1945, the Chilean prison camp of Pisagua became the site of wartime internment for citizens of enemy nations when Chile entered World War II on the Allied side. In mid-2017, newly declassified documents revealed that Chile's Investigative Police Units had stopped a Nazi spy ring's plot to bomb Northern Chilean copper mines and blow up the Panama Canal.


title: World War II by country

text: The Republic of China had been fighting Japan intermittently since the 1931 Mukden Incident, when Japan annexed Manchuria. On 7 July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident led the two countries to full-scale war. With this and civil conflict between the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) and the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Nationalist Government's full attention was within its borders. However, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek still managed to send troops to Britain's aid in Burma, in early 1942. More than 1.5 million Japanese military personnel were bogged down in China with casualties estimated at 1.1–1.9  million. At the start of the war, the Chinese army had 2.6 million soldiers; by end of the war it had grown to 5.7 million (excluding communist soldiers).


title: World War II by country

text: The war cooled China's formerly warm relations with Germany (see Sino-German cooperation), and following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, China formally joined the Allies and declared war on Germany on 9 December 1941.


title: World War II by country

text: Many of China's urban centers, industrial resources, and coastal regions were occupied by Japan for most of the war. China suffered a large death toll from the war, both military and civilian. The Chinese Nationalist army suffered some 3.2 million casualties, and 17 million civilians died in the crossfire. After the war, China gained one of the permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.


title: World War II by country

text: Although the Nationalists and Communists had cooperated to oppose the Japanese, once the war was over the Chinese Civil War erupted once again. The Nationalist government was defeated by the Communists in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan, while the communist People's Republic of China was established on the mainland.


title: World War II by country

text: After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Colombia broke diplomatic relations with the Axis powers. Colombia provided the Allies with petroleum products. In 1943, the destroyed a Colombian schooner, which caused Colombia to declare a "status of belligerency" against Germany on 26 November 1943.


title: World War II by country

text: The German ambassador left the country, and measures of control were implemented, including the internment of German citizens in designated areas. Photographs and reconnaissance airplanes belonging to the Colombian-German company Scadta, which used to take aerial shots of Colombian and German cities, were also handed to the United States. The Colombian Navy assisted in patrolling the waters near the Panama Canal Zone and participated in the Battle of the Caribbean. The only notable engagement occurred in 1944: the destroyer ARC "Caldas" attacked the German submarine , which faked its own destruction in order to escape.


title: World War II by country

text: Left-wing reformist President Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia was an ally of Franklin Roosevelt and hostile to Nazism. In 1940, it was reported that Calderón and Roosevelt had agreed to the construction of an American base on Cocos Island, Costa Rica's territory in the Pacific; however, the United States ultimately decided on a base in the Galápagos instead. Costa Rica joined the Allies on 8 December 1941, declaring war on Japan the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and on Germany and Italy shortly afterwards. While Costa Rica's small army of 500 men could not contribute directly to the fighting, Calderón's administration introduced wartime measures against people from Axis nations in the country, including property seizure and internment. Targets included Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, the last of whom were viewed as "franquistas" sympathetic to fascism.


title: World War II by country

text: President Federico Laredo Brú led Cuba when war broke out in Europe, though real power belonged to Fulgencio Batista as Chief of Staff of the army. In 1940, Laredo Brú infamously denied entry to 900 Jewish refugees who arrived in Havana aboard the German oceanliner MS "St. Louis". After both the United States and Canada likewise refused to accept the refugees, they returned to Europe, where many were eventually murdered in the Holocaust. Batista became president in his own right following the election of 1940. He cooperated with the United States as it moved closer to war against the Axis. Cuba declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941, and on Germany and Italy on 11 December.


title: World War II by country

text: Cuba was an important participant in the Battle of the Caribbean and its navy gained a reputation for skill and efficiency. The navy escorted hundreds of Allied ships through hostile waters, flew thousands of hours on convoy and patrol duty, and rescued over 200 victims of German U-Boat attacks from the sea. Six Cuban merchant ships were sunk by U-boats, taking the lives of around eighty sailors. On 15 May 1943, a squadron of Cuban submarine chasers sank the near Cayo Blanquizal. Cuba received millions of dollars in American military aid through the Lend-Lease program, which included air bases, aircraft, weapons, and training. The United States naval station at Guantanamo Bay also served as a base for convoys passing between the mainland United States and the Panama Canal or other points in the Caribbean.


title: World War II by country

text: The Cyprus Regiment was founded on 12 April 1940, and made part of the British Army structure. It was mostly volunteers from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Cyprus, but also included other Commonwealth nationalities. About 30,000 Cypriots served in the Regiment. It included Infantry, Mechanical, Transport, and Pack Transport Companies. Cypriot mule drivers were the first colonial troops sent to the Western Front. They served in France, Ethiopia and Italy carrying equipment to areas inaccessible to vehicles. The regiment served at Dunkirk, in the Greek Campaign (Battle of Greece), North Africa (Operation Compass), France, the Middle East and Italy. In the post war years and prior to its disbandment, the regiment served in Cyprus and the Middle East, including Palestine in 1945–1948. The Regiment was disbanded on 31 March 1950.


title: World War II by country

text: Czechoslovakia was dismembered starting with the Munich Agreement and by the First Vienna Award in 1938. As a result, the Sudetenland became part of Germany, Zaolzie was annexed by Poland, and southern Czechoslovakia became part of Hungary. Later on, the newly separated Slovak Republic, a Nazi-dependent puppet regime led by Roman Catholic priest Jozef Tiso was set up, while the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia was occupied and annexed by Hungary. The next day the Czech part of the country became the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under state-President Emil Hácha.


title: World War II by country

text: From 1940, a government-in-exile in London under former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš was recognized as an Allied power. In April 1945, the Red Army defeated the Germans and ousted Tiso's government.


title: World War II by country

text: The newly founded Slovak Republic led by Jozef Tiso was proclaimed on March 14, 1939, allying with Nazi Germany and its armed forces participated in war against Poland and Soviet Union. Slovakia adopted Nazi antisemitic policy and paid Germany for deportation of its Jews. Zaolzie was annexed by Germany following the Invasion of Poland, the Slovak National Uprising, commenced in August 1944 was suppressed by German forces at the end of October; partisans, however, continued fighting in the mountains until the war's end. In April 1945, the Red Army defeated the Germans and ousted Tiso's government, and restored the Czechoslovak state.


title: World War II by country

text: The Free City of Danzig, a semi-autonomous city-state under League of Nations protection, was predominantly German and had a Nazi government by 1936.


title: World War II by country

text: On 30 August 1939, Germany gave Poland an ultimatum demanding control of the city, provoking the Danzig crisis and the invasion of Poland on 1 September. The city-state aided Nazi Germany during the invasion. The Free City of Danzig Police and militia fought in the Battle of Westerplatte and the attack on the Polish post office in Danzig. After the Polish campaign, Danzig was annexed to Germany. The Nazis subjected Danzig's Jewish and Polish minorities to the violence of the Holocaust and the Nazi crimes against the Polish nation. The Red Army occupied Danzig on 30 March 1945 and expelled its Germans; an estimated 290,800 had fled or been expelled from the city by 1950. Gdańsk became part of Poland after the war.


title: World War II by country

text: Denmark officially remained neutral from the outbreak of the war. Germany invaded without declaration of war as part of Operation Weserübung on 9 April 1940, and overwhelmed Denmark in a few hours of fighting.


title: World War II by country

text: The Danish government remained in office in Copenhagen until 1943 and signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. On 29 August 1943, the government resigned and dissolved, as a response to German demands for more concessions. Denmark was now under German military occupation. Civil affairs were handled by SS-general Werner Best.


title: World War II by country

text: On 4 May 1945, German forces in Denmark surrendered to the British army. Since the German commander of the eastern island of Bornholm refused to surrender to the Soviet Union, two local towns were bombed and the garrison forced to surrender. Bornholm remained under Soviet control until 1946.


title: World War II by country

text: On 10 May 1940, the British invaded Iceland and the Danish Faroe Islands. The United States occupied Greenland, a position later supported by the Danish envoy in Washington, Henrik Kauffmann. Iceland, which was later transferred from British to American control, declared independence in 1944.


title: World War II by country

text: The Dominican Republic declared war on Germany and Japan following the attacks of Pearl Harbor and the Nazi declaration of war on the U.S. It did not directly contribute with troops, aircraft, or ships, however 112 Dominicans were integrated into the U.S. military and fought in the war. In addition, 27 Dominicans were killed when German submarines sank four Dominican-crewed ships in the Caribbean.


title: World War II by country

text: The rich petroleum resources of the Dutch East Indies were a prime objective of the Japanese military in its attack on the Allies from 7 December 1941. The Royal Netherlands Navy and the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army were part of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, but with the Netherlands having been occupied by Germany in 1940, the country was little able to defend its colony. The Japanese navy and army overran Dutch and allied forces in less than three months, completing the occupation in March 1942. Some Dutch personnel and ships escaped to Australia, where they continued to fight the Japanese.


title: World War II by country

text: The period of the Japanese occupation was one of the most critical in Indonesian history. Initially, many Indonesians joyfully welcomed the Japanese as liberators from Dutch colonialism. The sentiment changed, however, as Indonesians realized that they were expected to endure hardships for the Japanese war effort. In Java and Sumatra, the Japanese educated, trained and armed many young Indonesians and gave nationalist leaders a political voice. In this way, the Japanese occupation created the conditions for Indonesian independence.


title: World War II by country

text: In 1944–1945, Allied troops largely bypassed Indonesia. Therefore, most of the colony was still under Japanese occupation at the time of its surrender in August 1945. The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read within days of the Japanese surrender in the Pacific. The Indonesian National Revolution followed, winning independence for the country in 1949. A later UN report stated that four million people died in Indonesia as a result of the Japanese occupation. About 2.4 million people died in Java from famine during 1944–45.


title: World War II by country

text: Ecuador was one of several South American nations to join the Allies late in the war (joined against Germany on 2 February 1945), allowing the United States use of Baltra Island as a naval base.


title: World War II by country

text: Britain had unilaterally recognized the independence of Egypt in 1922, but continued to occupy the country militarily, and to dominate it. By the Anglo–Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the British occupation was limited to the Suez Canal Zone, but it allowed British troops to re-occupy the rest of the country in time of war. Anti-British sentiment grew.


title: World War II by country

text: Egypt was of vital strategic importance because of the Suez Canal and Egypt's central geographical location. The Egyptian government engaged in secret negotiations with Germany about the prospect of Egypt's joining the Axis should the British be defeated in the Western Desert Campaign. Many Egyptian politicians and army officers sought Axis support for removing the occupying British forces from the country.


title: World War II by country

text: After British forces defeated the initial Italian invasion, Germany entered the North African theatre to save Italian Libya. A series of German victories brought Axis forces within of Cairo, creating great expectation among Egyptian nationalists. However, British victory at El-Alamein heralded the end of Axis advances in Egypt, and the eventual Axis defeat in North Africa. Although Egypt had almost all of its military fighting the Axis on the western desert campaign, King Farouk still resisted British pressure to declare war on Germany until 1942.


title: World War II by country

text: From 1931 to 1944, El Salvador was ruled by the military dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, an admirer of Hitler and Mussolini. Despite his personal admiration, Hernández Martínez declared war on both Japan (8 December 1941) and Germany (12 December 1941) shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor due to El Salvador's strong economic ties with the United States. He removed Germans from the government and interned Japanese, German, and Italian nationals. The Second World War made Salvadorans weary of their dictatorship, and a general national strike in 1944 forced Hernández Martínez to resign and flee to Guatemala. Postwar, he was later killed in Honduras by a vengeful Salvadoran citizen.


title: World War II by country

text: José Castellanos Contreras was a Salvadoran army colonel and diplomat who, while working as El Salvador's Consul General for Geneva during World War II, and together with a Jewish-Hungarian businessman named György Mandl, helped save up to 40,000 Jews and Central Europeans from Nazi persecution by providing them with false papers of Salvadoran nationality.


title: World War II by country

text: Jose Gustavo Guerrero was a Salvadoran judge who challenged the Nazis during Hitler's invasion on Europe. The distinguished Salvadoran jurist lived in Europe for many years in his career as a diplomat and as presiding judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice, based in The Hague, Netherlands.


title: World War II by country

text: In 1937, during the rise of Nazism in Europe, Doctor Guerrero took over as president, until he was forced to leave in 1940 by the Nazis. Precisely after the fall of the Netherlands, on May 17, 1940, the Nazis tried to take the Peace Palace of the Permanent Court of International in The Hague, but there they met the Salvadoran, the only judge who stayed with a group of Dutch officers. When a German general approached, the Presiding Judge told him: "The Court and its staff are inviolable. Only on my body can they enter the palace." For this and others before courage in defense of Universal Law, Dr. Guerrero was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.


title: World War II by country

text: Once established in Geneva, Dr. Guerrero was visited by the Consul General of El Salvador in Switzerland, Colonel José Castellanos Contreras, who had fled from Germany, where he served as Consul until El Salvador broke relations with the Hitler regime.


title: World War II by country

text: Colonel Castellanos had already granted several visas to people of Jewish origin who were persecuted by the Nazis. However, now that it was part of a larger project: the handing over of false documents of Salvadoran nationality to people of Jewish origin Castellanos then consulted Dr. Guerrero, who immediately agreed to that plan that saved the lives of thousands of Jews. According to the investigations, Dr. Guerrero would have contributed to writing the text of the document that was then given to them to save their lives.


title: World War II by country

text: The August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union left Estonia in the Soviet sphere of interest. The Soviet Union threatened Estonia with war if Estonia did not agree with "a mutual assistance pact", which would allow the Soviet troops to use several military bases in Estonia during a 10-year period. The Estonian government, convinced that a war against USSR would be inevitably lost, agreed on 28 September 1939. The Soviets conducted a coup d'état with the start of the full Soviet occupation of Estonia by the Red Army in June 1940, and a sham election was held under Soviet control. The new government took office and the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed on 21 July 1940. The puppet state was formally accepted into the Soviet Union on 6 August. The legality of the annexation was not recognized by most Western countries and the Baltic states continued to exist formally as independent nations until they regained independence in 1991.


title: World War II by country

text: Estonia was occupied by Germany in 1941 after war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union. With the return of the Soviet Armed Forces, 70,000 Estonians joined or were conscripted by the German side to fight the Soviets. The National Committee failed to restore the national government in September 1944 due to the Soviet reoccupation. At the end of the war, the subsequent Forest Brothers armed insurrection against the Soviet authorities started, which lasted in the Baltic states until the mid-1950s. Estonia remained a "de facto" part of the USSR until 1991.


title: World War II by country

text: At the outbreak of the war, Ethiopia was under Italian occupation and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was in exile in England trying in vain to obtain Allied support for his nation's cause. The Arbegnoch movement had begun its guerrilla war against the occupying Italian forces the day Addis Ababa fell in May 1936. Upon the emperor's flight into exile, remnants of Ethiopia's disbanded imperial army had transformed into guerrilla units. Urban city residents throughout the country formed underground movements to aid the Patriots as the overall population led a passive resistance campaign aimed at stifling Mussolini's economic agenda for the region. Throughout the occupation and into the beginning of the Second World War, the constant harassment of Italian columns and communication and supply lines reduced their fighting capabilities and their morale. A state of paranoia among Italian troops and civilians alike had sunk in as they became increasingly isolated from Rome. Fascist retaliation to Patriot attacks was brutal and often targeted the civilian population, which only further filled the ranks of the Patriots creating a cycle that led to the eventual demise of Mussolini's Italian East Africa.


title: World War II by country

text: Britain's declaration of war against Italy reinvigorated the Patriot movement and paved the way for the final ousting of the Italians in Ethiopia and in the Horn of Africa. The Allied liberation campaign of Ethiopia began in the winter of 1940. Emperor Haile Selassie, with the support and cooperation of the British, was transported to the Sudan to work alongside Major Orde Wingate to organize and lead the main Ethiopian Patriot divisions that had fled fascist-controlled Ethiopia upon news of Britain's declaration of war. The East African Campaign was conducted by a largely multi-African force and consisted of Ethiopian, Eritrean, British, Sudanese, Kenyan, Rhodesian, South African, Indian, Nigerian, Ghanaian and Free French Forces. Within months, the liberation of Ethiopia was achieved, and on 5 May 1941, five years to the day that the Emperor fled his capital, Haile Selassie was restored to his throne. The defeat of fascists in Ethiopia marked the first victory for the Allies in the Second World War and allowed for the remaining forces to be quickly moved up to Egypt to confront the Axis advance towards Cairo.


title: World War II by country

text: Fiji was a British colony during World War II. The Fiji Defence Force served with New Zealand Army formations, under the Allied Pacific Ocean Areas command. The Fiji Infantry Regiment fought in the Solomon Islands Campaign against the Japanese. Fiji became a major military sea port for convoy traffic between the U.S. and Australia. It was the closest reasonably safe route around the embattled Solomon Islands, a stopping-off point for troops and supplies being shipped to the Solomons, just to the north, and the closest protected harbor available to ships damaged around Guadalcanal. Fiji also constructed many facilities such as airfields for Allied bombing runs, barracks and training grounds.


title: World War II by country

text: Finland was left to the Soviet sphere of interest in Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and when it refused to allow the Soviet Union to build bases on its territory, it was attacked by Soviet forces in the Winter War (30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940). After the war, Finland unsuccessfully sought protection from the United Kingdom and from Sweden to counter the continuing Soviet pressure, before turning to improving relations with Nazi Germany. This produced cooperation between the countries, which led three days after the start of Operation Barbarossa to a Soviet pre-emptive air attack on Finland, which started the Continuation War (25 June 1941 – 4 September 1944), in which Finland was a co-belligerent of Germany. The UK declared war on Finland on 6 December 1941. Canada and New Zealand declared war on Finland on 7 December, as did Australia and South Africa the following day.


title: World War II by country

text: To secure military support needed to stop the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive coordinated with D-Day, the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement was signed on 26 June 1944, in which Finnish and Nazi German relations became closest to an alliance. An armistice was signed after the Soviet offensive was fought to a standstill, and the Wehrmacht was retreating from the Baltic states. The treaty required Finland to expel all German troops, which led to the Lapland War (15 September 1944 – 25 April 1945). This was shortly before the complete surrender of Nazi forces all over Europe on 7–8 May 1945 (V-E Day). Complete peace with the UK and the USSR was concluded in the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947.


title: World War II by country

text: France was one of the original guarantors of Polish security and as such was one of the first countries to declare war on Germany. For several months, little fighting occurred in the Phoney War or "drôle de guerre" ("funny war"). On May 10, 1940, Germany began its attack on France. After six weeks of intense battling, the French government signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940.


title: World War II by country

text: After the armistice, France was split into two parts, an occupied sector and an unoccupied sector. Within Occupied France, Otto von Stülpnagel and his cousin and successor, Carl-Heinrich, led a military administration. Citizens were subjected to the "Service du travail obligatoire", a program of forced labor in Germany. Jews and Roma faced the persecution of the Holocaust in France. An active Resistance fought against the occupying forces throughout the war. Southern France was administered by a puppet government under Philippe Pétain in Vichy, known therefore as Vichy France. In opposition, Charles de Gaulle led Free France, a government-in-exile in London with control over France's unoccupied overseas territories and forces which fought on the Allied side.


title: World War II by country

text: The Liberation of France began with the Allied invasions of 1944, Operation Overlord at Normandy in the north and Operation Dragoon in the south. Allied forces achieved the Liberation of Paris in August. De Gaulle established the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and the entire country returned to the Allies. Further fighting occurred in France during the advance to the Rhine of 1944–1945. After the war, France became a founding member of NATO, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.


title: World War II by country

text: The Vichy regime remained officially neutral during the conflict but collaborated with Germany. Prime Minister Pierre Laval repeatedly sought to bring France closer to the Axis side but was vetoed by Pétain. On several occasions, Vichy forces were attacked by British and Free French forces, especially in French Africa. As a result of Vichy North Africa violating the terms of the 1940 armistice by calling a cease-fire following Operation Torch, the Germans occupied all of continental France in the fall of 1942 but allowed the Vichy government to continue operating. Vichy North Africa's government and military led by François Darlan joined the Allies. After Darlan was assassinated, de Gaulle took power alongside Henri Giraud. Laval was executed for high treason after the war. Pétain was sentenced to death but his sentence was commuted.


title: World War II by country

text: The Free French Forces (FFF) of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN), a London-based exile group led by Charles de Gaulle, were formed in 1940 to maintain the French commitment to the Allies and liberate French territory occupied by Germany. Together with the French Resistance, they played a part in the Mediterranean Theatre and the , including France in 1944. By 1943, free France controlled large territories but had no war industry, remaining dependent on US aid. It regrouped with the Vichy authority that joined it and the interior resistance into fighting France. The CFLN took control of France in August and September 1944.


title: World War II by country

text: In 1944, FFF soldiers numbered about 560,000 and in 1945, more than 1,300,000. The Resistance (forces of the interior), according to D. E. Eisenhower, played a role equal to 15 fighting divisions. The FFF and Resistance played a major role during the liberation of France.


title: World War II by country

text: The colonial federation rallied to the Free French Forces under Félix Éboué in August 1940, except for Gabon which was Vichy French until 12 November 1940, when the Vichy administration surrendered to invading Free French in the Battle of Gabon. Afterward, the federation became the strategic centre of Free French activities in Africa, with the city of Brazzaville serving as the capital of Free France from 1940 to 1943. In 1944, Brazzaville hosted a meeting of the French resistance forces and representatives of France's African colonies. The resulting Brazzaville Declaration represented an attempt to redefine the relationship between France and its African colonies.


title: World War II by country

text: French Somaliland, with its capital at Djibouti, was the scene of skirmishing and a blockade during the East African Campaign of World War II. After Italy declared war on France on 10 June 1940, there was some fighting between their forces in Somaliland until the fall of France and the Franco-Italian Armistice on 25 June. The local "conseil d'administration" declared for the Vichy government on 19 July. Italy occupied the French fort at Loyada and used it as a base for its invasion of British Somaliland in August. Britain established a naval blockade and bombed Djibouti in September. In response, the new Vichy governor, Pierre Nouailhetas, instituted a brutal reign of terror against both Europeans and locals. He was recalled and forced to retire in 1942. As the blockade tightened, many French forces defected and fled to British Somaliland. This finally prompted the governor to surrender to Free French forces on 26 December 1942, the last French possession in Africa to remain loyal to Vichy. After the territory's liberation, French Somaliland cycled through governors rapidly and recovery from the deprivation of 1940–42 only began when the war ended.


title: World War II by country

text: French West Africa was not the scene of major fighting. Only one large-scale action took place there: the Battle of Dakar (23–25 September 1940). The region remained under the control of Vichy France after the fall of France (25 June 1940) and until the Allied invasion of North Africa (8–16 November 1942). French Gabon, the only colony of French Equatorial Africa not to join Free France after the armistice, fell to invading Free French Forces from the neighbouring colonies after the Battle of Gabon (8–12 November 1940), further isolating West Africa. Unlike in metropolitan France, the French Colonial Troops in West Africa were not reduced after the 1940 armistice and the region was little interfered with by the Axis powers, providing a valuable addition to the forces of Free France after it had been liberated.


title: World War II by country

text: The Gambia Colony and Protectorate was ruled by Britain. In 1939 its military, the Gambia Company, was expanded into the Gambia Regiment, with a strength of two battalions from 1941. It fought in the Burma Campaign. The colony also formed an Auxiliary Police, who, among other things, helped to enforce blackouts in Bathurst. The Gambia itself was home to RAF Bathurst, a flying boat base, and RAF Yundum, an air force station, which became the country's first airport. HMS "Melampus", a shore base, was based at Bathurst for some of the war, and in 1942, a light cruiser named was launched, which maintained ties to the colony until it was decommissioned in 1960. The Gambia was home to a succession of wartime British General Hospitals. In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped overnight in Bathurst en route to and from the Casablanca Conference. This marked the first visit to the African continent by a sitting US president. After the war, attention turned to economic and political reform in the colony, such as decreasing its reliance on the groundnut, which made up almost 100% of its exports.


title: World War II by country

text: Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, was the primary Axis Power in the European Theatre. German forces instigated the war in September 1939 by invading Poland. Poland was divided with the Soviet Union. The Phony War ensued and in the spring of 1940 German forces invaded and conquered Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Attempts to subdue the United Kingdom by air in the summer of 1940 failed and a planned invasion was called off. In the summer of 1941 Germany turned its forces east by invading the Soviet Union. The Eastern Front became the main theatre of war for the Germans. The invasion of the USSR had been delayed by campaigns in Greece and Yugoslavia, aimed at assisting floundering Italian forces. The Afrika Korps was similarly dispatched to the Western Desert to assist struggling Italian forces there, and German forces grew to an entire army group. Major defeats at Stalingrad in February 1943 and the destruction of Axis forces in North Africa shortly after are commonly thought to be the war's turning points. German forces fought on Sicily, and when Italy switched sides, German forces seized power, fighting a successful withdrawal and diverting Allied forces from Northwest Europe. Severe losses at Kursk in the summer of 1943 and during the Soviet summer offensives of 1944 shattered German fighting power, and Allied landings in Normandy and Southern France forced the Germans to fight on several fronts simultaneously. The surrender of the German forces between 4 May and 8 May 1945 signaled the end of the war in Europe.


title: World War II by country

text: German forces were very active at sea, primarily through its submarine force. The German air force provided effective tactical and logistical support until Allied air superiority was achieved by the middle of 1944. Strategic use of airpower failed and despite heavy aerial bombardment (and later, the V-1 and V-2 rockets) of the United Kingdom, failed to achieve lasting results.


title: World War II by country

text: Hitler's war aims included the destruction of the Jews of Europe, and at the Wannsee Conference in early 1942, a system of extermination was finalized which led to the Holocaust.


title: World War II by country

text: Austria became a full part of Nazi Germany in 1938 among popular acclaim during the Anschluss. About 1.2 million Austrians served in all branches of the German armed forces during World War II. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Allies occupied Austria in four occupation zones set up at the end of World War II until 1955, when the country again became a fully independent republic under the condition that it remained neutral. The four occupations zones were French, American, British, and Soviet, with Vienna also divided among the four powers. This paralleled the situation in post-war Germany.


title: World War II by country

text: The British overseas territory of Gibraltar has been a British fortress and bulwark for over 300 years. From the first days of World War II, the Rock became a pivot of the Mediterranean; Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, was coordinated from the Rock. , a top-secret mission in which six men were to be concealed inside a secret bunker inside the Rock of Gibraltar so that they could monitor enemy movements if the Rock was captured was also conducted through Gibraltar.


title: World War II by country

text: Colonial troops from the Gold Coast Colony played an important role in the East African Campaign, particularly in attacking Italian-controlled Ethiopia. Accra, the capital, hosted Allied aircraft as they flew between the United States, Europe and the Pacific. The Gold Coast also benefited financially from the war. By 1945, increased British government spending and the introduction of an income tax led to an expansion of local revenue. The war changed the demographics of the colony, concentrating workers in a few large towns and cities. The colonial government launched a program to deal with a housing shortage by constructing inexpensive but sturdy local building material (an earthquake in 1939 had badly damaged infrastructure in many towns).


title: World War II by country

text: Greece initially resisted the Italian invasion of 28 October 1940 and pushed Mussolini's forces back into Albania. Hitler reluctantly sent forces to bail out his ally and subdue Greece (Operation Marita). The resulting Battle of Greece in April 1941 delayed the invasion of the Soviet Union, and the heavy losses of the German "Fallschirmjäger" over Crete effectively put a halt to large-scale German airborne operations.


title: World War II by country

text: The government and the King fled the country to Egypt, from where they continued the fight. The occupation forces installed a series of puppet governments, which commanded little allegiance. A vigorous Resistance movement developed from 1942 on, dominated largely by the communist-led National Liberation Front (EAM) and the non-communist National Republican Greek League (EDES).


title: World War II by country

text: Throughout 1943, the guerrillas liberated much of the country's mountainous interior, establishing a free zone called "Free Greece". After the Italian capitulation in September 1943, the Germans took over the Italian zone, often accompanied by bloodshed, as the Italians tried to resist both them and the Allies trying to occupy Italian-held areas (the Dodecanese Campaign). As Liberation approached, the Resistance became divided along political lines, and civil strife ensued. An agreement establishing a national unity government was reached in the May 1944 Lebanon conference, which eased tension somewhat.


title: World War II by country

text: With the advance of the Red Army through Eastern Europe in summer 1944, the German forces withdrew from the Greek mainland in October–November 1944, although many island garrisons were left behind and surrendered after the unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. The returning government in exile, backed by British forces, soon clashed with EAM forces in Athens, beginning the Greek Civil War; a conflict that would last until 1949 and leave a divisive legacy.


title: World War II by country

text: Guatemala initially stayed out of World War II, with President Jorge Ubico declaring the country's neutrality on 4 September 1941. This pronouncement was reinforced five days later with another declaration. Ubico implemented strong prohibitions on Nazi propaganda in Guatemala, which had one of Latin America's largest German immigrant populations. Later, Guatemala moved into the Allied camp—on 9 December 1941, it declared war on Japan, and three days later, it declared war on Germany and Italy. Ubico permitted the United States to build an air base in the country.


title: World War II by country

text: Unrest in Guatemala grew during the war years, culminating in the outbreak of the Guatemalan Revolution in June 1944. Ubico resigned in June following a general strike, and the new dictator that replaced him fell to a democratic popular revolution in October. The philosopher Juan José Arévalo won a presidential election held that December; he led Guatemala for the remainder of the war period.


title: World War II by country

text: Haiti remained neutral in World War II until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Thus, in late 1941, Haiti declared war on Japan (8 December), Germany (12 December), Italy (12 December), Bulgaria (24 December), Hungary (24 December) and Romania (24 December). Out of these six Axis countries, only Romania reciprocated, declaring war on Haiti on the same day (24 December 1941). Haiti gave food supplies to Allied forces and hosted a detachment of the United States Coast Guard but did not contribute troops, however five Haitians from the Haitian Air Force were integrated into the U.S. military (Tuskegee Airmen division) and fought in the war. The President of Haiti, Élie Lescot, introduced several unpopular emergency measures during the war, which critics claimed were designed to increase his power. Lescot was deposed the year after the war ended.


title: World War II by country

text: Honduras was initially neutral in the war but joined the Allied side after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941, and on Germany and Italy five days later. It contributed food and raw materials to the Allied war effort and did send troops in which 150 of them died. Due to this, the country began a series of air patrols using NA-16 model aircraft starting in 1942. German submarines also sank 3 Honduran ships throughout the war and one was captured by the Japanese navy. In addition to patrolling Honduran territory, Honduran airmen also flew in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico in joint support with other Latin American nations to prevent more ships destined for the United States from sinking


title: World War II by country

text: Hong Kong had been a British colony for a century. Japan occupied the city after the grueling Battle of Hong Kong, which ended on Christmas Day of 1941. The Japanese turned many healthcare facilities into field hospitals to help injured soldiers returning from the Pacific theater. Strict food rations were also enforced, and to keep the rations low, many citizens were deported to China. By the end of the war Hong Kong's population had fallen from 1,500,000 to a mere 600,000. The United States Navy carried out air raids on Hong Kong for three years while the Royal Australian Navy lay mines nearby, but the city remained in Japanese hands until after the Surrender of Japan in 1945. A group of cruisers led by arrived at Hong Kong on 30 August to retake it for Britain; the Japanese formally surrendered on 16 September.


title: World War II by country

text: Hungary was a significant German ally. It signed the Tripartite Pact on 20 November 1940, and joined in the invasion of the Soviet Union the next year. When, in 1944, the government of Regent Miklós Horthy wished to sign a ceasefire with the Allies, he was overthrown by the Nazis and replaced by a government run by the Hungarist Arrow Cross movement, which ruled the country until it was overrun by the Soviets in 1945.


title: World War II by country

text: Iceland was a free state at the outbreak of war in personal union with the King of Denmark acting as head of state. After the German invasion of Denmark (1940), Iceland lost all contact with the King. British forces invaded Iceland on 10 May 1940, to secure bases for themselves and to deny Germany the same option. A small armed force was present, but obeyed orders not to resist the British. The British proceeded to arrest a number of German nationals, including the German consul, Werner Gerlach, and seize radio and telephone services.


title: World War II by country

text: Iceland's government formally protested the occupation, but provided the British with "de facto" cooperation. During the height of the occupation, 25,000 British soldiers were stationed in Iceland, compared to roughly 40,000 inhabitants of Reykjavík. On 7 July 1941, control of Iceland was transferred from Britain to the USA. The U.S. was not yet at war, but Iceland needed to be denied to the Germans.


title: World War II by country

text: Iceland experienced an economic boom during the occupation, since many Icelanders took jobs working for the foreigners, and some say that "bretavinnan" (roughly, the British Jobs) provided some of the successes of the post-war Icelandic economy. On 17 June 1944, with American encouragement, Iceland became a permanently independent republic, and it cut all ties with Denmark. Despite being occupied, Iceland remained officially neutral throughout the duration of the Second World War. Icelandic air bases such as at Keflavík were important to the Allied fight against the German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic.


title: World War II by country

text: With its small population, Iceland was in no position to raise any armed forces. The close cooperation between the Americans and the Icelanders led to Iceland's giving up neutrality and becoming a charter member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. Iceland has not had any armed forces (but see Cod Wars), but its contribution was bases for its allies: the American Air Force Base and Naval Air Station at Keflavík.


title: World War II by country

text: The Indian Empire consisted of the present day territory of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh; Burma had become a separate colony in 1937. As part of the British Empire, India was covered by Britain's declaration of war. Two and a half million Indian soldiers fought under British command with the Indian Army, Royal Indian Air Force, and Royal Indian Navy, forming the largest army raised by voluntary enlistment. Around 87,000 Indian members of the armed forces were killed in action, and another 64,000 were wounded. Many Indian personnel received awards for gallantry, including 30 Victoria Crosses during the 1940s.


title: World War II by country

text: The labour of millions more Indians contributed to the Allied war effort. Poor working conditions and accidents such as the 1944 Bombay explosion claimed many lives. Strategically, India provided the base for American operations in support of China in the China Burma India Theater. Supplies flowed from India to China overland along the Ledo Road and by air over the Hump. Cities on India's eastern coast were menaced by Japanese air raids; Calcutta, for instance, was bombed several times. In 1944, Japanese forces invaded eastern India, suffering devastating losses from disease, malnutrition, and exhaustion.


title: World War II by country

text: An estimated 2.1–3 million, out of a population of 60.3 million, died of starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions and lack of health care. Historians have frequently characterized the famine as "man-made", asserting that wartime colonial policies created and then exacerbated the crisis.


title: World War II by country

text: While large sectors of Indian society lent their support to the war, including the Muslim League, Indians were far from unanimous in their support. The Cripps Mission of 1942 failed to win support of the Indian National Congress for the war effort and future Dominion status. Instead, Congress, led by Mohandas Gandhi, demanded independence in the Quit India Movement. In response, Gandhi and most of the Congress leadership were arrested. Meanwhile, Subhas Chandra Bose led a nationalist movement that sought to use World War II as an opportunity to fight the British. Bose's movement spawned a government in exile, called Azad Hind, and military units that fought with the Axis: the Indian National Army in Southeast Asia and the Indian Legion in Europe.


title: World War II by country

text: On 23 March 1942, Japanese forces invaded the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In December 1943, the Japanese-sponsored Free India Movement (Azad Hind) was formed. The Andaman Islands were renamed Shaheed Islands, and the Nicobars were renamed Swaraj Islands. Andaman & Nicobar Islanders fought alongside the Japanese during this time. The islands were not reoccupied by the British until 6 October 1945.


title: World War II by country

text: After the Battle of France and the fall of the French Third Republic, the colonial administration of Indochina (modern-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) passed to Vichy France. In September 1940 Japanese troops entered parts of Indochina; in July 1941 Japan occupied the entire territory. Thailand took this opportunity to reclaim previously lost territories, resulting in the Franco-Thai War between October 1940 and May 1941. Japan used Indochina to launch part of its invasion of Malaya; this and attacks on Pearl Harbor and other British and American territories sparked the Pacific War, bringing World War II to Indochina.


title: World War II by country

text: During the Japanese occupation, Indochinese communists established a base in Cao Bằng Province, but most of the resistance to Japan and Vichy France, including both communist and non-communist groups, remained based over the border in the Republic of China. China released Ho Chi Minh from jail in 1941; with the aid of Western intelligence services, he revived the Việt Minh to fight the Japanese occupation.


title: World War II by country

text: The Liberation of Paris in 1944 ended the Vichy regime. The new Provisional Government of the French Republic joined the Allies, and its administration in Indochina began to give covert support to Allied operations in the Pacific. Therefore, on 9 March 1945, Japan launched a coup d'état to oust the French administration. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos became nominally independent members of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: the Empire of Vietnam, Kingdom of Kampuchea, and Kingdom of Laos. In reality, the Japanese were in control of Indochina until the news of their government's surrender came in August. The general disorganization of Indochina, coupled with several natural disasters, led to the Vietnamese Famine of 1945. The Việt Minh staged the August Revolution and issued a proclamation of independence at the war's end. The French took back control of the country in 1945–1946, but the First Indochina War that began that December would bring an end to French rule.


title: World War II by country

text: In 1945 the Japanese occupied Vientiane in April. King Sīsavāngvong was allowed to keep his throne, but his son Crown Prince Savāngvatthanā called on all Laotians to resist the occupiers. Prince Phetxarāt opposed this position, and thought that Lao independence could be gained by siding with the Japanese, who made him Prime Minister of Luang Phrabāng, though not of Laos as a whole. In practice the country was in chaos and Phetxarāt's government had no real authority. Another Lao group, the Lao Issara (Free Lao), received unofficial support from the Free Thai movement in the Isan region. Thailand re-annexed a small portion of Laos following the conclusion of the French–Thai War in 1941. The territories were only returned to French sovereignty in October 1946.


title: World War II by country

text: During the start of the war the Allies demanded that Iran remove German nationals from their soil, fearing they might be Nazi spies or harm the British-owned oil facilities, but Reza Shah refused, stating that they had nothing to do with the Nazis.


title: World War II by country

text: The Allies worried that Germany would look to neutral Iran for oil. Soon the Allies questioned themselves about Iranian neutrality and they gave Reza Shah a final warning to remove the German workers. He refused once again. In August 1941, the British and Soviet troops invaded Iran (Operation Countenance) and, in September 1941, forced Reza Shah Pahlavi to abdicate his throne. He was replaced by his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was willing to enter the war on the side of the Allies. Iran became known as "The Bridge of Victory".


title: World War II by country

text: Iran provided a 'blue water' supply route to the Soviet Union via the port of Bandar Abbas and a specially constructed railway route. The supply routes were known collectively as the Persian Corridor. Soviet political operatives known as "agitprops" infiltrated Iran and helped establish the Comintern affiliate Tudeh Party in early 1942.


title: World War II by country

text: In September 1943, Iran declared war on Germany, which qualified it for membership in the United Nations (UN).


title: World War II by country

text: The Soviet Union fomented revolts among the Azerbaijani and Kurdish peoples in Iran and soon formed the People's Republic of Azerbaijan in December 1945 and the Kurdish People's Republic not long after. Both were run by Soviet-controlled leaders. Soviet troops remained in Iran, following the January 1946 expiration of a wartime treaty providing for the presence of American, British and Soviet troops.


title: World War II by country

text: Iraq was important to Britain due to its position on a route to India and the strategic oil supplies that it provided. Since the end of the First World War, these were protected by a significant Royal Air Force base at Habbaniyah and by maintaining sympathetic governments. Because of the United Kingdom's weakness early in the war, Iraq backed away from the Anglo-Iraqi alliance. When the British High Command requested to send reinforcements to Iraq, the country's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Said, allowed a small British force to land. Consequently, he was forced to resign after a pro-Axis coup under Rashid Ali in April 1941. Later British requests to reinforce Iraq were denied by the new leadership.


title: World War II by country

text: The new regime secretly began negotiations with the Axis powers. The Germans and Italians responded quickly and sent military aid by Luftwaffe aircraft to Baghdad via Syria. Indian troops consequently invaded in late April 1941 and reached Baghdad and RAF Habbaniyah in May. The Iraqi army attacked Habbaniyah but quickly capitulated and Rashid Ali fled the country. The United Kingdom urged Iraq to declare war on the Axis in 1942. British forces remained to protect the vital oil supplies. Iraq declared war on the Axis powers in 1943 after cutting diplomatic ties. Germany initially refused to accept the declaration, as they still recognised Rashad Ali as the legitimate government. The Iraqi army played a role in protecting the logistic routes of the Allies, especially the military aids to the Soviet Union which used to arrive from Basra, Baghdad and Kirkuk. British and Indian operations in Iraq should be viewed in conjunction with events in neighbouring Syria and Persia.