Who Were The Major Players In WW2



Who Were The Major Players In WW2?

|Allied Powers: |Axis Powers |

|United Kingdom |Italy |

|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |Germany – consisting of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. |

|United States of America |Japan |

|France before its defeat in 1940 and after Operation Overlord in |Hungary |

|1944 |Romania |

|China |Bulgaria |

|Australia |Yugoslavia |

|Belgium |San Marino |

|Brazil |Finland |

|Canada |Iraq |

|Czechoslovakia |Thailand |

|Ethiopia |Manchuria |

|Greece |Burma |

|India |India |

|The Netherlands |Philippines |

|New Zealand |Vietnam |

|Norway |Laos |

|The Philippine Commonwealth |Cambodia |

|Poland |Slovakia |

|The Union of South Africa |Serbia |

|Yugoslavia |Albania |

| |Macedonia |

| |Croatia |

| |Greece |

| |Vichy France |

| |* note most of these countries are occupied and forced to fight |

| |against the allies. |

Germany

Adolph Hitler:  Nazi Fuhrer of Germany

Joseph Goebbels:  Nazi propaganda minister

Herman Goering:  Luftwaffe chief and Nazi party leader - Goering was a WWI flying ace who transformed the German air force, the Luftwaffe, into a formidable force.  Was the heir apparent to the Fuehrer, but was captured in the closing days of the war.  While on trial for war crimes at Nuremburg after the war, he committed suicide in his cell.

Erwin Rommel:  General and Field Marshall - Scored early victories in the war in France and became famous for leading his Afrika Corps against the British in North Africa.  Implicated in a plot against Hitler later in the war, he was given the “opportunity” to commit suicide rather than be shot by firing squad.

Japan

Hideki Tojo:  General and Prime Minister - Tojo was a leader in the military junta that controlled Japan.  He led the Japanese army in its war with China and became Prime Minister just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  He was complicit in war crimes against those living in Japanese controlled areas of Asia, which included human experimentation.  He was captured, tried, and in 1948, hanged.

Hirohito:  Emperor – The Emperor at first sought to avoid war with the West, but was eventually swayed by the army and navy.  Ordered the Japanese surrender of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki against the will of many military commanders, some of who attempted a coup which failed.  Somewhat controversially, was not implicated or charged with any war crimes though some claim many of these were committed with his knowledge and even at his behest.  Died in 1989.

Isoroku Yamamoto:  Admiral - Yamamoto was the admiral who devised the Pearl Harbor attack plan.  He had opposed virtually all of Japan’s aggressive maneuvers prior to that, including the invasion of Manchuria and the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, but in loyalty to his country fought on anyway.  While his famous “all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant” quote, referring to the attack on America at Pearl, is likely apocryphal, he is documented as warning, “I can run wild for six months … after that, I have no expectation of success.”  Yamamoto was killed when his plane was shot down by American P-38’s while inspecting forward units

Italy

Benito Mussolini:  Fascist dictator of Italy - Mussolini was really the inventor of fascism, though his brand was initially a much less racist version than Hitler’s.  Like Hitler, a talented orator and motivator.  Il Duce, as he was called, invaded Ethiopia and what is now Somalia in Africa.  Italy was not a strong military power, and had to be bailed out by Germany on several occasions.  After things deteriorated for Italy during the war, Mussolini was dismissed as Prime Minister and arrested by order of King Emmanuel.  He was later rescued by German special forces and set up by Hitler as a kind of puppet ruler in northern Italy.  Captured by communist partisans while attempting to flee Italy at the close of the war, he and his mistress were executed and their bodies hung upside down from a gas station.

Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin:  Communist dictator - Stalin initially made a pact with Hitler and jointly invaded Poland with the Nazis.  Pact ended when Germany invaded Russia.  Suffering early reversals, in no small part due to a depleted Red Army officer core due to his paranoid purges, Stalin employed a scorched earth policy as his predecessors had done when invaded by Napoleon and Charles XII of Sweden.  Ironically framed the war against the Nazis as the Great Patriotic War and this morale booster coupled with the victory at Stalingrad helped to turn the tide.  Stalin was a thorn in the allies side immediately following Germany’s surrender, refusing to give up territory his Red Army occupied to its rightful possessors.  Tensions soon escalated into the Cold War.  Stalin died in 1953 as a result of a stroke.

Georgy Zhukov:  General - Though he briefly fell out of favor with Stalin early in the war, his defense of Moscow put him back in good graces.  Zhukov was instrumental in many of the crucial Red Army victories, including Stalingrad, Leningrad, Kursk, and the invasion of Germany itself.  He died in 1974.

Vyacheslav Molotov:  Foreign Minister - Along with Joachim von Ribbentrop, the foreign minister of Nazi Germany, concluded the pact between Germany and the Soviet Union which called for the partition of Poland and the dividing up of the Baltic states.  In the resulting Soviet-Finnish war of 1939 the Fins coined the term Molotov cocktail for homemade bombs.  Throughout the wider war, Molotov was a tough negotiator with the other allies and secured their promise of a second front in Europe.  He died in 1986 at the age of 96.

Great Britain

Winston Churchill:  First Lord of the Admiralty & Prime Minister - Politically isolated before the war and one of the few who saw the danger of Hitler early one, became First Lord of the Admiralty when the war broke out.  Not long after was appointed Prime Minister.  Lead Britain with a steely resolve in the face of seemingly hopeless times, including during the Blitz and the Battle of Britain.  Pressed President Roosevelt for help, which helped lead to the Lend Lease Act.  Kept Britain in the fight until the US finally joined the war in 1941. 

Bernard Law Montgomery:  General - Skilled and boastful, Montgomery commanded the British army in North Africa to the first major allied land victory of the war, El Alamein.  He was in command of armies that invaded Sicily, where he and US general George Patton developed a rivalry that wasn’t always friendly and which was further fueled by Montgomery’s actions and comments during the Battle of the Bulge.  Operation Market Garden, a plan to cross into Germany via the Rhine River in Holland was his operation, though it was poorly planned and he ignored key intelligence.  The operation was an allied disaster, despite Monty’s claim of it being “90% successful.”  His armies did eventually cross the Rhine and Montgomery accepted the surrender of Germany in Denmark and Holland.

United States

Franklin D. Roosevelt:  President - Though the US was neutral at the war’s outset, Roosevelt did everything short of actual fighting to aid the allies.  The Lend-Lease Act which provided Britain with badly needed supplies and equipment and the oil embargo on Japan in response to their aggression in Asia were major components of his policy.  His most controversial act as President was Executive Order 9066 which called for the internment of those of Japanese descent on the West Coast.  Met with Churchill, Stalin, and China’s Chang Kai-shek on various occasions to discuss strategy and post-war plans.  Died after being elected to a fourth term in 1945.

Harry S. Truman:  Vice President  & President - Taking office after Roosevelt’s death, Truman initially very little about FDR’s war policies.  He had been largely kept in the dark.  A hard worker and quick learner, he rapidly got up to speed.  Alone made the decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan to force their surrender.

Dwight D. Eisenhower:  General - Commander of all allied forces in Europe.  Presided over D-Day invasion of Normandy and was prepared to take full responsibility had it failed.  Had to manage enormous personalities and egos in the likes of Patton and Montgomery.  After the war became NATO commander and then President of the United States.

George S. Patton:  General - Brilliant, eccentric, and controversial.  A skilled tank commander, notoriously profane and religious.  Commanded a huge dummy army in England prior to the Normandy invasion.  Drove his tank battalions across central Europe after breaking out of France, all the way to Czechoslovakia.  Famously slapped a soldier in a military hospital who was suffering from shell shock and called him a coward.  He was forced to apologize for the incident.  Died from injuries suffered in a car crash in 1945.

Douglas MacArthur: General - His qualities as a leader and a fighting soldier emerged in France during World War 1. Showing incredible dash and courage on the battlefield, he received several decorations for bravery. He also won the promotion of major to Brigadier General. He was commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific. He came up with the strategy of ‘Island Hopping’.

France

Paul Reynaud – Prime Minister - The Battle of France began less than two months after Reynaud came to office. France was badly mauled by the initial attack in early May 1940, and Paris was threatened. On 15 May, five days after the invasion began, Reynaud contacted his British counterpart and famously remarked, "We have been defeated... we are beaten; we have lost the battle.... The front is broken near Sedan. As France's situation grew increasingly desperate, Reynaud accepted Philippe Pétain as Minister of State. Pétain, an aged veteran of the First World War, advised an armistice. Soon after the occupation of Paris, there was increasing pressure on Reynaud to come to a separate peace with Germany. Reynaud refused to be a party to such an undertaking, and resigned on 16 June rather than sign it. he was given to the Germans, who kept him prisoner until the end of the war..Reynaud was liberated by Allied troops on 7 May 1945

Philippe Petain – Chief of State for Vichy France. - Signed the armistice on 22 June. In 1940, aged 83, Petain agreed to head the Vichy government. Officially neutral, in practice the regime collaborated closely with Germany, and brought in its own anti-Semitic legislation.. Petain fed to Switzerland after the Normandy landings but when he returned in April, 1945, he was arrested and charged with treason. Petain was found guilty of and sentenced to death for aiding the German enemy. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. Henri-Philippe Petain died in prison in 1951

Charles de Gaulle – General – criticized France's reliance on the Maginot Line for defence against Germany and advocating the formation of mechanised armoured columns. His advice went unheeded and, in June 1940, German forces easily overran France. As under-secretary of national defence and war, de Gaulle refused to accept the French government's truce with the Germans and escaped to London, where he announced the formation of a French government in exile. Lead the Free French Forces in WWII.

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