Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: military-request@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: WWII Message-ID: <10665@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 27 Oct 89 03:29:19 GMT References: <10624@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 160 Approved: military@att.att.com From: military-request@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) I received numerous responses to this posting, which I'll summarize below: --- From: Doug Krause > [43, by my first estimate. - Bill ] I think Trivial Pursuit says 57. You left out Singapore and Indonesia, although you may be counting Indochina as Indonesia. --- From: spencert@turing.cs.rpi.edu (Thomas Spencer) Here's what I think Bill's errors were: >South America: (& Central America, excluding Panama Canal Zone, US) > All neutral, I believe Almost all of these countries declared war against the Axis. Argentina waited until about 1944. Brazil actually sent some troops to Europe. >Asia: USSR (already counted), China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Siam, > Federated Malay States, Burma, India, Australia, New Zealand. Burma and India were British Colonies at the time. I think the Federated Malay states were colonies too. > I consider Manchuria/Manchutikuo part of China, though I'm > uncertain of Korea's status prior to Japanese occupation. Korea was occupied by Japan shortly after teh Russo-Japenese war. (It was occupied in 1910, I think.) > Also, did Iran get somehow involved ? I recall British supplies > getting to Russia via Iran. Iran was occupied (more or less peasefully) by the British and Russians in 1941. >Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italian > Somaliland, South Africa. Most of the rest of Africa were colonies > of the belligerents, but I know of no fighting there. Call it 8. Morocco, Algeria, and Tunsia were French colonies. Lybia and Itailian Somaliland were Italian colonies. Ethopia was non-peacefully occupied by Italy in 1936. --- From: tek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude)) >South America: (& Central America, excluding Panama Canal Zone, US) > All neutral, I believe Brazil was involved. Anyone who owns the ANZIO game from AH, knows that some Brazilian units fought in the Italian campaign. >Europe: ... > Turkey, > Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal were neutral. I think Spain and Turkey got in at the very end. --- From: nsc!taux01.nsc.com!amos@decwrl.dec.com (Amos Shapir) ... >South America: (& Central America, excluding Panama Canal Zone, US) > All neutral, I believe If I'm not mistaken, Brazil declared war on Germany towards the end of the war. >Asia Minor: All neutral, I think, though partly controlled by France > and Britain (Syria and Palestine/Transjordan, respectively) There were two Jewish brigades which fought under British command; you may count them as pre-natal participation of Israel. --- From: Dan C Duval >North America: Canada, USA (2) (Does Jamaica make 3, or were they a > Possession of Britain at the time ?) Also Mexico: did not provide ground troops, but patrolled Gulf of Mexico for U-boats and provided emergency airstrips in the Yucatan. Entered the war due to U-boat attacks on neutral (incl Mexican) shipping. >South America: (& Central America, excluding Panama Canal Zone, US) > All neutral, I believe Brazil was an active participant: provided bases for ASW air patrols, provided bases for air ferry across to Africa, provided a brigade of infantry which fought in Italy (part of British 8th Army), participated in South Atlantic patrol against raiders and U-boats. Venezuela could also be considered a participant of sorts, since they lost tanker tonnage to the U-boats and fought back (I do not know of any U-boats actually sunk by Venezuela, though.) I recall there was a declaration of war on Germany, but I am not sure they ever allied themselves with the Allies, choosing rather to fight as a co-belligerent. > I consider Manchuria/Manchutikuo part of China, though I'm > uncertain of Korea's status prior to Japanese occupation. Korea was occupied as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1902. It was not considered an independent nation. > Finally, I'm iffy on the national > status of the islands in the Philippine/New Guinea/Sumatra region. The Philippines came closest to being an independent nation: they were scheduled for complete independence in 1944. The other islands of the Pacific were all owned by one side or the other (except for Tristan de Cuhna, which was claimed by Chile.) >Asia Minor: All neutral, I think, though partly controlled by France > and Britain (Syria and Palestine/Transjordan, respectively) Iran and Iraq were both involved. Soviets "occupied" Iran when Lend Lease started (several divisions took up positions along the Lend Lease communication lines -- allowed Shah to take over after the war was over.) pro-Axis revolt in Iraq was put down with British troops and aircraft. British took French Syria from the Vichy. >Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italian > Somaliland, South Africa. Most of the rest of Africa were colonies > of the belligerents, but I know of no fighting there. Call it 8. French West Africa also in this. After Operation Torch (Nov 1942), aircraft ferry flights over and through French West Africa. Elements of the French Fleet also stationed at Dakar, where the Brits shelled them after the Vichy government established. Many smaller nations also declared themselves as part of the Allied effort: I'd have to dig up a copy of the World Almanac to name all of them. A lot of countries declared in 1944 when it was clear the Axis was going down and the U-boats could do very little damage to their shipping. --- From: ron@mlfarm.UUCP (Ronald Florence) I believe Brazil was a belligerent, with troops fighting on the Italian front. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker Moderator, sci.military military-request@att.att.com (614) 860-5294 Send submissions to military@att.att.com