Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!uokmax!occrsh!att!cbnews!military From: Brian Ross (bxr307@coombs.anu.oz) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: WWII, Nations involved Message-ID: <11273@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 9 Nov 89 15:30:59 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 66 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Brian Ross (bxr307@coombs.anu.oz) In the recent list of nations involved in WWII I counted several discrepancies. They are:- North America:- Jamaica was a colony of Britain, hence automatically at war with Germany in 1939. South America:- Brazil entered the war in 1943, Argentina 1944, the rest were neutral I think. Europe:- Turkey entered the war in 1945 (Although I always believed Turkey was Asia Minor! :-)) The Papal state was also neutral. Asia:- Tibet, nominally independant and although officially neutral was heavily involved via the "Hump" air route. Nepal was not neutral (a British dependancy), however as it had no modern army it was not directly involved. Gurkhas are though, mercenaries and were heavily utilised by Britian (the last large force of mercenaries employed in the world as whole units, except for the Papal state's Swiss Guard). The Indonesian islands were part of the Netherland East Indies (NEI) and were under the control of the Dutch Government in exile. They were attacked by the Japanese in 1941. The Phillipines was nominally a seperate government was actually controlled by the US (hence "Dug-out- Doug"/"Choco" (as the Australian troops referred to him) MacArthur being the commander of their armed forces). Papua/New Guinea (the eastern half of the island, the western half was part of the NEI) was a colony of Australia (not Britian). Asia Minor:- (Which I would have called the Middle East myself) The French colonies in Lebanon and Syria were under the control of a nominally independant colonial administration which was actually very pro-vichy. As a consequence in late 1940/early 1941 the British using mainly South African and Australian troops invaded and captured these colonies which were a threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal. Iraq, a British colony also had a pro- axis revolt in 1941 which was suppressed. Palestine & TransJordon (Isreal/Jordon of today) was not a very calm area with Jews and Arabs at each others throats (as they still are :-)) however it largely supported the war. Iran was occupied jointly by Soviet (northern half) and Britian (south) in 1941. Africa:- Madagascar, a pro-vichy colony was invaded by Britain in 1941. Fighting occured in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda (all on the periphery of Italian controlled Ethopia) in 1940. South Africa was heavily involved in this campaign and the Western Desert. Hopefully that gives a fuller picture of the "sideshow" peripheral campaign that went on away from spotlight of Europe. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- | Brian Ross |Snail Mail:- "Bill Bracket the self-made man who came| in a a packet" | Brian Ross ----------------------------------------| Sociology Dept.R.S.S.S. E-Mail Addresses:- bxr307@coombs.anu.oz | Australian National University | CANBERRA,A.C.T.,2601, bxr307@csc.anu.oz | AUSTRALIA | _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-