Countries That Claimed Neutrality Throughout the War They included Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan as well as the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City.
Afghanistan, Andorra, Estonia, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland, Tibet, Vatican City, and Yemen were all neutral during the war.
Neutrals such as Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland maintained independence by offering economic concessions to the belligerents to make up for their relative military weakness.
As part of the British Empire, Australia was among the first nations to declare war on Nazi Germany and between 1939 and 1945 nearly one million Australian men and women served in what was going to be the Second World War.
Photo: The Danish Royal Library. Sweden is the only Nordic country that was able to remain by and large neutral during the Second World War and pursued a policy of neutrality during the Cold War. The tradition of such a security policy orientation goes back to the first half of the nineteenth century.
If Germany should decide to invade Sweden, the result would indeed be a costly victory for Hitler because of Germany8s great dependence on exports of Swedish iron ore. Thus the Swedes had in their economy their best weapon against German attack.
During World War I and World War II, Switzerland maintained armed neutrality, and was not invaded by its neighbors, in part because of its topography, much of which is mountainous.
The Japanese Army opposed the Navy's proposal as being impractical. The Army's focus was on defending the perimeter of Japan's conquests, and it believed that invading Australia would over-extend these defence lines.
A total of about 105,000 men and women from New Zealand served overseas during the Second World War. Of those nearly 7000 died on active Army service and a total of over 11,000 in all services. Nearly 16,000 were wounded as well.
Only 14 countries remained officially neutral throughout the entire war. They included Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan as well as the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City.
For reasons that are still uncertain, Hitler never ordered the invasion. One theory is that a neutral Switzerland would have been useful to hide Nazi gold and to serve as a refuge for war criminals in case of defeat. This may also explain Germany's continued recognition of Switzerland's neutrality.
China was a vital, but often forgotten, member of the Allies battling Japan—two years before the official start of World War II.
The country still held overseas territories that, because of their poor economic development, could not adequately defend themselves from military attack. Since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, the country expected to remain neutral.
Much of the reason for Spanish reluctance to join the war was due to Spain's reliance on imports from the United States. Spain also was still recovering from its civil war and Franco knew his armed forces would not be able to defend the Canary Islands and Spanish Morocco from a British attack.
Sweden declared its neutrality in September 1939. However, after the German occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Sweden was less well placed to resist German pressure to relax its neutral stance.
In World War Two, the Polish armed forces were the fourth largest Allied forces in Europe, after those of the Soviet Union, United States, and Britain. Poles made substantial contributions to the Allied effort throughout the war, fighting on land, sea, and in the air.
In World War II, particularly in the Pacific theater, Australia and New Zealand contributed substantial naval and air forces and the ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) fought ferociously in New Guinea.
The pinnacle of its achievement was the Victoria Cross won by Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu in 1943. Ultimately, nearly 16,000 Māori enlisted for service during the Second World War.
Of the more than 3600 men who served voluntarily with the Maori Battalion: In all, 649 were killed or died on active service. A total of 1712 were wounded. In all, 267 were taken prisoner or reported as missing.
Japanese plans
In early March 1942, the Japanese had debated what to do now that Japan had so easily gained her objectives. The Navy wanted to invade Australia and deny the country as a base to either America or Britain. The Army felt it did not have the strength to invade and fully occupy so vast a continent.
Between February 1942 and November 1943, during the Pacific War of World War II, the Australian mainland, domestic airspace, offshore islands, and coastal shipping were attacked at least 111 times by aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force.
The Australian Chiefs of Staff had regarded the prospect of the loss of what they called the Malay Barrier as “the first stage in the Japanese plan for a major attack on Australia”. 3 With the actual fall of Malaya and Singapore and the breach of the Malay Barrier, that prediction appeared to be coming true.
In fact, Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany during the second world war not to prevent Soviet conquest but to win back territories lost to the USSR as a result of the winter war of 1939-40. The peace treaty that ended the war in March 1940 left Finnish independence intact.
Foreign trade. Sweden was not directly attacked during World War II. It was, however, subject to British and German naval blockades and accidental bombings from the Soviets on some cities (e.g. Strängnäs), which led to problems with the supply of food and fuels.
Spain was governed by Franco, whom Hitler had supported during the Spanish Civil War. No need to invade—Spain was a declared neutral—and while Hitler didn't respect any international norms, he knew the Allies would. Spain and Portugal sat out the war in relative peace and quiet.