Who fought with Hitler? European allies of Hitler's Third Reich

When it comes to a global conflict, it is somehow strange to be interested in who fought in World War II, because it seems that everyone took part. But to obtain such status, every person on the planet does not have to be involved, and over the past years it is easy to forget who was on whose side in this conflict.

Countries that adhere to neutrality

It’s easier to start with those who chose to remain neutral. There are as many as 12 such countries, but since the bulk are small African colonies, it is worth mentioning only “serious” players:

• Spain- contrary to popular belief, the regime, which sympathized with the Nazis and fascists, did not provide real help regular troops;
• Sweden- was able to avoid involvement in military affairs, avoiding the fate of Finland and Norway;
• Ireland- refused to fight the Nazis for the stupidest reason, the country wanted nothing to do with Great Britain;
• Portugal- adhered to the position of its eternal ally in the person of Spain;
• Switzerland- remained faithful to wait-and-see tactics and a policy of non-intervention.

There is no question of true neutrality - Spain formed a division of volunteers, and Sweden did not prevent its citizens from fighting on the side of Germany.

The trio of Portugal, Sweden and Spain actively traded with all sides of the conflict, sympathizing with the Germans. Switzerland was preparing to repel the advance of the Nazi army and was developing a plan for conducting military operations on its territory.

Even Ireland did not enter the war only because of political convictions and even greater hatred of the British.

Germany's European allies

The following took part in the fighting on Hitler's side:

1. Third Reich;
2. Bulgaria;
3. Hungary;
4. Italy;
5. Finland;
6. Romania;
7. Slovakia;
8. Croatia.

Most of the Slavic countries on this list did not take part in the invasion of the territory of the Union. The same cannot be said about Hungary, whose formations were twice defeated by the Red Army. It's about about more than 100 thousand soldiers and officers.

The most impressive infantry corps belonged to Italy and Romania, which on our soil managed to become famous only due to the cruel treatment of the civilian population in the occupied territories. In the zone of Romanian occupation were Odessa and Nikolaev, along with the adjacent territories, where the mass extermination of the Jewish population took place. Romania was defeated in 1944, the fascist regime of Italy was forced to withdraw from the war in 1943.

ABOUT difficult relationship There’s not much to say about Finland since the 1940 war. The most “significant” contribution is closing the ring of the siege of Leningrad from the northern side. The Finns were defeated in 1944, as was Romania.

USSR and its allies in Europe

The Germans and their allies in Europe were opposed by:

• Britannia;
• THE USSR;
• France;
• Belgium;
• Poland;
• Czechoslovakia;
• Greece;
• Denmark;
• Netherlands;

Considering the losses suffered and the liberated territories, it would be incorrect not to include the Americans in this list. The Soviet Union, along with Britain and France, took the main blow.

For each country, the war had its own form:

1. Great Britain tried to cope with constant raids by enemy aircraft at the first stage and with missile strikes from continental Europe - on the second;
2. The French army was defeated with amazing speed, and how significant a contribution to the final result was made only by the partisan movement;
3. The Soviet Union suffered the most big losses, the war was massive battles, constant retreats and advances, a struggle for every piece of land.

The Western Front opened by the United States helped accelerate the liberation of Europe from the Nazis and saved millions of lives of Soviet citizens.

War in the Pacific

On Pacific Ocean fought:

• Australia;
• Canada;
• THE USSR.

The Allies were opposed by Japan, with all its spheres of influence.

The Soviet Union entered this conflict at the final stage:

1. Provided the transfer of ground forces;
2. Defeated the remaining Japanese army on the mainland;
3. Contributed to the surrender of the Empire.

The Red Army soldiers, seasoned in battle, were able to defeat the entire Japanese group, deprived of supply routes, with minimal losses.

The main battles in previous years took place in the sky and on the water:

• Bombing of Japanese cities and military bases;
• Attacks on ship convoys;
• Sinking of battleships and aircraft carriers;
• Battle for the resource base;
• Application nuclear bomb for the civilian population.

Taking into account geographical and topographic features, there was no talk of any large-scale ground operations. All the tactics were:

1. In control of key islands;
2. Cutting off supply routes;
3. Enemy resource limitations;
4. Knocking out airfields and ship anchorages.

The chances of victory for the Japanese from the first day of the war were very slim. Despite the success due to surprise and the unwillingness of the Americans to lead fighting overseas.

How many countries are involved in the conflict?

Exactly 62 countries. Not one more, not one less. There were so many participants in the Second World War. And this is out of 73 states that existed at that time.

This involvement is explained by:

• The crisis brewing in the world;
• Involvement of “big players” in their spheres of influence;
• The desire to solve economic and social problems by military means;
• The presence of numerous alliance treaties between the parties to the conflict.

You can list all of them, indicate the side and years of active action. But such a volume of information will not be remembered and the next day will not leave a trace behind. Therefore, it is easier to identify the main participants and explain their contribution to the disaster.

The results of World War II have long been summed up:

1. The culprits have been found;
2. War criminals punished;
3. Appropriate conclusions have been drawn;
4. “Memory organizations” were created;
5. Fascism and Nazism are prohibited in most countries;
6. Reparations and debts for the supply of equipment and weapons have been paid.

The main task is not repeat something like that .

Today, even schoolchildren know who fought in World War II and what consequences this conflict had for the world. But too many myths persist that need to be dispelled.

Video about the participants in the military conflict

This video very clearly demonstrates the entire chronology of the events of the Second World War, which countries took what part:

The Spaniards fought against the Red Army near Novgorod until October 1943 and received quite high praise from their German “colleagues”. After the disbandment of the Blue Division, many of its fighters joined the German Foreign Legion. In surrounded Berlin, 7,000 Spaniards fought before the capitulation.

Finland was the only democratic country among the Reich satellites and pretended that it was fighting against the USSR as if on its own, in continuation Winter War 1939-40 However, this did not prevent the Finns from occupying a huge part of Karelia, and even the areas of Leningrad and Vologda regions. In relation to the Russian population, the Finns behaved worse than the Germans; in Karelia they thought of sending all Russian men from the age of 15 behind barbed wire.

It was extremely difficult to fight the Finns, and only in the summer of 1944 was it possible to recapture part of the occupied territory from them, after which a truce was concluded between the USSR and Finland.

The Hungarians also turned out to be quite a stubborn enemy for the Red Army, sending several divisions to the southern section of the Soviet-German front.

One of the most numerous armies that fought on Hitler's side was the Romanian one. The Romanians took part in the siege of Odessa and reached Stalingrad with the Germans, where they were entrusted with covering the flanks of Paulus’s army.

The largest of the satellite armies was the Italian one, but it was never distinguished by its combat effectiveness. Already in July 1941, Mussolini agreed to send Italian troops to Russia, where they ingloriously ended their journey in the snow at Stalingrad. The surviving Italians were recalled home in April 1943.

Bulgaria also found itself in the enemy’s camp, but its army was not sent to fight in Russia. It was the only German ally that did not fight against the USSR, despite all Hitler’s entreaties.

However, Bulgaria's participation in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia and military operations against Greek and Yugoslav partisans freed up German divisions to be sent to the Eastern Front. In addition, on December 6, 1941, Bulgarian patrol ships sank the Soviet submarine Shch-204 in the Varna area.

In addition to the regular armies of satellite countries, many national units from occupied states and territories fought on Hitler’s side, which would take a very long time to list.

It is known that they were even specially dragged to the Borodino field, in the area of ​​which there were heavy battles in the fall of 1941.

Director: Peter Prestel, Rudolf Sporrer

1939: The world faces World War II. Hitler finds allies: Italy, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia and Japan. The governments of these countries stipulate very specific benefits after winning a coalition with Germany: spoils of war, territorial expansion, raw materials and political influence in the post-war order (mainly in German).

The creators of this film, consisting of three parts, explores a historical starting point and asks questions that extend to the present. How did this cooperation function in the military, economic, and also human fields? How did you come to renounce your alliance with Hitler? How did the war pact between these countries influence attitudes towards Germany today?

Original film, no translation.

Italien und Finnland / Italy and Finland

The fascist march on Rome brought Mussolini to power already in 1922. In 1936, an agreement was concluded on the parallel development of ideologies in Italy and Germany. Dictatorship, racial legislation and unity in foreign policy, which dominated and manifested itself in the so-called "Pact of Steel". The Berlin-Rome Axis functioned perfectly in the Balkan War, but failed in Greece and North Africa.

Already in 1943, when the Allies landed in Sicily, Italy abruptly changed course. Mussolini was overthrown and arrested. German special forces freed him at the Gran Sasso castle and Hitler used the Duce to head a puppet government on the shores of Lake Garda. Later the Wehrmacht occupied Italy and it came to civil war. The Germans respond to partisan attacks with severe repression. This complicates German-Italian relations to this day. Mussolini was an ally of Hitler in the war against his people and, already on the run at the end of the war, was shot and his corpse was hanged at a gas station. Militarily, the alliance with Italy rather harmed than helped the German Reich, the military historian concludes...

Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939 and lost, paying for the defeat with heavy territorial losses. General Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the former president of Finland, bet on an alliance with Germany to recapture these territories in the upcoming campaign in the east. Hitler agreed, but called for more detailed action on the part of the northern ally to further attack the Soviet Union, particularly during the siege of Leningrad. With the help German weapons and the troops managed to implement the project in 1941, and Mannerheim was pleased, he managed to preserve the sovereignty of Finland. Only when the war turned back, and the superiority of the Red Army became obvious to everyone and there was a real threat of the complete destruction of the Finnish state, Mannerheim had to change the pact, like Italy, by “surrendering” the front line. Fierce fighting ensued in the Arctic Circle, which today left wounds from the scorched earth strategy used then...

Kroatien, Bulgarien, Slowakei / Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovakia

Hitler's attack on Yugoslavia led to the creation of "Croatia" in 1941, a puppet state under a German-Italian protectorate. Ante Pavelić created an authoritarian regime led by his fascist Ustasha movement as the ideological and political backbone of violent power. The Croatian army was used primarily to fight the partisans.

Tito's partisans held the Croats responsible for carnage, perpetrated by them in the country. The Ustaše killed 80,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in so-called “cleansing” operations. The multinational state of Yugoslavia never recovered from those terrible events during the Second World War.
Great gain from Hitler's forced transformation of the Balkan region of the luminaries of Bulgaria with the addition of the lands of Southern Dobruja, Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgaria and Germany were close allies. The tolerance of the Bulgarians, however, resisted the introduction of regulations and laws dictated from above, in particular those of an anti-Jewish direction. But Bulgaria could not go its own way. Tsar Boris III died at mysterious circumstances shortly after the visit to Hitler. And in 1944 the country fell under the yoke of the Soviet Union and paid a huge tribute to decades of dictatorship of communism.

In Slovakia, Hitler used Slovak separatists and Sudeten Germans. Behind the back of Nazi Germany, this group created the independent state of “Slovakia” in 1939, which degraded after the occupation of the country by German troops, but in order to “protect the state of Slovakia,” and in fact was an appendage of Greater Germany. Pastor Yosei Chizo became president. His spiritual fascism was directed primarily against the Jewish population. Militarily, small Slovakia with their outdated weapons did not play any role for Germany. On the contrary, the troops deserting en masse from the eastern front, together with the communists, called for a national uprising, which was bloodily suppressed by the SS troops.

Ungarn und Rumänien / Hungary and Romania

Hungary lost, after the First World War in 1920 as a result of the Treaty of Trianon, two-thirds of its territory to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria and, most of all, Romania. Taking sides Hitler's Germany, in the hope that there will be restoration of these areas. The Hungarian prime minister was the first statesman to visit Hitler after he seized power in 1933.
Hungary fought alongside German forces on the eastern front during World War II - as did their arch-enemy Romania - a delicate situation for the Wehrmacht command. It was always necessary to take into account the fact that the quarreling allies were about to start shooting at each other. The coalition with Hitler gave both absolutely nothing. Budapest was almost completely destroyed in encirclement battles, and became famous in military history like "Stalingrad on the Danube".

Romania between the two World Wars was politically unstable both domestically and internationally. The arbitrariness of King Charles II prepared the way for the Romanian "Führer" General Antonescu, who joined Hitler in 1941 as a loyal vassal in Jewish question and help win the war against the Soviet Union. Romanians fought German forces at Stalingrad and, more importantly, Romania supplied the Nazi war machine with oil, fuel for Hitler's tank armies. A loss oil wells accelerated the defeat of the still strong allies. After the military fortunes finally ran out, Antonescu was overthrown, and in 1944 the front turned to the Land of the Soviets. Now Romania fought against Germany, easily moving from German domination to Russian...

For the majority of Russian citizens, the Second World War- this is a confrontation between the Soviet Union, the USA and Great Britain on the one hand and Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan on the other. More advanced people will be able to remember several more countries that fought on one side or the other.

Meanwhile, in fact, participants in the largest armed conflict in the history of mankind, there were 62 states out of 73 that existed at that time, in which more than 80% of the world's population lived.

AiF.ru decided to remember several little-known countries that took part in the Second World War. In this part of the material we will talk about the states that acted among the Axis countries, that is, on the side of Hitler’s Germany.

The Axis powers are highlighted in blue. Source: Commons.wikimedia.org

Thailand

It is unlikely that many Russians who come to Thailand know that in World War II the Thais sided with the Axis countries opposing the anti-Hitler bloc.

Back in 1940, the Thai army invaded French Indochina, capturing a number of border areas. The French, who were defeated in Europe by the Wehrmacht at that time, were unable to provide adequate resistance in their colonies.

Prime Minister of Thailand Luang Plaek Phibunsongram. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Prime Minister of the country Luang Plak Phibunsongram negotiated with both Great Britain and Japan. In December 1941, Japanese troops landed on the coast of Thailand, and after short fighting, Pibunsongram decided to conclude an armistice with Japan. As a result of this agreement, Japan was able to use Thai territory to invade Malaya. The Thai authorities declared war on the United States and Great Britain on January 25, 1942. In May 1942, Thai troops, together with Japanese army occupied northeastern Burma, and on August 20, 1943, Japan transferred four North Malay and two Tang principalities to Thailand.

Domestic opposition to the Japan-Thai alliance was strong, and in July 1944, Parliament passed a vote of no confidence against Pibunsonggram and he was forced to resign as prime minister.

The new government of Thailand entered into negotiations with the anti-Hitler coalition, ceasing participation in hostilities. The peace treaty was signed on January 1, 1946: according to it, Thailand renounced the territorial seizures of 1941-1943 and paid indemnity to Great Britain.

Slovakia

The “Munich Agreement” of 1938 led not only to the transfer of the Sudetenland to the Third Reich, but also to the proclamation of an independent Slovak state on March 14, 1939. At the head of that movement was the Glinka Slovak Party, which considered the regime Adolf Hitler your ally. Independence of Slovakia was granted at the request of Germany.

In September 1939, the Slovak army, together with Germany, attacked Poland. With the outbreak of the war with the USSR, the Slovak Expeditionary Force was sent to the Eastern Front.

However, Slovak soldiers and officers cannot be called loyal allies of Hitler. Some of the military from the units that fought on the Eastern Front went over to the side of the Red Army or became partisans.

In 1944, the Slovak national uprising broke out in the country, directed against the Nazis. The uprising was suppressed by the Wehrmacht, many of its participants died, some crossed the front line, ending up in territory controlled by the Red Army.

A convoy of rebels. Summer 1944. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

In the spring of 1945, with heavy fighting, Soviet troops liberated the territory of Slovakia. 8 May 1945 Prime Minister of Slovakia Stefan Tiso signed the surrender of the Slovak Republic in the Second World War in Kremsmunster Abbey.

For collaboration with the Nazis, Tiso was sentenced to 30 years and died in prison. Slovakia returned to Czechoslovakia and remained in single state before January 1, 1993.

Libya

The fighting during the Second World War affected Europe, Asia, Oceania, and they did not spare Africa.

Back in 1911, Italian troops occupied the territory of today's northern Libya. In 1927, the separate colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania were created, and in 1934 they (as well as the territory of Fezzan) were united into Libya.

Despite the struggle of the local population against the colonialists, Italy not only maintained control over Libya, but also pursued an active policy of resettling indigenous Italians to these lands. In the early 1940s they made up up to 12% of the country's population.

In 1940, fighting began in North Africa. Italy formed two Libyan colonial divisions, these were lightly armed formations of 7,000 people. They were defeated in the first year of the war, but individual colonial units took part in patrols southern borders Libya until the end of the African campaign.

An Italian airfield in Libya, destroyed by Allied aircraft. December 1942. Photo: RIA Novosti

The fighting in North Africa and Libya continued until 1943 and ended in complete defeat Italian forces. Libya came under the control of Great Britain and France, and in 1951, by decision of the UN, it was granted independence.

Unlike the War of 1812, the Great Patriotic War in Russia is not called the “invasion of the twelve pagans.” If less than half of Bonaparte’s army was ethnic French, then the war of 1941-1945 on the Eastern Front was essentially Soviet-German.

However, the Wehrmacht still had allies. Soviet marshals in their memoirs unanimously assessed their military significance as insignificant.

During the Soviet era, this topic was generally obscured, since most of the German satellites after the war became Soviet satellites.

IN modern Russia A historical school arose, inclined, on the contrary, to exaggerate their role in order to reproach the former vassals who joined NATO with a “Nazi past.” Some authors write something like this: before we were silent for the sake of “socialist internationalism,” but now we will remind you of everything...

On the one hand, at the peak of military efforts German allies, in the summer of 1942, the total number of their troops on the Eastern Front exceeded 600 thousand people - a lot even by the standards of the Second World War. On the other hand, the quality of these troops was low; they were used mainly for occupation service, and in direct clashes with the Soviet army they suffered crushing defeats.

Japan: Hitler's Unfulfilled Hopes

The strongest and most combat-ready ally of the Third Reich was, of course, Japan, but it was too far away.

In the spring of 1942, when Rommel was advancing towards the Suez Canal, and the Japanese fleet, after capturing Singapore, entered Indian Ocean, German strategists were thinking about linking up with a Japanese landing force somewhere in the south of the Arabian Peninsula and about escorting Japanese ships into the Mediterranean Sea to destroy the British fleet.

But the defeat at Midway on June 4, 1942, put Japan on the defensive for the rest of the war and ended any attempt by Berlin and Tokyo to pursue any kind of joint strategy.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Hitler immediately declared war on the United States. An action seemingly devoid of logic: in the midst of the Battle of Moscow, already realizing that the blitzkrieg against the USSR did not work out, to acquire another enemy.

In fact, the Fuhrer hoped that Tokyo would respond by declaring war Soviet Union and will take at least distracting actions to Far East. In his New Year's greeting to his Japanese colleague, Ribbentrop expressed his hope "to shake hands with Japan on the Trans-Siberian Railway in the coming year."

However, the calculation did not come true.

Eastern front

But almost all of the European allies and dependent countries “checked in” on the Eastern Front.

The only exception was Bulgaria: Tsar Boris and his ministers strongly stated that, due to the long-standing special relationship between Russia and Bulgaria, war would be extremely unpopular in society.

Although Hitler notified Mussolini of his plans only a few hours before the invasion, Italy declared war on the USSR on June 22, 1941.

Soviet Ambassador Gorelkin went to the beach on Sunday morning, and the Italians were only able to find him in the afternoon to present him with a note.

At the same time, Hitler agreed to send Italian troops to the Eastern Front only on June 30, after much persuasion from the Duce.

The Fuhrer loved to quote the words of General Moltke, which he said to the Kaiser at the beginning of the First World War, when Rome hesitated for a long time on which side to fight: " If the Italians are against us, we will need ten divisions to defeat them, and if they are for us, the same ten divisions to help them".

The Italian Expeditionary Force in Russia initially consisted of two motorized divisions (this term, which existed only in the Italian army, designated an infantry division, part personnel which was trained to drive, and which could move on wheels, if such were available) and a motorized division, equipped, among other things, with passenger buses, ice cream vans and sports motorcycles.

In total there were 62 thousand people, 1030 thousand guns and mortars and 60 tanks (a “tank” in Italy was any self-propelled device with bulletproof armor and at least one machine gun).

Only the Italian planes, of which there were 83, were good.

The corps became part of the German Army Group South and operated mainly in Left Bank Ukraine.

The Italians did not show high fighting spirit, as, indeed, in the Balkans and North Africa. Over the course of a year, the corps lost about 8 thousand people killed and wounded and one and a half times more in prisoners.

After negotiations with Hitler in Salzburg, Mussolini sent significant forces to the East in June-July 1942. The corps was transformed into an army consisting of 10 divisions. The number of soldiers and officers reached 229 thousand people.

The Italian 8th Army took part in the German offensive on Stalingrad and was defeated there. 94 thousand people died or were captured. This became one of the main accusations against Mussolini at the meeting Supreme Council fascist party on July 25, 1943, where he was removed from power.

In February, the demoralized remnants of the Italian troops - 88 thousand people - were sent home. This was the end of Italy's participation in the war against the USSR.

Unlike Italy, which was drawn into the war solely by the will of the Duce, who dreamed of “greatness,” Romania had a real reason for the conflict with the USSR: in June 1940, at the height of the “Battle of France,” Moscow took Bessarabia from it.

According to the secret protocols to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany recognized Bessarabia as a “sphere of interest” of the Soviet Union.

Soviet, and later Russian historians they reminded that Romania, in turn, in 1918 annexed Bessarabia, which had previously been part of Russia, and the USSR, thus, only “gained its own.”

The Romanian side pointed out that the majority of the population of Bessarabia were Moldovans who spoke the Romanian language, and that along with Bessarabia, Moscow “grabbed” Northern Bukovina, which had never been in Russia, but previously belonged to Austria-Hungary.

In a note to the Romanian government, Molotov explained why Bessarabia should be given up immediately, simply and without pretense: because “the military weakness of the USSR is a thing of the past.”

Hitler, bound by the pact and the war in the West, advised the Romanians to submit, and Britain and France at that moment had no time for them.

The annexation of Bessarabia finally pushed Bucharest into the arms of Berlin. Immediately after the defeat of France, Hitler provided Romania with security guarantees and sent his troops into its territory.

In September 1940, a series of royal decrees handed dictatorial powers to the pro-German Prime Minister Ion Antonescu, dissolved representative bodies, and banned all parties except the Legionnaires' Movement led by Antonescu.

Romania became the only country whose units crossed the Soviet border at the same time as the German ones.

Berlin promised Antonescu not only Bessarabia, but also the Northern Black Sea region, including Odessa.

Romanian troops were consolidated into two armies, the number of which ranged from 180 to 220 thousand people. At the start of the war there were 278 aircraft and 161 light tanks.

As an auxiliary force, they took part in the battles in the Crimea, on the Don and near Stalingrad (there 15 Romanian divisions were defeated and three Romanian divisions were captured entirely).

Romania's irretrievable losses on the Eastern Front amounted to 475,070 people.

Romanian gendarmes are accused of active participation in the Holocaust. After the explosion that destroyed the Romanian headquarters in Odessa on October 22, 1941, Antonescu ordered two hundred Jews to be shot for every officer killed, and one hundred Jews for every soldier, a total of about 25 thousand people.

However, after the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, Bucharest stopped killing the surviving prisoners of the camps and ghettos, and even allowed the delivery of international humanitarian aid. Of the approximately three million Soviet Jews who fell into the hands of the Nazis and their allies, 93% died, and the survivors were mainly in the Romanian occupation zone.

As a result of the Iasi-Kishinev operation in August 1944, Soviet troops reached the Romanian border.

On August 23, a coup took place in Romania. The military arrested Antonescu, who was subsequently tried and executed. The new government declared war on Germany.

In July 1945, Romanian King Mihai, as head union state, was awarded the Soviet Order of Victory. Currently, the 88-year-old ex-monarch, living in Switzerland, is the only living holder of this award.

In December 2006, the Bucharest court recognized the “war for the liberation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina” as “preventive and defensive” and “legally justified,” but in May 2008 Supreme Court Romania reversed this decision.

After World War I, the Entente viewed Hungary as a defeated country. According to the Treaty of Trianon, the size of its army was limited to 35 thousand people, vast territories inhabited by ethnic Hungarians were ceded to Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

Unlike the Austrians, who proclaimed a republic, the Hungarians remained loyal to the last emperor from the House of Habsburg, Charles, who was also the Hungarian king.

After the Entente threatened occupation, a compromise was found: formally, Hungary remained a monarchy, but Charles was banned from entering its territory, and the former rear admiral of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, Miklos Horthy, began to rule as regent.

In the second half of the 30s, Horthy headed for an alliance with Germany in the hope of reviving a “great Hungary,” and in 1939 he introduced universal conscription.

Hungary declared war on the USSR on June 27, 1941, after a suspicious raid by unmarked bombers on the city of Kosice. Most modern historians speak in this regard of a German provocation.

44 thousand military personnel, 200 guns and mortars, 189 tanks, 48 ​​aircraft went to the front.

In the battles in Ukraine, these troops suffered heavy losses and were almost completely returned to their homeland. In November 1941, only one Hungarian battalion remained on Soviet territory.

In January 1942, Field Marshal Keitel came to Budapest and demanded that the ally increase its contribution to the war. In April, the 2nd Hungarian Army, consisting of 205 thousand people, 107 tanks, and 90 aircraft, went to the front.

In the fall of 1942, she fought positional battles in upper reaches Don and was defeated in January 43rd during the Soviet offensive after the encirclement of Paulus’s army at Stalingrad. Hungarian losses amounted to 148 thousand people, among the dead was Horthy’s son.

An attempted counteroffensive by the 1st Hungarian Tank Division in Carpathian Ukraine in the spring of 1944 ended with the loss of 38 tanks and a retreat to the border.

The Germans took care to prevent the “Romanian version” from happening in Hungary. Under their pressure, Horthy in October 1944 transferred power to the leader of the Hungarian fascists, Szalasi, and was taken to Germany, where he was under arrest until the end of the war.

Although Hitler, with his unique ideas about history, called the Hungarians “steppe nomads,” they, according to German generals, were the most combat-ready among their allies.

Some Soviet citizens survivors of the occupation argued that the Hungarians treated the population more arrogantly and cruelly than the Germans.

Hungary proved to be the Third Reich's most loyal ally, continuing to fight until April 12, 1945.

After the Soviet aggression in November 1939, which ended for Finland with the death of almost 25 thousand people and the loss of 10% of its territory, it had, perhaps, more reasons for trying to settle scores with the USSR than Romania.

However, on June 22, 1941, Finland declared neutrality. At the request of Helsinki, Ribbentrop had to disavow the words of Hitler, who, in a radio address sounded at 6 a.m., stated that German and Finnish soldiers were allegedly fighting together.

However, for the USSR, the occupation of Finland was an important element of pre-war plans. Fulfilling them, and obviously not yet realizing the seriousness of the situation on the Soviet-German front, the command of the Leningrad Military District began the transfer of troops, including the elite 1st tank division, not towards the Germans, but to the north, from where it was planned to advance to the Gulf of Bothnia (they had to be returned a few days later).

On June 25, Soviet aviation launched a massive attack on Finnish airfields. At the same time, residential areas of Helsinki and other cities were bombed.

There is a version that Stalin succumbed to the provocation of the Germans, who slipped Soviet intelligence"misconception" about the concentration of German troops and aviation in Finland, although, as it became known later, on June 25, only 10 Messerschmitts were based at Finnish airfields.

After this, the Finns entered the war, but waged it in a unique way: they occupied areas lost during the Winter War, plus Petrozavodsk, and did not go further, in particular, they did not try to cut off the vital for the USSR railway to Murmansk, along which lend-lease deliveries were carried out.

The following inscriptions are still visible on the walls of St. Petersburg houses: " During shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous"Relatively safe zones appeared due to the fact that the guns fired only from the south, where the German positions were located.

Mannerheim forbade his pilots to fly over Leningrad.

British journalist Alexander Werth, who visited the city immediately after the blockade was lifted, noted that when residents spoke of “enemies,” they meant exclusively the Germans. It was as if there were no Finns near Leningrad at all.

The Soviet 23rd Army, which opposed the Finns in Karelia, did not fire almost a single shot during the entire war. There was a joke: " There are two non-combatant armies left in the world: the Royal Swedish and the 23rd Soviet".

Washington and London treated Finland not as an ally of Germany, but as a victim of circumstances, and did everything to prevent its occupation by the Soviet army. Through the mediation of the United States and Britain, an agreement was concluded in September 1944, according to which Finland declared war on Germany and interned German troops on its territory.

The low-intensity fighting against German units stationed in Norway is known in Finnish history as the "Lapland War".

When Hitler broke the promises made in Munich and captured Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the Czech Republic was annexed to the Reich as the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”, and Slovakia was proclaimed independent state. The president became known for his far-right and anti-Semitic views. bishop Tissot.

Slovakia did not formally declare war on the Soviet Union, but sent troops to the Eastern Front: two infantry divisions, three artillery regiment, 30 light tanks, 71 aircraft.

The only attempt by the German command to send the Slovaks into battle (this was in the North Caucasus in the winter of 1943) ended with their almost complete defection to the side of the Red Army.

Basically, Slovak units were engaged in protecting communications in Belarus.

Of the 36 thousand Slovaks who visited the Eastern Front, less than three thousand died, and 27 thousand surrendered.

After the Slovak National Uprising in September 1944, the Germans disarmed the Slovak army. The Slovak Air Force, consisting of 27 serviceable aircraft led by the commander, flew to the Soviet side.

After the German blitzkrieg against Yugoslavia in April 1941, Croatia declared itself independent with Berlin's approval. The Duke of Aosta from the Italian Savoy dynasty was proclaimed king (however, he never met his new subjects), and the leader of the local Ustasha ultranationalists, Ante Pavelić, became the de facto ruler.

Croatia immediately joined the Tripartite Pact, and on June 22, 1941 declared war on the USSR.

Pavelich sent an infantry regiment of 2,200 bayonets to the East, which first entered into battle with Soviet troops on October 13, 1941 on the left bank of the Dnieper, and a fighter squadron in November of the same year.

In addition, a number of Croats fought in the Italian army.

The Croatian ground units did not distinguish themselves in anything special, but the pilots, according to available data, demonstrated fantastic performance: they shot down 259 Soviet aircraft, losing 23 of their own. At the same time, two best aces 38 and 37 cars were shot down.

On their own territory in the fall of 1944, the 369th, 373rd and 392nd Croatian infantry divisions fought with the Red Army, which, according to the Soviet command, showed steadfastness and tenacity.

Spain did not participate in World War II, but the “Blue Division” fought on the Eastern Front, officially consisting of volunteers who went to help Germany of their own free will for ideological reasons.

Caudillo repaid Moscow in its own coin: during the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Soviet pilots and tank crews were also listed as “volunteers” and even called themselves “Miguels” and “Pablos” for camouflage. The Spaniards, however, did not cross into Petrov and Ivanov.

The "Blue Division" was located in the Novgorod and Leningrad regions from October 1941 to October 1943. “Blue” was called after the color of summer uniform shirts. The staffing level was determined at 17,046 soldiers and officers. By rotation, about 47 thousand people passed through it, four thousand of them died and about one and a half thousand were captured.

According to reports, the number of volunteers willing to go to Russia reached one hundred thousand - partly due to the anti-communist feelings that a large part of the Spaniards experienced after the civil war, partly due to high level unemployment.

On July 18, 1943, when the Spaniards gathered in the historic palace of Countess Samoilova between Pavlovsk and Gatchina to celebrate a national holiday, Soviet command found out about this and launched a massive artillery attack. About a hundred people died, including the division commander, and the palace lies in ruins to this day.

Even against the backdrop of the Wehrmacht, the Spaniards were distinguished by first-class material support. The wounded were immediately evacuated to Europe.

From memory local residents, the Spaniards lived quite friendly with the Russian peasants, and also loved to drink, and therefore often fought with the “sober and therefore angry Germans.”

In September 1941, the “Legion of French Volunteers” of 2.5 thousand people went to the Eastern Front.

Legionnaires wore German uniforms with the national tricolor on the sleeve.

Unlike Franco, who preferred to behave cautiously, Marshal Petain personally admonished them.

On December 7, in the area of ​​the village of Zhukovo near Moscow, the French, who were deployed compactly, came under heavy artillery fire, losing over 500 people.

Subsequently, the legion was located near Smolensk and Leningrad.

In total, 6,429 Frenchmen visited the Eastern Front during the war.

After the war, the legion commander, Colonel Labon, was sentenced to life imprisonment in France.

In September 1944, the remnants of the legion joined the French SS division Charlemagne.

About 300 French SS men defended against Soviet troops Reich Chancellery.

The last person to receive the Knight's Cross in the Third Reich was not a German, but a Frenchman, Eugene Valot. This happened on April 29, 1945.

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