View text source at Wikipedia

Western Allies

Western Allies was a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War.[1][2] It primarily refers to the leading Anglo-American Allied powers, namely the United States and the United Kingdom,[1]: 3 [3] although the term has also been used more broadly to encompass lesser Allied powers from the British Commonwealth (in particular, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) as well as France and some other Western European countries.[3]

The concept of Western Allies is usually used to denote the major differences between the Western, democratic Allies and the communist, totalitarian Soviet Union.[1]: 3, 10, 114, 194 [3] The cooperation between individual Western Allies powers (such as exchange of military intelligence) was much more intensive than that between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.[1]: 113–115 [4] That cooperation became more significant in later stages of the war (e.g. the Teheran Conference).[1]: 229  Nonetheless, the tensions remained high, with Western Allies and Soviet Union considering one another a threat, and drawing contingency plans for a war against one another (e.g. Operation Unthinkable, Plan Totality);[1]: 284, 289, 299, 317 [5]: 78  these tensions developed into the Cold War that lasted decades after the World War II ended.[1]: 2 

Unlike in the broader concept of "the Allies" or "Allied Powers", the countries to the east of Germany, such as Central Eastern European countries of Poland,[6][7]: 11–13 [8]: 200, 281, 289, 324, 345, 353–354, 357  Czechoslovakia,[9]: 14 [10]: 70  Yugoslavia,[11]: 354 [12]: 703  as well as the Soviet Union[1][3] and China[13]: 341  are not included in the concept of "Western Allies", even though some (e.g. Polish[14] and Czechoslovak[15]: 36–37  armed forces) fought alongside Western Allies.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Kahn, Martin (2017-03-27). The Western Allies and Soviet Potential in World War II: Economy, Society and Military Power. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-40396-8.
  2. ^ Kavanagh, Dennis (1995). "The Western Allies 50 Years Later: Britain-Stirrings of Change". Journal of Democracy. 6 (3): 19–30. ISSN 1086-3214.
  3. ^ a b c d Imlay, Talbot (2015), Maiolo, Joseph; Bosworth, Richard (eds.), "Western Allied ideology, 1939–1945", The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 2: Politics and Ideology, The Cambridge History of the Second World War, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 43–67, ISBN 978-1-107-03407-5, retrieved 2025-01-11
  4. ^ Beardsley, E.H. (1977-11-01). "Secrets Between Friends: Applied Science Exchange Between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union During World War II". Social Studies of Science. 7 (4): 447–473. doi:10.1177/030631277700700411. ISSN 0306-3127.
  5. ^ Mazarr, Michael J. (1990-06-18). START and the Future of Deterrence. Springer. ISBN 978-1-349-11524-2.
  6. ^ "Nieproszony gość? Zachodni alianci i Polska w II wojnie światowej - pobierz wykład prof. Richarda Overy'ego | Muzeum II Wojny Światowej". muzeum1939.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  7. ^ Sanford, George (2012-12-06). Poland: The Conquest of History. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-65096-3.
  8. ^ Davies, Norman (2005-02-24). God's Playground A History of Poland: Volume II: 1795 to the Present. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1.
  9. ^ Renner, Hans (2023-08-11). A History of Czechoslovakia Since 1945. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-96233-8.
  10. ^ Piffer, Tommaso (2024). The Big Three Allies and the European Resistance: Intelligence, Politics, and the Origins of the Cold War, 1939-1945. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-882634-7.
  11. ^ Bevc, Ladislav (2007). Liberal Forces in Twentieth Century Yugoslavia: Memoirs of Ladislav Bevc. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1-4331-0008-6.
  12. ^ Overy, Richard (2022-04-05). Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-593-48943-7.
  13. ^ Mitter, Rana (2013-09-10). Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945. HMH. ISBN 978-0-547-84056-7.
  14. ^ Peszke, Michael Alfred (2013). The Armed Forces of Poland in the West, 1939-46: Strategic Concepts, Planning, Limited Success But No Victory!. Helion. ISBN 978-1-908916-54-9.
  15. ^ White, Lewis M. (1991). On All Fronts: Czechs and Slovaks in World War II. East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-456-3.