what did european countries do in WW2?

Bereta_Eder · May 12, 2002, 09:23

ok so we know about Russia

we know about britain

we know about the US (not european yes thank you)

we know (or I know) about Greece

Serbia yes
Italy

France yes

what did the other european countries did?

did they put up any fight?

laurentius · May 12, 2002, 09:26

Well Finland certainly didnt put her pants down. We defeated the invading soviet hordes. Hell, we even attacked Soviet Union 1941 to regain the lost terrotories.

BeBro · May 12, 2002, 09:59

We started - and lost.

Oh, and yes, we fought.

Dauphin · May 12, 2002, 10:03

The Swedes neutrality was only bettered by that of the Swiss.

Natan · May 12, 2002, 10:06

Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria sided with the Fascists to get back lost territories. ooops!

laurentius · May 12, 2002, 10:11

Nice try though, BeBro

Akka · May 12, 2002, 10:28

Spain was busy in consolidating its fascist regime. Though friend with Hitler and Mussolini, Franco was only interested in Spain and not the war.
Portugal, I don't know, but I think it was in the same situation. I can't remember if the junta was already in place or if it came later, though.
Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg were not really asked their opinion, nor Poland

Tchecoslovaquia (spelling ?) was already destroyed.

Bereta_Eder · May 12, 2002, 10:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Akka le Vil

Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg were not really asked their opinion, nor Poland

yes but did they fight?

Bereta_Eder · May 12, 2002, 10:46

BTW pardon my french (aka my trolling post)

I am truely just interested to know
and I'll promptly edit my first post to let your opinions/knowledge flow unfettered

orange · May 12, 2002, 10:49

asked the US for help

Bereta_Eder · May 12, 2002, 10:51

ahaha ha ha

of course my dear
move on and watch spiderman or reply on topic

Thue · May 12, 2002, 10:54

Denmark courageously rolled over and played dead when we were attacked.

Tom201 · May 12, 2002, 10:56

There was some fighting in Holland but not very surprisingly they hadnt a chance against the Germans. They surrendered on the 5th day. During that time large amounts of gold and diamonds were evacuated to Britain

Same goes for Belgium.

Bereta_Eder · May 12, 2002, 10:58

Thanks for replying.

Just something more...

did any of these countries conduct any guerilla warfare on the germans after being captured?

Bugs ****ing Bunny · May 12, 2002, 11:00

There was a hell of a lot of guerilla warfare in the Balkans. Other nations evacuated soldiers to fight with the British- a significant number of Poles fought for the RAF.

Bereta_Eder · May 12, 2002, 11:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
There was a hell of a lot of guerilla warfare in the Balkans.

Yes I know.

Quote:

Other nations evacuated soldiers to fight with the British- a significant number of Poles fought for the RAF.

I see.

laurentius · May 12, 2002, 11:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
Other nations evacuated soldiers to fight with the British- a significant number of Poles fought for the RAF.

And they made a great movie about it

reds4ever · May 12, 2002, 11:03

Quote:

Originally posted by laurentius
Well Finland certainly didnt put her pants down. We defeated the invading soviet hordes. Hell, we even attacked Soviet Union 1941 to regain the lost terrotories.

there is a line of thought that says that it was Finlands success against the Soviets that convinced Hilter to set his sights on the eastern front, which in the long run pretty much sealed his fate

Akka · May 12, 2002, 11:03

Quote:

Originally posted by paiktis22

yes but did they fight?

Poland : attacked from both sides while French and British were watching and providing advises. Courageous fights but Poland army was destroyed fast.

Norway : don't really know if they fought. Too few people anyway to have any impact. Conquered, most of the fights were between French/British and Germans.

Holland : tried to fight, but was caught by surprise and crushed.

Belgium : fought with determination. Though, the king capitulated some times after the country has been conquered, ordering to his 500 000 soldiers to surrender (this made him appear like a traitor among his own population, and he was then forced to abdicate after the war).

Denmark : could not hope to even slow down Germany. Surrendered immediately. Though, the population showed a great courage in passive resistance (the king and many people were wearing the yellow star to nullify the anti-jews segregation).

Saint Marcus · May 12, 2002, 11:08

Holland fought for a few days, and better than expected. The Germans would have had a very hard time getting past the Waterline. Of course, Hitler then ordered the terror bombing of Rotterdam, killing many people. Then the Germans threathened to do the same to Amsterdam and other cities unless the Dutch would surrender. That we did, after having evacuated the royal family, governement, military leaders, navy and remaining airforce.

The bombing of Rotterdam took us by surprise. We never believed the Germans would specifically target civilians on such a wide scale. If the war would remain fair the Dutch would have held out for some time, and hopefully long enough for French and British reinforcements to arrive. That was the plan at least.

Saint Marcus · May 12, 2002, 11:10

Quote:

tried to fight, but was caught by surprise and crushed.

Where did you get your information from? We were never crushed, but surrendered to avoid our civilian population being wiped out. The terror bombing of Rotterdam did take us by surprise though. It was a despicible act of terrorism.

Akka · May 12, 2002, 11:13

Quote:

Originally posted by paiktis22
Thanks for replying.

Just something more...

did any of these countries conduct any guerilla warfare on the germans after being captured?

Though French resistance was alive and active and has been made quite famous, especially with D-Day, Balkanic resistance was in fact much tougher and was even able to free itself from Germany (Yugoslavia).
Of course, the German forces where much more important in France, but the fact that Nazis considered Slavs as subhumans while French were considered just a step below Aryan made their treatment in Balkan hell more harsher than in France => higher revolts.

Italy partisans were quite active once Germany invaded Italy. In fact, Italians fought much harder once they came to the Allied side than when they were under Mussolini's law

Sweden, though neutral, helped to save several tens of thousands of Jews, granted the help of Félix Kersten the Himmler's personnal doctor.

Swiss helped to hide refugees too, though its actions were a lot more questionnable than Sweden's ones.

Russians were at first completely apathics, as they weren't very motivated to fight for Stalin. Though, the treatment that Nazis reserved for Slavs worked again against them, and the Russian resistance was a big problem for Germans.

Akka · May 12, 2002, 11:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Saint Marcus

Where did you get your information from? We were never crushed, but surrendered to avoid our civilian population being wiped out. The terror bombing of Rotterdam did take us by surprise though. It was a despicible act of terrorism.

Hitler wasn't really known for his humanitarian concerns

Saint Marcus · May 12, 2002, 11:15

At the time of the bombing, the Germans were pinned down in three main areas. (Afsluitdijk, Rotterdam, Utrecht I believe). A german paratroop operation in the west of Holland resulted in a familiar for the germans and the paras were pinned down as well (there goal was to take The Hague, but failed miserably).

BeBro · May 12, 2002, 11:17

Quote:

Originally posted by Akka le Vil
Norway : don't really know if they fought. Too few people anyway to have any impact. Conquered, most of the fights were between French/British and Germans.

Norway offered strong resistance for a certain time, and there were also British forces in the country, and Royal Navy vessels that supported Norway. The fights around Narvik ended in June (beginn of the attack was early April 1940.

Saint Marcus · May 12, 2002, 11:17

Quote:

Hitler wasn't really known for his humanitarian concerns

We knew that. But we didn't knew he was ready to wipe out millions of people (remember, this was 1940, the bombing of Rotterdam was the worst in world history at that time)

Monk · May 12, 2002, 11:23

Denmark - the king and many people were wearing the yellow star to nullify the anti-jews segregation

Despite being defeated in 24 hours, Denmark and the Danes do have WWII-related things to be proud of, the most important being the almost-total evacuation of most of the Jewish population. But the king never wore the Star of David; it's a popular urban legend.

Stefu · May 12, 2002, 11:31

Quote:

there is a line of thought that says that it was Finlands success against the Soviets that convinced Hilter to set his sights on the eastern front, which in the long run pretty much sealed his fate

If it wasn't for Finland, you'd be all speaking German!

Anyway, as said, we had Winter War in 1940, then Continuation War in 1941-1944. In addition to those, there was Lapland war in 1945 against German troops left in Lapland.

Yog-Sothoth · May 12, 2002, 11:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Akka le Vil
Norway : don't really know if they fought. Too few people anyway to have any impact. Conquered, most of the fights were between French/British and Germans.

Norway were totaly unprepared when Germany attacked Norway on 9 April 1940. It was though that Norway would be able to stay out of the second world war, just as the country had maintained its neutrality in World War I. Our military forces were not strengthened at all before the war, and were in a poor state when the German forces invaded.

The Coastal Batteries at the fort Oscarsborg did manage to sink the German cruiser Blücher, halting the invasion enough for the goverment and royal family to escape to England.

The Norwegian government resumed its activities from London. The exile navy operated 118 vessels. The airforce counted four squadrons. At the time the Norwegian merchant navy was the world's third largest and more than 1.000 Norwegian merchant ships and 27.000 sailors sailed in the convoys. There was also a small army in exile, even if priority for manpower went to the other branches.

BeBro · May 12, 2002, 11:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Stefu
If it wasn't for Finland, you'd be all speaking German!

Well, now we all learn English instead