# Secondary WWII Axis powers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750 "2002-11-25T20:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/1 "2002-11-25T20:40:39Z")
Why did they join the Axis? Or were they invaded/annexed? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/2 "2002-11-25T20:49:14Z")
If you mean countries like Romania/Hungary/Bulgaria, they had fascist and anti-communist governments of their own, and were sympathetic to German goals. Countries like Vichy France, Slovakia, and Croatia, on the other hand, were formed by the Germans, after invading France, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, respectively, and were puppet governments. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/3 "2002-11-25T20:51:56Z")
The 1st category is what I had in mind. What about Thailand (a Japanese ally?)? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/4 "2002-11-25T21:12:36Z")
The Thais had a border dispute with French Indo-China, and saw a Japanese alliance as a way to get the disputed territory. They invaded Indo-China, and then, in the Tokyo Conference in 1941, mediated by the Japanese, the (Vichy) French government ceded the disputed land. ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/5 "2002-11-25T22:32:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\*If you mean countries like Romania/Hungary/Bulgaria, they had fascist and anti-communist governments of their own, and were sympathetic to German goals. Countries like Vichy France, Slovakia, and Croatia, on the other hand, were formed by the Germans, after invading France, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, respectively, and were puppet governments. \*\* I’m pretty sure of those first three that Bulgaria was invaded before joining. Rumania, under Antonescu, voluntarily joined the Axis. Not sure about Hungary. Finland also supported the Axis, though never joined it. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/6 "2002-11-25T22:38:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Daoloth \* > \*\*I’m pretty sure of those first three that Bulgaria was invaded before joining. \*\* I don’t think so. Bulgaria was neutral when the war broke out, but then Filtov’s government allied itself with Germany in exchange for German pressure on Romania to surrender Southern Dobrudza. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/7 "2002-11-25T22:38:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Daoloth \* > \*\*I’m pretty sure of those first three that Bulgaria was invaded before joining. \*\* I don’t think so. Bulgaria was neutral when the war broke out, but then Filtov’s government allied itself with Germany in exchange for German pressure on Romania to surrender Southern Dobrudza. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/8 "2002-11-25T22:41:08Z")
Sorry…hit return too soon. The voluntary nature of the alliance was why Bulgaria was able not to 1. Declare war on the Soviet Union after Barbarossa, and 2. Save their Jews from the Holocaust. ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2002, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/9 "2002-11-25T22:44:23Z")
One of those three nations was pretty much forced to join, and did save a large number of Jews. Hungary? ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/10 "2002-11-26T01:55:44Z")
How about Finland? An “Allied Country” pre-war, Britain and France were thinking of coming to their aid vs. Russia. Yet as Hitler launches Barbarossa, the Finns ally with the Axis. They do it to restore lands lost in a War of Aggression against them, but there is no doubt whose side they are on. Stalin rejects a separate peace at first (after Stalingrad) & Churchill & FDR go along. Its not until the USSR invades (again) Finland in June of ‘44 that the Fins sign an armistice & go to war vs. the Axis 6 days later. \*\*Not \*\* judging them. Understand fully _how_ it happened. Just sayin’ I count them as “axis” from 41-44 ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/11 "2002-11-26T01:56:01Z")
Hungary was actually a fairly willing ally to the Third Reich because like Germany, Hungary had an interest in regaining some of the territory both nations ceded at the end of the First World War. In 1938 Hungary quietly slurped up about a third of (non-German-speaking) Slovakia after the Germans occupied the whole of the country. Later the Nazis brokered another arrangement whereby Rummania ceded Transylvania back to Hungary. Hungary’s regent, [Admiral Horthy](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miklos_Horthy) saw the writing on the wall in 1944 and tried to negotiate a separate peace, but Hitler sent [Otto Skorzeny](http://www.worldwar.nl/persons/Skorzeny/otto_skorzeny.htm) in to kidnap Horthy and his influential son, and installed a puppet government which remained aligned with Germany until completely overrun. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/12 "2002-11-26T02:30:27Z")
Great Britian declared war on the Finns. It is also known that the Croats were very pro german. It remains even in the 90s the Germans recognized Croatia even when the rest of the EU refused to. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secondary-wwii-axis-powers/138750/13 "2002-11-26T18:15:12Z")
**Markxxx** I believe you left out a huge amount of very important information in your minimalist post, which would lend any reader some perspective.