WW2 1939 · Mid-Powers
The 39 mid-powers below the L4 tier
Below the great powers and the L4 anchors of WW2 sits the strategic middle - the Commonwealth dominions whose mobilization scaled the Allied effort, the occupied European countries that fought from exile, the Latin American belligerents that reorganized hemispheric defense, the Japanese client states that built and lost the Co-Prosperity Sphere, the careful neutrals, and the swing-state hedges. Thirty-nine in the WW2 1939 scenario.
Each has its own dedicated strategic guide - pick a country below or jump to a theater.
Theaters
Commonwealth & Empire
The British Empire's mid-power contributors. Dominions that mobilized at scales beyond peacetime imagination, the Indian Army that grew into the largest volunteer force in history, and the host that operated the Mediterranean theater.
Allies · Dominion
CanadaL3
BCATP-trained over half of Allied aircrew. Atlantic convoys, Italy, Normandy. The Quebec-conscription problem under every wartime decision.
Allies · Dominion
AustraliaL3
AIF in North Africa, Singapore strategy collapse 1942, Curtin pivot to the United States. Coral Sea, Kokoda, New Guinea.
Allies · Dominion
New ZealandL2
2NZEF in Greece, Crete, El Alamein, Italy. Among the highest per-capita Allied casualty rates of the war.
Allies · Dominion
South AfricaL2
Smuts government on a parliamentary war vote of 80-67. Volunteer-only overseas service. East Africa, Tobruk, Italy.
Allies · Empire
British IndiaL2
Largest volunteer army in history at 2.5 million. Burma, Italy, Iraq, North Africa. Quit India 1942, Bengal famine 1943.
Allies (host)
EgyptL2
Suez Canal, the Western Desert front, the 1942 Cairo crisis, the Feb 1945 declaration. Hosts the war without formally fighting it.
Occupied Western Europe
Western European mid-powers that fell to the 1940 German invasions and continued the war from exile, with merchant marines and resistance organizations sustaining the Allied effort.
Allies · Occupied 1940
BelgiumL3
Eighteen days of resistance in May 1940, government in exile in London, Free Belgian forces, Battle of the Bulge in 1944.
Allies · Occupied 1940
NetherlandsL3
Five-day collapse in May 1940. Wilhelmina government in exile. NEI oil that sets up the Pacific war.
Allies · Occupied 1940
NorwayL2
Weserübung April 1940, Narvik holds two months, the merchant marine becomes the largest Allied tanker fleet, heavy water sabotage.
Allies · Occupied 1940
DenmarkL2
Six-hour resistance April 1940. King Christian X stays. The 1943 break with the occupation. Iceland-Faroe-Greenland Allied basing.
Eastern European Allies & Occupied
The countries the war begins on, the Balkan defenses that delay the Axis, and the partitions that produce the longest resistance organizations of the European war.
Allies · Partitioned 1939
PolandL3
The country WW2 starts on. Sept 1 German invasion, Sept 17 Soviet invasion, partition by Oct 6. Home Army, Warsaw Uprising. Lose the country, keep the army.
Allies · Occupied 1941
GreeceL2
Repulses Italian invasion Oct 1940. Falls to German invasion April 1941. Occupation, ELAS-EDES resistance, 1944 civil war opens.
Allies · Partitioned 1941
YugoslaviaL2
March 1941 coup, April 1941 invasion, partition in eleven days. Tito Partisans build the post-war federal republic from occupation conditions.
Axis Minor - Europe
European Axis allies and co-belligerents below the major-power tier. Each navigates the alliance with Germany, the Eastern Front commitments, and the late-war pivot.
Axis · Eastern Front
RomaniaL3
Antonescu regime. Ploiești oil to Germany. Largest non-German Axis force on the Eastern Front. August 1944 King's coup.
Axis · Eastern Front
HungaryL3
Horthy regency, Axis since 1940-41, the 1944 German occupation, the late-1944 Arrow Cross collapse. Held by Germany to the end.
Axis · Limited Belligerent
BulgariaL2
Tripartite Pact 1941. Never declares on USSR. September 1944 Soviet entry, immediate pivot to Soviet alignment.
Co-belligerent · Anti-Soviet
FinlandL2
Winter War 1939-40. Continuation War 1941-44 alongside Germany against the USSR. Lapland War against Germany 1944-45. Sovereignty preserved.
European Neutrals
The countries that hold neutrality through the European war by combinations of geography, deterrent posture, and diplomatic management of concessions to both sides.
Neutral · Armed
SwedenL3
Iron ore to Germany, transit concessions, intelligence to Allies, Bofors industrial base. The most successful armed neutrality of the war.
Neutral · Armed
SwitzerlandL2
Surrounded by Axis territory after 1940. National Redoubt, financial-sector concessions, Allied intelligence base via Dulles in Bern.
Neutral · Anglophile
PortugalL2
Salazar Estado Novo. The Anglo-Portuguese alliance preserved, wolfram exports balanced, Azores bases granted to the Allies in 1943.
Neutral / Non-belligerent
SpainL2
Franco fresh from civil-war victory. Hendaye 1940 negotiation. Blue Division on Eastern Front. Wolfram exports until 1944.
Latin America
Latin American mid-powers in the WW2 hemispheric-defense framework. Most break with the Axis in 1942, declare in 1942-45, and supply the resources that the Allied war economy depends on.
Allies · 1942
BrazilL3
Vargas Estado Novo. August 1942 declaration after U-boat sinkings. The FEB in Italy - the only Latin American expeditionary force in Europe.
Neutral · Late-war declarant
ArgentinaL3
Concordancia and military regimes. Neutral until March 1945. Hemispheric isolation that post-war Peronism inherits.
Allies · 1942
MexicoL2
May 1942 declaration after U-boat sinkings. Bracero Program. The 201st Squadron in the Philippines.
Allies · 1941
CubaL2
Batista presidency, December 1941 declaration, sugar economy at wartime US demand, Caribbean U-boat hunting.
Allies · 1943 break
ChileL2
Popular Front then Ríos government. January 1943 break with Axis. Copper and nitrate to the Allies. Late-war declaration.
Allies · 1942
PeruL2
Prado government. The 1941 Ecuadorian-Peruvian War. January 1942 break with Axis. Copper, rubber, late-war declaration.
Allies · 1942
UruguayL2
December 1939 Graf Spee scuttling. Early 1942 break with Axis. Beef and wool exports. Diplomatic credibility as the strategic asset.
China Theater
The two Chinese governments fighting Japan and each other under the Second United Front. Both end the war positioned for the 1945-49 civil war.
Allies · ROC
Nationalist ChinaL3
Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing. The Burma Road, US Lend-Lease, Stilwell tensions. Cairo Conference 1943. Two wars at once.
Allies · United Front
Communist ChinaL2
Mao at Yan'an. Eighth Route Army, New Fourth Army, Hundred Regiments Offensive. Build the base while the KMT fights the war.
Japanese Clients & Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Japanese Empire's client states and colonial possessions - the heavy-industrial base, the colonial mobilizations, and the wartime alliance partners.
Axis · Japanese Client
ManchukuoL2
Puppet state under Puyi, run by the Kwantung Army. Heavy industry base. Khalkhin Gol 1939. August Storm 1945 ends it in eleven days.
Japanese Colony
KoreaL2
Japanese colony since 1910. Wartime forced labor, comfort women, IJA conscription. The 38th-parallel partition August 1945.
Japanese Colony
FormosaL2
Japanese colony since 1895. Staging base for Pacific war. Sugar and aluminum. October 1945 ROC handover.
Axis-aligned
ThailandL2
Phibun nationalism. Japanese alliance December 1941. The Free Thai parallel structure that delivers the post-war diplomatic salvage.
Pacific Theater Allies
Allied territories in the Pacific that fall to Japanese conquest in 1941-42 and become the reconquest objectives that organize the 1944-45 Pacific advance.
Allies · US Commonwealth
PhilippinesL2
US Commonwealth on track to 1946 independence. Bataan Death March, Corregidor, Hukbalahap resistance. MacArthur's return.
Allies · Dutch Colony
Dutch East IndiesL2
8% of global oil. Falls to Japan 1942. Sukarno-Hatta wartime collaboration. August 1945 declaration of Indonesian independence.
Strategic Hedges & Pivot States
Mid-powers between great-power systems whose alignment decisions are made under sustained pressure from multiple directions - and sometimes resolved by force.
Neutral · Late declarant
TurkeyL3
Inönü government. Dual treaty hedge between UK-France, Germany, USSR. Chrome exports, Straits regime, February 1945 declaration.
Allies (eventual)
IraqL2
Hashemite kingdom. April 1941 Rashid Ali coup, 31-day Anglo-Iraqi War, regent restoration. The pipeline and Persian Corridor.
Allies (eventual)
IranL2
Reza Shah's neutrality collapses August 1941 to Anglo-Soviet invasion. Persian Corridor delivers 8M tons of Lend-Lease to USSR. Tehran Conference 1943.