Declarations of war during World War II

Animated map of the European theatre of war during WWII

This is a timeline of declarations of war during World War II.

A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is usually an act of delivering a performative speech (not to be confused with a mere speech) or the presentation of a signed document by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more sovereign states. The official international protocol for declaring war was defined in The Hague Peace Conference of 1907 (or Hague II).^[1] For the diplomatic maneuvering behind these events, which led to hostilities between nations during World War II, see Diplomatic history of World War II.

List of war declarations[]

Below is a table showing the outbreak of wars between nations which occurred during World War II. Indicated are the dates (during the immediate build-up to, or during the course of, World War II), from which a de facto state of war existed between nations. The table shows both the "Initiator Nation(s)" and the nation at which the aggression was aimed, or "Targeted Nation(s)". Events listed include those in which there were simple diplomatic breaking of relations that did not involve any physical attack, as well as those involving overt declarations or acts of aggression. In rare cases, war between two nations occurred twice, with an intermittent period of peace. The list here does not include peace treaties or periods of any armistice.

Key to Type (fourth column):

A = Attack without prior, formal declaration of war;
C = Declaration and/or attack without standard, formal procedure, sometimes preceded by a casus belli thus fait accompli;
U = State of war arrived at through use of ultimatum;
W = Formal declaration of war made.

Outbreaks of war between nations during World War II

Date	Initiator nation(s)	Targeted nation(s)	Type	Notes/comments	Document/event
1939-09-01	Germany	Poland	U[2][3]	German attack began at 4:44 a.m., Berlin and Warsaw time.[4][2][5]	Invasion
1939-09-01	Slovak Republic	Poland	A		Invasion
1939-09-03	United Kingdom France  Australia  New Zealand Tonga Transjordan Morocco Tunisia	Germany	U[2][3]	At 11:15 a.m. London time,[6] British PM, Neville Chamberlain publicly delivered his Ultimatum Speech.[3][a]>[7] As the Statute of Westminster 1931 was not yet ratified by the parliaments of Australia and New Zealand, the British declaration of war on Germany also applied to those dominions. Tonga was not a British dominion, but declared war separately, alongside Britain.[8] The French ultimatum to Germany expired a few hours later at 17:00.	United Kingdom declaration French declaration
1939-09-04	Nepal	Germany	W
1939-09-06	South Africa	Germany	W[2][3]
1939-09-10	Bahrain  Canada Oman	Germany	W[2][3]		Declaration
1939-09-17	Soviet Union	Poland	A[2][3]		Invasion
1939-11-09	Kuwait	Germany	W
1939-11-30	Soviet Union	Finland	A[2][3]	Second war between these nations (after Finnish invasion in 1918–1920).	Invasion
1940-04-09	Germany	Denmark  Norway	A[2]		Invasion of Denmark Invasion of Norway
1940-04-12	United Kingdom	Faroe Islands	A[3]		Invasion
1940-05-10	Germany	Belgium  Netherlands	A/W[2][3]	Date of the German offensive in the West, W from Belgium and the Netherlands.[9]	Belgium Netherlands
1940-05-10	Germany	Luxembourg	A[3]		Luxembourg
1940-05-10	United Kingdom	Iceland	A		Invasion
1940-06-10	Italy	France  United Kingdom	W[2][3]
1940-06-10	Canada	Italy	W[2]
1940-06-11	South Africa  Australia  New Zealand	Italy	W[2]
1940-06-11	France	Italy	W[2]
1940-06-25	United Kingdom	Vichy France	A	Vichy France cuts off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom on 8 July 1940.	Attack
1940-09-09	Italy	Egypt	A	Egypt never formally declared war on Italy.	Invasion
1940-09-22	Japan	Vichy France	A	Japanese troops occupy French Indochina	Invasion
1940-09-23	Free France  United Kingdom  Australia	Vichy France	A		Invasion
1940-10-??	Thailand	Vichy France	A		Franco-Thai War
1940-10-28	Italy	Greece	U[3]	Italy invades Greece	Invasion
1940-11-23	Belgium (in-exile)	Italy	W[10]
1941-02-05	Free France	Italy	A		Invasion
1941-04-06	Germany	Greece	W[2][3]		Invasion
1941-04-06	Germany	Yugoslavia	A[2][3]		Invasion
1941-04-06	Italy	Yugoslavia	A[3]		Invasion
1941-04-07	Yugoslavia	Hungary	A[11]	After the German invasion, bombing of Hungarian locations	Invasion
1941-04-14	Germany	Egypt	A	Egypt did not formally declare war until 1945.	Invasion
1941-05-02	United Kingdom	Iraq	A		Invasion
1941-06-08	Free France	Germany	A	[citation needed]	Invasion
1941-06-22	Germany Italy Romania	Soviet Union	A[2][3]	A timed-declaration of war was given by Germany at the time of the attack[12]	Invasion
1941-06-22	Tuva	Germany	W	Tuva was a client state of the Soviet Union. Part of the USSR from 1944.
1941-06-25	Finland	Soviet Union	W	Finland recognized a state of war with the Soviet Union; third war between these nations.	Continuation War
1941-06-27	Hungary	Soviet Union	C[11]	After the bombing of several Hungarian locations, the Hungarian military concluded a Soviet attack, the Government had decided the two countries were already belligerent, without the consent of the Parliament, in absence of the Regent	Invasion
1941-08-25	Soviet Union  United Kingdom  Australia	Iran	A		Invasion
1941-12-05	United Kingdom	Finland Romania Hungary	W[13]
1941-12-06	Finland Romania	United Kingdom	W[3]
1941-12-07	United Kingdom	Hungary	W[14]	UK declaration of war from 1941-12-05 entered into force on 1941-12-07 1 minute after midnight
1941-12-07	Japan	United States  United Kingdom  Thailand	W/A[2]	W (Japanese point of view); A (British Empire and United States)	Declaration Attack on Pearl Harbor Invasion of Malaya Attack on Singapore Invasion of Hong Kong Invasion of Thailand
1941-12-07	Canada  Australia  New Zealand	Finland Romania Hungary	W[3]		Declaration
1941-12-07	Canada  Panama	Japan	W[3]
1941-12-08	United Kingdom  United States  Australia  Costa Rica  Dominican Republic  El Salvador  Guatemala  Haiti  Honduras Netherlands (in-exile)  New Zealand  Nicaragua  Philippines Tonga[8]	Japan	W[3]		British declaration United States declaration
1941-12-08	South Africa	Japan  Finland Romania Hungary	W[3]
1941-12-08	Mongolia	Germany	W[citation needed]
1941-12-08	Manchukuo	United States	W[3]
1941-12-09	Australia  New Zealand Cuba	Japan	W[3]
1941-12-09	China	Germany Italy  Japan	W[3]	China and Japan had been at undeclared war since 1937	Second Sino-Japanese war
1941-12-11	Germany Italy	United States	W[2][3]		German declaration Italian declaration
1941-12-11	United States Cuba  Costa Rica  Dominican Republic  Guatemala  Nicaragua	Germany Italy	W[3]		Germany Italy
1941-12-11	Netherlands (in-exile)	Italy	W[3]		Declaration
1941-12-11	Poland (in-exile)	Japan	W[2]	Japan rejected declaration of War. Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō's answer was: "We don't accept the Polish declaration of war. The Poles, fighting for their freedom, declared war under the British pressure"[citation needed].
1941-12-12	Romania Bulgaria  Slovak Republic	United States  United Kingdom	W[3]
1941-12-12	Haiti  El Salvador  Panama	Germany Italy	W[3]		Declaration
1941-12-12	Australia  Netherlands	Portugal	A	Portugal maintained neutrality throughout World War II.	Invasion
1941-12-13	United Kingdom  New Zealand South Africa	Bulgaria	W[3]
1941-12-13	Honduras	Germany Italy	W[3]		Declaration
1941-12-13	Italy	Cuba  Guatemala	W[3]		Declaration
1941-12-14	Independent State of Croatia	United States  United Kingdom	W[3]
1941-12-15	Hungary	United States	C[15]	The Prime Minister informed the U.S. ambassador without approval of the Parliament and the Regent, but initially denied it would mean "war" in fact, however two days later he declared it means the two countries became belligerent. As the ambassador refused to accept the verbal form of this act, the next day the Prime Minister in written reinforced it.
1941-12-16	Czechoslovakia (in-exile)	Germany Italy  Finland Romania Hungary Japan Bulgaria Independent State of Croatia  Slovak Republic	W[3]	Czechoslovakia declares war on all countries at war with the United States of America, Great Britain and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1941-12-17	Albania	United States	W
1941-12-19	Nicaragua	Romania Hungary Bulgaria	W[3]		Declaration
1941-12-19	Romania	Nicaragua	W[16]	Out of the Axis countries only Romania reciprocated, declaring war on Nicaragua on the same day	Declaration
1941-12-20	Belgium (in-exile)	Japan	W
1941-12-24	Haiti	Romania Hungary Bulgaria	W[3]		Declaration
1941-12-24	Romania	Haiti	W[17]	Out of the Axis countries only Romania reciprocated, declaring war on Haiti on the same day	Declaration
1942-01-01	United Nations	Axis Powers	W	Declared during Arcadia Conference	Declaration
1942-01-06	Australia	Bulgaria	W
1942-01-25	Thailand	United Kingdom  United States	A
1942-01-25	United Kingdom  New Zealand South Africa	Thailand	W
1942-02-19	Japan	Portugal	A	Portugal maintained neutrality throughout World War II.	Invasion
1941-03-02	Australia	Thailand	W[3]
1942-05-05	South Africa Netherlands (in-exile) Poland	Vichy France	A		Invasion
1942-05-05	United Kingdom Northern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia South Africa Tanganyika Belgian Congo	Vichy France  Japan	A		Invasion
1942-05-22	Mexico	Germany Italy  Japan	W[3]		Declaration
1942-06-05	United States	Hungary Romania Bulgaria	W[11]		United States Declaration of War upon Hungary United States Declaration of War upon Romania United States declaration of war upon Bulgaria
1942-06-13	Iroquois Confederacy	Germany Italy  Japan	W	Only Native American nation to have officially declared war on the Axis powers separately from the United States (other Native American nations declared war de facto alongside the United States with their tribal citizens enlisting in the Armed Forces). An Iroquois representative in full regalia announced on the steps of the U.S. Capitol by the following statement: "We represent the oldest, though smallest, democracy in the world today. It is the unanimous sentiment among Indian people that the atrocities of the Axis nations are violently repulsive to all sense of righteousness of our people, and that this merciless slaughter of mankind can no longer be tolerated. Now we do resolve that it is the sentiment of this council that the Six Nations of Indians declare that a state of war exists between our Confederacy of Six Nations on the one part and Germany, Italy, Japan and their allies against whom the United States has declared war, on the other part."[18]
1942-08-22	Brazil	Germany Italy	W
1942-11-08	United States Canada	Vichy France	A		Invasion
1942-11-10	Germany Italy	Vichy France	A		Invasion
1942-11-12	Germany	Tunisia	A	German invasion via airlifting several divisions in reaction to Operation Torch, swiftly occupying Tunis and the eastern part of the country, and capturing the western portions after French Tunisian resistance before the allies reached the Tunisian border. In the resulting Tunisian campaign, the Allies finally defeated the Axis forces in Africa.	Invasion
1942-12-14	Ethiopia	Germany Italy  Japan	W	On 3 October 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia without a formal declaration of war. In response to the Italian invasion, Ethiopia declared war on Italy. Most of Ethiopia was occupied by Italy in 1936, however parts of Ethiopia remained under the control of the Ethiopian Patriots Movement, which begun its guerrilla war against the occupying Italian forces the day Addis Ababa fell in May 1936. In May 1941, Addis Ababa was liberated by the Gideon Force, restoring sovereignty to Ethiopia.	Second Italo-Ethiopian War
1943-01-09	Reorganized National Government of China	United States  United Kingdom	W[3]
1943-01-17	Iraq	Germany Italy  Japan	W[3]
1943-01-20	Chile	Germany Italy	W	President Ríos officially suspended all trade and diplomatic relations with the Axis powers, and Chile officially joined the Allies as authorities began rooting out Nazi spies from Operation Bolivar. While only declaring war on Germany and Italy (although Chile would not declare war on Japan until 1945, it began imprisoning Japanese nationals in 1943), the American government and international press celebrated this day as Chile declaring war on the Axis.
1943-04-07	Bolivia	Axis powers	W	Bolivia officially joined the Allies on 7 April 1943. Shortly after war was declared, the President, Enrique Peñaranda, was overthrown in a coup. Bolivian mines supplied needed tin to the Allies, but no troops or warplanes were sent overseas. Bolivians remained confident their geographic isolation would protect them from the war.
1943-08-01	State of Burma	United States  United Kingdom	W[3]
1943-09-08	Germany	Italy Albania	A	After Italy's capitulation to the Allied powers, Germany swiftly invaded both Italy and Italian-controlled territories (such as Albania, an Italian satellite state) to preempt a possible Allied intervention.	Operation Achse, German occupation of Albania
1943-09-09	Iran	Germany	W
1943-10-13	Italy	Germany	W[2]	Italy had changed sides after the fall of Mussolini. The Declaration of War was given by Pietro Badoglio to the German ambassador in Madrid.[2]
1943-11-26	Colombia	Germany	W	See Colombia during World War II
1944-01-17	Free France	Italian Social Republic	A		Invasion
1944-01-27	Liberia	Germany  Japan	W
1944-06-06	France	Germany	A		Invasion
1944-07-25	France	Japan	A		Invasion
1944-08-25	Romania	Germany	W[3]	Romania switched sides
1944-09-05	Soviet Union	Bulgaria	W
1944-09-07	Hungary	Romania	W[3]
1944-09-07	Romania	Hungary	W[3]
1944-09-08	Bulgaria	Germany	W	Bulgaria switched sides
1944-09-15	Germany	Finland	A		Lapland War
1944-09-21	San Marino	Germany Italian Social Republic	A		Battle of San Marino
1944-09-23	Second Philippine Republic	United States  United Kingdom	W[19]
1944-12-28	Hungary	Germany	W[20]	The Provisional National Government, which had been established under Soviet protection in the city of Debrecen, declared war on Germany. The German-backed Arrow Cross regime was still at war with the Soviet Union and its troops were still in action. As it had not switched sides of its own accord, Hungary was never recognized as having defected to the Allies.	Hungarian declaration
1945-02-02	Ecuador	Germany  Japan	W
1945-02-07	Paraguay	Germany  Japan	W
1945-02-12	Peru	Germany  Japan	W[3]
1945-02-15	Venezuela  Uruguay	Germany  Japan	W
1945-02-23	Turkey	Germany  Japan	W
1945-02-24	Egypt	Germany  Japan	W
1945-02-26	Syria  Lebanon	Germany  Japan	W
1945-02-28	Saudi Arabia	Germany	W
1945-03-01	Saudi Arabia	Japan	W[3]
1945-03-01	Iran	Japan	W[3]	Iran declares war on Japan retroactive to the previous day (Feb. 28, 1945)
1945-03-03	Finland	Germany	W	Finland declares war on Germany retroactive to Sept. 15, 1944 following terms of 1944 Moscow Armistice	Lapland War
1945-03-07	Romania	Japan	W[3]
1945-03-27	Argentina	Germany  Japan	W
1945-04-11	Chile	Japan	W
1945-06-07	Brazil	Japan	W[3]
1945-07-09	Norway (in-exile)	Japan	W	Norwegian government-in-exile announces that it had declared war on Japan on December 7, 1941	[21]
1945-07-14	Italy	Japan	W
1945-08-08	Soviet Union	Japan	W[2]	Last outbreak of war during the entire Second World War.	Soviet–Japanese War
1945-08-10	Mongolia	Japan	W[22]	W (de jure) A (de facto 1945-08-09) War declared 24 hours after crossing the border with Soviet troops	Soviet Invasion of Manchuria Mongolia in World War II

Gallery[]

• 

  German ambassador, Hans-Adolf von Moltke, Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and Józef Beck, Polish Foreign minister meeting in Warsaw on June 15, 1934, five months after signing the Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact.

• 

  British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, landing at Heston aerodrome on 30 September 1938 after his meeting with Hitler at Munich. In his hand he holds the peace agreement between Britain and Germany.

• 

  Common parade of German Wehrmacht and Soviet Red Army on September 23, 1939 in Brest, Eastern Poland at the end of the Poland Campaign. In the center is Major General Heinz Guderian; and on the right is Brigadier General Semyon Krivoshein.

• 

  Counsellor of state J.K. Paasikivi and his team arriving from Moscow for the first round of negotiations on 16 October 1939. From left, minister Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen, J.K. Paasikivi, chief of staff Johan Nykopp and colonel Aladár Paasonen.

• 

  German paratroopers taking the Greek island of Crete, May 1941.

• 

  Photograph from a Japanese plane of Battleship Row at the beginning of the surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard.

See also[]

• Diplomatic history of World War II
• Allies of World War II
• Axis powers: German Instrument of Surrender and Surrender of Japan

Notes[]

References[]