Allied Leaders of World War II
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The Allied Leaders of World War II consists of the important political and military figures during the war.
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United States
- Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. Roosevelt had come into power during the Great Depression on a promise to heal the country. Prior to the Bombing of Pearl Harbor; he attempted to aid the Allies without declaring war. He died in office two weeks before the surrender of Germany.
- Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 until 1953. It was Truman who ordered the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He oversaw post war recovery.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower nicknamed "Ike," was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of France and Germany. Following the German unconditional surrender , Eisenhower was appointed Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone.
- George Marshall was General of the Army and the Chief of Staff during the war. After the war Marshall became Secretary of State and led the post-war reconstruction effort in Europe, which became known as the Marshall Plan. For his role in the recovery he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Douglas MacArthur was General of the Army in the Pacific and commander of the U.S. Army Forces Far East. He commanded the American forces in the Philippines before relocating his command to Australia. He accepted the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945.
- Omar Bradley was General of the Army in North Africa and Europe during World War II. He led the First United States Army during Operation Overlord and the invasion of Europe. He was informally known as "the soldier's general."
- George S. Patton was a leading general in World War II during the campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, France and Germany. He commanded the Third United States Army in North Africa, Sicily, and the European Theater of Operations.
- Chester W. Nimitz was Admiral of the United States Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces for the United States and Allied forces during World War II.
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United Kingdom and Commonwealth
- King George VI was the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom during WWII. Despite only having the role of a figurehead, George VI was seen as a symbol of national unity during the war. Throughout the war the King provided morale throughout the UK. He would visit bomb sites and munition factories.
- Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the war. An early opponent of Hitler, he came into power after the Invasion of Poland. During the Battle of Britain; Churchill's speeches boosted the British moral during the darkest moments.
- William Lyon Mackenzie King was Prime Minister of Canada during the second world war. He exercised Canada's newfound and greater independence from the United Kingdom by first having the decision to go to war debated in the Canadian parliament. During the war, he played host to many world leaders, and saw a greater strengthening of Canada-US relations as the two nations fought on the same side. During his period as Prime Minister during the war, Canada gained an important role for its smal population size.
- Mahatma Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of the Indian National Congress. An opponent of Nazism and Fascism, prior to the war Gandhi sent an open letter to Hitler asking him to touted tolerance. When the war broke out Gandhi had favored offering "non-violent moral support" to the British effort. Gandhi declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom, while that freedom was denied in India herself. As the war progressed, Gandhi increased his demands for independence.
- Bernard Montgomery was a Field Marshal who led the Allied forces in North Africa. Under his command, the Allies were able to defeat the Afrika Korps. He later commanded the 21st Army Group and all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord.
- Harold Alexander was a Field Marshal commanding the 15th Army Group and all Allied ground forces in Italy. In 1940 he was the last division commander to be evacuated from Dunkirk. Alexander received the surrender of German forces in Italy on April 29, 1945.
- Arthur Ernest Percival was the GOC of Malaya along with commander of the British Commonwealth forces in Malaya. Percival lead the British during the Battle of Malaya and Battle of Singapore were he surrendered to a smaller Japanese force. He was held as a POW until rescued by an OSS team. He stood behind MacArthur during the terms of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri
- Archibald Wavell was commander of British and Commonwealth forces in the Middle East and later in the Pacific. Before the war he was named as the head of Middle East Command. The Italian forces in North Africa greatly outnumbered the British. Wavell, however, was able to not only defend against the Italian attacks but to defeat the Italians and occupy their colonies in Somaliland and end the occupation of Ethiopia. He was replaced by Claude Auchinleck in 1941.
- Jan Smuts was the Prime Minister of the South Africa during the war. He served in the Imperial War Cabinet and became South Africa’s first Field Marshal. After the war he represented South Africa at the drafting of the United Nations Charter.
- Thomas Albert Blamey was the commander in chief of the Australian military during WWII. He was Australia's first and only Field Marshal. In 1945 he signed the Japanese surrender document on behalf of Australia.
- Harry Crerar was a Canadian general and the country's leading field commander. He was commander of Canadian forces in Europe.
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Soviet Union
- Joseph Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during WWII. It was during Stalin’s reign that the USSR emerged as a superpower that rivaled the United States. After the war Stalin put communist leaders in power in Eastern Europe triggering the Cold War.
- Vyacheslav Molotov was Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union from 1939-1949. He was responsible for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which governed Soviet-German relations until June 1941 when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Molotov conducted urgent negotiations with Britain and, later, the United States for wartime alliances. He secured Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill's agreement to create a "second front" in Europe.
- Georgy Zhukov was a Soviet Field Marshal who led the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from Nazi occupation. He would lead the Soviets to overrun much of Eastern Europe, and to the capture of Berlin. After the war Zhukov was the supreme Military Commander of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany.
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Republic of China
- Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the Nationalist government in the Republic of China and also the supreme commander of the China Theatre, which also included Burma. He wished to defeat communism first before taking on Japan, but after the Xi'an Incident Chiang Kai-shek made a temporary truce with the communists to form a united front against Japan. After the war the truce ended and hostilities continued until his government retreated to Taiwan.
- Mao Zedong was leader of the Communist Party of China. He formed an alliance with the Nationalist Government after the Xi'an Incident. After the war, the truce ended and hostilities continued until the communists gained control of the mainland.
- Zhang Xueliang was warlord of Manchuria after the death of his father. Nicknamed the "Young Marshal", he was a strong opponent of the Japanese occupation. He was responsible for the Xi'an incident which established a truce between the Nationalist and Communists. He was detained by the government and played no role during the war.
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Free French Forces
- Charles de Gaulle was a Brigade General and political leader who lead the Free French Forces in WWII. After the fall of France de Gaulle was the only French military leader who refused to accept the surrender and the government of Pétain. He gave his Appeal of 18 June via BBC to rally the French against the Nazi occupation.
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Polish Government in Exile
- Władysław Sikorski was Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile and Commander of the Polish Armed Forces. A staunch advocate of the Polish cause on the diplomatic scene, he supported the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, which had been severed after the Soviet alliance with Germany. In July 1943, Sikorski was killed when his plane crashed into the sea 16 seconds after takeoff from Gibraltar.
- Edward Rydz-Śmigły was Marshal of Poland and commander of the Polish armed forces during the invasion of Poland. After the invasion; Śmigły-Rydz took complete responsibility for Poland's military defeat. He later resigned and joind the resistance movement as a common underground soldier.
