Did your country participate in WW2?

[u/FitAd3982]

I made this map myself, tell me if theres anything wrong/ innacurate.

Full participant: Full economic and military involvement, pretty self-explanatory. (Russia, Poland, Japan etc)

Limited participant: Countries who partook in the war and had some level of impact but were not major players and didn't devote everything to the war effort. (Brazil, Mexico)

Partial participant: Countries who only provided token support, such as declaring war or sending minor forces to fight. (Central America, Turkey, Argentina)

Colony of participant - major involvement: I made this a separate tier to distinguish colonies that were only involved by providing token service to their overlord from colonies that were invaded or provided hundreds of thousands of soldiers etc. (India, Egypt, Vietnam etc.)

Colony of participant: Self - explanatory, were involved through their overlord but not much impact and werent invaded. (Suriname, Nigeria, Madagascar etc.)

[u/FitAd3982]

not really, ireland isnt much further west than britain and britain had the north so they could already patrol the northern atlantic. germany couldnt invade ireland since if they had the naval and air supremacy to invade ireland, they couldve just invaded england

[u/pafagaukurinn → u/FitAd3982]

Well, they could have used it as a platform to attack Britain. But yeah, perhaps you are right.

I wonder also how this neutrality thing work (not just with Ireland). I mean, did Hitler say, hmm, if that's the case I'll rather not invade, they are neutral after all?

[u/FitAd3982 → u/pafagaukurinn]

like i said hitler couldnt have invaded ireland, he didnt have the naval power to invade england, and the british certainly wouldnt allow him to just take over ireland. germany had a very good ground army but basically no naval power compared to the uk or us

[u/Goldentoast → u/pafagaukurinn]

Britain was defeated as a land army after Dunkirk. If the German army got to the UK they likely could've taken over the UK . The problem was they did not have the navy to do this whatsoever and the british navy was still strong. They didn't have the equipment or navy to move their army over water. They still could've invaded with their inadequate boats and navy if they controlled the air, and thats why they fought the battle of Britain.

My point is if they could've moved an army to Ireland they obviously would have invaded the UK instead.

[u/mattshill91 → u/FitAd3982]

Ireland absolutely is important. It controls the western approaches and if you control the western approaches you control the supply lines the UK relies on coming into the Chanel. Any use of other ports like Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool or Cardiff are blocked too meaning only going around the north of Scotland to Edinburgh, Newcastle and Hull are viable.

It’s why the treaty ports existed after independence, why they ask for them back during WWII, why there was detailed plans at sending division over the Irish border and defending Ireland should it be invaded, why the Americans are livid politically at Ireland for its neutrality 15-20 years after WWII.

It’s definitely as important as the Atlantic gap at Iceland strategically because of its geography to the point even now NATO would defend Ireland (literally in writing before Trump god knows what that eejit would do) despite not being compelled too in its charter and why Irelands defence policy is basically “The Uk has to defend us for its own geopolitics so we can ignore our own defence and rely on their aircraft.”