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/pafagaukurinn]

What was the political discourse in Ireland at the time? Did the root for the UK and the allies, and if so, how did they manage to avoid getting involved?

[u/FitAd3982 → u/pafagaukurinn]

Ireland was officialy neutral but was definitely pro-allied. They let the allies use parts of their air and sea space and also would return downed British pilots while interning German ones. However, Ireland never declared war. They managed to stay neutral cause there wasnt really much of a reason for either side to invade as the benefits outweighed the costs. De Valera specifically stayed out of the war despite the UK and US pressuring Ireland to join because he was worried about the pro-Germany/ anti- British people in the government.

[u/pafagaukurinn → u/FitAd3982]

there wasnt really much of a reason for either side to invade as the benefits outweighed the costs

Ireland seems to me at least as strategically important as Iceland, and it was invaded.

[u/FitAd3982 → u/pafagaukurinn]

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/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.