Allied leaders of World War II
The Allied leaders of World War II listed below comprise the important political and military figures who fought for or supported the Allies during World War II. Engaged in total war, they had to adapt to new types of modern warfare, on the military, psychological and economic fronts.
was the leader of the Communist Party of Albania, which led the Albanian National Liberation Movement to a struggle in Albania under Italy and Germany.
Enver Hoxha
reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951. Prior to the war Leopold had made extensive preparations against such an invasion of his country. After Belgium's surrender Leopold stayed to face the invaders, while his entire government had fled to Great Britain but, although he rejected cooperation with the German occupiers he also refused to actively resist many of their policies. He was held under house-arrest in Belgium for much of the war. Because the refusal to follow the orders of his government violated the Constitution, he was declared "unable to rule" and the issue sparked a post-war political crisis.
Leopold III of Belgium
was the prime minister of Belgium from 1939 until 1945. Pierlot became the leader of the government during the Phoney War until the German invasion. Pierlot fled to Britain where he led the Belgian government in exile and presided over the formation of the Free Belgian forces. Despite his conservative politics, Pierlot denounced the surrender of Leopold III and officially suspended his reign in 1940 by invoking a clause in the Belgian Constitution. The disagreement created a lasting animosity between the Royalist faction in Belgium and the exiled government in London.
Hubert Pierlot
was Governor-General of Belgium's principal African colony, the Belgian Congo, for the duration of the war. Along with the Minister of the Colonies, Albert de Vleeschauwer, Ryckmans brought the Congo into the war on the Allied side, amid worries that the colony might follow the lead of Leopold III in Belgium and attempt to remain neutral. During Ryckmans' period in office, Congolese troops were sent to support British forces in East Africa and the Congo made a substantial economic contribution to the Allied war effort.
Pierre Ryckmans
was a general of the Belgian Army who commanded the 1st Military Zone during the invasion of Belgium. After Belgium's surrender in 1940, he became the Commander of Belgian forces in Great Britain, and presided over the formation of the Free Belgian forces. After the liberation of Belgium he became the Chief of the Belgian Military Mission to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
Victor van Strydonck de Burkel
was the president of Brazil for two periods, first from 1930 to 1945. Between 1937 and 1945 he ruled as dictator under the Estado Novo regime. Despite Brazil's strong economic ties with Nazi Germany, Vargas sided with the Allies after the sinking of Brazilian merchant ships by German U-boats, and declared war against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in August 1942. Vargas gave economic and military support (Brazilian Expeditionary Force) to the Allies.
Getúlio Vargas
was the commander of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force. He arrived in Italy with the first Brazilian troops in 1944 and commanded the Brazilian forces until the surrender of the Axis forces in Italy. After the end of the war he was given the rank of Field Marshal.
João Baptista Mascarenhas de Morais
Euclides Zenóbio da Costa was the Commander of the first contingent of Brazilian troops to arrive at Italy, the 6th infantry .
RCT
was the reigning monarch of the British Commonwealth during the war, and thus acted as Commander-in-Chief of a number of states within that organization, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. The King was, further, a symbol of national and Commonwealth unity during the war, he and his family visiting bomb sites, munitions factories, and with Commonwealth soldiers.[1] Several members of the Royal Family, including the Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), served in the forces.
King George VI
was the Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army and the chairman of the National Military Council, the highest political organ of the nation at the time. He was also the Director-General of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and, from 1943, Chairman of the National Government. He took the nation into the full-scale war with Japan after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937. After China joined the Allies in 1942, he was the Supreme Commander of the China Theatre, which also included Burma.
Chiang Kai-shek
was First Lady of the Republic of China and the wife of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. During the Second Sino-Japanese War she rallied her people against the Japanese invasion. Educated in the United States and speaking in eloquent English, she played an instrumental role in the formation of the Sino-American co-operation and conducted a speaking tour in the United States to gain international support.
Soong Mei-ling
, as Chairman (or President) of the National Government, was China's titular head of state but had no real power. Lin died in 1943, after which Chiang Kai-Shek assumed the role himself.
Lin Sen
was the Chief of the General Staff of the National Military Council. He was also the Commander of the Fourth Military Region and led in the victorious Battle of West Hunan in 1945. He became the representative of both the Chinese Government and the Southeast Asia Allied Forces at the September 9th ceremony in Nanjing to accept the statement of surrender from Japan in 1945.
He Yingqin
was a General of the National Revolutionary Army and political figure in the National Military Council. He was one of Chiang's most trusted allies. He led in the Battle of Wuhan and he went on to command during the Battle of Changsha, Battle of Yichang and Battle of West Hubei in the latter years. In 1943, he was appointed the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma campaign. After the war, he became the Chief of the General Staff.
Chen Cheng
was a close ally of Guangxi warlord Li Zongren and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the National Military Council. He was a key strategist who convinced Chiang to adopt a "Total War" strategy. He was also involved in many key campaigns including the first major victory at the Battle of Tai'erzhuang and also the Battle of Wuhan in 1938. He also commanded another victorious First Battle of Changsha in 1939. Bai also directed the Battle of South Guangxi and Battle of Kunlun Pass to retake South Guangxi in the later stage.
Bai Chongxi
was a former Guangxi warlord who fought in alliance with Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan. He was the commander of the Battle of Xuzhou and famously won the Battle of Tai'erzhuang, the first major Chinese victory in the war, and commanded one of the largest and relatively better equipped regional armies that comprised the bulk of the Chinese armed forces during the war.
Li Zongren
was a former Shanxi warlord who fought in alliance with Chiang Kai-shek. During the early stage of the Japanese invasion, he invited Communist military forces to enter Shanxi to fight with the Japanese and defended Taiyuan in 1937. He was a member of the National Military Council and the Commander of the Second Military Region.
Yan Xishan
was a General of the National Revolutionary Army and the Commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in 1943 and 1944 which was responsible for the major ground operations in support of U.S. General Joseph W. Stilwell's offensive in Northern Burma and Western Yunnan and the construction of Ledo Road.
Wei Lihuang
was the commander of the Flying Tigers. Originally a military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek, Chennault was asked to establish American squadrons to aid the Republic of China. Chennault spent the winter of 1940–1941 in Washington, helping to negotiate the establishment of the American Volunteer Group. The AVG began their service with the Chinese Air Force in 1941 until it was disbanded in 1942.[11]
Claire Lee Chennault
was the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party who formed the "United Front" with the Nationalist Government against Japanese aggression. The Red Army was reorganized into the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army, which were placed under the nominal command of the National Revolutionary Army despite the Communist Party remained full control of the armies. The cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communists began to break down by 1939 as the two forces clashed and effectively ended after the New Fourth Army Incident in 1941.
Mao Zedong
was commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army and a top military leader within the Chinese Communist Party.
Zhu De
commanded the Hundred Regiments Offensive, the largest Communist offensive during the war.
Peng Dehuai
was elected President of Cuba in 1940 and had effectively run the country since the 1933 Sergeants' Revolt as army chief of staff. Cuba declared war on Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941. Batista committed Cuba's navy to fight in the Battle of the Caribbean.
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar
was elected to the presidency at the end of Batista's term in 1944.
Ramón Grau San Martín
José Águila Ruíz served as chief of the Cuban Navy for the later part of the war years.
was President of Czechoslovakia and later head of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile.
Edvard Beneš
was leader of the Czechoslovak communist resistance.
Klement Gottwald
led Czechoslovak units in the defense of Tobruk and on eastern front (since April 1945).
Karel Klapálek
Karel Kutlvašr was the military leader of the .
Prague uprising
Danish king from 1912–1947.
Christian X of Denmark
Prime minister of Denmark from 1929 to his death in 1942.
Thorvald Stauning
Prime minister of Denmark in 1942. Adolf Hitler personally ordered him removed in 1942.
Vilhelm Buhl
Prime minister of Denmark from 1942–1943. Dissolved the Danish government in 1943, and the government was then replaced by total German military rule in Denmark.
Erik Scavenius
was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 until 1974. Prior to the war, Italy invaded Ethiopia.
Haile Selassie
Imru Haile Selassie
Kassa Haile Darge
was a British Army Officer and commander of the Gideon Force during the East African Campaign. Under Wingate command, the Gideon Force was successful in aiding the British in defeating Fascist Italian forces and liberating Ethiopia.
Orde Wingate
was the last President of the Third Republic. In 1940, he was forced to accept the German terms of surrender of France and was replaced by Philippe Pétain as head the French state (see Vichy France). In 1944, Lebrun acknowledged de Gaulle's leadership of the restored French, provisional, government. In 1945, since he had not resigned from his presidential office, and that Pétain was not president, Lebrun thought he could be able to return to power after the liberation.[12]
Albert Lebrun
was prime minister from 1938 to 1940. He led his country during the opening stages of the war. Daladier resigned on 9 May 1940, the day before the German invasion of France, because of his failure to aid Finland's defence in the Winter War.
Édouard Daladier
succeeded Daladier as prime minister in 1940 and led France during the Battle of France. After Germany had occupied large parts of France, Reynaud was advised by his newly appointed Minister of State Philippe Pétain to come to separate peace with Germany. Reynaud refused to do so, and resigned.
Paul Reynaud
commanded the French military during the critical days of May 1940, before being removed from his position after failing to defend France from the Germans.
Maurice Gamelin
replaced Gamelin as commander of the French army in May 1940. He eventually favoured an armistice with Germany.
Maxime Weygand
was King of Greece from 1922 to 1924 and from 1935 until his death in 1947. King George was pro-British, and this stance greatly influenced the country's policy. When Germany invaded Greece, the King and the government fled the Greek mainland for Crete but after the Battle of Crete he was evacuated to Egypt and went to Great Britain. During the war he remained the internationally recognized head of state, backed by the exiled government and Greek armed forces serving in the Middle East.
George II of Greece
was the dictator and from 1936 until his death in 1941. Despite his quasi-fascist tendencies and strong economic ties with Nazi Germany, he pursued a policy of pro-British neutrality. On 28 October 1940 he rejected an Italian ultimatum, and ordered the Greek Army to repel the Italian invasion of the country.
Ioannis Metaxas
was the last prime minister of Greece during the German invasion. He also was the first and longest-serving prime minister of the Greek government-in-exile, which represented the Free Greek Forces, also connected with the Greek Resistance, during the Axis occupation of Greece.
Emmanouil Tsouderos
was the last prime minister of the Greek government-in-exile. He also served as the first Prime Minister of Greece, after its liberation from the Axis powers, during the reestablishment of the exiled free government.
Georgios Papandreou
was a Greek general who led the Greek Army in the Greco-Italian War and the Battle of Greece. As head of the Army from 1935, he played an active role in the attempts at its reorganization and modernization. When war was declared he was named Commander-in-Chief and led Greek forces against Italy along the Albanian border and later against the invading German army. When the Greek government fled to Crete, Papagos remained behind and with other generals. During the years of occupation he established a resistance organization, but he was arrested by the occupation authorities and sent to concentration camps in Germany. In 1945, after the Allied Victory, he was liberated, repatriated and rejoined the Army.
Alexandros Papagos
was the main leader of the National Liberation Front (EAM), the country's largest resistance organization.
Georgios Siantos
was the leader of the National Republican Greek League (EDES), the country's second largest resistance organization.
Napoleon Zervas
was the creator and chief leader of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), the country's largest guerrilla force, aligned to the leftist National Liberation Front.
Aris Velouchiotis
served as Regent of Greece between the end of the German occupation in 1944 and the return of King George II to Greece in 1946.
Archbishop Damaskinos
was the Shah (King) of Iran which came to power after the abdication of his father, Reza Pahlavi. Reza Shah was forced to abdicated power to his son after Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
was the prime minister of Iran during the abdication of Reza Shah. He remained in office and assisted to new Shah. He retired from politics on 9 March 1942.
Mohammad-Ali Foroughi
was the Foreign Minister of Iran and then Prime Minister of Iran from 9 March to 9 August 1942 and again from 15 February 1943 until his resignation on 6 April 1944.
Ali Soheili
was the prime minister of Iran from 9 August 1942 from 15 February 1943. He resolved the Soviet inspired rebellion of the occupied Azerbaijan province. He ordered the Iranian delegation to the UN to negotiate issues pending before the Security Council directly with the Soviet delegation. He then flew to Moscow to discuss the issues personally with Stalin.
Ahmad Qavam
was the President of Liberia from 1944 until 1971.
William Tubman
was Prime Minister of Luxembourg and later led the government in exile after the country was occupied.
Pierre Dupong
was Major-Commandant of the Corps des Gendarmes et Volontaires during the German invasion of Luxembourg. He was briefly held prisoner.
Émile Speller
was a captain who fled Luxembourg following invasion and served as aide-de-camp to Grand Duchess Charlotte during her exile. He was promoted to major and returned to Luxembourg in 1944 and helped establish a new army for the country.
Guillaume Konsbruck
was Brigade General and President of Mexico from 1940 till 1946. Ávila declared war against the Axis powers in 1942 after two of Mexico's ships were destroyed by German submarines. Ávila Camacho cooperated in the war effort, providing the United States with 15,000 soldiers and 300,000 workers under the Bracero Program.
Manuel Ávila Camacho
was Colonel and Commander of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana (FAEM)) since January 1, 1945. He and 300 elements from the FAEM arrived on May 1 in Manila, in Luzon, principal island of Philippines, and established in Clark Field under the 5th Air Force of the USAAF, commanded by General Douglas MacArthur. He represented Mexico at the signing of the Japanese surrender document on the USS Missouri on September 1.
Antonio Cárdenas Rodríguez
Radamés Gaxiola Andrade was Captain and Commander of the 201st Squadron () of the FAEM, under the 58th Group of the 5th Air Force of the USAAF. He commanded Mexican air operations on Luzon and recognition flies on Formosa from June 7 to August 26, 1945. In total, the FAEM performed 59 combat missions.[13]
Escuadrón 201
was Prime Minister of Mongolia during World War II. He was also the general chief commander of the Mongolian armed forces. Troops under his command defended Khalkhiin Gol from Japan in 1939 and liberated Inner Mongolia in 1945.
Khorloogiin Choibalsan
was the ruling Queen of the Netherlands. She led the Dutch government in exile after escaping to Britain.
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
was the son in law of Queen Wilhelmina and Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of the Netherlands from 1944 until 1945, served as a Wing commander for the Royal Air Force from 1941 until 1944.
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
was the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1939 until 1940. When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands he fled to London. As he wanted to make peace with Nazi Germany, he was forced to resign.
Dirk Jan de Geer
was Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1940 until 1945. After the Fall of France and Dirk Jan de Geer's resignation, Gerbrandy was appointed the office of prime minister by Queen Wilhelmina in London. After the liberation, he returned to form a new cabinet but ended up resigning.
Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy
was Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of the Netherlands during the Battle of the Netherlands. Winkelman was responsible for defending the Netherlands the Nazi invasion. He was captured and interned for the rest of the war.
Henri Winkelman
was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1936 to 1942 when the colony was occupied by Japan.
Alidius Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer
was Vice Admiral of the Royal Netherlands Navy during the Netherlands East Indies campaign. At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific Helfrich assumed command of all Dutch naval units in the Dutch East Indies. On September 2, 1945, he signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri on behalf of the Dutch government.[14]
Conrad Helfrich
was King of Norway and the formal head of state from 1905 to his death in 1957. Following the German invasion of Norway in 1940, Haakon refused to meet the demands of the attackers, and went into exile in London, where he stayed for the rest of the war.
Haakon VII of Norway
was prime minister during the war. His government agreed with the King not to meet the German demands, and went into exile in London. Nygaardsvold resigned shortly after the war.
Johan Nygaardsvold
was Chief of Defence of Norway from May to June 1940, leading the Norwegian forces in the Norwegian Campaign. After the Germans had conquered Norway, Ruge was arrested and sent to Germany. He resumed his position for a short time after the war.
Otto Ruge
was the commander of the Norwegian 6th Division during the Norwegian Campaign. He led the allied recapture of Narvik on May 28, 1940, later heading into exile in the United Kingdom, where he was named commander of the Norwegian Army in exile. He was the first commander to win a major victory against the Germans.
Carl Gustav Fleischer
was President of Poland from 1926 until 1939. After the Invasion of Poland he was forced to resign and went into exile in Switzerland.
Ignacy Mościcki
was a Polish physician, general and politician who served as Polish Minister of Internal Affairs from 1936 to 1939 and was the last Prime Minister of Poland before World War II. After the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, he fled to Romania and was interned there. After the German occupation of Romania in 1940, he went to Turkey and thence to Palestine. In 1947, he went to London, where he died in 1962.
Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski
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 joined the resistance movement as a common underground soldier.
Edward Rydz-Śmigły
was a major in the Polish Army. At the outbreak of World War II, he was the commander of the Westerplatte position. Troops under his command defended Westerplatte for seven days against overwhelming odds. Sucharski survived the war and was posthumously promoted to the rank of General. Despite his efforts to improve the defences, he later tried to persuade his fellow officers to surrender and suffered a nervous breakdown which required his deputy to assume command.
Henryk Sucharski
was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during World War II. From 1941 onwards, he was also Chairman of the Committee of the People's Comissars (Premier) of the Soviet Union. It was during Stalin's reign that the USSR emerged as a superpower that rivaled the United States. As the supreme commander of the Red Army, Stalin led the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from Nazi occupation. After the war Stalin put communist leaders in power in Eastern Europe, setting up the Eastern Bloc and leading to the Cold War.
Joseph Stalin
was the leader of the Soviet Army during WW2.
Kliment Voroshilov
was a Soviet Field Marshal who led the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from Nazi occupation. He also led the Soviets to overrun much of Eastern Europe and to conquer and capture Germany's capital, Berlin. After the war Zhukov was the supreme Military Commander of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany.
Georgy Zhukov
was Admiral of the Soviet Navy, which was primarily responsible for keeping the Nazis out of the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Despite orders to the contrary, he placed his navy on high alert hours before the commencement of Operation Barbarossa resulting in the Navy being the only branch of the Soviet armed forces that was prepared for the invasion.
Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov
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.
Vyacheslav Molotov
was during the whole war period the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the nominal Head of State of the Soviet Union. Although he was the Head of State, he remained mostly in the background, while Stalin was the undisputed war leader with supreme authority over the Soviet Union. A Communist Party elder, Kalinin was a key member of Stalin's inner circle of power until his death. He signed the order authorizing the Katyn massacre.
Mikhail Kalinin
commanded the 64th Army and later the 62nd Army, which defended Stalingrad during the crucial Battle of Stalingrad.
Vasily Chuikov
became Soviet commander in Leningrad in 1942, and commanded Leningrad's forces in Operation Spark. In 1944, he was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Leonid Govorov
was commander of the 19th Army during the early days of the Nazi invasion. He led the Red Army on the Eastern Front and liberated much of Eastern Europe. He helped in the capture of Berlin.
Ivan Konev
commanded the 7th Army during the Winter War. He was responsible for breaking the Mannerheim Line.
Kirill Meretskov
Ivan Bagramyan
Ivan Isakov
Sergei Khudyakov
was made Marshal of the Soviet Union for his planning of Operation Bagration.
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Boris Shaposhnikov
Semyon Timoshenko
Fyodor Tolbukhin
served as a career Russian Army office who was awarded Marshall of the Soviet Union in 1943.
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Matvei Zakharov
Nikita Khrushchev
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 attack on Pearl Harbor, he attempted to aid the Allies without declaring war. He died in office two weeks before the surrender of Germany.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
was the 33rd President of the United States from 1945 until 1953. Truman took office after the death of Roosevelt. President Truman ordered the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. After the war he oversaw postwar recovery efforts.
Harry S. Truman
was the Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief and an American naval officer who served as the senior-most United States military officer on active duty during World War II. Leahy was recalled to active duty as the personal Chief of Staff to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 and served in that position throughout World War II. He chaired the Chiefs of Staff and was a major decision-maker during the war.
William D. Leahy
was General of the Army and the Chief of Staff during the war. As Chief of Staff, Marshall oversaw the largest military expansion in American history. Marshall coordinated Allied operations in Europe and the Pacific. 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.
George Marshall
was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and later General of the Air Force. He was the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.
Henry H. Arnold
was Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet (1941–45) as well as Chief of Naval Operations (1942–45) and Fleet Admiral (from 1944).
Ernest King
was Secretary of War from 1940 until 1945. He was an early proponent for war against Germany. As secretary of war Stimson was in charge of much of the organizational and logistical aspects of America's war effort. He oversaw the raising and training 13 million soldiers and airmen, supervised the spending of a third of the nation's GDP on the Army and the Air Forces, helped formulate military strategy, and took personal control of building and using the atomic bomb.
Henry L. Stimson
was Secretary of State from 1933 until 1944. Hull was responsible for foreign relations before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He sent the Hull note to Japan prior to the attack, which was part of the United States attempt to open Chinese markets to U.S. goods against Japanese interests there. After the war he was the key architect for establishing the United Nations and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Cordell Hull
was the director of the Office of Strategic Services from 1942 until it was disbanded in 1945. Donovan and the OSS was responsible for collecting intelligence by the Army, Navy, and State Department. For his actions he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
William J. Donovan
was the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1935 until 1972. Hoover and the FBI were responsible for the intelligence in the United States and South America during the war. Hoover had success in shutting down a Nazi spy network in the United States.
J. Edgar Hoover
was the last King of Yugoslavia reigning from 1934 till 1945. An opponent of Nazi Germany, he participated in a British-supported coup d'état opposing the Prince Regent, Prince Paul. Peter was forced to leave the country following the Axis invasion. In 1944, he signed the Treaty of Vis which was an agreement to share power with Josip Broz Tito. But, after the war, Peter was deposed in a referendum held by the Communist government.
Peter II
was the leader of Chetniks, the royalist resistance movement, supported by the exiled royal government until August 1944, when the government switched support to Josip Broz Tito's Partisans under British pressure. Mihailović was decorated with the highest war medals by France and the United States (Legion of Merit). After the war, he was executed by the newly formed Communist government of Tito in 1945 for high treason, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2015, he was rehabilitated by the High Court of Serbia.
Draža Mihailović
was a leader of Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement, which was the largest in Europe. Communist by political orientation, Tito was nevertheless able to gather nationwide support for anti-fascist cause, and to persuade Allied governments that only his forces were mounting credible resistance to Axis powers in Yugoslavia. By the end of war, occupied Yugoslavia had drawn attention of no less than 20 German divisions alone, prompting several major operations in the 1942–1944 period, which were futile. Finally, with help from advancing Soviet forces, the Partisans liberated Yugoslavia, reaching at the final days of operations a respectable size of 800,000 soldiers.
Josip Broz Tito
was the prime minister of the Yugoslav government in exile during World War II from January 11, 1942, to June 26, 1943.
Slobodan Jovanović
was the prime minister of the Yugoslav government in exile when the Treaty of Vis (or Tito-Šubašić Agreement) was signed on June 14, 1944.
Ivan Šubašić
Allies of World War II
Axis leaders of World War II
Commanders of World War II
Neutral powers during World War II
Opposition to World War II
L, Klemen (2000). .