Declarations of war during World War II

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

Animated map of the European theatre of war during WWII

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 the article entitled 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 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][7][8] 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 the those dominions. The French ultimatum to Germany expired a few hours later at 17:00.	United Kingdom declaration French declaration
1939-09-04	Nepal	Germany	W		Declaration
1939-09-05	South Africa	Germany	W[2][3]		Declaration
1939-09-10	Bahrain  Canada Oman	Germany	W[2][3]		Declaration Declaration Declaration
1939-09-17	Soviet Union	Poland	A[2][3]		Invasion
1939-11-09	Kuwait	Germany	W		Kuwaiti Declaration of War
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]		France and the UK
1940-06-10	Canada	Italy	W[2]		Declaration
1940-06-11	South Africa  Australia  New Zealand	Italy	W[2]		South Africa Australia New Zealand
1940-06-11	France	Italy	W[2]		Declaration
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]		Declaration
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		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]		Declaration
1941-12-06	Finland Romania	United Kingdom	W[3]		Declaration
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	Declaration
1941-12-07	Japan	United States  United Kingdom  Thailand	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]		Declaration
1941-12-08	United Kingdom  United States  Australia  Costa Rica  Dominican Republic  El Salvador  Guatemala  Haiti  Honduras Netherlands (in-exile)  New Zealand  Nicaragua  Philippines	Japan	W[3]		British declaration United States declaration Australian declaration Costa Rican declaration Dominican Republic's declaration Guatemalan declaration Salvadoran declaration Haitian declaration Honduran declaration Dutch declaration New Zealand's declaration Nicaraguan declaration Philippine declaration
1941-12-08	South Africa	Japan  Finland Romania Hungary	W[3]		South African declaration
1941-12-08	Mongolia	Germany	W		Mongolian declaration
1941-12-08	Manchukuo	United States	W[3]		Manchukuo declaration
1941-12-09	Australia  New Zealand Cuba	Japan	W[3]		Australian declaration New Zealand's declaration
1941-12-09	China	Germany Italy  Japan	W[3]	China and Japan had been at undeclared war since 1937	Second Sino-Japanese war Declaration
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 following: "We don't accept the Polish declaration of war. The Poles, fighting for their freedom, declared war under the British pressure".
1941-12-12	Romania Bulgaria  Slovak Republic	United States  United Kingdom	W[3]		Romanian declaration Bulgarian declaration
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]		British declaration New Zealand's declaration South African declaration
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]		Declaration
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.	Declaration
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.	Declaration
1941-12-17	Albania	United States	W		Declaration
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		Declaration
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		Declaration
1942-01-16	Iraq	Germany Italy  Japan	W		Declaration
1942-01-25	Thailand	United Kingdom  United States	A		Declaration
1942-01-25	United Kingdom  New Zealand South Africa	Thailand	W		British declaration New Zealand's declaration South African declaration
1942-02-12	Peru	Germany  Japan	W		Declaration
1942-02-19	Japan	Portugal	A	Portugal maintained neutrality throughout World War II.	Invasion
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]	Declaration
1942-08-22	Brazil	Germany Italy	W		Declaration
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 serval 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 Declaration
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.	Declaration
1943-04-02	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.	Declaration
1943-09-01	China Regime of Wang Jingwei	Allied Powers	W		Declaration
1943-09-09	Iran	Germany	W		Declaration
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]	Declaration
1943-11-26	Colombia	Germany	W	See Colombia during World War II	Declaration
1944-01-17	Free France	Italian Social Republic	A		Invasion
1944-01-27	Liberia	Germany  Japan	W		Declaration
1944-06-06	France	Germany	A		Invasion
1944-07-25	France	Japan	A		Invasion
1944-08-25	Romania	Germany Hungary	W	Romania switched sides	Declaration
1944-09-05	Soviet Union	Bulgaria	W		Declaration
1944-09-08	Bulgaria	Germany	W	Bulgaria switched sides	Declaration
1944-09-15	Germany	Finland	A		Lapland War
1944-09-23	Second Philippine Republic	United States  United Kingdom	W[19]		Philippine declaration
1945-02-02	Ecuador	Germany  Japan	W		Ecuadorian declaration
1945-02-07	Argentina  Paraguay	Germany  Japan	W		Argentinean declaration Paraguayan declaration
1945-02-15	Venezuela  Uruguay	Germany  Japan	W		Venezuelan declaration Uruguayan declaration
1945-02-21	San Marino	Germany	W		Declaration
1945-02-23	Turkey	Germany  Japan	W		Declaration
1945-02-24	Egypt	Germany  Japan	W		Declaration
1945-02-26	Syria  Lebanon	Germany  Japan	W		Declaration
1945-02-28	Saudi Arabia	Germany	W		Declaration
1945-03-03	Finland	Germany	W	Finland switched sides	Lapland War
1945-04-01	Saudi Arabia	Japan	W		Declaration
1945-04-11	Chile	Japan	W		Declaration
1945-07-06	Brazil	Japan	W		Declaration
1945-07-09	Norway	Japan	W		Declaration[20]
1945-07-14	Italy	Japan	W		Declaration
1945-08-08	Soviet Union	Japan	W[2]	Last outbreak of war during the entire Second World War.	Declaration
1945-08-10	Mongolia	Japan	W[21]	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

References

1. On the Opening of Hostilities; 1907; Yale Law School Library; retrieved March 2014.
2. "2194 Days of War"; (1977); Salmaggi, C. & Pallasvini, A.; ISBN 91-582-0426-1; per tables included. [Italian; American]
3. Timeline Data Archived May 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine; World at War online; retrieved February 2014.
4. "Germans invade Poland". History.com. Retrieved 1 Dec 2019.
5. On This Day
6. Mann, Andrea. "September 3, 1939: Britain declares war on Germany after Hitler's troops invade Poland". BT.com. Retrieved 1 Dec 2019.
7. Note: Included in the speech: "...This morning, the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note, stating that unless we heard from them by 11 O'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and that consequently this country is at war with Germany..."
8. 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany, BBC
9. Swedish Encyklopedia; "Bonniers Lexikon" (Vol. 1); (c.1960s); table in article by Andra Världskriget: The Second World War; Pp. 461-462.
10. "Belgium in WWII".
11. "Táblázat az egyes államok hadiállapotba kerüléséről". arcanum.hu. Arcanum Adatbázis Kft.
12. "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"; Shirer, William L
13. Declaration of War on Finland, Hungary and Romania
14. "Hadiállapot Magyarország és Nagy-Britannia között". arcanum.hu. Arcanum Adatbázis Kft.
15. Draveczki-Ury, Ádám (11 December 2011). "Hetven éve történt: hadüzenet az Egyesült Államoknak". honvedelem.hu. Honvédelmi Minisztérium.
16. Dr Erik Goldstein, Routledge, 2005, Wars and Peace Treaties: 1816 to 1991, p. 218
17. Dr Erik Goldstein, Routledge, 2005, Wars and Peace Treaties: 1816 to 1991, p. 217
18. Treuer, David (22 January 2019). The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present. Riverhead Books.
20. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2634950
21. Christopher P. Atwood (1999), "Sino-Soviet Diplomacy and the Second Partition of Mongolia, 1945–1946", Mongolia in the Twentieth Century: Landlocked Cosmopolitan, Bruce A. Elleman and Stephen Kotkin, eds. (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe), 147.