what did european countries do in WW2?

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
There was a hell of a lot of guerilla warfare in the Balkans.

Yes I know.

Other nations evacuated soldiers to fight with the British- a significant number of Poles fought for the RAF.

I see.

[laurentius]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
Other nations evacuated soldiers to fight with the British- a significant number of Poles fought for the RAF.

And they made a great movie about it

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by laurentius
Well Finland certainly didnt put her pants down. We defeated the invading soviet hordes. Hell, we even attacked Soviet Union 1941 to regain the lost terrotories.

there is a line of thought that says that it was Finlands success against the Soviets that convinced Hilter to set his sights on the eastern front, which in the long run pretty much sealed his fate

[Akka]

Originally posted by paiktis22



yes but did they fight?

Poland : attacked from both sides while French and British were watching and providing advises. Courageous fights but Poland army was destroyed fast.

Norway : don't really know if they fought. Too few people anyway to have any impact. Conquered, most of the fights were between French/British and Germans.

Holland : tried to fight, but was caught by surprise and crushed.

Belgium : fought with determination. Though, the king capitulated some times after the country has been conquered, ordering to his 500 000 soldiers to surrender (this made him appear like a traitor among his own population, and he was then forced to abdicate after the war).

Denmark : could not hope to even slow down Germany. Surrendered immediately. Though, the population showed a great courage in passive resistance (the king and many people were wearing the yellow star to nullify the anti-jews segregation).

[Saint Marcus]

Holland fought for a few days, and better than expected. The Germans would have had a very hard time getting past the Waterline. Of course, Hitler then ordered the terror bombing of Rotterdam, killing many people. Then the Germans threathened to do the same to Amsterdam and other cities unless the Dutch would surrender. That we did, after having evacuated the royal family, governement, military leaders, navy and remaining airforce.

The bombing of Rotterdam took us by surprise. We never believed the Germans would specifically target civilians on such a wide scale. If the war would remain fair the Dutch would have held out for some time, and hopefully long enough for French and British reinforcements to arrive. That was the plan at least.

[Saint Marcus]

tried to fight, but was caught by surprise and crushed.

Where did you get your information from? We were never crushed, but surrendered to avoid our civilian population being wiped out. The terror bombing of Rotterdam did take us by surprise though. It was a despicible act of terrorism.

[Akka]

Originally posted by paiktis22
Thanks for replying.

Just something more...

did any of these countries conduct any guerilla warfare on the germans after being captured?

Though French resistance was alive and active and has been made quite famous, especially with D-Day, Balkanic resistance was in fact much tougher and was even able to free itself from Germany (Yugoslavia).
Of course, the German forces where much more important in France, but the fact that Nazis considered Slavs as subhumans while French were considered just a step below Aryan made their treatment in Balkan hell more harsher than in France => higher revolts.

Italy partisans were quite active once Germany invaded Italy. In fact, Italians fought much harder once they came to the Allied side than when they were under Mussolini's law

Sweden, though neutral, helped to save several tens of thousands of Jews, granted the help of Félix Kersten the Himmler's personnal doctor.

Swiss helped to hide refugees too, though its actions were a lot more questionnable than Sweden's ones.

Russians were at first completely apathics, as they weren't very motivated to fight for Stalin. Though, the treatment that Nazis reserved for Slavs worked again against them, and the Russian resistance was a big problem for Germans.

[Akka]

Originally posted by Saint Marcus


Where did you get your information from? We were never crushed, but surrendered to avoid our civilian population being wiped out. The terror bombing of Rotterdam did take us by surprise though. It was a despicible act of terrorism.

Hitler wasn't really known for his humanitarian concerns

[Saint Marcus]

At the time of the bombing, the Germans were pinned down in three main areas. (Afsluitdijk, Rotterdam, Utrecht I believe). A german paratroop operation in the west of Holland resulted in a familiar for the germans and the paras were pinned down as well (there goal was to take The Hague, but failed miserably).

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Akka le Vil
Norway : don't really know if they fought. Too few people anyway to have any impact. Conquered, most of the fights were between French/British and Germans.

Norway offered strong resistance for a certain time, and there were also British forces in the country, and Royal Navy vessels that supported Norway. The fights around Narvik ended in June (beginn of the attack was early April 1940.

[Saint Marcus]

Hitler wasn't really known for his humanitarian concerns

We knew that. But we didn't knew he was ready to wipe out millions of people (remember, this was 1940, the bombing of Rotterdam was the worst in world history at that time)

[Monk]

Denmark - the king and many people were wearing the yellow star to nullify the anti-jews segregation

Despite being defeated in 24 hours, Denmark and the Danes do have WWII-related things to be proud of, the most important being the almost-total evacuation of most of the Jewish population. But the king never wore the Star of David; it's a popular urban legend.

[Stefu]

there is a line of thought that says that it was Finlands success against the Soviets that convinced Hilter to set his sights on the eastern front, which in the long run pretty much sealed his fate

If it wasn't for Finland, you'd be all speaking German!

Anyway, as said, we had Winter War in 1940, then Continuation War in 1941-1944. In addition to those, there was Lapland war in 1945 against German troops left in Lapland.

[Yog-Sothoth]

Originally posted by Akka le Vil
Norway : don't really know if they fought. Too few people anyway to have any impact. Conquered, most of the fights were between French/British and Germans.

Norway were totaly unprepared when Germany attacked Norway on 9 April 1940. It was though that Norway would be able to stay out of the second world war, just as the country had maintained its neutrality in World War I. Our military forces were not strengthened at all before the war, and were in a poor state when the German forces invaded.

The Coastal Batteries at the fort Oscarsborg did manage to sink the German cruiser Blücher, halting the invasion enough for the goverment and royal family to escape to England.

The Norwegian government resumed its activities from London. The exile navy operated 118 vessels. The airforce counted four squadrons. At the time the Norwegian merchant navy was the world's third largest and more than 1.000 Norwegian merchant ships and 27.000 sailors sailed in the convoys. There was also a small army in exile, even if priority for manpower went to the other branches.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Stefu
If it wasn't for Finland, you'd be all speaking German!

Well, now we all learn English instead