WORLD WAR 2 - THE WAR, THE UK & THE LAKE FAMILY
World War 2 was one of the biggest events in world history and I don’t think we will ever see such a world encompassing war like this again.
As I started this project I thought I knew a bit about the war but the more research I did the more I realised how little I knew and the more fascinating the project became.
It has certainly given me an insight to how awful it must have been during those years and my admiration and greatest respect to everyone that lived during that time and to those who lost their lives.
Within this feature I will look at a general timeline of events, what was happening in the UK, in the world, as well as to Lake family during each year of the war. Then on subsequent pages I will look at some of the individual stories. I would add at this point that some family members alive today, either lived through the war or were born during the war. As a respect to them and their privacy I will not be referring to the lives of any of these people other than to perhaps say a baby was born.
Before I start on a timeline let me ask one question:
Do you know who was fighting who?
This may seem like a stupid question but it wasn’t quite as simple as people may realise. This was a world war and in relation to the amount of countries involved, it had never happened before or since. So I thought as an introduction I would try and give an idea of who supported who.
Before I start listing countries there are a few things to remember. The world was a different place then, for instance, Austria became a part of Nazi Germany in 1938.
Some countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Israel simply didn’t exist and some countries were known by different names ie Burma now called Myanmar and Dutch East Indies now Indonisia. Countries were joining the war year by year from 1939 right up to as late as August 1945, so my listings include the whole 6 years. The big turning point was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour after which many countries that had been neutral, up to that time, joined the war.
To make things more complicated some countries changed sides, Russia started the war supporting Germany but after Germany invaded them, they changed sides and allied themselves with Britain and USA. Other countries like France were split and in their case, there was Vichy French supporting Germany and the Free French supporting Britain. Finally some countries declared neutrality, like Spain, but were actually backing one side or the other with aid, supplies and, in Spain’s case, soldiers.
So with all that in mind we have four corners in the battle. In the first corner was a group of countries called the “Axis” whose main powers were Germany, Italy and Japan many countries supporting the Axis signed a “Tripartite Agreement”. The idea of the tripartite agreement was that when the Axis had won the war, Germany would control Europe, Italy the Mediterranean region inc North Africa and Japan Asia.
So in the Blue Corner are the “Axis”: Main Axis Powers, Germany, Italy & Japan.
Supported by: Albania, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China *(parts of), Croatia, Dodecanese Islands (inc Rhodes, Kos & Patmos), Finland, Hungary, India (1942 Free India Government under Japan), Iraq, Italian East Africa, Korea, Laos, Latvia, Libya, Manchukuo *(Manchuria), Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia), Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Philippines Second Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, State of Burma (1942), Syria, Thailand, Tientsin (Italian territory in China), Vichy France, Vietnam, Yugoslavia.
Manchukuo was a puppet state ruled by Japan in North China following the China Japan wars in the 1930’s. Other parts of China supporting the Axis were Provisional Government of the Republic of China at Beijing & the Reformed Government of the Republic of China in Nanjing.
Italian East Africa consisted of: (Italian Eritrea, Italian Somaliland & Ethiopian Empire)
The “Axis” were opposed by the “Allies” whose main powers were:
Great Britain, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand & South Africa.
I say Great Britain rather than United Kingdom because whilst Northern Ireland forces supported the allies, conscription was not introduced in Northern Ireland, as in the rest of Great Britain, due to the recent Irish agreement. I have therefore listed Northern Ireland as an independent ally, Eire (Southern Ireland) remained neutral.
So opposed to the Axis countries in the Red Corner we had the “Allies”
Main Powers: Great Britain, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
& South Africa
Supported by: Armenia, Bahrain, Belgian Congo, Bolivia, Brazil, British Ethiopia, British Eritrea, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Chile, China (parts of), Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Liberia, Malaya, Malta, Mexico, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Oman, Palestine, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Sudan, Tonga, Transjordan (Jordan), Uruguay, Venezuela, West Indies, Yugoslav Partisans
In the third corner which we will call the Mauve Corner were countries which remained neutral throughout the war:
Afghanistan, Andorra, Eire (Ireland), Liechtenstein, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Vatican City, Yemen.
Some countries declared neutrality at the beginning of the war but were invaded these included: Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands all invaded by Germany and subsequently supported the allies.
Iceland were invaded by Britain, to stop Germany getting an Atlantic port, they protested against British occupation.
Finally in the fourth corner which I will call the Green Corner there are countries which do not fully fall into the other 3 corners.
Albania (not an ally but fought against their invasion by Italy),
Argentina (neutral but 4,000 volunteers fought with the allies),
Denmark (never officially joined the Axis but many Danish Nazis fought for Germany
It coordinated its foreign policy with Germany and broke off diplomatic relations with
Allied Governments in exile and with the Soviet Union)
Egypt (Britain recognised it’s independence in 1922 but had kept troops in the
country as part of the agreement and Egypt therefore forcibly became part of the allies
even though many Egyptian politicians wanted to join andco operated with the axis)
Estonia (had been fighting Russia before WW2 but they were forced to become part
of Russia in 1940, they were occupied by Germany in 1941 when 70,000
Estonians joined Germany to fight Russia)
Haiti (declared war on Japan & Germany after Pearl Harbour but never supplied
any troops only supported allies with food supplies)
Iran (started the war with the Axis but after invasion by Russia & Britain in 1941
the Shah abdicated and his son joined the allies)
Lithuania (forcibly annexed into the Soviet Union when Germany invaded, many
Lithuanians joined Germany to try and get their independence back
Some Lithuanian collaborators were involved in the holocaust)
Monaco (officially neutral but sided and aided Italy)
Spain (declared neutrality but had signed a pact with Hitler & Mussolini.
Spanish troops did fight with Germany in Russia, after D Day allies assured
General Franco that they would not invade Spain)
Yugoslavia – (Partisans who were against the occupation by Germany and Italy were
led by General Tito who finally gained control for the Communist Party and joined
the allies. At the end of the war Yugoslavia united as one country until the Yugoslav wars
in the 1990’s)
One strange case was that of Finland. Before WW2, Finland was at war with Russia. At the start of WW2 Russia supported Germany. So in theory Finland would be an ally of Britain. By 1941 when Russia was invaded by Germany, Russia became a British ally, this made Finland a supporter of Germany, so Finland changed sides without changing its enemy.
I hope that gives you an idea of how complicated this all was. I have tried to describe it as simply as I possibly can but I am sure that many soldiers went off to war not really knowing who was fighting who.
On the following pages you will find a timeline for each including year including what members of the Lake family were doing and how they were affected
