Portugal during World War II
Upon the start of World War II in 1939, the Portuguese Government announced on 1 September that the 600-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance remained intact, but that since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, Portugal was free to remain neutral in the war and would do so. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British Government confirmed the understanding. As Hitler's occupation swept across Europe, neutral Portugal became one of the Continent's last escape routes. Portugal managed to remain neutral throughout the war despite extraordinary pressures from both sides, notably over the strategically located Azores islands and over the wolfram (tungsten) trade.
World War II by country
Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, was the primary Axis Power in the European Theatre. German forces instigated the war in September 1939 by invading Poland. Poland was divided with the Soviet Union. The Phony War ensued and in the spring of 1940 German forces invaded and conquered Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Attempts to subdue the United Kingdom by air in the summer of 1940 failed and a planned invasion was called off. In the summer of 1941 Germany turned its forces east by invading the Soviet Union. The Eastern Front became the main theatre of war for the Germans. The invasion of the USSR had been delayed by campaigns in Greece and Yugoslavia, aimed at assisting floundering Italian forces. The Afrika Korps was similarly dispatched to the Western Desert to assist struggling Italian forces there, and German forces grew to an entire army group. Major defeats at Stalingrad in February 1943 and the destruction of Axis forces in North Africa shortly after are commonly thought to be the war's turning points. German forces fought on Sicily, and when Italy switched sides, German forces seized power, fighting a successful withdrawal and diverting Allied forces from Northwest Europe. Severe losses at Kursk in the summer of 1943 and during the Soviet summer offensives of 1944 shattered German fighting power, and Allied landings in Normandy and Southern France forced the Germans to fight on several fronts simultaneously. The surrender of the German forces between 4 May and 8 May 1945, signaled the end of the war in Europe.