Information about Axis Leaders Of World War Ii

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, the leaders of the two main Axis powers in Europe.

Nazi Germany

• Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, first as Chancellor from 1933 until 1934 and later as Führer from 1934 until his suicide in 1945. Hitler came into power during Germany's period of crisis after the Great War. During his rule Germany became a fascist state with a policy of anti-Semitism that lead to the Holocaust. Hitler pursued an aggressive foreign policy that triggered the war.
• Rudolf Hess was Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party. Hess hoped to score a stunning diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the Reich and Britain. He flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace, but was arrested. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life.
• Heinrich Himmler was the commander of the Schutzstaffel and the Gestapo. Himmler was responsble for the establishment of the Nazi concentration camps. Himmler held final command responsibility for annihilating "subhumans" who were deemed unworthy to live. Shortly before the end of the war, he offered to surrender all of "Germany" to the Allies if he was spared from prosecution as a Nazi leader. Himmler committed suicide with cyanide when he became a captive of the British Army.
• Joseph Goebbels was Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda from 1933 until 1945. An avid supporter of war, Goebbels did everything in his power to prepare the German people for a large scale military conflict. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers. He became Chancellor for a day before his suicide.
• Hans Frank was Chief of Administration of General Government of occupied Poland. Frank oversaw the segregation of the Jews intothe ghettos and the use of Polish civilians as slave labour. Frank was captured by American troops in 1945 and tried at Nuremberg.
• Hermann Goering was second in command of the Third Reich and commander of the Luftwaffe. Hitler awarded Göring the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross for his successful leadership. Goering was the third highest ranking Nazi official brought before the Nuremberg Trials.
• Karl Dönitz was Großadmiral of the Kriegsmarine and was President for 23 days after Hitler's suicide. Under his command the U-boat fleet fought an unrestricted submarine warfare during the Battle of the Atlantic. After the war he was tried at Nuremberg.
• Erwin Rommel was the commander of the Afrika Korps and became known by the nickname The Desert Fox. Rommel was admired by both Axis and Aillied leaders during the war. Later he was in command of the German forces during the invasion at Normandy.

Kingdom of Italy

• Victor Emmanuel III was the king of Italy from 1900 until his abdication in 1946. During his rule Italy was suffering from economic depression because of the Great War. He supported Mussolini fascist government until 1943 when he had him removed from office. Because of his actions during the war it lead to the referendum of 1946
• Benito Mussolini was Prime Minister from 1922 until 1943. Mussolini was later Head of State of the Italian Social Republic (regime under control of Nazi Germany), that succeeded the Kingdom of Italy in the Axis between 1943 and 1945. Mussolini established the first fascist nation in Italy using the ideas of nationalism, militarism and anti-communism combined and state propaganda. Mussolini’s regime became an influence on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
• Pietro Badoglio was Marshal of the army. He lead the Italian army during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. He resigned in 1940 after the Italian defeat during the Greco-Italian War. In 1943 he succeeded Mussolini as Prime Minister and arranged with the Allies an armistice

Empire of Japan

Hirohito and imperial stallion Sirayuki

• Hirohito was the Emperor from 1926 until his death in 1989. He was commander of the Imperial General Headquarters from 1937 to 1945 and was exonerated from criminal prosecutions with all members of the imperial family by SCAP.
• Hideki Tojo was Prime Minister from 1941 until 1944. After the war he was sentenced to death for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal of the Far East.
• Sadao Araki was minister of the Army from 1931 to 1933 and Education Minister from 1938 to 1939. Araki was one of the main proponent of militarism and expansionism during the Showa era. He developed the fascist ideas of the Kodoha nationalist group. After the war Araki was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment but was released in 1955 with all the other major convicts.
• Kotohito Kan'in was chief of staff of the Army from 1931 to 1940. During his mandate, the Army committed the Nanking massacre and regularly used chemical weapons in China. He died before the end of the war.
• Hajime Sugiyama was minister of the Army from 1937 to 1938, then chief of staff from 1940 to 1944. During this period, the Army kept using chemical weapons and implemented the sanko sakusen. He committed suicide in 1945.
• Hiroyasu Fushimi was chief of staff of the Navy from 1932 to 1941. Starting in 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service implemented strategic bombing of Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. He was exonerated from criminal prosecutions with all members of the imperial family by SCAP.
• Osami Nagano was chief of staff of the Navy from 1941 to 1944. During this period, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service committed the attack of Pearl Harbor and the strategic bombing of Chongqing. He was tried before the Tokyo tribunal but died in prison before his sentence.
• Mitsumasa Yonai was prime minister in 1940 and minister of the Navy from 1937 to 1939 and 1944 to 1945. He was exonerated by SCAP.

Kingdom of Hungary

• Miklós Horthy was the Regent of Hungary from 1920 until 1944
• Ferenc Szálasi was Head of State from 1944 until 1945.

Kingdom of Romania

• Michael I was King of the Romanians from 1940 until 1947. Michael I was installed in power by Antonescu to replace Michael's father Carol II. He was not intended to have much power. Led a coup to overthrow Antonescu and switched sides to Allies in 1944.
• Ion Antonescu was Prime Minister of Romania and conducător with dictatorial powers 1940-44.
• Petre Dumitrescu commanded the Romanian Third Army on its campaign against the Soviet Union.

Kingdom of Bulgaria

• Boris III was the Tsar from 1918 until his death in 1943.
• Simeon II was the last Tsar of Bulgaria from 1943 until 1946, was underage and did not have any power
• Kyril, Prince of Bulgaria, head of the regency council, 1943-44
• Bogdan Filov, Prime Minister, 1940-43, member of the regency council, 1943-44
• Dobri Bozhilov , Prime Minister, 1943-44
• Ivan Ivanov Bagrianov was Prime Minister in 1944. He attempted to pull Bulgaria out of the war and declare neutrality.

Kingdom of Thailand

• Ananda Mahidol was King of Thailand from 1935 until his death in 1946. During the war, Mahidol stayed in neutral Switzerland. He returned to Thailand in 1945 after the war.
• Plaek Pibulsonggram was Field Marshal of the Thai Army and was Prime Minister of Thailand from 1938 until 1944. Pibulsonggram regime embarked upon a course of economic nationalism and Anti-Chinese policies. In 1941 he had Thailand aillied with Japan and allowed them to use the country for the invasions of Burma and Malaya.
• Khuang Abhaiwongse, Prime Minister, 1944-45

Republic of Finland

• Risto Ryti was President of Finland from 1940 until 1944. Ryti time in office was marked by the Continuation War with the Soviet Union. He resigned in 1944 to pull Finland out of the war.
• Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was the Commander-in-Chief of Finnish military and was Marshal of Finland. Mannerheim was an astute politician and a successful military commander. He became president in 1944 after Ryti’s resignation.
• Hjalmar Siilasvuo was a general who led the Finnish military during the war. During the Continuation War he led the III Corps in northern Finland. After the peace with the Soviets, he was given the command of the Finnish forces during the Lapland War.
• Karl Lennart Oesch was one of the leading Finnish generals during the war. At the end of the Continuation War, two-thirds of the Finnish ground forces were under his command.

Kingdom of Iraq (Until 1941)

• Rashid Ali al-Kaylani was Prime Minister of Iraq from 1940 -1941. Ali al-Kaylani overthrew the pro-British Nuri Said Pasha and established a pro-Nazi regime. Britain responded with severe economic sanctions against Iraq and an invasion. The Anglo-Iraqi War lasted only two months with a British victory and Ali al-Kaylani out of power.
• Haj Amin al-Husseini was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who had been exiled from the British Mandate of Palestine for his nationalist activities. Husayni aided the Axis cause in the Middle East by issuing a fatwa for a holy war against Britain in May 1941. The Mufti's widely heralded proclamation against Britain was declared in Iraq, where he was instrumental in the pro-Nazi Iraqi revolt. When Britain invaded Iraq the Mufti fled to Germany.

Spanish State (neutral)

• Francisco Franco was the dictator of the Spanish State from 1939 until his death in 1975. Franco came to power after leading the Nationalist Forces to victory during the Spanish Civil War. During the war, Franco maintained a policy of neutrality, although he gave assistance to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on a small scale.
• Agustín Muñoz Grandes was the commander of the volunteer unit the Blue Division. Muñoz Grandes was well acquainted with the German military establishment. Muñoz Grandes was decorated with the Iron Cross, with an Oak Leaves personally added by Hitler.
• Emilio Esteban Infantes replaced Agustín Muñoz Grandes as commander of the Blue Division in 1943. Esteban Infantes led the Blue Division during the Battle of Krasny Bor in February. For his actions he received the Iron Cross.

Indepedent State of Croatia

• Tomislav II, Italian-born King of Croatia
• Ante Pavelić, Poglavnik of the Indepedent State of Croatia from 1941 to 1945

Slovak Republic

• Jozef Tiso, President
• Vojtech Tuka, Prime Minister

Montenegro

• Sekula Drljević

Serbia

• Milan Nedić

Manchukuo

• Puyi, Emperor (former Emperor of China)
• Zhang Jinghui, Prime Minister

Mengjiang

• Demchugdongrub

Republic of China-Nanjing

• Wang Jingwei, Head of State, President of the Executive Yuan and Chairman of the National Government
• Chen Gongbo, Head of the Legislative Yuan
• Zhou Fohai, Head of the Executive Yuan

Burma

• Ba Maw

Republic of the Philippines

• Jose P. Laurel

Free India

• Subhas Chandra Bose
• A.M.Sahay
• Rash Behari Bose

Empire of Vietnam

• Bảo Đại
• Trần Trọng Kim

Kingdom of Cambodia

• Sisowath Monivong
• Norodom Sihanouk
• Son Ngoc Thanh

Kingdom of Laos

• Phetsarath Rattanavongsa

See also

• Axis powers of World War II
• Allied Leaders of World War II
• Commanders of World War II

•  • [ e] World War II
Western Europe Eastern Europe Africa Mediterranean Asia and the Pacific Atlantic
Major participants			Timeline		Aspects
To 1945 unless otherwise indicated. Principal co-belligerents in italics.			Prelude • Causes • in Asia • in Europe 1937 • Invasion of China 1939 • Invasion of Poland • Phoney War • Invasion of Finland • Battle of the Atlantic3 1940 • Denmark and Norway • Battle of France • Battle of Britain • Libya and Egypt • British Somaliland • Occupation of Baltic states • Bessarabia and Bukovina • Invasion of Indochina • Invasion of Greece 1941 • East Africa • Invasion of Yugoslavia • Invasion of the USSR • Middle East • Siege of Leningrad • Attack on Pearl Harbor 1942 • Battle of Midway • Battle of Stalingrad • 2nd Battle of El Alamein • Operation Torch • Guadalcanal campaign	1943 • End in Africa • Battle of Kursk • Solomon Islands campaign • Invasion of Sicily • Invasion of Italy5 1944 • Cassino and Anzio • Battle of Normandy • Belorussia and Ukraine • Battle of Romania • Liberation of Paris • Operation Market Garden • Battle of Leyte Gulf 1945 • Battle of Okinawa • Battle of Berlin • Germany surrenders • Hiroshima and Nagasaki • Japan surrenders • misc. military engagements Aftermath and Consequences • Effects • Casualties • Expulsion of Germans • Occupation of Germany • Morgenthau plan • Territorial changes • Occupation of Japan • Franco-Vietnamese War • Cold War • in contemporary culture • Possible World War III	• Attacks on North America • Blitzkrieg • Comparative military ranks • Cryptography • Home front • Military awards • Military equipment • Military production • Resistance • Technology • Total war Civilian impact and atrocities • Allied war crimes • Japanese war crimes • German war crimes • Soviet war crimes • The Holocaust • Bombing of civilians
Allies		Axis
at war from 1937  China entered 1939  Poland  UK  India  France  Australia  New Zealand  South Africa  Canada entered 1940  Norway  Belgium  Netherlands  Greece	entered 1941  Yugoslavia  USSR  USA entered 1942  Brazil entered 1943  Italy entered 1944  Romania  Bulgaria  Finland • others	at war from 1937  Japan entered 1939  Germany  Slovakia entered 1940  Italy  (to 1943) entered 1941  Bulgaria  (to 1944) Croatia  Hungary  Romania  (to 1944)  Finland  (to 1944) entered 1942  Thailand entered 1943 RSI • others
• Allied Leaders • Axis Leaders • Commanders
Resistance movements Austria Baltic2 Bessarabia1 Czechia Denmark Ethiopia France Germany Greece Italy Jewish Korea Netherlands Moldavia1 Norway Poland Thailand USSR Slovakia4 Ukraine3 Vietnam Yugoslavia others
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1 Anti-Soviet. 2 Anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi. 3 Anti-Nazi, anti-Polish, and anti-Soviet. 4 Anti-Magyar, anti-Nazi, and anti-Soviet. 5 Lasted to May 1945.		at Wiktionary   at Wikibooks       at Wikiquote   at Wikisource        at Commons   at Wikinews