Talk:Declarations of war during World War II

Reasons for delation proposal
In principle I agree that only one list is needed. But there are some questions. Why isn't the World War II linked to this article ? Keepning this and deleting List of all war outbreaks during World War II, as of current contence would be a loss for Wikipedia and its readers. This article uses better graphical components, but apart from technical issues, this list isn't builded upon one single reliable source, resulting in a great deal of absent material that must be included in a serious list of this kind. Some examples
 * Soviet Union vs Poland 1939-09-17 (forgotten or hidden ?)
 * Soviet Union vs Finland 1939-11-30 (forgotten or hidden ?)
 * The German attack on Noway was 1940-04-09
 * And Denmark was attacked the same date (Except Bornholm which was taken the day after)
 * Germany vs Belgium 1940-05-10, just like the Netherlands during the German offensive in the west that led to the fall of France.
 * The changed situation in France is forgotten as Vichy-France declared war at United Kingdom after the British neutralization of the French Navy.
 * Exile governments doesn't belong at lists like these, unless they actually have a territory of their own. The basic definition of a nation is to have a territory. When exile governments "declared war", they encurraged to resistance against the occupiers. The free French army under de Gaulle lacked support in both Paris and Vichy. So not until after the invation in Normandie, we can talk about the (Fourth) French republic as a free nation again.
 * Also Canadaian, South African, New Zealand, Australian and Egypian declaration of wars on Italy in 1940 is absent from the list.
 * And Japan attacked United States 1941-12-07 - but it isn't even mentioned !
 * Further Yugoslavia and Greece seems totally forgotten
 * Croatia was not an nation until the early 1990's

IT WONG UNO. It links the abttkle of belgium in WWI when it's supposed to be wwwii — Preceding unsigned comment added by Niall.ash (talk • contribs) 16:37, 21 July 2016 (UTC) Etc, etc, etc. I'm sorry to say that the general standard of the not-technical contence of this article is indeed poor. Almost mish-mash of randomly chosen events, that not all are valid. And with exception of unnessecary details (in a list) reguarding Germany vs Poland 1939-09-01, almost without sources. But I agree that only one list is needed. Which list that may be is of minor interest, but it must be formal, brief, correct and supported by a main source or similar. 83.249.169.66 (talk) 17:22, 9 February 2014 (UTC)Sorry do not understand how I got logged out. Boeing720 (talk) 17:23, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

Improvemenst for years 1939 and 1940
I've followed one single source (Swedish encyklopedia "Bonniers Lexikon" from the 1960's) I think what is needed is the dates at which a state of war first occured - the basic reason ought to be included, otherwise only things of special interest. Diplomatic breakdown may or may not be concidered as a state of war. If 1939 and 1940 are re-edited, the mentioning of of reasons would be constructful. Boeing720 (talk) 03:14, 10 February 2014 (UTC)


 * You seem to misunderstand the purpose of this page. It is not a timeline of the war, a list of important battles or initiation of hostilities - but only of formal declarations of war. Rmhermen (talk) 03:44, 10 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Perhaps You have misinterpreted the purpose of List of all war outbreaks during World War II aswell ! Lets keep it this way. Otherwise You are not serious. The List of all war outbreaks during WWII is only a complement to the main article. And it do indeed include all dates from a state of war did emerge. You may keep your "formal declaration list" but it is not the same as a list that includes all types of how a war between nations began. Independant of Attack without a declaration of war, War through ultimatum, old style declarations of war and diplomatic breakdowns that led to a state of war. The two lists cover different issues, can we agree on that ? And please remember that List of all war outbreaks during World War II is build upon a rock solid source. OK ? Boeing720 (talk) 14:24, 10 February 2014 (UTC)


 * To add my opinion, this article should be kept. It meets WP:N, is verifiable and reasonably referenced and has a clear, discernible purpose. Even if the article is "incomplete" (though it looks very thorough to me), lack of completion as of itself would not be a reason for deleting the article. As for List of all war outbreaks during World War II, I wouldn't advocate merging it with this article as this article is exclusively for DECLARATIONS of war. I suspect that everything listed on the list page is already included in the Timeline of World War II articles. If some attacks are missing, they should be added provided they are notable are well-referenced. Quality aside, I can't see the List of all war outbreaks during World War II, even with further development and a copy edit, being a particularly constructive WP:CONTENTFORK. N4 (talk) 15:00, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

Request for comment
If good sources like http://worldatwar.net/timeline/other/diplomacy39-45.html can be used, then I can support using this article only. But I've already have made one attempt... But but OK that was with other sources not available on the wbb. All of Hitler's lies reguarding the invasion of Poland seems unnecessary to use, I think. It was an attack without any previous declaration of war. The same ought to apply to the German invasion of the Soviet Union, even if a formal declaration of war was given by Ribbentrop to the ambassador of the Soviet Union in Berlin at the precise time of the attack (is stated in William L Shirer's "brickstone" The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Boeing720 (talk) 08:49, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Norway vs Japan ?
What really happened on 6th July 1945 was following "Norway announces that it had declared war on Japan on December 7, 1941", not quite the same, I think. By 7th December 1941 Norway was occupied by Germany and Vidkun Quisling or the German authorities in Norway surely didn't declare war on Japan as of that date. There really has to be some better substance in order to be noted at this list, I think. Source http://worldatwar.net/timeline/other/diplomacy39-45.html But this rises an importaint question. In whose name can a war be declared ?. In order to avoid delicate issues, just imagine - one nation, A, is occupied by another nation, B. An exile government is founded in nation C, and that exile government declares war on nation D, but nation F throws nation B free and installs a government that it (nation F) likes. And this new government declares war on nation C (that is hoasting the exile government of nation A), already this gets very complicated, doesn't it ? So I think that in order to declare a true war, the government must have atleast some territory to govern. Please note I do not state that it's wrong to form exile governments, or that these declares war. This may encurrage its people. But I think such exile government declarations of war cannot compare to for instance Japan vs United States or Germany vs USSR. Perhaps other users feel differently ? Boeing 720 83.249.169.66 (talk) 18:42, 17 February 2014 (UTC) Sorry Boeing720 (talk) 18:43, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Add "Link to Article" section?
I was reading through this, and I thought it would be neat to add this. It would also forcibly improve the amount of WWII attack articles. I would do it if I knew how to do it, but I don't know how to edit those things. Cnd474747 (talk) 00:17, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Winter War
Why is "first war between these nations" a relevant note on this topic? It's understandable that the Soviet Union, barely 20 years old and isolationist at this time, had barely been to war with anyone. KarstenO (talk) 04:09, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

The Animation
There is a severe error in the beginning of the animation, as Italy wasn't involved until the fall of France was imminent. The "axis"-treaty of 1938 isn't sufficient. Nussolini was, by the way, the last of the European leaders who wanted to keep the peace. And instead of the British-French ultimatum (which ended 3.September around noon that date), had Mussolini on 2.September suggested a great European conference. Germany should atleast stop where they were. Hence (mainly due to my first point) do I suggest Italy remains in white, until may 1940. Italy was simply not fighting, and if the German offensive in the west had been either a fiasco or had led to a stand still a la the Western Front during WW1, would hardly Mussolini attacked "France in its back". Mussolini was very opportunistic (any one who doubts that ?), and saw some kind of Italian chanses, in a successfull war which at the time appeared to be very safe to join Germany in. Boeing720 (talk) 19:13, 24 August 2015 (UTC) Let me also take the opportunity to say that technically is the animation a splendid work, but pleas correct it. Boeing720 (talk) 19:15, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

Just a joke
A Romanian meets an American. The American says: "Hey, I heard that your Army really sucks!" To which the Romanian smirks then replies: "When we declared War on the Germans, the next day they surrendered!" The American:..........

Romanian-and-proud (talk) 17:40, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

US declaration of war against Germany
The US is marked down at present as declaring war against Germany on 12/8/41. I believe this to be incorrect. The US reciprocated Germany's declaration of war on the US on 12/11/41. sources: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/WorldWar2/declare2.htm U.S., Department of State, Publication 1983, Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931-1941 (Washington, D.C.: U.S., Government Printing Office, 1943), pp. 849 TMLutas (talk) 06:58, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

I was also confused by this. See existing article German declaration of war against the United States (1941) Jmwallach (talk) 20:31, 4 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Because of the Tripartite Pact the declaration against Japan on Dec. 8th is understood as an declaration of war against Japan’s ally Nazi Germany, too. The separate/official declaration against Nazi Germany on Dec. 11th was clarifying the official relations. with best wishes from VINCENZO1492   09:04, 5 April 2017 (UTC)


 * I disagree that the declaration of war against Japan is considered to also apply to the Tripartite Pact members. Germany, Italy and the pact itself are not mentioned in either the declaration of December 8th against Japan or the December 11th against Germany. See Joint Resolution of December 12, 1941, Public Law 77-331, 55 STAT 796 at the Organization of the National Archives and Records Administration. Regards: Jmwallach (talk) 19:52, 24 September 2017 (UTC)


 * You disagree to historical facts… wonderful. And you really think your disagreement will make Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussiloni and Hideki Tojo change the Article 3 of the Tripartite Pact of 1940 in the year 2017? And as it is not mentioned in the US declarations it is not existing? You should not involve yourself into historical contents if you don’t know how to examine historical sources and circumstances and matters of (war) diplomacy. Or: would you agree that you are not on Wikipedia as I did not mentioned your name…? with best wishes from VINCENZO1492   17:13, 11 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Jmwallach is correct and Vincenzo1492 hasn't a clue. The Tripartite Pact did not obligate Germany or Italy to go to war with the USA because the USA did not attack Japan. Germany and Italy declared war on the USA first, which was the casus belli for the American declarations of war against Germany and Italy. The Tripartite Pact per se had nothing to do with it. Rather, the motivations that lay behind the pact also lay behind the German, Italian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Romanian declarations of war on the USA. Bulgaria, not already at war with the UK, also declared on war on Britain, although Britain was certainly not referred to in the Tripartite Pact, being already at war. It was, however, attacked by Japan (at Hong Kong). None of these states were required to do anything because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (and Thailand, for that matter). Srnec (talk) 23:28, 11 October 2017 (UTC)


 * The United States had been in an undeclared state of war with Germany and Italy for at least three months by the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt publicly confirmed the shoot on sight order on 11 September 1941. The German and Italian declarations made no difference in view of Rainbow Five and the Plan Dog memo. (86.156.198.157 (talk) 20:42, 24 August 2019 (UTC))

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 * Nevermind. I managed to find sources that explained the times. BTW, Chamberlain's speech did not begin at 11:00, as previously noted (I fixed that). In his speech, he even implied that at 11:00 they received Hitler's message, so he obviously did not begin his speech at that time. His speech began shortly thereafter, at 11:15 a.m. Anyhow I fixed the time zones and the speech time, so it's done. MagnoliaSouth (talk) 00:26, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Chile declaring war on Germany and Italy?
In 1943-01-20 Chile broke diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy. That's it. No war was formally declared (as wrongly stated on the list with the initial "W") and there was no de facto state of war either. I think this entry should be removed from the list. Af1391 (talk) 21:53, 2 March 2024 (UTC)