Portugal granted access to the British to its bases in the Azores. Sweden allowed German troops across its territory to reach Finland in order to fight against Soviet occupation forces, as well as to facilitate the occupation of Norway.
Sweden declared its neutrality in September 1939. However, after the German occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Sweden was less well placed to resist German pressure to relax its neutral stance.
If Germany should decide to invade Sweden, the result would indeed be a costly victory for Hitler because of Germany8s great dependence on exports of Swedish iron ore. Thus the Swedes had in their economy their best weapon against German attack.
Sweden allowed Germans to pass freely to other countries, and sold iron ore that became vital to the Nazi campaign of war.
Why did Germany invade Norway but never invaded Sweden? How did Sweden stay out of the war? Germany invaded Norway to get some Atlantic ports that were a reasonable distance from Britain, which was a constant threat to the ports of France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Sweden, however, doesn't have any Atlantic ports.
During World War I and World War II, Switzerland maintained armed neutrality, and was not invaded by its neighbors, in part because of its topography, much of which is mountainous.
For reasons that are still uncertain, Hitler never ordered the invasion. One theory is that a neutral Switzerland would have been useful to hide Nazi gold and to serve as a refuge for war criminals in case of defeat. This may also explain Germany's continued recognition of Switzerland's neutrality.
In fact, Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany during the second world war not to prevent Soviet conquest but to win back territories lost to the USSR as a result of the winter war of 1939-40. The peace treaty that ended the war in March 1940 left Finnish independence intact.
Photo: The Danish Royal Library. Sweden is the only Nordic country that was able to remain by and large neutral during the Second World War and pursued a policy of neutrality during the Cold War. The tradition of such a security policy orientation goes back to the first half of the nineteenth century.
It imported oil from the Soviet Union until the German invasion of that country in June 1941 and from Hungary and Romania (25 percent of its annual requirements by 1944) after April 1941 when these two countries became German allies prior to the Soviet invasion.
Finland was aligned with the Germans but was not formally an Axis member. Yet the country was a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact. The German troops were primarily stationed in northern Finland. The Finnish Army advanced deep into the Soviet territory in the Continuation War (1941–1944).
During World War II, Finland was anomalous: It was the only European country bordering the Soviet Union in 1939 which was still unoccupied by 1945. It was a country which sided with Germany, but in which native Jews and almost all refugees were safe from persecution.
Since the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden has not initiated any direct armed conflict, and the country remained neutral even during World War I and World War II. Sweden chose not to join NATO when it was founded in 1949 and declared a security policy aiming for non-alignment in peace and neutrality in war.
As part of the British Empire, Australia was among the first nations to declare war on Nazi Germany and between 1939 and 1945 nearly one million Australian men and women served in what was going to be the Second World War.
World War II. With the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, Norway again declared itself neutral. On April 9, 1940, German troops invaded the country and quickly occupied Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. The Norwegian government rejected the German ultimatum regarding immediate capitulation.
Denmark signed a nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, hoping to maintain neutrality as it had in World War I. Germany, however, broke the agreement on April 9, 1940, when it occupied Denmark. King Christian X remained on the throne, and the Danish police and government reluctantly accepted the German occupation.
This took place three months after the German invasion of Poland that triggered the start of World War II in Europe. Sweden did not become actively involved in the conflict, but did indirectly support Finland. The Swedish Volunteer Corps provided 9,640 officers and men.
The country still held overseas territories that, because of their poor economic development, could not adequately defend themselves from military attack. Since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, the country expected to remain neutral.
Norway stayed occupied for five years until the war ended in 1945, and even though many Swedes had helped their Finnish neighbours in the Winter War against the Soviet Union the year before, we did very little to support Norway against the Germans, says journalist and historian Henrik Berggren.
German Invasion of Norway
On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Norway. Germany sought to secure naval bases for use against the British fleet in the North Sea and to guarantee vital iron-ore shipments from neutral Sweden. Despite British attempts to help, Norway surrendered to Germany on June 10.
Iceland cooperated with the British, Canadian, and American military but officially remained neutral during WWII.
Following the invasion, defeat, and partitioning of Poland by Germany and the Soviets in 1939, the Soviet Union sought to push its border with Finland on the Karelian Isthmus westward in an attempt to buttress the security of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) from potential German attack.
Spain was governed by Franco, whom Hitler had supported during the Spanish Civil War. No need to invade—Spain was a declared neutral—and while Hitler didn't respect any international norms, he knew the Allies would. Spain and Portugal sat out the war in relative peace and quiet.
Swiss neutrality is one of the main principles of Switzerland's foreign policy which dictates that Switzerland is not to be involved in armed or political conflicts between other states. This policy is self-imposed and designed to ensure external security and promote peace.
The German inability to destroy the Royal Air Force was another reason why Hitler did not invade Britain. Nazi Germany lost the Battle of Britain. The Germans did not have naval or air supremacy. These two aspects were vital for conducting a seaborne invasion.