By Melissa Blevins
Marking the two main groups of belligerents in the Second World War (1939-1945), the Axis and the Allies slugged out their differences from the beaches of Normandy to the islands of the South Pacific. The history of their epic battles, atrocities, heroes and villains is well known, but one bit of trivia you may not be familiar with is where the two alliances got their names.
In October 1936, incident to their participation in the Spanish Civil War, Italy and Germany entered into an informal agreement of friendship. While giving an address about this pact to a crowd in Milan, Italys Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini, said:
This Berlin-Rome vertical line is not an obstacle but rather an axis around which can revolve all those European states with a will to collaboration and peace.
Il Duce was not the first leader to describe this axis of power it had actually been proposed by Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Gombos who had hoped to create this between his nation, Italy and Germany in the 1930s. Gombos died just weeks before the Rome-Berlin pact was made.
By 1939, after both Italy and Germany had invaded other European nations, the two countries signed the Pact of Steel. Executed on May 22, the agreement bound each country to support the other in the event of war.
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and on September 3, Britain and France declared war in retaliation. The Soviet Union entered the conflict on September 17, 1939, and Italy in June 1940.
On September 27, 1940, Italy, Germany and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact. Although many commentators claim that the Axis powers formally took the name [Axis] after this pact was signed, I am unable to confirm this in my research.
Nonetheless, people within the Axis countries, and their governments, apparently referred to themselves as the Axis by this time, whether official or not. In addition to Mussolinis explicit claim, it was certainly used in Germany. In fact, the name given to a 1943 operation to disarm the Italian military if it signed a cease-fire with the Allies was Fall Achse, which means Case (Operation) Axis.
In any event, the term was certainly popular with Allied countries, particularly the United States, where it had the connotation of a single, monolithic, evil entity. For example, in his address on December 9, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described the attack on Pearl Harbor as the actual collaboration . . . [by the] Axis strategists [executing a] joint plan. This language was mirrored in the press and across the country.
Allies
For two years before the United States entered it, World War II raged in Europe. On June 12, 1941, members of fourteen nations met at an inter-allied meeting to sign the St. James Agreement, vowing to stand together:
It is our intention to work together, and with other free peoples, both in war and peace, to this end.
By the time the U.S. declared war on Japan (December 8, 1941) and Germany and Italy (December 11, 1941), the alliance of Great Britain, et. al was universally referred to as the Allies.
Melissa Blevin is a Legal Professional and Feature Writer.
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