Originally Posted by bubba75
Originally Posted by Invinciblor
While we're on the subject, who are the Soviets allied with?
Soviets are allies.
And MN considering is Vicky France is Axis
actually the french split into two parts .. one part with VICHY and the germans ...
the other part sided with the allies under De Gaulle and the resistance govt in exile
the result was that the french fleet (on BOTH sides) spent most of the war IN HARBOR ...
the german part had hitler's anti-navy issues .. and he had promised not to make the vichy fight other french
plus he didn't trust the frnech crews to let them loose in the open ocean (they might defect)
their flag was the standard TRi-COLOR..
the resistance part operated out of north africa (can you say 'free foregin legion') and did spend more time at sea
usually as part of the polish and english arm .. they saw some limited action .. they didn't have a lot of resources
their flag was the MODIFIED tri-color LORRAINE CROSS
so the french went both ways .. axis AND allies .. depending on which ships were where when vichy 'surrendered'
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soviets were ALLIES .. but .. they had their pre-ww2 fleet annihated by the japanese torp fleet in sino-russia war
(which is a part of what lead the japanese to try wiping out the us pacific fleet with the pearl harbor attack)
the soviets were also still struggling with the aftermath of their communist revolution and the sailors revolts
(the chinese were in teh throes of their own communist revolution as well - why not much involvment fighting)
and also the russian ports were positions such that they were trapped by the german subs in the north sea
(which is a big part of what led russia to go into building up their sub fleet big time after the war ended)
so for most practical purposes the russians were decimated before teh war and then trapped in harbor during
the french were also restricted to harbor but parts did see limited enganements on both sides .. moreso allied
and the italians were basically kept bottled up in the merriditerrean by the allied french and english fleets ...
this may or may not be helpful ... http://pizzler.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/wwiihistorymap.gif
... BLUE = ALLIES ... RED = COMMIES (nominally allies) ... BLACK = AXIS ... GREY = NEUTRAL ..
see also : http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/WW2/involved.htm