While the last German units are laying down their arms all over Europe the rapid drama of events that led to their surrender gives place to a period of waiting upon political and diplomatic developments. In 1936 Chiang was forced to cease his anti-communist military campaigns after his kidnap and release by Zhang Xueliang, and reluctantly formed a nominal alliance with the Communists, while the Communists agreed to fight under the nominal command of the Nationalists against the Japanese. Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, China and Japan became embroiled in a full-scale war. The Soviet Union, wishing to keep China in the fight against Japan, supplied China with military assistance until 1941, when it signed a non-aggression pact with Japan.

The headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. In 1942 Roosevelt proposed becoming, with China, the Four Policemen of world peace. Although the 'Four Powers' were reflected in the wording of the Declaration by United Nations, Roosevelt's proposal was not initially supported by Churchill or Stalin. Main article: Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950) August 1948, German children deported from the eastern areas taken over by Poland arrive in western Germany.Also in 1947, the American zone of occupation being inland had no port facilities – thus the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and Bremerhaven became exclaves within the British zone. It is tempting to-day to explain away the events of the past ten years in some such terms. (Is not Himmler himself reported to have said that Germany was now a vast lunatic asylum?) But this will not do. We may not know the answer to the troubles of mankind but at least we know some of the causes. We have learnt, or should have learn, how dangerous is the spirit of nationalism when harnessed to the fact of power. We have seen what can happen to a great nation which surrenders to its leaders the freedom of thought and speech and conscience. We have ourselves felt the terrible power of destruction which man has acquired through science uncontrolled by wisdom. We have learnt (at what a cost!) that the platitudes of Geneva were the urgent truth, and that the brotherhood of man, the unity of nations, and the indivisibility of peace are facts which we can no longer ignore. But knowledge is not enough. Fear, hatred, nationalism and the like are not rational states but emotions which for a long time will continue to govern human behaviour and which will be fed by the chaos and misery in Europe. Hunger and unemployment are not the best schools for reason and tolerance, but they will have many pupils. Campion, Corey (2019). "Remembering the Forgotten Zone: Recasting the Image of the Post-1945 French Occupation of Germany". French Politics, Culture & Society. 37 (3): 79–94. doi: 10.3167/fpcs.2019.370304. S2CID 210491528.

Main, Steven J. "The Soviet Occupation of Germany. Hunger, Mass Violence and the Struggle for Peace, 1945–1947." Europe-Asia Studies (2014) 66#8 pp: 1380–1382. doi: 10.1080/09668136.2014.941704 Document 500: Communiqué Issued at the End of the Conference". Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Malta and Yalta 1945. U.S. Department of State. 12 February 1945. Archived from the original on 6 August 2023.States, United (1968). Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949: Multilateral, 1931-1945. Department of State. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023 . Retrieved 24 June 2021.

The Government of the new Yugoslavia is violently opposed to the occupation of Trieste by Western Allied troops. It may be that a free port and international status for the town, with Italian sovereignty in cultural questions, would best serve the Allied and European cause, especially during the years of transition. If this cannot be, then there is a case for its return to Italy because an overwhelming majority of its inhabitants are Italian. Asia and Oceania The fall of Damascus to the Allies, late June 1941. A car carrying Free French commanders General Georges Catroux and General Paul Louis Le Gentilhomme enters the city, escorted by French Circassian cavalry ( Gardes Tcherkess).MacDonogh, Giles (2007). After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation. New York: Basic Books. p.7. ISBN 978-0-465-00337-2. The Soviets used suspicion of supposed Werwolf activity to tighten police control and secure forced labor. [22] Conditions in the occupation zones [ edit ] Trümmerfrauen at work, Berlin The Soviet Union recognised the Republic of China but urged reconciliation with the Chinese Communist Party and inclusion of Communists in the government. [64] The Soviet Union also urged military and cooperation between Nationalist China and Communist China during the war. [64] After breaking off relations with the Polish government, the Soviet Union began forming its own Polish communist government and its armed forces in mid-1943, from which the 1st Polish Army, under Zygmunt Berling, was formed on March 16, 1944. [96] That army was fighting on the eastern front, alongside the Soviet forces, including the Battle of Berlin, the closing battle of the European theater of war.

Brüll, Christoph (2011). "Entre ressentiment et ré-éducation, L'Armée belge d'Occupation et les Allemands, 1945–1952" (PDF). Cahiers d'Histoire du Temps Présent. 23: 55–56. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 October 2013 . Retrieved 6 July 2013.The ports of Bremen (on the lower Weser River) and Bremerhaven (at the Weser estuary of the North Sea) were also placed under U.S. control because of the U.S. request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany. On the same day, Soviet party leader Joseph Stalin received a telegram from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, suggesting that German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop fly to Moscow for diplomatic talks. (After receiving a lukewarm response throughout the spring and summer, Stalin abandoned attempts for a better diplomatic relationship with France and the United Kingdom.) [43] In the 1920s the Soviet Union provided military assistance to the Kuomintang, or the Nationalists, and helped reorganize their party along Leninist lines: a unification of party, state, and army. In exchange the Nationalists agreed to let members of the Chinese Communist Party join the Nationalists on an individual basis. However, following the nominal unification of China at the end of the Northern Expedition in 1928, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek purged leftists from his party and fought against the revolting Chinese Communist Party, former warlords, and other militarist factions.