I have spent 50 years studying WWII and everything I have ever read, seen, or heard says that absolutely did not happened. The closest thing that I have ever seen as evidence of Ireland breaking neutrality was when they allowed Allied ships to be repaired in their dry docking facilities and by rescuing sailors from many nations including Germany. As far as supplying German submarines goes, they did not have supplies for their own needs so I doubt that they would have been able to provide that kind of assistance even if they wanted to do so.
If anything the Irish assisted the Allies. But the description for this quiz is written in an exact way that lets you know what we are looking for.
However, I can see why there would be resentment towards the Irish actions (or non-actions) during WWII, which seem to an outside observer to be incredibly stubborn. Surely, they could have joined the Allies once the threat of German invasion was neutralized?
The reasons have been probably studied in detail, but off the top of my head: plenty of fighting just one generation back, including Easter rising, independence war with UK and the civil war, which also resulted in complicated relation with the UK and complex divisions within Ireland. Economic situation probably wasn't great either.
Ireland had no reason to side with the Allies considering the animosity between Ireland and the UK during WWII. I'm sure we didn't appreciate being called a cabbage garden by a certain prime minister either.
You should really change the title of the quiz. A nation that neither 'invaded nor was invaded by' another nation really is not the definition of 'neutrality'.
I believe you could make a better argument for Spain leaning toward the Axis Powers than you could Ireland. With that said, neither country invaded or was invaded by another country, so they both fit the scope of this quiz.
It was just a complex situation. They were friendly up to a point with the allies, but on the other hand those Irish people who volunteered to fight alongside the British were treated abominably when they came home.
Sweden also supported the Axis quite heavily by selling them steel and other goods, while not selling to the Allies. This was to prevent invasion from either A) Germany after Norway fell or B) the USSR if Finland fell.
Anyways, they never gave troops, never declared war, etc. Therefore, they were neutral.
Turkey was all the war neutral but declared just for fun war on the Axis when the war was actually over. To my knowledge, Turkey was neither invading or invaded during WW2. (Or do you just not consider Turkey as part of Europe?) On the other hand, Switzerland was bombed (probably accidentally) by both the Axis and the Allies and the Swiss shot down several planes from both the Axis and the Allies. And what is about the Spanish Blue Division? There is a difference between declaring neutrality and not invade/get invaded.
Switzerland had (inhabited!) POW penal camps during WW2. How would you call it when you fight/capture foreign soldiers on/above your territory? An invasion? Switzerland during WW2 is a nitpicking curiosity. But don't we all like those contra-intuitive facts/exceptions? ;-)
You have to capture soldiers of other countries if you're neutral. Belgian soldiers were also detained in the Netherlands in WWI. If you don't detain all soldiers fleeing to your country from all countries that are at war, you're breaking neutrality.
The fact that a neutral State uses force to repel attempts to violate
its neutrality cannot be regarded as a hostile act.
Neutral States receiving troops belonging to the belligerent armies on
their territory must intern them. It would be a violation of the duty of
non-participation if the neutral State permitted such troops to take part
Technically the Blue Division soldiers were "volunteers" (División Española de Voluntarios). This quiz might be better called 'countries who declared themselves neutral and were never invaded, and never officially declared war on another country (even though they did all kinds of non-neutral stuff).' Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?
Not sure about Liechtenstein, but Switzerland was armed to the teeth. They mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and the country was protected by a ring of defensive positions. The Germans maybe could have conquered it, but their casualties would have been enormous.
It would have meant big losses and they needed their forces elsewhere. It wasnt a big threat and they counted on being able to deal with it later when the major powers were beaten. Same with Sweden, when surrounded by nazis they counted on being able to pressure them into submission. Fortunately the tide turned in time.
I think they didn't bother with Liechtenstein as it is very mountainous terrain and difficult to invade, and is a tiny country that wouldn't have given the Nazis anything rewarding.
Switzerland has a geographical advantage against any invaders. If you're curious what warfare in Switzerland might have been like, check out the Italian front in World War I. As for WWII, the strategy dubbed "blitzkrieg" by the media likely wouldn't have been feasible against Switzerland.
But how is Andorra supposed to resist a Nazi invasion? The decision makes sense - preserving your own nation. And even these countries didn’t do nothing - places like Sweden sheltered Jews from the Nazis.
Most western countries are currently supporting or ignoring genocide and global terror in a variety of ways. Black and white lines aren't easy to draw.
Spain and Portugal were also fascist, Sweden and Switzerland were formally neutral but providing material assistance to the Nazis, Ireland was a poor country which had just fought a war of independence against one of the Allies. Andorra and Liechtenstein are microstates with no appreciable military to fight anybody, and the Vatican were collaborators - which isn't surprising because mid-century Catholics were very reactionary and they are surrounded by Italy.
Portugal was nationalist not fascist (even though the ideologies had a lot of overlap) and had better relations with the UK than Germany. Spain just went through a civil war so they were too busy repairing after that to get involved. Also they were nationalists not fascists (though the ideologies again had a lot of overlap and they were sympathetic towards the fascists). Switzerland and Sweden provided material assistance to both side of the war. They both also protected Jews and captured any soldiers who came within their borders whether they were Axis or Allies. Ireland provided a lot of help to the Allies despite the animosity between them and the UK. Though many Irish citizens were sympathetic towards the Axis with some volunteering for them but some also volunteered for the Allies.
The crimes commited by the nazis would only be fully known near the end of the war. Even a direct report from Polish resistants infiltrated in Auschwitz, the Pilecki report, was considered too big to be real as their crimes were unthinkable (industrial death camps), only when the major death camps were liberated did the world understand the scale of what happened. And by this point it was obvious that Germany was going to be crushed, joining wouldn't have been necessary to ensure its defeat.
People during the war did not have the same informations that we have now.
There is genocide happening right now and yet the world does nothing. Don't be so quick to volunteer other people to die for a cause. It's easy to accuse, hard to act.
The Germans debated invading in World War I. But someone pointed out that the Royal Navy would slap a blockade on German traffic in the North Sea. So having access to neutral ports on the North Sea was a good idea. Didn't work that way in the next war, though.
It would be a pretty silly quiz. There were many countries that piled on to declare war on Germany/Japan once the outcome was obvious. These countries took no risk, shouldered no burden, but hoped for a seat at the victor's table.
OH MY GOODNESS THANK YOUUUUU. That's all I could think of until i realized the quiz was in alphabetical order which really helped me BEAST MODE this quiz
However, I can see why there would be resentment towards the Irish actions (or non-actions) during WWII, which seem to an outside observer to be incredibly stubborn. Surely, they could have joined the Allies once the threat of German invasion was neutralized?
Ireland remained politically neutral but in reality they were friendly with the allies.
Anyways, they never gave troops, never declared war, etc. Therefore, they were neutral.
The fact that a neutral State uses force to repel attempts to violate
its neutrality cannot be regarded as a hostile act.
Neutral States receiving troops belonging to the belligerent armies on
their territory must intern them. It would be a violation of the duty of
non-participation if the neutral State permitted such troops to take part
again in hostilities.
Source: https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/law8_final.pdf
People during the war did not have the same informations that we have now.
Although I'd be interested to see a quiz on all countries that were neutral in WW2, it may already exist on jetpunk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declarations_of_war_during_World_War_II
I translate your Quiz to german. If you are not okay with it, please contact me.