The Allies of World War I are sometimes also referred to as the Entente Powers or The Triple Entente (entente being French for "agreement"). The main allies were France, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, Italy and the United States. France, Russia, the United Kingdom (and, by default, its empire), entered World War I in 1914, as a result of their Triple Entente alliance. Many other countries later joined the Allied side in the war (see below). It should be noted that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his administration were determined not to define the U.S. as an ally. The United States declared war on Germany on the grounds of German violations of American neutrality, by attacking international shipping. The U.S. entered the war as an "associated power", rather than a formal ally of France and Britain, and maintained that distance throughout the war.[1] Although the Dominions and Crown Colonies of the British Empire made significant contributions to the Allied war effort, they did not have independent foreign policies during World War I. Operational control of British Empire forces was in the hands of the five-member British War Cabinet (BWC). However, the Dominion governments controlled recruiting, and did remove personnel from front-line duties as they saw fit. From early 1917 the BWC was superseded by the Imperial War Cabinet, which had Dominion representation. The Australian and Canadian army units were grouped in their own separate army corps, under Australian and Canadian commanders, who reported in turn to British and/or French generals. In April 1918, operational control of all Allied forces on the Western Front passed to the new supreme commander, Maréchal de France Ferdinand Foch.
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Allied states
Belgium (including Belgian colonial forces)
British Empire
France (including French colonial forces)
Kingdom of Greece (May 1917 and after)
Kingdom of Italy (April 1915 and after)
Empire of Japan
Kingdom of Montenegro
Portugal (March 1916 and after) (including Portuguese colonial forces)
Kingdom of Romania (August 1916-May 1918)
Russian Empire (until November 1917)
Kingdom of Serbia
United States of America (April 1917 and after)
as well as:
Albania
Andorra
Armenia (May 1918 and after)
Bolivia (April 1917 and after)
Brazil (October 1917 and after)
China (August 1917 and after)
Costa Rica (May 1918 and after)
Cuba (April 1917 and after)
Czechoslovakia
Ecuador (December 1917 and after)
Guatemala (April 1918 and after)
Liberia (August 1917 and after)
Haiti (July 1918 and after)
Honduras (July 1918 and after)
Nicaragua (May 1918 and after)
Panama (December 1917 and after)
Peru (October 1917 and after)
San Marino (June 1915 and after)
Siam (July 1917 and after)
Uruguay (October 1917 and after)
Personnel and casualties of the Allied powers
These are estimates of the cumulative number of different personnel in uniform 1914-1918, including army, navy and auxiliary forces. At any one time, the various forces were much smaller. Only a fraction of them were combat troops. The numbers do not reflect the length of time each country was involved, or the number of casualties. (See also: World War I casualties.)
| Allied powers | Personnel | Killed in action | Wounded in action | Total casualties | Casualties as % of total personnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 412,953[1] | 61,928[2] | 152,171 | 214,099 | 52% |
| Belgium | 267,000[3] | 38,172[3] | 44,686 | 82,858 | 31% |
| Canada | 628,964[1] | 64,944[4] | 149,732 | 214,676 | 34% |
| France | 8,410,000[3] | 1,397,800[5] | 4,266,000 | 5,663,800 | 67% |
| Greece | 230,000[3] | 26,000[6] | 21,000 | 47,000 | 20% |
| Indian Empire | 1,440,437[1] | 74,187[7] | 69,214 | 143,401 | 10% |
| Italy | 5,615,000[3] | 651,010[8] | 953,886 | 1,604,896 | 29% |
| Japan | 800,000[3] | 415[9] | 907 | 1,322 | <1% |
| Montenegro | 50,000[3] | 3,000 | 10,000 | 13,000 | 26% |
| New Zealand | 128,525[1] | 18,050[10] | 41,317 | 59,367 | 46% |
| Newfoundland | 11,922[1] | 1,204[11] | 2,314 | 3,518 | 30% |
| Portugal | 100,000[3] | 7,222[12] | 13,751 | 20,973 | 21% |
| Romania | 750,000[3] | 250,000[13] | 120,000 | 370,000 | 49% |
| Russia | 12,000,000[3] | 1,811,000[14] | 4,950,000 | 6,761,000 | 56% |
| Serbia | 707,343[3] | 275,000[15] | 133,148 | 408,148 | 58% |
| South Africa | 136,070[1] | 9,463[16] | 12,029 | 21,492 | 16% |
| United Kingdom | 6,200,000[2] | 885,138[17] | 1,663,435 | 2,548,573 | 41% |
| United States | 4,355,000[3] | 116,708[18] | 205,690 | 322,398 | 7% |
| Total | 42,243,214 | 5,691,241 | 12,809,280 | 18,500,521 | 44% |
Bibliography
- Ellis, John and Mike Cox. The World War I Databook: The Essential Facts and Figures for All the Combatants (2002)
- Esposito, Vincent J. The West Point Atlas of American Wars: 1900-1918 (1997) despite the title covers entire war; online maps from this atlas
- Falls, Cyril. The Great War (1960), general military history
- Higham, Robin and Dennis E. Showalter, eds. Researching World War I: A Handbook (2003), historiography, stressing military themes
- Pope, Stephen and Wheal, Elizabeth-Anne, eds. The Macmillan Dictionary of the First World War (1995)
- Strachan, Hew. The First World War: Volume I: To Arms (2004)
- Trask, David F. The United States in the Supreme War Council: American War Aims and Inter-Allied Strategy, 1917-1918 (1961)
- Tucker, Spencer, ed. The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History (5 vol 2005), online at eBook.com
- Tucker, Spencer, ed. European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia (1999)
References
- 1. ^ -Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War 1914-1920, The War Office March 1922 -Reprinted by Naval & Military Press- ISBN 1847346812
- 2. ^ Gilbert,Martin-Atlas of World War I, Oxford UP, 1994. ISBN 0195210778
- 3. ^ -Tucker, Spencer C. The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia, Garland Publishing, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-8153-3351-X
- 4. ^ -The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Annual Report 2005-2006 -The report is available online at [1].
- 5. ^ -The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour Register.[2]
- 6. ^ -Urlanis, Boris, Wars and Population, Moscow, 1971
- 7. ^ -"Huber M.,La Population de la France pendant la guerre, Paris 1931
- 8. ^ -"Bujac, Jean. Les campagnes de l'armèe Hellènique, 1918-1922, Paris, 1930
- 9. ^ Mortara, G. La Salute pubblica in Italia durante e dopo la Guerra, New Haven: Yale University Press 1925.
- 10. ^ Harries, Merion, Soldiers of the Sun-The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army,Random House, 1991 ISBN 0679753036
- 11. ^ Michael Clodfelter. Warfare and Armed Conflicts- A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500-2000. 2nd Ed. 2002 ISBN 0-7864-1204-6.
See also
| World War I Portal |
