
In the postwar period, competition continued among Antarctica's claimant powers, as well as the United States and Soviet Union. The research begun by Operation Tabarin continued in subsequent years, ultimately becoming the British Antarctic Survey. Bases were established on Deception Island, the coast of Graham Land, and at Hope Bay. The expedition under Lieutenant James Marr left the Falklands on 29 January 1944. There was also a fear that Japan might attempt to seize the Falkland Islands. Its objective was to establish a permanent presence and assert Britain's claim to the Falkland Islands Dependencies, as well as to deny use of the area to the Kriegsmarine, which was known to use remote islands as rendezvous points. In response to the activities of Germany, Chile, Argentina, and the United States, Britain launched Operation Tabarin in 1943. In 1940 Chile proclaimed the Chilean Antarctic Territory in areas already claimed by Britain, while Argentina proclaimed Argentine Antarctica in 1943 in an overlapping area. Responding to these encroachments, and taking advantage of Europe's wartime turmoil, the nearby nations of Chile and Argentina made their own claims. A year later, the United States Antarctic Service Expedition established two bases, which operated for two years before being abandoned. The expedition served as the basis for a new German claim, called New Swabia. During the prelude to war, Nazi Germany organized the 1938 Third German Antarctic Expedition to preempt Norway's claim to Queen Maud Land. International competition extended to the continent of Antarctica during the World War II era, though the region saw no combat. Personnel of Operation Tabarin unload supplies at Port Lockroy, 1944. The Albanian partisans also helped in the liberation of Kosovo and parts of Yugoslavia. The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on November 29, 1944. Many Balli Kombëtar units and leaders collaborated. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. Germany occupied Albania in September 1943, dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital, and soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. They assembled a National Liberation Army.

In September 1942, the party organized the Albanian National Anti-Fascist Front, from a number of resistance groups, including several that were strongly anti-communist. In mid-1942, however, party leaders increased their popularity by calling young people to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy. In October 1941, small Albanian Communist groups established an Albanian Communist Party in Tirana of 130 members under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. On June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and on June 28 Albania also declared war on the USSR. Benito Mussolini boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania long wanted by the Tirana nationalists. Initially the Albanian Fascist Party received support from the population, mainly because of the unification of Kosovo and other Albanian-populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece by the Axis in Spring 1941. Albania Īlbanian partisans, with their leader Enver Hoxha in the center, after the liberation of Tirana on November 17, 1944.Īfter the Italian invasion of Albania in April 1939, 100,000 Italian soldiers and 11,000 Italian colonists who wanted to integrate Albania into the Italian Empire settled in the country. Following the Axis loss in Stalingrad in 1943, the plans cooled off and were never executed. It is believed he was involved in plans to regain his throne with Axis help. In 1941, Western press reported that Amanullah Khan, a former king who lost his throne in a civil war in the 1920s, was working as an agent for Nazi Germany in Berlin. Despite this stated goal, Afghanistan stayed out of the war, neither suffering an attack nor attacking any other country. In 1940, the Afghanistan legation in Berlin asked whether Germany would cede land in British India to Afghanistan if it should win the war specifically, the king and minister wanted to acquire all the ethnic Pashtun land between the Durand Line and the Indus River. Despite British pressure, Afghanistan maintained friendly relations with the Axis during the war. The kingdom had close relations with all three Axis powers and had agreements with them for assistance with infrastructure and trade. Under the Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Khan, Afghanistan stayed neutral. The countries involved or affected by World War II are listed here alphabetically, with a description of their role in the conflict. 158 Southern Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini).
