Axis powers

Germany, Italy and Japan, allied to fight World War II under the Tripartite Pact of 1940. (Germany and Italy were already joined by the Pact of Steel of 1939 and Germany and Japan by the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936.) Hungary, Romania and Slovakia joined the Tripartite Pact in November 1940, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia (later Croatia) in March 1941. In Europe and north Africa, Germany was the senior partner in the Axis. There was almost no cooperation between Japan and other Axis members, particularly as Japan refused to attack the Soviet Union.