In 1938 , at the outbreak of World War II , which had a larger population , the Western Allies ( United Kingdom , France , Poland and British Dominions ) or the European Axis ( Germany and Italy )
Similarly , Poland and Czechoslovakia are often excluded from the term , because of their post-war forced inclusion in the Eastern Bloc , even though Polish and Czechoslovak armed forces fought alongside Western Allies ( Poland fought against Germany before any of the Western Allies joined the war ) .