<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Envoy </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Ambassador Kim Darroch </Th> <Td> Ambassador Woody Johnson </Td> </Tr> <P> British--American relations, also referred to as Anglo - American relations, encompass many complex relations ranging from two early wars to competition for world markets . Since 1940 they have been close military allies enjoying the Special Relationship built as wartime allies, and NATO partners . </P> <P> The two nations are bound together by shared history, an overlap in religion and a common language and legal system, and kinship ties that reach back hundreds of years, including kindred, ancestral lines among English Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, Scotch - Irish Americans and American Britons respectively . Today large numbers of expatriates live in both countries . </P>

When did the us and the uk become allies