The British Empire and the Second World WarIn 1939 Hitler went to war not just with Great Britain; he also went to war with the whole of the British Empire, the greatest empire that there had ever been. In the years since 1945 that empire has disappeared, and the crucial fact that the British Empire fought together as a whole during the war has been forgotten. All the parts of the empire joined the struggle and were involved in it from the beginning, undergoing huge changes and sometimes suffering great losses as a result. The war in the desert, the defence of Malta and the Malayan campaign, and the contribution of the empire as a whole in terms of supplies, communications and troops, all reflect the strategic importance of Britain's imperial status. Men and women not only from Australia, New Zealand and India but from many parts of Africa and the Middle East all played their part. Winston Churchill saw the war throughout in imperial terms. The British Empire and the Second World War emphasises a central fact about the Second World War that is often forgotten. |
From inside the book
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... first soldier . ' Aye , we are ' , replies the second , ' the whole five hundred million of us . ' In Britain the war is primarily remembered as a European struggle , an under- standable perspective born of geography and the close ...
... First World War gains but in 1945 , when Britain had reconquered its own colonies lost earlier to the Japanese and the Italians , and had acquired new terri- tories as a result of the defeat of its enemies . British military ...
... First Lord of the Admiralty , master of the most powerful weapon on earth . In Lloyd George's post - war Cabinets , Churchill served as Secretary of State for War and Air , and as Secretary of State for the Colonies . Even when out of ...
... First World War , Britain sought to return to the world of 1914 and to shed its military surfeit as soon as possible . Rapid army demobilization and decades of naval disarmament followed the Armistice . The Western Front millions , and ...
... first two and a half years of war were to show how important air power had become to imperial security , or rather its absence to the lack of it . Inter - war Britain , still mighty at sea and the world's greatest trading nation and ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
21 | |
41 | |
5 The Atlantic | 53 |
6 The Caribbean | 77 |
7 The Mediterranean | 97 |
8 Iraq Iran and Syria | 145 |
11 The Islands of the Indian Ocean | 307 |
12 India and Burma | 351 |
13 SouthEast Asia and the Far East | 405 |
14 Australia and New Zealand | 463 |
15 The Pacific | 513 |
16 Epilogue | 525 |
Notes | 535 |
Bibliography | 561 |