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. |
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... Fleet BR Burma Rifles BIA Burma Independence Army CAM Catapult Armed Merchant Ship CBME Combined Bureau Middle East ... Eastern Air Command ( India ) East African Military Labour Service Eastern Group Supply Council Fleet Air Arm FECB ...
... fleets and squadrons that had historically policed the world , from the South Atlantic Station to the Mediterranean Fleet and from the China Station to the Eastern Fleet . All over the world imperial ports were used to the full by ...
... East Asia . Mauritian sugar planters turned their estates into vegetable gardens as the island faced starvation when ... Eastern Fleet in Ceylon . Empire escaped enemy attention , whether in the form of 6 THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE ...
... Eastern Fleet , and the carrier USS Wasp was loaned at the personal request of Churchill to ferry Spitfires for the defence of Malta . The American - built Catalina flying boat was a mainstay of ocean patrolling by British forces in the ...
... fleet operated in the theatre , the Reserve Fleet , brought rapidly to a full state of mobilization by its Commander ... Eastern Fleet , based on Ceylon and Kenya , with a remit stretching from the Red Sea to the wastes of the Southern ...
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 |