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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... convoys in the Mediterranean , is also well known . The fall of Singapore remains perhaps the most widely remembered imperial feature of the Second World War , and the Fourteenth Army in Burma is paradoxically remembered as the ...
... convoys and trade during the war . Even Ireland , a reluctant British Dominion that insisted on remaining neutral throughout the conflict , furnished over 43,000 men for service with British forces , whilst Ulster participated loyally ...
... convoys , and facilities were extended or created anew , particularly to compensate for the loss of bases in ... convoy assembly points , and Durban acted as the base for the invasion of Madagascar . As a global economic community , the ...
... convoy defence , corvettes and destroyers.16 Puny these ships may have appeared when measured against the destructive might and huge deadweight of battleships , but they were crucial in defending convoys , a role in which battleships ...
... convoy . The famous ' HX ' ( Halifax ) Atlantic and ' WS ' ( ' Winston's Specials ' ) convoys shunted vital supplies around the world ( the former to Britain , the latter to the Middle East via the Cape ) , whilst Mediterranean ...
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 |