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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... Escort Force Northern Rhodesia Regiment MCP MPAJA Malayan People's Anti - Japanese Army NCAC NCO Non Commissioned Officer NEF NMC Native Military Corps NRR NZEF New Zealand Expeditionary Force OB OCT OKW OSS OUT RAAF Royal Australian ...
... escort carriers loaned to the Royal Navy gave Britain a surfeit of vessels in that class by the end of the war . In all America supplied Britain with ninety - nine escort vessels , excluding the fifty old destroyers exchanged in 1941 ...
... escort vessels . Like the little boats that saved the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk , it was the smaller vessels of the Royal Navy and its partners , some converted from civilian working vessels , which protected the mighty ...
... escorts waiting to form into 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 ) ...
... escort carriers ( such as HMS Khedive , Nabob , Rajah and Shah ) . Many colonies and cities had ships named for them - HMS Cairo , Calcutta , Cape Town , Colombo , Jamaica , Kandahar , Khartoum , Uganda and dozens more providing a touch ...
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 |