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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... military bases and by treaty obliged to allow British forces access and transit rights in times of war . They were therefore not fully sovereign and were very much a part of the British world system . Egypt , an unofficial British ...
... Military Force CNVF Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force CSF DEMS EAC EAC EAMLS EGSC FAA Caribbean Sea Frontier Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship East Africa Command Eastern Air Command ( India ) East African Military Labour Service Eastern ...
... military government could not secure Japan's rightful place in the world if Britain continued to dominate Shanghai and monopolize so much of the treasure of South - East Asia . In seeking to counter the mortal threat posed in every ...
... military installations . A million Indians built airstrips and installations in Bengal and Assam , as the region became the great military encampment and supply dump from which the Japanese were to be pushed out of Burma and South ...
... military prepa- ration , understandably , was made against these seemingly unlikely possibilities - one must set a contemporary intelligence and attitude failure that directly and adversely affected Britain's capacity to defend its ...
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 |