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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... Singapore , Australians who rounded up the Japanese in Borneo and Sarawak , and Anglo - Indian divisions that arrived to supervise the Japanese surrendering in the Dutch East Indies and French Indo - China . British Empire and ...
... Singapore and the Far East . Thus Addu Atoll in the Maldives was devel- oped as a major fleet base to supplement facilities at Trincomalee and Colombo in the light of the loss of Singapore . Ports such as Freetown and Halifax became ...
... Singapore , in which so many hollow inter - war security hopes had reposed . Losses to Japan also escalated the demand for production in places such as West Africa , necessitating conscription to provide the cotton , food , rubber ...
... Singapore with adequate modern aircraft cover . The 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 ...
... Singapore naval base . This was a huge problem , because , although militarily it had slipped down the ranks , Britain was still the major imperial power in the region and had the biggest commercial and financial stake there . This ...
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 |