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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... Defence Force ( South Africa ) SDF Sudan Defence Force SEAC South East Asia Command SIS Secret Intelligence Service ( MI6 ) SOE SPA Special Operations Executive South Pacific Area SPS Sudan Political Service STS SWPA TJFF UDF ULTRA UKCC ...
... defence and for the projection of military power . Territories such as Australia , Ceylon , Egypt , Fiji , India , Kenya and Mauritius became springboards for offensive Allied operations in neighbouring regions and bases for special ...
... defence plans , France , was out for the count and its Vichy government and empire added to the list of likely enemies . At the start of the war Russia was in a pact with Nazi Germany , and from April 1941 with Japan . An unlikely set ...
... defence , founded on supremacy at sea , were still the basis of British defence policy . But this was simply unrealistic in a world where other powers had sophisticated navies . While Britain was disarming , new weapons , particularly ...
... defence . Italy , in a move redolent of European behaviour during the scramble for Africa , invaded Abyssinia in 1935 , as Mussolini sought to build a new Roman Empire . Naturally Abyssinia looked to the League of Nations ' two leading ...
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 |