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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... major British commitment , but it was British forces that took the surrender in Hong Kong and Singapore ... major naval battlefield by virtue of its vital sea routes . These connected Britain to Australasia and the major theatres of ...
... major imperial power in the region and had the biggest commercial and financial stake there . This waning of British military power in the Far East was not a recent thing . In 1902 a naval alliance with Japan had been necessary to ...
... major Colonial Office initiative was launched to defend the Empire from Amer- ican encroachment and to persuade Americans that the British Empire was not a nefarious threat that needed to be swept away along with the dictators . 9 The ...
... major item on the production list of Canadian shipyards . Australia built them as well , and South Africa built minesweepers and converted whalers and trawlers to serve as escort vessels . Like the little boats that saved the British ...
... in Mauritius , for example , Nutrition Demonstration Units toured the villages teaching Indians how to make bread , now that their staple foodstuffs had been cut off . This was because supplies of major THE HOME FRONT 43.
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 |