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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... Britain been defeated , every territory of the Empire would have changed hands and fallen under the sway of new imperial masters , as the largest imperial estate in history went under the auctioneer's hammer . Different colonies were ...
... British imperial scholarship , set down a Palmerstonian phrase now hackneyed as a description of the piecemeal ... British Empire was acquired in a fit of absence of mind ' . His point was that there was no central blueprint for Empire ...
... imperial razor wire in Borneo as in Berlin . Victorious imperial armies were spread the world over , a massive navy with over forty aircraft carriers was anchored athwart every far - flung sea lane , a Commonwealth force under an ...