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. |
From inside the book
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... Malta's battle was a war of survival against apparently overwhelming odds , and against an official German invasion ... Malta into submission , the island was never an abject underdog . In the early stages of the Mediterranean war the ...
... Malta to defeat , and nearly succeeded in doing so . An American pilot in the RAF said of Malta that he had never been to a place before or since that had such a visible atmosphere of doom , violence and toughness about it ' . As one of ...
... Malta's air facilities and aircraft were an equally important Axis target . Malta's effectiveness against Axis supply routes was intolerable . Rommel needed Malta out of the action so that supplies could arrive uninterrupted and the ...