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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... Office ) . Aden was also separated from India in 1937 , though it became a Colonial Office responsibility and thus a part of the Colonial Empire . This Colonial Empire consisted primarily of Crown Colonies and Protectorates . India was ...
... Office was ' the mobilization of all the potential resources of the Colonial Empire , both of men and of mate- rials , for the purposes of war'.26 This required an immense amount of work , and in 1944 the Colonial Office received 81,000 ...
... Office appraisals of the state of the empire and future reform , as well as its efforts to present its policies in the best light to colonial peoples and the watching world , see J. M. Lee and Martin Petter , The Colonial Office , War ...