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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... Persian Gulf . This , indeed , was the mobility of manpower and resources conferred by seapower . Upon it depended a complex system of global exchange and interdependency , an exercise in imperial housekeeping that ensured that during ...
... Persian Gulf Command . By November 1942 the Americans had delivered 27,000 aircraft and 28,000 tanks to Russia via Persia , and 27,000 vehicles were involved in the movement of troops and freight . Because so much of Iran's trans- port ...
... Persian Gulf and Egypt . British oil interests had been established in Iran since early in the century . The Burmah Oil Company had formed Anglo - Persian Oil to exploit the Iranian oilfields , and a refinery had been erected in 1912 ...