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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... world , from the South Atlantic Station to the Mediterranean Fleet and from the China Station to the Eastern Fleet . All over the world imperial ports were used to the full by warships and merchantmen , as they travelled ... SECOND WORLD WAR.
... Second World War ( London , 1998 ) , is a collection of oral history recording the war experi- ences and perspectives of people from all over the Empire . 4. Patrick Bishop , Fighter Boys : Saving Britain 1940 ( London , 2003 ) , p . 98 ...
... Second World War in Kenya ' , Journal of African History , 21 ( 1980 ) ; and John Lonsdale's Kenya chapter in Killingray and Rathbone ( eds ) , Africa and the Second World War . 11. Bent , Ten Thousand Men of Africa . 12. See A. G. ...