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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... Thailand railway ( immortalized in British film history in The Bridge on the River Kwai , about the bridging of the Mae Klong river ) . Burmese , Indone- sian , Malayan and Thai labourers were conscripted for its construction , and of ...
... Thailand railway was only the most notorious form of pressed labour in Japan's new Asian empire , and it is estimated that in the Burma - Thailand - Malaya region up to 100,000 women and girls became sex slaves . As was the case in ...
... Thailand railway . Camps in Singa- pore became transit facilities as later in the war Allied prisoners from Sumatra and Borneo were also channelled north . The fall of Singapore did not signal the end of imperial and Allied resistance ...