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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... bombs on Rangoon , the capital of Burma . They fell on women in the market places , cheroots between painted lips , behind their stalls of dried fish and betel nuts ; upon worshippers on the marble way about the great Shwe DagĂ´n pagoda ...
... bomb load if called in to action , even those not designed to carry bombs at all . Makeshift bomb - racks were cobbled together so that as many aircraft as possible could be bombed up , some dangerously overloaded in the process . Tests ...
... bomb , as she was unloading motor vehicles and bombs . Moored near Tenedos was AMC Hector , which was also sunk . It was in the process of being decommissioned from mili- tary duties , having spent two and a half years escorting convoys ...