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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... prisoners of war and conscripted indige- nous civilians from across South Asia and South - East Asia for the construction of the Burma - Thailand railway ( immortalized in British film history in The Bridge on the River Kwai , about the ...
... prisoners of war , captivity did not mean four years of sedentary hardship : the British and Indian prisoners in Borneo found themselves shipped around , for example to operate oil fields and build roads . Japanese brutality combined ...
... prisoners . Over a hundred Australians were killed in the reconquest , and 1234 Japanese corpses were counted . The Inter - Services Reconnaissance Department's teams estimated that , with the help of the Dyaks , their operations ...