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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... recruitment was really a demonstration of settler power in the Legislative Council , for the bottom line was that settlers depended on cheap African labour . Some historians have suggested that East Africans did not join the army out of ...
... recruitment of military or civilian labour units in Nyasaland during the war . In 1939 the governor had promised the people that there would be no new Carrier Corps , the First World War military labour unit of ill repute , and this ...
... recruitment was carried out by the order of the Paramount Chiefs . Paramount Chief Sobhuza II sent war messengers to all Swazi chiefs and charged them with the responsibility of furnishing men and accounting for absentees . Recruitment ...