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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... Route , from the Gold Coast to Egypt , that had been pioneered as a civil air route by the British aviation company Imperial Airways in 1936. Its strategic potential was noted at the time , and when Italy entered the war in 1940 and ...
... route . The Cape never lost its importance for shipping in war and peace , even with the opening of the Suez Canal , and it was clear that in times of war it would be called upon more and more as the Mediterranean - Suez route was ...
... route to China was opened up . This was the Ledo Road , built at American insistence as part of Allied support for Chaing Kai - shek . It was a supply route and oil pipeline stretching for 478 miles from Ledo in India to Myitkyina in ...