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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... theatre of conflict in accounts of the Second World War , though its availability to British shipping was absolutely essential to the imperial war effort in Africa , Burma , the Middle East and South - East Asia . This was because , in ...
... theatre from 1944 , as well as for the ferrying of troops and supplies to and from Australia and New Zealand . Despite the gravity of the tasks , Britain's position in the Indian Ocean was maintained on a shoestring as other theatres ...
Ashley Jackson. full well that the media gaze was fixed on theatres nearer to home , but that the people who mattered ... theatre Canadian pilots , Gurkha naiks , British infantrymen , Karen irregulars , Sikh tank drivers and Amer- ican ...