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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... weeks Wavell's forces had destroyed an army of nearly 250,000 men , taking 133,295 prisoners , 380 tanks and 845 guns . In ten weeks the British imperial forces had advanced over 700 miles at the cost of only 500 dead , driving the ...
... weeks of running out and by August 1942 Malta was within a month of starvation , and its defenders had set a target date for surrender . To counter the massive build up of Axis pressure on the island , its air defences needed to be ...
... weeks before the joint Anglo - Russian invasion . In convincing itself that decisive action against Iran was needed , the British government had some weighty opinion on its side . The two British generals controlling the vast Middle ...