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. |
From inside the book
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... First Lord of the Admiralty , master of the most powerful weapon on earth . In Lloyd George's post - war Cabinets , Churchill served as Secretary of State for War and Air , and as Secretary of State for the Colonies . Even when out of ...
... First World War , Britain sought to return to the world of 1914 and to shed its military surfeit as soon as possible . Rapid army demobilization and decades of naval disarmament followed the Armistice . The Western Front millions , and ...
... first two and a half years of war were to show how important air power had become to imperial security , or rather its absence to the lack of it . Inter - war Britain , still mighty at sea and the world's greatest trading nation and ...
... first order in the Far East , despite the propaganda surrounding its Singapore naval base . This was a huge problem , because , although militarily it had slipped down the ranks , Britain was still the major imperial power in the region ...
... first half of 1942. The Persian Gulf region was crucial in providing the oil for the forces in the Middle East , and in 1940 about a third of Britain's aviation spirit imports were being shipping from Caribbean refineries . Supply and ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
21 | |
41 | |
5 The Atlantic | 53 |
6 The Caribbean | 77 |
7 The Mediterranean | 97 |
8 Iraq Iran and Syria | 145 |
11 The Islands of the Indian Ocean | 307 |
12 India and Burma | 351 |
13 SouthEast Asia and the Far East | 405 |
14 Australia and New Zealand | 463 |
15 The Pacific | 513 |
16 Epilogue | 525 |
Notes | 535 |
Bibliography | 561 |