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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... Battle of Imphal - Kohima , July 1944 20 The Royal Garwhal Rifles search Japanese soldiers , Malaya , 1945 21 An Australian Matilda tank , Solomon Islands , May 1945 22 HMS Anson , in Sydney Harbour , 1945 To my grandmother Pauline ...
... Battle of the Atlantic affected the defence of British Borneo ; and how German domination in Europe threatened the security of Australia and Malaya . It is not a campaign history , though it places the major and minor campaigns of the ...
... battle fronts . The Empire defined Britain's participation in a global war that was an experi- ence of profound significance for colonial societies and economies the world over . The reason why this was so is not difficult to discern ...
... Battle of Britain as a pilot in No. 54 Squadron . ' In my generation ' , he explained , ' as schoolboys we always thought of [ Britain ] as the home country , always referred to it as the Mother Country . That was the old colonial tie ...
... Battle of Britain , the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of the Middle East - and at the same time stand thoroughly prepared in Burma , the Malay peninsula , and generally in the Far East.3 The first element of bad luck was that it ...
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 |