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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... Ceylon , February 1944 16 Australian troops in the Crusader castle at Sidon , Lebanon , July 1941 17 Australian nursing sisters , New Guinea , December 1943 18 Indian soldiers with men of the 81st West African Division 19 British mortar ...
... Ceylon and engulfed Malaya and the great ' fortress ' of Singapore , in which so many hollow inter - war security hopes had reposed . Losses to Japan also escalated the demand for production in places such as West Africa , necessitating ...
... Ceylon , Egypt , Gibraltar , Sierra Leone , South Africa , the Sudan and Trinidad became assembly points for ships and their escorts waiting to form into convoy . The famous ' HX ' ( Halifax ) Atlantic and ' WS ' ( ' Winston's Specials ...
... Ceylon . It could also stand as a general description of the scores of countries that , as British colonies or dependencies , had a war expe- rience that paralleled that of Britain in many striking ways . The home front is a well ...
... Ceylon , Egypt , India , Kenya , Libya , South Africa and Uganda . In the Middle East local Arab labour was used in the Western Desert , and Indian labourers also went to the Middle East , alongside the tens of thousands of mili- tary ...
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 |