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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... 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 Second World War within an imperial context , integrating well - known ...
... German offer to defend the Empire on 28 August 1939 . In the run up to the European war and the global conflict that it soon spawned , the great democracies of the day proved ill - equipped to meet the violent challenge of states that ...
... German Mittelafrika stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean had not faded . Indeed , the uniforms worn by General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps , when it landed in Libya in early 1941 to stiffen Mussolini's forces , had been ...
... German government was discussing the delimitation of spheres of influence across the world with Russian officials in Berlin . The Empire and Commonwealth was the world's largest political , economic and military unit , and it went to ...
... German commerce raiders , and the mighty battleships and battlecruisers that , if they evaded the watch of the navy ... Germans used warships like the Admiral Hipper and Graf Spee , and disguised merchant raiders like Atlantis and Thor ...
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 |