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
Results 1-5 of 48
... Hong Kong Island , December 1941 3 HMCS Uganda , 1944 4 Flight Sergeant James Hyde , from Trinidad , with ' Dingo ... King's African Rifles collecting surrendered Italian arms , 1941 9 New Zealand members of the Long Range Desert Group ...
... Hong Kong ; how the 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 ...
... Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery His Majesty's Australian Ship His Majesty's Indian Ship His Majesty's New Zealand Ship His Majesty's Ship His Majesty's South African Ship Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Indian Civil ...
... Hong Kong , as well as imperial units with distinctly Scottish lineage such as South Africa's Transvaal Scottish Regiment . Scottish ports and naval bases , like Glasgow and Scapa Flow , were integral to the functioning of British ...
... Hong Kong and Singapore , Australians who rounded up the Japanese in Borneo and Sarawak , and Anglo - Indian divisions that arrived to supervise the Japanese surrendering in the Dutch East Indies and French Indo - China . British Empire ...
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 |