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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... Mauritius , Nigeria , Palestine , Rodrigues , Sierra Leone , the Seychelles , Swaziland , Tanganyika and Uganda . Further east , the war against Japan was not just an American conflict , despite Hollywood's colonization of that ...
... Mauritius became springboards for offensive Allied operations in neighbouring regions and bases for special forces engaged in espionage , sabo- tage and operations behind enemy lines . Familiar features of the British war effort , such ...
... Mauritian sugar planters turned their estates into vegetable gardens as the island faced starvation when import sources and the ships that delivered them dried up . Tasmanian women enrolled as factory workers when private companies ...
... Mauritius , Nigeria , Trinidad and Uganda ) , and ' Ruler ' class escort carriers ( such as HMS Khedive , Nabob , Rajah and Shah ) . Many colonies and cities had ships named for them - HMS Cairo , Calcutta , Cape Town , Colombo ...
... Mauritius , Palestine and Singapore . " The art of ' ungentle- manly warfare ' in which SOE specialized was first taught by Britons who had developed such skills whilst policing the International Settlement in Shanghai , an area of ...
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 |