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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... the Eighth Army in the Middle East and the French battleship Richelieu reinforced Britain's Eastern Fleet in Ceylon . Empire escaped enemy attention , whether in the form of 6 THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR.
... battleships in home waters to deal with the German threat , there would only be nine to send to deter Japan in the Far East - the same number as the Japanese would have available . Not only did this sum 12 THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE ...
... battleships the Royal Navy ruled the ocean waves and guaranteed not only British security but that of the entire ... battleship obsolete as the world's main index of military might . It was extremely unlikely that in a war against first ...
... battleships and carriers trans- ferred from the Mediterranean Fleet . A second element of bad luck was that Britain , completely unexpectedly , was bereft of powerful allies . No one had conceived as possible , let alone planned for ...
... battleships and tactics were not commonly known about , and reports of them were discounted , or kept secret , because there was nothing that could be done about them as the clock counted down to December 1941. What made this ignorance ...
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 |