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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... fighter aircraft . The Royal Canadian Navy expanded to become the third largest navy in the world and played a key role in the Battle of the Atlantic , and by the end of the war the Indian - officered Royal Indian Air Force had 30,000 ...
... fighters of the Japanese . Even the Mediterranean theatre had to make do with Hurricanes battered in the fighting over Britain and France . By 1939 there was an alarming lack of armed force to protect what was still the largest ...
... fighter aircraft , 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 ...
... fighter whilst it was clearly displaying the Union Flag . As had been the case with Abyssinia , the League of Nations provided no succour for the Chinese , and again it was largely Britain - as the only League member with the requisite ...
... Fighter Command between 10 July and the end of October 1940 there were 2334 Britons , 145 Poles , 126 New Zealanders , 98 Canadians , 88 Czechoslovaks , 33 Australians , 29 Belgians , 25 South Africans , 13 French , 11 Amer- ican , 10 ...
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 |