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 37
... 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 minor campaigns of the Second World War within an imperial context ...
... and north - east India , or the jungles of Borneo , Burma and Malaya . An imperial perspective helps connect all of these scenes of Second World War action to the European war , as well as providing a perspective on 1 Prologue.
... 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 and Commonwealth forces fought a host of subsidiary military ...
... Borneo ; Polish servicemen fought in Iran , Iraq , West Africa and the Western Desert , as well as in the Battle of Britain ; and Free French forces fought with the Eighth Army in the Middle East and the French battleship Richelieu ...
... Borneo , Hong Kong and Somaliland . For nearly two years Malta was a prime candidate for enemy invasion . If his strategic senses had served him better , Mussolini would have taken this strategic outcrop early in the war and saved Axis ...
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 |