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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... Pacific Area SPS Sudan Political Service STS SWPA TJFF UDF ULTRA UKCC USAAF Special Training School ( SOE ) South West Pacific Area Trans - Jordan Frontier Force Union Defence Force Intelligence material derived from Enigma decrypts ...
... Pacific . Many British territories in the Pacific as well as in South - East Asia fell to the Japanese , and , though tied down in other theatres , the British had every intention of returning to * When considering the ethnic ...
... Pacific , the Indian Ocean , the Mediterranean , the Caribbean and the Atlantic all put men into British uniforms and dug for victory on the home front . The Empire provided many bases . India was a launch - pad for the war against the ...
... Pacific after Pearl Harbor was a bolt from the blue , and Russia's official neutrality - towards both Germany and Japan - further loaded the dice against the Empire and Commonwealth . In mobilizing the Empire for the total war effort ...
... Pacific Fleet , sailed for its Australian bases and its forward base at Manus . After the First World War the British Army had demobilized rapidly and resumed its traditional imperial defence roles , so that by the 1930s the army was ...
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 |