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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... Armed Merchant Cruiser ANZAC AOC APC Australia and New Zealand Army Corps Air Officer Commanding African Pioneer Corps APL Aden Protectorate Levies ARP Air Raid Precautions BAAG British Army Aid Group BEATS British Empire Air Training ...
... armed forces took over the defence of Iceland in order to help prosecute the Battle of the Atlantic . At the end of the war Britain also became responsible for the Dutch East Indies and French Indo - China , as well as a sizeable chunk ...
... armed forces both to reflect this and , it hoped , encourager les autres . The leaders of Germany , Italy and Japan , on the other hand , had decided that war and expansion were in their nations ' interests . To achieve their several ...
... armed power , and in the East as a substitute for it . ' Appeasement ' was the order of the day , though the word gained pejorative associations that obscured the fact that it had been one of the central planks of British policy for ...
... armed forces . American pilots were to be found flying in Malta and Singapore as well as in the Battle of Britain , and in Burma an American Volunteer Group threw its Tomahawks into the ring in defence of the Burma Road and its precious ...
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 |