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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Ashley Jackson. To my grandmother Pauline Vivienne Townshend One of the many millions of British women who worked in a war industry in a blitzed city whilst her fiance fought with imperial forces overseas Preface The British Empire defined ...
... million of us . ' In Britain the war is primarily remembered as a European struggle , an under- standable perspective born of geography and the close proximity of would - be invaders . This is not to say that some of the war's imperial ...
... millions , looked to by both Chiang Kai- shek and the Governor - General of the Dutch East Indies for succour in the face of Japanese hostility . Unlike its enemies , Britain was obliged to fight both a Euro- pean and an Asian war ...
... million Indians built airstrips and installations in Bengal and Assam , as the region became the great military encampment and supply dump from which the Japanese were to be pushed out of Burma and South - East Asia . Mauritian sugar ...
... millions of people around the world , particularly those in Britain and the Dominions bound by the thread of common racial heritage . The Empire was a given in the lives of many people , as much a fact of life as the European Union or ...
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 |