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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... plans were made to base British soldiers in Australia and RAF bombers on Okinawa so that Britain could contribute to the invasion of the Japanese home islands . As it happened , the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ...
... plans , France , was out for the count and its Vichy government and empire added to the list of likely enemies . At the start of the war Russia was in a pact with Nazi Germany , and from April 1941 with Japan . An unlikely set of allies ...
... plans for a return to the international colonial stage , particularly in Africa , where dreams of a German Mittelafrika stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean had not faded . Indeed , the uniforms worn by General Erwin ...
... Plan of Global Dominance ' mulled over and then approved by a British Cabinet , just continual growth on the peripheries . British interests kept stumbling into things and as often as not the result was imperial expansion . * A striking ...
... planning . ( For example , America's virtual monopoly in the production of landing craft decided when and where they were to be used for large - scale amphibious assaults . ) Like grass coming through concrete , American personnel ...
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 |