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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... significant British military bases and by treaty obliged to allow British forces access and transit rights in times ... significantly . This was either a result of enemy territory being conquered and held by British forces , or of the ...
... significant naval operations and was a major naval battlefield by virtue of its vital sea routes . These connected Britain to Australasia and the major theatres of conflict in the Middle East and South Asia . The air and naval forces of ...
... significance for colonial societies and economies the world over . The reason why this was so is not difficult to discern . The British war effort was global because Britain ruled a quarter of the world's land surface , influenced much ...
... significant imperial experience . Leo Amery , Clement Attlee , William Beaverbrook , Stafford Cripps , Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan all had experience of living and working in the Empire , or of holding political positions that ...
... significance or meaning for many of them . As the war progressed , more Britons had cause to contemplate the Empire , as sons or husbands wrote from distant jungles or islands , as children were evacuated to Canada , as hundreds of ...
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 |