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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... thousands of soldiers , the Empire was the site of countless airstrips , aerodromes , Royal Naval Air Stations and flying boat anchorages used by the squadrons of the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm , together with the air forces of America ...
... thousands of colonial subjects arrived in Britain as servicemen or labourers , and as food parcels marked ' From the Australian Food Front ' appeared on the kitchen table . When Malaya fell to the Japanese there was panic buying of hot ...
... thousands of American troops , as the war raged in nearby Pacific territories ; and Ceylon became a surprisingly important base for operations in the Indian Ocean and South - East Asia following the loss of Singapore . 22 THE BRITISH ...
... thousands of vessels of the Merchant Navy and the hundreds of warships of the Royal Navy traversed the world's sea lanes and loaded , unloaded , refuelled , repaired and revictualled at the many ports and harbours of the Empire and the ...
... thousands of Canadians were brought to Britain , and Lend- Lease was delivered to Russia via Archangel and the Persian Gulf . This , indeed , was the mobility of manpower and resources conferred by seapower . Upon it depended a complex ...
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 |