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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... imperial government . At the summit of this vast and sprawling system of global rule was the King - Emperor George VI , an imperial monarch whose image was known throughout the world . Royal tours of the Empire and Commonwealth had been ...
... imperial unity should war come , were paramount influences upon British policy . Britain's apparent vacillation and weakness in the face of persistent German , Italian and Japanese aggression and trouble - making were determined by imperial ...
... British imperial scholarship , set down a Palmerstonian phrase now hackneyed as a description of the piecemeal ... British Empire was acquired in a fit of absence of mind ' . His point was that there was no central blueprint for Empire ...
... British imperial holdings in China , yet British influence in Shanghai and the Yangtse valley amounted to a quasi - imperial pres- ence that was deeply affected by the course of the war . The territory over which Britain ruled actually ...
... Britain itself , American supplies and American forces were ubiquitous . In policing the Atlantic against U - boats and delivering supplies to Russia via Iran , as well as to the imperial forces in the Middle East via the Horn of Africa ...
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 |