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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Ashley Jackson. Preface The British Empire defined Britain's war between 1939 and 1945. It was a war fought in imperial theatres by imperial forces , all of which were dependent upon sea power and Britain's capacity to move food , goods ...
... Britain's imperial status in the Middle East and the Far East . They are also illustrations of Britain's dependence upon imperial bases and resources in order to fight the war . Malta had been a British colony since the Revolutionary ...
... Britain's enemies furthered their cause against Britain by attacking its Empire . For Italy and Japan , if less so for Germany , the main dispute with Britain was over access to the imperial fruits overfilling the British basket ...
... Britain been defeated , every territory of the Empire would have changed hands and fallen under the sway of new imperial masters , as the largest imperial estate in history went under the auctioneer's hammer . Different colonies were ...
... 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 ...
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 |