“In 1940, the British Empire covered over a quarter of the globe and contained over half a billion subjects.”

By Max Gethings

THE IMAGE of the small stoic island of Britain holding out against the Third Reich after it had overwhelmed continental Europe, finally toppling France in a matter of weeks, is one that has been burned into the national memory of most Britons almost as soon as the guns went silent in 1945.

It is an idea supported by speeches, phrases, and imagery, including David Low’s iconic Evening Standard cartoon depicting a British Tommy shaking his fist on the white cliffs of Dover and defiantly proclaiming “Very well, alone.”

The rather Eurocentric view that Britain was the final domino left standing in 1940 is one that has been compounded heavily after the war, not least by the bulldog Winston Churchill himself. In his incredibly popular six-volume history of the war, Churchill neatly plays into these national myths. Book two of his second volume, which covers the Battle of Britain, is titled simply, Alone.

As historian David Reynolds suggests, Churchill had no intention or incentive to upturn or probe any of these national myths. National memory of iconic phrases from Churchill’s speeches have also played into this myth. On June 18, 1940, Churchill gifted the nation with the immortalized concept of “finest hour.” Yet this is not referring to just simply Britain’s finest hour, with the full quote reading: “if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour,” encompassing the determination and sacrifice on the Empire as a whole, and not just Britain as the phrase is now often associated with.

A myth, however, is what this national memory of Britain’s Second World War narrative is. Not only would much of the world flock to Britain’s aid at its point of crisis, but Britain was hardly alone since war broke out in September 1939. Britain’s declaration of war brought India with it, and just a few hours would pass by before the dominions of Australia and New Zealand issued their own declarations, and within the next week South Africa and Canada would join the war as well. Even a telegram would come in during that first month of war that reassuringly stated: “Don’t worry, Barbados is with you.” A much more apt cartoon than Low’s to capture the global chessboard in 1940 would be that of Fougasse’s for Punch from July 17, 1940. It again shows British Tommy’s on the white cliffs of Dover, one echoing the alone myth by stating “So our poor old Empire is alone in the world.” “Aye, we are,” the other replies, “the whole five hundred million of us.”

The truth remains that in 1940 the British Empire covered over a quarter of the globe and contained over half a billion subjects. This heavily impacted how the war would be fought, and contradicted the Eurocentric view that has previously been held. The now famous names of Alamein, Tobruk, Malta, and Singapore, have lived on due to their importance to British imperial territory. Campaigns were not just fought in the skies above Britain, on the beaches and hedgerows of France, and on the bridges of Holland, but also in Abyssinia, Borneo, Burma, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Syria, Malaysia, New Guinea, Somaliland and Sudan.

Beyond the fact that the Second World War extended far beyond the parameters of Europe, the Empire provided huge amounts of manpower to support Britain’s war effort, making the British Imperial Forces that fought for the crown incredibly diverse. The heroic formations such as Montgomery’s Eighth Army in North Africa were incredibly diverse in their makeup, and by late 1941 only a quarter of this army was made up of British soldiers, fighting alongside men from Basutoland, Ceylon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Southern Rhodesia, Swaziland, the Seychelles, Palestine, Cyprus and Uganda.

The British Empire made up much of each branch of the armed forces. Over the course of the war, the British Empire and the Commonwealth formed 103 divisions, yet only 47.6 per cent of them were raised in Britain. Moreover, the Royal Canadian Navy expanded to become the third-largest fleet in the world. The greatest impact of the Empire’s human resources however can be most seen when examining the makeup of British Imperial airpower. The British Commonwealth Air Training Program (BCATP) trained 130,000 airmen for war in Australia, Canada, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. Additionally, the Royal Indian Air Force (which was also Indian officered) had over 30,000 personnel and nine fighter squadrons that took part in the war against Japan.

Returning to the period of the war where the ‘alone myth’ transpires from, that of 1940, one can still see the support that imperial manpower gave Britain at its time of need. Of the 2,917 airmen who flew in fighter command between July 10 and the end of October 1940 (the Battle of Britain), there were 2,334 Britons, 145 Poles, 126 New Zealanders, 98 Canadians, 88 Czechoslovaks, 33 Australians, 29 Belgians, 25 South Africans, 13 French, 11 American, 10 Irish, three Rhodesians and one from both Jamaica and Newfoundland. Looking at the war as a whole, the Empire and the Commonwealth provided 39 per cent of the RAF’s aircrew.

The first part of the Britain ‘alone’ myth that should be dispelled is the idea of the small island nation backed into a corner against almost insurmountable odds. Yet, the empire was an enormous powerhouse that had been backing its home nation since the start of the war. Additionally, the Battle of Britain and the fear of a cross-channel invasion by Germany must be put into context alongside the unfolding picture that millions of soldiers were fighting for Britain across the entire world, and that even the brave ‘few’ that defended the skies of Britain during an uncertain time were an incredibly diverse formation that represented not only the British Empire and Commonwealth, but also the rest of the world that continued to fight alongside Britain even if their own nations had been lost.

There can be no doubt, however, that the occupation of continental Europe was detrimental to Britain’s war effort. Before the war, 34 per cent of British imports of value had come from Europe. Seventy-two per cent of Britain’s bacon, 71 per cent of its eggs, and 46 per cent of its butter were cut off due to the loss of French colonial sources of food. On top of this, further supplies of linen and hardwoods from Scandinavia were ruined, limiting the availability of pit props and railway sleepers. While some of these losses could be made up from substitutes or produced at home, many could not be found elsewhere. However, troops and manpower were not the only forms of support that Britain would find throughout its Empire.

The British Empire was of course incredibly wealthy, and Britain was able to secure financial aid from its Imperial possessions and subjects that would allow Britain to maintain its war effort and production. Britain’s debt to the colonial empire rose from £150 million to £454 million during the course of the war. Moreover, wealthy individuals across the Empire would help to financially support Britain’s war. For example, the Rajah of Sarwak had sent $2.5 million to help fill London’s coffers by December 1941 alone, at which point his territories were lost.

Yet, Britain did not just rely on the goodwill of its subjects but strategically turned to its Empire to help fund the war. While places like India, the crown jewel of the Empire contributed approximately £286 million worth of goods and raw materials to the allied cause, small cities and towns in the corners of the Empire made their contributions too. The citizens of the distant Nigerian city of Kano raised £10,290 which was used by the treasury to purchase a Spitfire as part of the ‘Spitfire Fund’. Additionally, the Royal Navy’s ‘Sponsor a Destroyer’ week saw funds raised in Bechuanaland.

As well as financially, the Empire was also rich in resources. It produced 24.8 per cent of the world’s coal, 51.9 per cent of its rubber, and 45.7 per cent of its wool to name just a few examples. It is no secret that Britain was heavily reliant on imports of food, and its position as the home nation of the Empire meant it could bulk purchase colonial crops, especially from South Africa, at generous prices. During the dark times of 1940, schoolchildren from Mauritius were responsible for the first-ever mobile canteen on the streets of London to help feed those affected by the Blitz.

While it is incredibly important to understand that the British Empire fought a truly global and imperial war from 1939 to 1945 in order to dispel the Britain alone myth and decolonise the Eurocentric history surrounding the Second World War, it was not just the Empire that stood alongside Britain when Europe had fallen. Britain would also rely on what would become its primary partner in the post-war world to sustain its war effort, the United States, principally in terms of credit and war materials.

In September 1940, the British Chiefs of Staff noted that it was essential to obtain credits on a substantial scale from the United States, stating that this process ‘represents in the long run an indispensable condition to the successful conduct of the war.’ Indeed, Britain expected to purchase £100 million worth of iron and steel imports alone from America by the end of 1940.

Beyond credit and lend-lease, America would ship huge amounts of vehicles, aircraft, and equipment to support Britain’s war effort. British Imperial Forces received about 30 per cent of all U.S. tank production, alongside 86,000 Jeeps. The United States also supplied Britain with over 36,000 aircraft, which made up 20 per cent of the entire British Imperial Forces wartime supply.

The myth of Britain being alone against the might of Nazi Germany has lived on for decades in national memory, compounded by incomplete references to Churchill’s speeches, popular imagery in film and television, and a plethora of Western and Eurocentric literature on the Second World War. However, while Britain’s European allies did fall, Britain was never alone. The financial support of the United States, the continued resistance of exiled governments and European soldiers, and above all, the vast, rich, and widespread support of the British Empire and the Commonwealth meant that Britain remained a formidable opponent and was far from being backed into a corner.

While the image of the stoic Tommy or the peaceful English little man refusing to give in against the tyranny and oppression of Hitler and standing his ground in the picturesque and quintessential English countryside and on the white cliffs of Dover is one that held vital importance in the British narrative of the Second World War as Britain struggled to find its identity in the new post-war world order, it is an idea that now needs to be consigned to history. It is much more important today to recognise and appreciate the diversity and importance of Britain’s Imperial Forces, and how critical they were to Britain in order to help carry out its war. The Second World War was truly a world war, and the extent of its destruction and disruption was far-reaching. And so, when thinking of Dunkirk, the Blitz, and the Battle of Britain, it is important to remember that ‘the few’ had 500 million men and women supporting them across the globe.

Max Gethings is a military history postgraduate from the University of Birmingham and an historian specialising in the British Empire and Army Education in the Second World War. 

Sources

Allport, Alan, Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War: 1938-1941 (London: Profile Books, 2020).

Churchill, Winston, The Second World War: Volume II, Their Finest Hour (London: Cassell, 1949).

Jackson, Ashley, The British Empire and the Second World War (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006)

Parsons, Timothy, The Second British Empire: In the Crucible of the Twentieth Century (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014).

Reynolds, David, In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (London: Penguin Books, 2005).