Imperial Forces in the Second World War: The Real Global Reach of Commonwealth Armies

Military History: The British Empire

Chapter 9 · Imperial Forces in the Second World War: The Real Global Reach of Commonwealth Armies

Chapter 8 ended with the dominions winning a real say over their own foreign policy. In 1939 that changed how the Empire went to war: this time each dominion decided for itself. Once they were in, Commonwealth and Indian forces fought on every major front against Germany, Italy, and Japan — and the war exposed, faster than anyone expected, how little of the Empire Britain could still protect.

Going to War Separately

The Statute of Westminster (1931) made the dominions legally equal to Britain. So when Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, the dominions each made their own decision.

Country	How it went to war
Australia & New Zealand	Declared on 3 September, the same day as Britain
South Africa	Parliament voted narrowly for war on 6 September; the Prime Minister, Hertzog, who wanted neutrality, resigned and was replaced by Jan Smuts — a Boer general from Chapter 7, now fighting on Britain's side
Canada	Declared on 10 September, a week after Britain, after its own Parliament debated it — a deliberate signal of independence
Ireland	Stayed neutral throughout the war
India	Declared at war by the British Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, without consulting any Indian political leaders. In protest, the Indian National Congress's provincial governments resigned

The Largest Volunteer Army in History

The Indian Army grew from about 205,000 men in 1939 to about 2.5 million by 1945 — the largest all-volunteer force the world had yet seen. It fought in East Africa, North Africa, Italy, the Middle East, and above all Burma. Around 87,000 Indian servicemen died, and Indian soldiers won 31 Victoria Crosses.

Why Men Volunteered Most volunteers weren't fighting for the Empire as an idea. Army pay, food, and status in a country hit hard by the Depression, family and regimental traditions (the "martial races" recruitment pattern from Chapter 5), and loyalty to their own units all mattered more. That's also why the same army could stay loyal in battle while India's political leaders demanded independence.

North Africa: A Commonwealth Desert War

The Eighth Army in North Africa was a genuinely multinational Commonwealth army — British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and Indian divisions fighting side by side, alongside Free French, Polish, and Greek units.

Tobruk, 1941

A mostly Australian garrison held the port of Tobruk under siege for months against Rommel's German and Italian forces. German propaganda mocked them as rats in a hole; they adopted "the Rats of Tobruk" as a badge of honour.

El Alamein, 1942

The decisive Commonwealth victory in North Africa (October–November 1942), under General Montgomery. Australian, New Zealand, South African, and Indian divisions all played central roles.

Italy, 1943–1945

The long, grinding Italian campaign drew in Canadian, New Zealand, Indian, and South African divisions — including the bitter fighting at Monte Cassino.

Canada in Europe: From Dieppe to Juno

The Dieppe Raid, 19 August 1942

About 10,500 men, most of them Canadian, raided the German-held port of Dieppe in France. It was a disaster: of roughly 5,000 Canadians who took part, about 3,367 were killed, wounded, or captured — around 68%. Only one of the landing forces reached its objective.

"Lessons Learned" — or a Justification? Churchill and Lord Mountbatten, who organised the raid, later argued its lessons saved lives on D-Day: don't try to capture a defended port head-on, bring specialised beach tanks, provide heavy air and naval support. Some of that is true. But historians still debate whether those lessons were worth the price, or whether the argument was partly made afterward to justify a badly planned operation.

On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landed at Juno Beach, one of the five Normandy beaches — this time with exactly the specialised support Dieppe had lacked. Canada also hosted the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which trained well over 100,000 aircrew from across the Commonwealth in the safety of Canadian skies.

Asia: The Collapse of 1942

The Fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942

Singapore was supposed to be Britain's fortress in Asia. In just ten weeks, a Japanese army under General Tomoyuki Yamashita advanced down the Malay peninsula and forced Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival to surrender the island. About 80,000 British, Indian, Australian, and local troops became prisoners, on top of about 50,000 already captured in Malaya. Churchill called it "the worst disaster" in British military history. Yamashita later said his attack had been a bluff: he had around 30,000 men and was badly outnumbered.

The Real Consequence: Trust The prisoners suffered terribly — many died from starvation, abuse, and forced labour, including on the Burma Railway. But Singapore also broke something political. Australia's Prime Minister, John Curtin, had already said in December 1941 that Australia now looked to the United States for its defence. The idea that Britain could protect its Asian and Pacific empire never recovered.

The Indian National Army Tens of thousands of Indian prisoners — estimates run from about 30,000 to 40,000 — joined the Indian National Army, raised with Japanese support and later led by the nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose, to fight against British rule. Militarily it achieved little. Politically it mattered a great deal: when British trials of INA officers began in 1945, they caused a wave of public anger in India and even unrest in the armed forces — a real factor in how quickly independence came.

Burma: The "Forgotten Army" Fights Back

After retreating out of Burma in 1942, the British-led forces rebuilt as the Fourteenth Army under General William Slim — mostly Indian, alongside British, Gurkha, and East and West African divisions. Its soldiers called themselves the "Forgotten Army," because the war in Europe got almost all the attention.

Imphal and Kohima, 1944

In spring 1944 the Japanese invaded north-east India, aiming to capture the bases at Imphal and Kohima. At Kohima (4 April – 22 June 1944), a garrison of about 1,500 men held out against a Japanese division of 15,000–20,000 until relieved; some of the fiercest fighting took place across the Deputy Commissioner's tennis court, with grenades thrown between trenches only yards apart. The Japanese, starving and short of supplies, finally withdrew — their commander, General Satō, retreating against direct orders.

A Turning Point, Remembered Late Imphal and Kohima together were the Japanese Army's worst defeat on land up to that point, and opened the way for Slim's reconquest of Burma in 1945. In a 2013 National Army Museum poll, they were voted Britain's greatest battle. The Kohima memorial carries a famous epitaph: "When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today."

The Cost on the Home Front

The Bengal Famine, 1943 While Indian soldiers fought for the Empire, a famine in Bengal killed an estimated two to three million people. It had several causes — the loss of rice imports from Japanese-occupied Burma, a cyclone and crop disease, and wartime inflation — but the colonial government's slow and inadequate response, and wartime priorities in London, made it far worse. It is an essential part of the Empire's Second World War story, not a separate one.

Questions to Sit With

India's army grew twelve-fold while its political leaders refused to support the war. How can both of those things be true at once?

Was the fall of Singapore mainly a military failure or a political one? What evidence in this chapter supports each view?

Why might the Burma campaign have been "forgotten" at the time, and remembered as Britain's greatest battle seventy years later?

Quick Reference — Chapter 9

After the Statute of Westminster (1931) each dominion chose war separately in September 1939; Ireland stayed neutral; India was declared at war by the Viceroy without consultation
The Indian Army grew from about 205,000 to about 2.5 million, the largest all-volunteer force in history; around 87,000 died and 31 VCs were won
North Africa's Eighth Army was a multinational Commonwealth force: the Australian "Rats of Tobruk" (1941) and El Alamein (1942)
Dieppe (19 August 1942): about 3,367 of 5,000 Canadians killed, wounded, or captured; its D-Day "lessons" are still debated. Canadians landed at Juno Beach on D-Day
Singapore fell on 15 February 1942 with about 80,000 prisoners; Australia turned to the US; 30,000–40,000 Indian prisoners joined the Indian National Army
Slim's mostly Indian Fourteenth Army stopped the Japanese at Imphal and Kohima (1944) and retook Burma in 1945
The 1943 Bengal famine killed an estimated two to three million people

What's Next

Chapter 10: Capstone: The Real Military Dissolution of Empire — Suez (1956) & Beyond.