The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was one of the losers of World War II, in spite of being on the victors’ side. Already pushed near to bankruptcy by the expense of the First World War, and with strong centripetal forces of nationalism at work throughout its Empire, Britain’s days as a great imperial power were numbered even before war broke out in Europe in 1939.
Britain itself is one of the oldest
democracies in the world, governed by a constitutional monarchy whose
Parliament dates back
centuries, and
with a liberal tradition sustained by the British common law.
Its empire was one of the
most enlightened in
history, as demonstrated by the fact that most of its former colonial
possessions won independence in a relatively bloodless manner, and most
still
choose today to remain part of the Commonwealth that succeeded the
Empire. Nevertheless,
the concept of Empire is
difficult to square with the ideals of liberalism, and British conduct
in India
during the Pacific War reflected
a very real fear of an Indian revolt.
By contrast with the American public, who had been
inflamed by the Pearl Harbor
attack and tended to regard Japan as
being as important an enemy as Germany,
the British tended to regard the war against Japan as a sideshow. This
is understandable given British experience with the Blitz, the Atlantic
submarine war, and the presence
a powerful enemy just across the English Channel. British strategists
tacitly accepted that Japan would be defeated by the American offensive
across the Pacific, and British strategy in the Far East seemed to be
aimed less at contributing to Japan's final defeat than at restoring
British prestige and regaining control of Malaya, Burma,
and other British colonial possessions overrun by the Japanese. This
often put the British at odds with the Americans, leading to some of
the thorniest disagreements between the two allies.
British power in the Far East was centered at Singapore, where the British constructed a first-rate naval base at enormous cost. However, Imperial strategic planning, which focused on the three major theaters of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Far East, was based on the assumption that no more than two of these theaters would be threatened at any one time. When Italy joined Germany and Britain was confronted with serious threats in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, there was nothing left for the Far East. A fleet base without a credible fleet, Singapore would have been doomed even if Force “Z”, with just one modern battleship and one modernized battle cruiser, had not been overwhelmed from the air during the first days of the war.
Australia
felt herself
betrayed by the failure of Britain to hold Singapore.
This had lasting repercussions, for it
effectively forced Australia to turn to the United
States
for help with its defense.
Britain was one of the first great industrial powers, developing its heavy industry around the proximity of the Midlands coal and iron fields. Only 10% of the population was still agrarian by the time war broke out in Europe, versus 30% of Germany's population. However, production at British oil fields, mostly in the East Midlands, were inadequate and left Britain dependent on oil imported from North American, the Carribean, and the Middle East. In addition, Britain was no longer capable of feeding herself and was dependent on food imported from North and South America. This made Britain vulnerable to submarine blockade, and the Battle of the Atlantic was arguably the decisive battle of the Second World War.
Britain has traditionally been a naval
power, with a small but highly
professional army. However,
the enormous
bloodletting among junior officers during the First World War sapped
much of
the spirit of her army. British
generalship was lacking
throughout the war, and manpower reserves were
thin
from the beginning. The
Royal Navy and
Air Force were in somewhat better shape, though the Navy had suffered
from very
tight budgets between the wars. The best British
aircraft were
comparable in quality with those of her enemies, as the Germans
found out in the Battle of
Britain in the summer of 1940, but British warship designs, while
generally good, were often rather conservative, as when the King George Vs
were designed with 14”
guns at a time when every other power
was designing
their battleships with 16” guns. British
aircraft
carriers
were the best-protected in the world, but had relatively small air
groups
equipped
with some of the worst naval aircraft in the world.
The latter reflected a political decision to put the Royal
Air Force in
charge of procuring naval aircraft — something the RAF had
little interest in. Antiaircraft
protection was totally
inadequate, particularly for lighter vessels, a situation not helped by
another
politically-driven decision to adopt an inferior director
technology. Nonetheless, the Royal
Navy lived up to its
finest traditions in the European war, albeit at a high price, and it
is
arguably the case that the bravery and skill of the RAF during the
Battle of Britain
saved Europe from a second and more terrible Dark Age.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009 by Kent G. Budge. Index