The main contribution of the British Empire (as it still was) in World War II was to hold the ring and remain an active combatant against Nazi Germany in particular until the major powers of the Soviet Union and US entered the fight.
The major military and naval achievements of the British (Commonwealth) forces were at least tenfold:
- Saving its Army from the disaster in Belgium and France in May/June 1940
- Defeating the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain to ensure that the UK would remain an unsinkable aircraft carrier off the coast of ‘Europe as well as a haven for governments in exile and a springboard for eventual invasion. In doing so, they also ensured that when Hitler eventually turned east against the USSR, he would face a war on multiple fronts
- Foiling Mussolini’s ambitions in North and East Africa and the Balkans, forcing the Germans to divert forces to shore up the collapsing Italians.
- Maintaining overall control of the North Sea and North Atlantic, which both preserved the vital Atlantic lifeline with the Americas and severed Germany’s overseas trade routes. .
- Playing the lion’s share in defeating Axis forces in North Africa, eventually leading to German material and manpower losses at least equivalent to Stalingrad.
- Waging an increasingly effective strategic aerial campaign against the Third Reich.
- Keeping the oil reserves of the Middle East out of Axis hands.
- Establishing and maintaining resupply routes to the USSR, via the Arctic convoy routes and overland via Persia and the Caucasus.
- Achieving major victories over the Axis in the technological and intelligence wars.
- Preventing Japanese forces from overrunning the whole of Burma and moving on into India.
In all these ways, the British helped to dilute and blunt the Axis war effort, making the difference between defeat and victory on the Eastern Front and allowing American forces to be more effective when they, too, entered the fray.
As the war progressed, the UK became steadily more exhausted and overtaken in war-making capacity by the USA and USSR. But without British resolve in 1939, defiance and ingenuity in 1940 and dogged endurance in 1941, Hitler might indeed have been allowed to establish his ‘Thousand Year Reich’.
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