The Royal Australian Navy served in the Mediterranean and in the Far East, as did the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. Men from the Dominion air forces - Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and South African - were incorporated into the RAF. Canada was the site of the first British Commonwealth Air Training Scheme flying school, where many pilots from the Empire and Dominions were trained. Troops from the Dominions fought in all theatres where British troops were engaged. More than 5 million came from the British Isles, 1,440,500 from India, 629,000 from Canada, 413,000 from Australia, 136,000 from South Africa, 128,500 from New Zealand and more than 134,000 from other colonies. The Irish Free State opted for neutrality.ĭuring the war the British Empire and Dominions raised a total of 8,586,000 men for military service. The Dominions made their own decision to enter the war on the British side. At the outbreak of war in 1939, India and the other colonial parts of the Empire had no choice and automatically joined in the war on the side of Britain. And there were those regions that were wholly or partly governed from London, including India, which had its own viceroy, as well as the West Indies and British colonies in Africa and the Far East.
There were the self-governing 'white' Dominions - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. In addition to providing men and women for the war effort, the Empire supplied raw materials and goods to Britain. Australian soldiers celebrate their contribution to success in the North African campaign ©During World War Two, forces from the British Commonwealth of Nations, then still informally called the British Empire, were involved in all the major theatres of war, as well as serving on their own and on the British home fronts.
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