Dominion Armies in World War II

IF 0.1 4区 历史学 Q3 HISTORY JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY Pub Date : 2021-02-24 DOI:10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0202
D. E. Delaney
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Abstract

In September 1939, a committee of the British War Cabinet estimated that the dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa could raise fourteen divisions of the fifty-five-division field force it hoped the British Commonwealth would assemble for the war against Germany and the other Axis powers. The British got what they were looking for, and then some. The Canadians raised three infantry divisions, two armored divisions, and two independent armored brigades. They also raised another three divisions for home defense, one of which was designated for the invasion of Japan when the war in the Far East ended in August 1945. The Australians generated four infantry divisions and one armored division for the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF), plus another two armored cavalry divisions and eight infantry divisions (not all of which were fully manned) for the militia and home defense. Two of those militia infantry divisions fought in the New Guinea campaign. The 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2 NZEF) comprised one infantry division (later converted to an armored division), which fought in the Mediterranean, and a two-brigade infantry division that deployed to the Pacific theater, where it worked under American command until its disbandment in October 1944. The South Africans raised two expeditionary infantry divisions, one of which fought in East Africa and the Western Desert until converted to an armored division and deployed to Italy in 1943. The other division fought in the Western Desert from mid-1941 until its capture at Tobruk in June 1942. The first serious studies of the dominion armies in World War II were the official histories, commissioned by the respective governments to record what their soldiers had done and accomplished. The works remain solid records of what happened, and, cost and profit being less of a concern for government publication projects than they are for independent presses, the official histories are almost invariably better illustrated with clear maps and well-chosen photographs than the histories that followed. A generation of dominion historians since the 1970s has continued to explore their nations’ wartime histories, challenge long-held assumptions, and fill in historical gaps left by the official histories, most along purely national lines. Combined with the official histories, these new national histories have formed a solid foundation for a growing number of transnational examinations of the British Commonwealth armies since the mid-2000s.
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二战中的自治领军队
英国人得到了他们想要的,还有更多。加拿大人组建了三个步兵师,两个装甲师和两个独立的装甲旅。他们还组建了另外三个师用于本土防御,其中一个师在1945年8月远东战争结束后被指定用于入侵日本。澳大利亚人为第2澳大利亚帝国军(2nd AIF)组建了4个步兵师和1个装甲师,另外还有2个装甲骑兵师和8个步兵师(并非全部配备人员)用于民兵和本土防御。其中两个民兵步兵师参加了新几内亚战役。新西兰第二远征军(2 NZEF)由一个步兵师(后转为装甲师)组成,在地中海作战,还有一个两个旅的步兵师被部署到太平洋战区,在美国的指挥下工作,直到1944年10月解散。南非人组建了两个远征步兵师,其中一个在东非和西部沙漠作战,直到1943年才转为装甲师,并被部署到意大利。另一个师从1941年中期开始在西部沙漠作战,直到1942年6月在托布鲁克被俘。第二次世界大战中对自治领军队的第一次认真研究是官方历史,由各自的政府委托记录他们的士兵所做的和取得的成就。这些作品仍然是对所发生的事情的可靠记录,而且,与独立出版社相比,政府出版项目不太关心成本和利润,官方历史几乎总是用清晰的地图和精心挑选的照片来更好地说明,而不是随后的历史。自20世纪70年代以来,一代领土历史学家继续探索他们国家的战时历史,挑战长期以来的假设,并填补官方历史留下的历史空白,大多数都是纯粹的民族路线。与官方历史相结合,这些新的国家历史为2000年代中期以来越来越多的英联邦军队跨国考试奠定了坚实的基础。
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