ABSTRACT
The Cypriot experience of Empire was rarely more tangible than during the Second World War. Several thousand Cypriots served in the British Army and, at the peak of the war, some 25,000 British, Australian and Indian troops were stationed in Cyprus to defend it against a German attack. Eight airfields were built, together with numerous camps and a network of coastal radar stations; in the towns, communal air raid shelters were dug and fire-fighting facilities greatly improved; and, across the island, new roads were constructed to enable the troops to move around quickly to meet an invasion threat wherever it might come. Within months of the end of the war, almost all the troops and aircraft had gone; many camp buildings were demolished and their sites reverted to farmland. Much of the infrastructure, however, was taken over by the Government and Municipalities and survives to this day. Some of it, located in the UN Protected Area or in closed military sites, is unseen by the general public. A greater part, most obviously the military roads, has long been absorbed into the island’s ordinary infrastructure and is in daily use, its wartime origin either unknown or forgotten. In the transition to Independence and Statehood, this physical legacy of Empire has become so integral to the fabric of Cyprus that it is not even noticed.
