The British Invasion of Madagascar During WW2
273During WW2. The French nation had fallen within six weeks of fighting. The puppet state left in its wake was still a very powerful colonial power. Yet, while nominally neutral, both sides worked towards limiting the power that this state held, and in today's video. We will be looking at the first major action against the Vichy state by the Allied forces. The British Invasion of Madagascar.
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The French had annexed the Island of Madagascar in the late 19th century. The power that controlled this island, would have massive influence not only over the region, but could assert naval influence all along the Horn of Africa. The fall of mainland France in mid 1940, shocked many in the world, who expected a repeat of the slow, grinding attrition of the first World War. With France occupied, a puppet state, Vichy France, was created. This government over-saw the vast colonial empire that the nation wielded, yet, protection of this was dodgy at best. The Vichy state was largely unable to transport men, supplies or arnamanets outside of North Africa, and the colonies outside of North Africa, didn't have the capability to work with each other over such a vast distance. Twice before, a foreign power used this weakness to their advantage, with the Japanese invading the territory of Indo-china in 1941, and the Franco-Thai war in 1941 as well. It was sort of a fear by both sides, that antagonizing the puppet state too much would shift their pseudo-natural stance to the other, and bring a still rather strong colonial power into their enemies fold. So major action against the state only occurred later.
In East Asia, the Japanese had been steadily pushing the British further and further back. With them now reaching the crown jewel of the British empire, India. Following the British withdrawal from Burma, Japanese subs were moving freely throughout the expanses of the Indian Ocean, and Japanese aircraft carriers conducted many raids in the bay of Bengal and against towns in Sri Lanka, pushing the British fleet to base themselves out of Kenya.
The Japanese hosted the longest ranging subs of the Axis powers, with them having an effective range of over 10,000 miles. It was feared that if the Japanese managed to get bases within Madagascar, then Allied lines of communication and supply routes, could be hit all the way in the South Atlantic. Which would have been a major threat to the Allied war effort. The Axis in turn, saw this same advantage. German admiral Kurt Fricke and Japanese admiral Naokuni Nomura, met in Berlin to discuss a way for the two navies to work together in some capacity, Fricke stressed the need for naval action in the Western Indian ocean and around the South African Cape. By April the 8th of 1942, Japan agreed to send six submarines and two auxiliary cruisers into the region, but beyond that, they didn't inform the Germans.