It might surprise you that the Japanese hardly ever fought side by side with the other Axis
powers and their allies during the Second World War. One of the few times this occurred was in
1942, during the Battle of Madagascar. Here, the Japanese teamed up with the Vichy French to defend
the island from an Allied invasion. Spoiler alert: it did not go well for the defenders.
In this video, we tell the story of the Battle of Madagascar, the first
Allied operation that combined air, sea, and land forces on a large scale during the war.
The island of Madagascar became a French colony in 1897. Some 40 years later, Hitler
blitzkrieged his way into France proper, and on the 22nd of June 1940, the France surrendered.
This essentially split the French into two camps:
the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy French, under Marshal Philippe Pétain, and the Free French,
under Charles de Gaulle and his government in exile, based in London.
It came as a massive blow to de Gaulle when,
after the fall of France, the governor-general of French Madagascar, a man named Armand Annet,
pledged his allegiance to the Vichy French. And it made the British a little nervous, too. If
the Axis navies used the island as a base, they could absolutely tear it up in the Indian Ocean.
The heat increased in April 1942, when the Japanese raided British Ceylon,
now Sri Lanka. The island housed the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet, which was critical
to the Allied defence of the Indian Ocean. The Japanese defeated the fleet in 10 days.
However, the Eastern Fleet was not wholly undone, and the Japanese were too preoccupied to take full
advantage of their victory. The Eastern Fleet relocated its main base to Kilindini Harbour,
Kenya, while the Japanese got into a bunch of fights outside of the Indian Ocean,
including the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.
Japanese preoccupation worked in the Allies’ favour, of course, but the Allies were far
from letting their guard down. In their eyes, a Japanese invasion of Ceylon was still on the
table, as was the development of Japanese naval bases on French Madagascar. In fact,
the Allies had heard rumours that the Vichy French might simply give Madagascar to the Japanese.
Even before the Japanese raided Ceylon, de Gaulle had been mustard-keen to smash the
Vichy French on Madagascar. He wrote to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill about it,
and while Churchill recognised the threat the Japanese would pose if they controlled Madagascar,
he wasn’t initially all that keen to work with the Free French on such an operation.
This was, at least in part, due to the defeat he and de Gaulle had suffered at
Vichy French hands in the Battle of Dakar back in September 1940.
But Churchill eventually came around, and plans for two Allied operations were drawn up.
These were, one, Operation Ironclad, which was the landing on Madagascar, and,
two, Operation Stream Line Jane, which was the subsequent campaign to take control of the island.
On the Allied side, the principal force assigned to the operation was Force 121.
On the ground, this force was composed of the British 29th Infantry Brigade, the 5th
Division’s 13th and 17th Brigades, and the spec ops unit No. 5 Commando. Once the 13th and 17th
Brigades had played their role in the landing, the East African Brigade Group, the 7th South
African Motorised Brigade, and the Rhodesian 27th Infantry Brigade would come to replace them. The
naval force the Allies deployed was gargantuan, composed of more than 50 vessels. Among these were
the battleship HMS Ramillies and the aircraft carriers HMS Illustrious and HMS Indomitable.
The Vichy French, on the other hand, weren’t looking so hot.
Around 8,000 soldiers were stationed on the island, and most of them were conscripted
natives known as Malagasy. In the sea, they could call upon just a few submarines, a single merchant
cruiser, and a single sloop. In the sky, their 35 planes would go up against the Allies’ 81.
And as it turned out, the Allies needn’t have pulled out their hair stressing over the Japanese.
Occupied as they were in other theatres, the Japanese contributed just four or five submarines,
two midget submarines, and one reconnaissance aircraft to the
defence of the island—and they arrived late, about three weeks after the Allied landing.
The landing kicked off on the 5th of May 1942, west of a major port on the island’s northern tip,
in the town of Diego-Suarez. This was carried out by the No. 5 Commandos and the 29th Infantry
Brigade. They met little resistance as they stormed the beach and captured the French coastal
batteries and barracks. The next wave landed at Courier Bay and slogged its way through a
mangrove swampland to Diego-Suarez, where the men clashed with the French and captured about
100 of them. Meanwhile, the Allies and Vichy French fought one another in the sea and sky,
with the Allies destroying Arrachart airfield and knocking out about 25% of Vichy French air power.
The 29th Infantry Brigade then fought its way to the naval base of Antisarane, where it ran into a
heavily defended network of trenches, redoubts, and pillboxes, and lost much of its momentum.
The French defence was now proving tougher than it had initially appeared.
For most of the following day, the French deflected the Allied assault,
destroying 10 of the 12 tanks the British had deployed. During this time,
the central Vichy government back in France learned of what was
going on and sent Governor-General Armand Annet the following command:
”Firmly defend the honour of our flag. Fight to the limit of your
possibilities. And make the British pay dearly.”
Unfortunately for Annet, the French line would not hold for much longer.
Unable to break into Antisarane with a frontal assault, the British had to get creative. Well,
daring is probably more accurate. Loading with 50 Royal Marines, the destroyer HMS Anthony sailed
right through the harbour defences at Antisarane and deposited the Marines behind the enemy rear.
While only 50 men, the Marines ran amok, distracting the French from the front
lines so that the 17th Infantry Brigade could break through, which they soon did.
Antisarane surrendered later that evening, and Operation Ironclad was deemed a success at the
end of the following day. Madagascar was far from won, however. In fact,
the battle dragged on, at varying intensities, for the next six months.
Three major Allied offensives took place during this time. These were codenamed Stream, Line,
and Jane, making up the three sub-operations of the overarching Operation Stream Line Jane.
Stream and Jane were amphibious landings at Majunga on the 10th
of September and Tamatave on the 18th of September, while the sub-operation Line
centred around an assault on the capital city, Tananarive, from out of Majunga.
If he hadn’t been aware already, the fall of Tananarive, coupled with the
central Vichy government’s unwillingness to send reinforcements to Madagascar,
clued Annet into the fact that the island was lost; it was only a matter of time. Nor would
the Japanese answer Annet’s plea. They were far too busy in the Pacific. To make matters worse,
one of Japan’s midget submarines had been abandoned and the crew killed,
while the other midget submarine and crew were lost at sea (AKA dead).
The last major engagement between the Allies and French on Madagascar
occurred on the 18th of October in a valley alongside the Mangarahara
River. The King’s African Rifles ambushed a force of Vichy troops and unmade them here,
forcing the surrender of 800 men, with zero British casualties inflicted.
That figure of 800 accounted for 80% of all the Vichy troops captured throughout the Battle of
Madagascar, while an additional 500 were wounded and 150 were killed. All in all, 280 Allied troops
were wounded in the battle, and 107 were killed in action. A further 108 succumbed to disease.
Having been on the run since the fall of the capital in September,
Annet threw in the towel on November 8th. Finally, the island was in Allied
hands. And while the Japanese might never have used Madagascar as a base,
it proved absolutely critical to the Allied defence of the Indian Ocean.
But what do you think? What do you know about the Battle of Madagascar that we
missed? Why do you think the central Vichy government refused to send Annet
the reinforcements he so desperately needed? And lastly, do you think the
Japanese would eventually have made a base out of Madagascar if the Allies hadn’t taken it,
and how might that have changed the war? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.