United Kingdom South Africa Vichy France 1941 1942 1944 1945 Second Sino-Japanese War Taishō period Shōwa period Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups The Battle of Madagascar (5 May – 6 November 1942) was an Allied campaign to capture the Vichy French-controlled island Madagascar during World War II.

The seizure of the island by the British was to deny Madagascar's ports to the Imperial Japanese Navy and to prevent the loss or impairment of the Allied shipping routes to India, Australia and Southeast Asia.

The colonization was formalized after the first Franco-Hova War when Queen Ranavalona III signed a treaty on 17 December 1885 giving France a protectorate over the bay and surrounding territory; as well as the islands of Nosy Be and St. Marie de Madagascar.

In March, Japanese aircraft carriers raided merchant ships in the Bay of Bengal, and attacked bases in Colombo and Trincomalee in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

This raid drove the British Eastern Fleet out of the area and they were forced to relocate to a new base at Kilindini Harbour, Mombasa, Kenya.

The potential use of these facilities particularly threatened Allied merchant shipping, the supply route to the British Eighth Army and also the Eastern Fleet.

If the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarines could use bases on Madagascar, Allied lines of communication would be affected across a region stretching from the Pacific and Australia, to the Middle East and as far as the South Atlantic.

[citation needed] On 17 December 1941, Vice Admiral Fricke, Chief of Staff of Germany's Maritime Warfare Command (Seekriegsleitung), met Vice Admiral Naokuni Nomura, the Japanese naval attaché, in Berlin to discuss the delimitation of respective operational areas between the German Kriegsmarine and Imperial Japanese Navy forces.

It was a formidable force to bring against the 8,000 troops (mostly conscripted Malagasy) at Diego-Suarez, but the chiefs of staff were adamant that the operation was to succeed, preferably without any fighting.

[15]: 230 During the assembly in Durban, Field-Marshal Jan Smuts pointed out that the mere seizure of Diego-Suarez would be no guarantee against continuing Japanese aggression and urged that the ports of Majunga and Tamatave be occupied as well.

The fleet included the aircraft carrier Illustrious, her sister ship Indomitable and the ageing battleship Ramillies to cover the landings.

[16] The defending Vichy forces, led by Governor General Armand Léon Annet, included about 8,000 troops, of whom about 6,000 were Malagasy tirailleurs (colonial infantry).

[7] Naval and air defences were relatively light or obsolete: eight coastal batteries, two armed merchant cruisers, two sloops, five submarines, 17 Morane-Saulnier 406 fighters and ten Potez 63 bombers.

[citation needed] The beach landings met with virtually no resistance and these troops seized Vichy coastal batteries and barracks.

The Courier Bay force, the British 17th Infantry Brigade, after toiling through mangrove swamp and thick bush took the town of Diego-Suarez taking a hundred prisoners of war.

At this time, the Vichy government in France began to learn of the landings, and Admiral Darlan sent a message to Governor Annet telling him to "Firmly defend the honour of our flag", and "Fight to the limit of your possibilities ... and make the British pay dearly."

[23] The marines created a "disturbance in the town out of all proportion to their numbers" taking the French artillery command post along with its barracks and the naval depot.

All three of the French fighters were then shot down, meaning that by the third day of the attack on Madagascar, twelve Moranes and five Potez 63s had been destroyed out of a total of 35 Vichy aircraft on the entire island.

The crew of one of the midget submarines, Lieutenant Saburo Akieda and Petty Officer Masami Takemoto, beached their craft (M-20b) at Nosy Antalikely and moved inland towards their pick-up point near Cape Amber.

[30] On 2 July, an invasion force was sent to the Vichy-held island of Mayotte to take control of its valuable radio station and to use it as a base for British operations in the area.

[37] The Allies eventually captured the capital, Tananarive, without much opposition, and then the town of Ambalavao, but the devoutly Vichy Governor Annet escaped.

After they reached Tananarive they pressed on towards Moramanga and on 25 September they linked up with the King's African Rifles having secured the British lines of communication around the island.

[39] The same day, a bombing raid was launched by South African Marylands on a Vichy-held fort in Fianarantsoa, the only major centre of population that was still in French hands and where the remainder of the Vichy aircraft were now based.

[40] Tetrarch and Valentine tanks of 'B' and 'C' Special Service Squadrons had been embarked for use in these operations, but they were not used as they could not ford the Ivondro River and the railway bridges were unsuitable.

[43] The last major action took place on 18 October, at Andramanalina, a U-shaped valley with the meandering Mangarahara River where an ambush was planned for British forces by Vichy troops.

[44] On 25 October the King's African Rifles entered Fianarantsoa but found Annet gone, this time near Ihosy 100 miles south.

Julian Jackson, in his biography of de Gaulle, observed that the French had held out longer against the Allies in Madagascar in 1942 than they had against the Germans in France in 1940.

In the makeshift Allied planning of the war's early years, the invasion of Madagascar held a prominent strategic place.

[10] Historian John Grehan has claimed that the British capture of Madagascar before it could fall into Japanese hands was so crucial in the context of the war that it led to Japan's eventual downfall and defeat.

[47] Free French General Paul Legentilhomme was appointed High Commissioner for Madagascar in December 1942[48] only to replace British administration.