Word: madagascars
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...people was more surprised than the British, when the British Army last week opened a new assault on Madagascar. Last May British troops had landed on the island. With a little fighting and few losses they had soon taken Diégo-Suarez and territory surrounding that naval base, chief port of the big French island. The British thought then that Madagascar was safely in British hands. But they were mistaken...
...until a communiqué announced renewal of the assault on Madagascar did most of the public realize that Madagascar had never been under effective control of the United Nations. Britain's conquest had come to an abrupt halt after the invaders finished, mopping up scattered French resistance in the hills rimming Diégo-Suarez Bay. For 1,000 miles southward through the rest of the island Vichy-french officials had not come to terms. Last week the British really got down to taking control of Madagascar's ports, mineral wealth and agricultural resources...
Have we the ships? Aye, there's the rub. Well, we had ships to take 950,000 men to the Middle East, ships to capture Madagascar, ships to take huge convoys to India, ships to transport supplies to Russia, ships to save an army from Dunkirk, ships to keep this nation the best fed in Europe. Ships do not lie idle. They must be employed according to a rigid rule of priority. Suppose the Second Front became Number 1 priority. Perhaps then the greatest seafaring nation the world has ever seen would be unable to find the ships...
...British, settled in Madagascar, had a grip on the vital Indian Ocean sentry box the Jap would have given a lot to own. But Axis submarines still operated sporadically to the west in the Mozambique Channel, between Madagascar and the African mainland, through which ship-borne supplies and men flowed north to Russia, the Near East and India. Last week the British announced that they had taken another step...
...night a raid force of the King's African Rifles, marines and commando units slipped out of Madagascar's Diego Suarez, by next nightfall were within range of Vichy's island of Mayotte in the channel. After dark they landed, took Mayotte without opposition or casualties, found radio station and all else intact...