The Jollies Have Landed

On Madagascar the gentle, black-skinned Malagasy, who live close to nature and call their God "The Fragrant One," could find no interest beyond their flowers and their fields. The French, far from the desecrated altars and scattered ashes of their homeland, had no heart for battle. And when the British struck, they struck with nicely calculated force.

So Madagascar's naval base fell. In 48 hours of fierce, sharp fighting, the United Nations, far out of reach of the Axis, won an anomalous battle and reduced a glowering threat to their traffic on the Indian Ocean (see above).

Even though the island was taken from an ineffectual foe, Madagascar was a great victory. Britain had prepared the blow for three months, had determined that this time the show would come off.

The British task force under greying, athletic Admiral Edward Neville Syfret stood off the craggy north end of Madagascar. The landing force was under the command of a veteran of beachhead warfare: lean, aloof Major General Robert Grice Sturges of the Royal Marines, Officer in the "Jollies" since 1912, he had gone through the blistering hell of Gallipoli, had seen British Marines shot to pieces on Belgium's coast in World War I.

This time there was plenty of strength, plenty of cooperation between sea and land forces. Syfret's guns opened up on Diego-Suarez' batteries as the landing parties set out for shore. His planes, presumably from a carrier, swept in and blasted a way for them. Sturges' mixed force of Marines and Commandomen piled out on the beach and plowed in from west and north, spearheaded by light tanks and aided by parachute troops.

For a while the French and their lackadaisical native troops put up a fight. It swirled through the streets of the town and eddied in the naval base.

Within two days and nights it was all over except the shouting. Vichy insisted its troops would still fight from the hills. Even if they did, Britain had the big harbor, could clean them out later, although the island is more than twice as big as Great Britain. But few thought that the French on Madagascar would show very persistent zeal. If France had let the Jap have Indo-China, there was little point in dying to save Madagascar from the British.

There was also little point in what the Axis had to say about being, for once, beaten to a strategic plum. Said the German Foreign Ministry: "Since Madagascar is far from any Axis base, the true reason for its occupation by the British is its wealth." The Jap sounded still sillier: "Radio Tokyo predicted the occupation. We are great prophets."

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