DIE GEALLIEERDE BESTETTING VAN MADAGASKAR IN 1942 (DEEL 4) TAMATAVE, TULEAR EN DIE OORGAWE VAN ANNET

Abstract

In September 1942,the third stage in Operation Stream-line-Jane, namely the occupation of the port city of Tamatave on the east coast, was executed by British units. This article briefly deals with that operation, in which no Union troops took part, before turning to what was from the South African viewpoint, the more important Operation Rose. In the execution of that operation South Africans for the first and only time during the Second World War were used in an amphibious attack. Tulear, a small port and town, was captured during that operation, and afterwards garrisoned for more than a month, before the South Africans there started moving towards the interior in search of the Vichy French administrator.

Meanwhile the troops which occupied Tananarive, supported by a South African armoured car squadron, moved southwards, also in search of the administrator. A few engagements took place, in which the armoured cars played a minor role, before, after about six weeks, the French called for an armistice. Thus ended the campaign in Madagascar, a campaign in which the Vichy French were reluctant to physically defend their colony, although quite prepared to spare no other trouble in prolonging the date of its surrender as long as possible.