The Battle for Madagascar

Today, the great island of Madagascar is known for its rosewood (illegal logging is a huge problem and there is, no joke, a "rosewood mafia"), its lemurs, and the obscenely long last names of its population.

It is less known, however, for its history as a WWII battle site. This day (Sept 10) in 1942 marked the climax of the British invasion of Madagascar. Madagascar was a French colony and France at the time was under the Vichy Government, which was known to be controlled by Hitler's Germany and the Axis powers.

Allied troops disembarking, nine days after the September 10th invasion

"Operation Ironclad" had begun in May but met with strong Vichy French resistance. September 10th marked the relaunch of Allied forces into Madagascar, with an amphibious landing into northwestern coastal town Mahajanga. Madagascar fell to the British in early November and Free French General Paul Legentilhomme (literally "the nice guy") was appointed High Commissioner. Madagascar would remain under Free French control (and after WWII, just regular French again) until its independence in 1960.

Random Kate Thoughts: This is particularly fascinating, as most don't remember that the British and the French were at war, much less this far south of the equator. Today, the Malagasy population is predominantly French and Malagasy-speaking (my students from Magadascar are mostly Francophone). It's sad, actually, that the illegal logging in Madagascar today isn't more well-known.  China has been consistently infiltrating the entire African continent economically, but nowhere has it been so blatantly destructive as the rape of the Malagasy tropical rainforests by poorly paid loggers responding to Chinese demand for rare hardwoods. Today, the battle for Madagascar isn't between European powers, but between China and poverty-stricken Malagasy loggers on one side and the Malagasy government on the other.