John Grehan - Churchills Secret Invasion
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This book is dedicated to
CORPORAL BERNARD GREHAN
17 Platoon, D Company,
1st Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers
17 Platoon, D Company,
1st Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright John Grehan 2013
HARDBACK ISBN: 978 1 78159 382 0
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47383 082 0
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47382 966 4
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47383 024 0
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47383 082 0
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47382 966 4
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47383 024 0
The right of John Grehan to be identified as the Author of this Work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Typeset in Ehrhardt by
Mac Style, Driffield, East Yorkshire
Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon,
CRO 4YY
Mac Style, Driffield, East Yorkshire
Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon,
CRO 4YY
Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword
Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe
Local History, Pen and Sword Select, Pen and Sword Military
Classics, Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When,
Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing.
Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe
Local History, Pen and Sword Select, Pen and Sword Military
Classics, Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When,
Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Maps and Plan
)
Acknowledgements
T he assistance and advice provided so unselfishly by Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Weekes, particularly with regards to sources in The National Archive, has been so significant that the completion of this book is nothing less than a tribute to his endeavours. My thanks go also to the following people for the help which they have given me throughout five years of research:
Peter Crocker and David Bownes of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum at Caernarvon. Catherine Roundsfell of the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton. L. Jooste, Secretary for Defence in Pretoria, South Africa. Yvonne Oliver of the Photograph Archive at the Imperial War Museum, and Jim Jepson of the Combined Operations Association.
To Ernest Butterfield, Arthur Lowe, Jim Howell, and my father Bernard Grehan, for sharing with me their recollections of Madagascar. Miriam Palmer for her translation of Annets memoirs. Israel Togoh for his persistence in gaining access to the archives at the Chteau de Vincennes when others had failed and Stphane Allion of the Etat-Major, Service Historique de lArme de Terre for his exceptional assistance when everyone else was on holiday!
My gratitude also goes to Sally Spears, Librarian at Magdalene College, Oxford University, for sacrificing her weekend to allow me to inspect the Lush memoir, and to Andrew Gunstone and Ray Cusick for the many hours spent reading my manuscript. Thanks especially to Martin Mace for sharing the dream.
Finally, I must state that my trip to Madagascar would have been far less rewarding in every respect without the knowledge of Hilary Bradt and the assistance of the British Consular Correspondent in Diego Suarez, Bruno Ndriamahafahana, and Saula Floris of the Universit du Nord Madagascar thanks for the memories.
Antsirane
They sailed from home across the sea
To gain a smashing victory
Past Freetown and its lovely bay
Past Durban and its life so gay.
At last to Madagascars shore
The lads arrive hard times before.
To gain a smashing victory
Past Freetown and its lovely bay
Past Durban and its life so gay.
At last to Madagascars shore
The lads arrive hard times before.
On the sixth of May at break of day
The Seaforths land in sheltered bay,
They rest awhile then march ahead
No-one could guess where that road led.
The Seaforths land in sheltered bay,
They rest awhile then march ahead
No-one could guess where that road led.
Up hill, down dale, twenty weary miles,
Yet march they did with gallant smiles,
From heavens height that blazing sun
Shone down upon them, everyone.
Each Highlander out here a stranger
March to face their foe and danger.
Oer eighteen miles with scare a stop
The lads trudge on but never drop.
A few hours rest and on they go
To action, danger, against their foe.
Yet march they did with gallant smiles,
From heavens height that blazing sun
Shone down upon them, everyone.
Each Highlander out here a stranger
March to face their foe and danger.
Oer eighteen miles with scare a stop
The lads trudge on but never drop.
A few hours rest and on they go
To action, danger, against their foe.
At 8 p.m. that lovely day, they met their foe at bay
Machine guns spat, the shells came oer,
They halted there seconds, no more.
Then Caber Fiedh rang through the air
And on they charge with bayonets bare,
Some fell, never to rise again,
The rest drive on, avenging men,
So soon its over, the foe have fled
The ground is littered with the dead.
Seaforth and French lay peaceful there
Never again to breathe earths air.
Machine guns spat, the shells came oer,
They halted there seconds, no more.
Then Caber Fiedh rang through the air
And on they charge with bayonets bare,
Some fell, never to rise again,
The rest drive on, avenging men,
So soon its over, the foe have fled
The ground is littered with the dead.
Seaforth and French lay peaceful there
Never again to breathe earths air.
Danny Cunningham,
6th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, 1942
6th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, 1942
Introduction
A Turning Point in the War
T he combined operation by Allied forces to take and hold Madagascars principal naval base in 1942 is considered to have been Britains first successful major amphibious operation of its kind since General Wolfe captured Quebec almost 200 years earlier. Unlike previous hit-and-run raids against enemy-held coasts, Operation Ironclad was a land-and-stay expedition which led to full military and political control of an entire country.
Yet Ironclad, and the series of combined operations to seize control of the rest of Madagascar that followed, has been largely neglected by mainstream historians. Martin Gilbert, for instance, one of the most respected of the Second World War historians, devoted just one paragraph to the campaign in his huge 800-page History of The Second World War. Similarly, John Keegan wrote over 600 pages in his book The Second World War but found room for just half a sentence on Madagascar. These men are not alone. Many other distinguished historians have failed to register the significance of this operation.
Why the capture of this vast island should be so widely ignored defies explanation. It cannot be due to the length of the campaign. The attack upon Dieppe in the summer of 1942, Britains first combined operation after Ironclad, boasts a catalogue of books, articles and papers devoted to the subject. Yet this was a single-tide, six-hour, raid upon a small French port. The Madagascar campaign lasted six months and involved the occupation of a country greater in size than the whole of continental France.
Nor can it be that the campaign lacked significance either tactically or strategically. As Britains first large-scale amphibious landing of the war it was the forerunner of the great amphibious assaults upon North Africa, Italy and, of course, Normandy in 1944. Many new tactics, ships and formations were tried for the first time at Madagascar and many lessons were learnt.
Strategically, at a time when British ships could not pass through the Mediterranean, it was even more important. A single Japanese submarine flotilla operating in the waters around Madagascar in the spring and early summer of 1942 damaged one British battleship and sunk twenty-five merchant ships in little more than two months. Allied shipping to Egypt and India had to be re-routed and convoys re-structured. If the Japanese had been able to establish a base in Madagascar, the accumulation of men and material that preceded the El Alamein and Burma offensives would have been seriously delayed with potentially devastating results.
Immediately after the fall of Singapore, the Special Operations Executives Headquarters considered Madagascar to be an imminent menace to the Allies. Churchill believed that if the Japanese established themselves in Madagascar it would be disastrous, and General de Gaulle saw Madagascar as being of such high importance that its occupation by the Japanese would be so great a disaster to our cause. Admiral Fricke of the German Navys High Command went even further by stating that the focal point of the entire war lies today in the western Indian Ocean, as the crushing of the British position in the Near East and the establishment of direct contact [there] with Japan will decide the war.
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