Churchill's Secret Invasion: Britain's First Large-Scale Combined Operations Offensive 1942 by John Grehan

Author:John Grehan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473829664
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

MAP 6: A map of Port Nievre, in Diego Suarez, showing the positions of the British ships at anchor during the Japanese submarine attack on HMS Ramillies and the supply ship SS British Loyalty, 30 May 1942. The positions of four Vichy French vessels sunk during the capture of Diego Suarez are also marked.

The four submarines of the flotilla converged upon Diego Suarez. On the night of 29 May, I-16, I-18 and I-20 were ordered to launch their midgets when they were about ten miles off the Orangea Peninsula. Because of the speed with which Ironclad had been mounted, neither an anti-submarine boom nor nets had been available and the harbour entrance was entirely open. The only anti-submarine protection at Diego Suarez consisted of the two corvettes – Thyme and Genista. At the time of the raid Thyme was on patrol inside the bay with Genista on standby. Though I-18 was unable to release its midget submarine due to engine trouble, the other two midgets entered the harbour undetected.26

The two men who were shot by the commando patrol were from the midget sub of I-20, which had grounded on a reef near Amponkarana Bay. It was later learnt that they had ditched their craft and had been attempting to reach a prearranged rendezvous point where they would be met by the carrier submarines. The wreck of the midget was later spotted by a Lysander of 1433 Flight and the body of another Japanese man wearing naval uniform was also recovered from outside Diego Suarez Bay.27

The Japanese attack provided Smuts with the opportunity to repeat his appeal for the Allies to seize the rest of Madagascar. Offering his “sincere condolences” to Churchill on 1 June 1942, he wrote: “Attack must have been made by Vichy submarine or by Japanese submarine on Vichy information and advice. It all points to necessity of eliminating Vichy control completely from whole island as soon as possible. Appeasement is as dangerous in this case as it has proved in all others, and I trust we shall soon make a clean job of this whole business. My South African brigade group stands ready and simply awaits transport.”28

Despite the success of the operation, the Japanese carried out no further attacks upon Diego Suarez, though the submarine flotilla continued to operate in the waters around Madagascar until the middle of July. By discharging ammunition and oil Ramillies was able to regain its trim and on the afternoon of 30 May the battleship, with Syfret on board, slowly made its way to Durban for repairs. British Loyalty was later recovered from the bottom of the bay and was also put back into service.29

As a footnote to this episode, there was a suggestion amongst the French that the submarine attack was concocted by the British to show the world that their capture of Diego Suarez to prevent it falling into Japanese hands was justified. The fact that the “evidence” had been removed, i.e. the two Japanese submariners had been killed and

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.