MADAGASCAR EXPLOIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24914, 13 May 1942, Page 5

MADAGASCAR EXPLOIT

BRITISH OCCUPATION REINFORCEMENTS AWAITED LONDON, May 11. The Paris radio announced that the British in Madagascar had hdlted their advance, apparently awaiting reinforcements. The defenders were taking advantage of the lull to reinforce their positions. The British advance was confined to territory immediately south of Diego Suarez. The French had rendered the airfield at Antananarivo unusable. The British had interned French officers on board ships, encamped other ranks on land, and demobilised natives. Civil servants and employees of public services in Diego Sugrez were continuing at their posts. The French Air Force in Madagascar lost its petrol supplies when a dump was destroyed in the recent operations. A Vichy report states that the British used two tank columns at Diego Suarez. They broke through three lines of fortifications built by Marshal Joffre. Twenty-three invasion ships, including transports, reached Courier Bay from the north-west, apparently from Dar-es-Salaam. Heavy shelling from British warships established a safety zone, where the troops landed at dawn on May 5. Meanwhile planes from an aircraft carrier dropped leaflets on Diego Suarez and Antsirane, announcing the landing and inviting the garrison to surrender. The planes also attacked isolated forts in Tonnere Bay and Cap Mine. The British within four hours landed two tank columns, the first proceeding eastward into the peninsula, where Diego Suarez is situated, and the second southward to Antsirane. This manoeuvring cpntinued to the night of May 6. During the following day there was fighting southward of Antsirane. The British entered Antsirane late on May 7, During the period of operations "the defending air force, consisting of 12 old planes, shot down 11 British planes. Four thousand Europeans are safe at Diego Suarez, and 538 at Antsirane. The Mauritius correspondent of The Times says the French broadcast family messages from Tananrivo, in the centre of Madagascar, to Diego Suarez. The British countered by broadcasting messages from prisoners and civilians from Diego Suarez to their relatives in the French-held areas. The British radio said the French wounded are receiving exactly the same treatment as British wounded on board the same hospital ship. Reunion Island has been off the air for three days.