World Battlefronts: Channel Secured

The British, settled in Madagascar, had a grip on the vital Indian Ocean sentry box the Jap would have given a lot to own. But Axis submarines still operated sporadically to the west in the Mozambique Channel, between Madagascar and the African mainland, through which ship-borne supplies and men flowed north to Russia, the Near East and India. Last week the British announced that they had taken another step.

By night a raid force of the King’s African Rifles, marines and commando units slipped out of Madagascar’s Diego Suarez, by next nightfall were within range of Vichy’s island of Mayotte in the channel. After dark they landed, took Mayotte without opposition or casualties, found radio station and all else intact.