World Battlefronts: Madagascar Surrenders

Last week, six months to the day after British forces first landed at Diégo-Suarez, the stubborn Vichyfrenchmen of Madagascar signed an armistice. Governor General Armand L. Annet had not been able to offer the British much war, but at the bidding of Pierre Laval he had done the next best thing. By forcing the British to take each port in turn and to march to each inland city, then by stalling on armistice terms, Annet had kept some British land and sea forces from fighting Germans and Japanese as long as he possibly could.