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Landing ahead of the main force and carry out a raid on a French coastal artillery battery near Courrier and Ambarata Bays on the northern tip of the island eighteen kilometres to the west of Diego Suarez, Madagascar.
Operational Area
Madagascar
Unit Force
365 men of No. 5 Commando, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel W. Sanguinetti, attached to the 29th Infantry Brigade.
Opposing Forces
Vichy French Army
Operation
No. 5 Commando, numbering some 365 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel W. Sanguinetti, attached to the 29th Brigade. Their mission is landing ahead of the main force and carry out a raid on a French coastal artillery battery near Courrier and Ambarata Bays on the northern tip of the island eighteen kilometres to the west of Diego Suarez, Madagascar.
At dawn on May 5th, 1942, the landing ships and their escorts manage to slip through a stretch of water previously thought impassable due to the presence of reefs. At the rendez-vous area the commandos embark upon their assault landing craft and proceed to their landing area. The landing craft move threw a channel swept clear of mines by a small force of corvettes. The commandos land at the base of a fifteen metres cliff that they have to scale to move on. With it they achieve complete surprise over the French Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Malagash and Senegalese troops manning the two guns. The French are rounded up and placed under guard. At dawn the Commandos are counter-attacked by a platoon-sized element of French colonial troops, consisting of 40 Colonials with two Non-Commissioned Officers. The commandos carry out a bayonet charge, targeting the non-commissioned officers leading the attack. After they are killed the remaining attacking French troops lay down their weapons and surrender. The commando casualties are described as being only “very light” in the brief engagement. Captain Heron then goes forward to take the surrender of a separate party of battery observers on a nearby hill. As they come forward to surrender, some grenades are lobbed over from their rear, wounding Captain Heron and some other Commandos. The Commandos shoot them all.
For the next two days, the commandos continue operations around Cap Diego. The main force, having landed at Ambararata, drives towards the port of Antsirane, attempting to take it from the rear, on the opposite headland across the channel from Cap Diego to the south, capturing Fort Bellevue and the airfield in the process. As part of these operations the commandos march twenty-nine kilometres from where they have landed at Courrier Bay across the isthmus that separates the Cap D’Ambre from the larger land mass to the south and move to Cap Diego. Here the unit carries out mopping up operations. In one of these operations, they engage with a French Foreign Legion troop and in the battle that follows about fifty legionnaires are wounded.
On May 8th, 1942, following an amphibious assault by Royal Marines which land from the destroyer H.M.S. Anthony. Shortly afterwards Antsirane falls, and the anchorage is captured. The Vichy French forces, however, continue to resist, and withdraw to the south. A prolonged land campaign begins, although hostilities remain at low-intensity level, they mostly consist of delaying tactics on the part of the French.
No. 5 Commando then goes briefly to Mombassa where they carry out rehearsals for the next phase of the campaign. On September 10th, 1942, No. 5 Commando conducts a landing at Majunga, which is another port on the western coast of the island of Madagascar. The plan calls landing around dawn at the docks, but after some of the landing craft break down, they are delayed, and the landings take place later in the day without the cover of darkness. When the landing force comes insight the defending French colonial forces open fire on them with four machine guns. The landing force support vessels fire on the shore to provide cover to the assaulting troops. espite the support the Commandos take several casualties as they storm the quayside. Once ashore, the commandos take control of the local post office, severing communications with Tannanarive, before storming the Governor’s Residence and raising the Union Jack. The French take very heavy casualties during these fights.
Later they return to the anchorage at Antsirane and embark upon the destroyers H.M.S. Arrow, H.M.S. Active and H.M.S. Blackmore. Escorted a naval force consisting of the battleship H.M.S. Warspite, the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Illustrious as well as three cruisers and fourteen destroyers, they take part in a landing at Tamatave, where the garrison surrenders after a heavy naval bombardment. After the landing they advance on Tannanarive, in conjunction with troops from the King’s African Rifles who strike out from Majunga. On September 18th, 1942, after the French reject a proposal for an armistice, they take part in another landing, this time at Ambalavo. In October, before the fighting ends the commandos embark for Great Britain, arriving there in December. The French finally surrendered in Madagascar on November 5th, 1942.
