MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Churchill sent troops to the Falklands in 1942 fearing a Japan-Argentina entente
“The Falklands are very well known and their loss would be a shock to the whole Empire,” wrote Churchill. “They would certainly have to be retaken.” Winston Churchill dispatched 1,700 troops to the Falkland Islands in 1942 out of concern that the Japanese were planning to invade the territory and interfere with critical sea routes in the South Atlantic. In support of this plan Tokyo allegedly was prepared to hand control of the Falklands to Argentina, according to a piece in the Daily Telegraph, credited to Julian Ryall, from the Japanese capital.
Citing Kyodo News, and based on documents held at the UK's National Archives, the Telegraph says that Churchill realized the strategic importance of the Falklands to Britain's war effort after Japan's attack on US forces at Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941.
Playing on Argentina's desire to reclaim the Islands, the Japanese ambassador to Buenos Aires had promised the government that Japan “would see that the Falklands are returned to Argentina,” according to documents in the archive from Esmond Ovey, the British ambassador.
In a subsequent exchange dated December 26, the Admiralty had sent a coded message to the commander in chief of British forces in the South Atlantic warning that “The Japanese have given out that they will shortly be running a convoy to Argentina and that they will capture the Falkland Islands and present them to the Argentinians.”
And in a message to senior defense officials in London dated April first, 1942, Churchill stated, “It would be a very serious thing to lose the Falkland Islands to the Japanese and no comfort to say that it would hurt the United States more than ourselves.
”The Falkland Islands are very well known and their loss would be a shock to the whole Empire,“ he wrote. ”They would certainly have to be retaken.“
Requests for assistance from Canada were turned down, while the United States ignored suggestions that it would be in Washington's best interests to garrison the Falklands.
Precisely to ensure that a seaborne invasion to recapture the Falklands, which Britain was ill-equipped to carry out in 1942, was not required, 1,700 men of the 11th battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment were posted to the Islands.
”The object of the reinforcement would be to make it necessary for the Japanese to extend their attacking forces to a tangible size,“ Churchill wrote. ”This might well act as a deterrent”.
However the Japanese threat to the Falklands failed to materialize and, by late 1944, the troops had been dispatched to different theatres of the world war two conflict.
Nevertheless the UK government convinced of the strategic value of the Falklands, in 1944, from the Islands, organized Operation Tabarin to ensure British bases in Antarctic territory fearing again Japan and/or Germany's advances. The bases and summer stations with time evolved into one of the top Antarctic research organizations, the British Antarctic Survey, of BAS.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
-
-
Read all commentsbla bla bla, its all abt the nasty brits,
Dec 10th, 2014 - 12:11 pm +1Amazing how one seems to forget all the argie atrocities..
sticks and stones
sticks and stones...
@4. Sorry Pablo, I can't find an 'indian holocaust'. But I did find the Bengal famine of 1943, that appears to have mostly been the fault of the Japanese. Anybody other than a bigoted, brain-dead turd would have noted the Japanese occupation of Burma in 1942. Burma being the place from which much of Bengal's food came. The bombing of Dresden was one of the few instances where Churchill's nerve may have faltered. A 1953 United States Air Force report defended the operation as the justified bombing of a military and industrial target, which was a major rail transport and communication centre, housing 110 factories and 50,000 workers in support of the German war effort. In March 1945, the German government ordered its press to publish a falsified casualty figure of 200,000 for the Dresden raids, when the actual figure was less than 10% of that. But then it was a WAR. You must remember about a WAR. No-one is safe. Where do I recall 66,000 military personnel being sent to invade a territory with 1,500 legal occupants and 80 soldiers? But you must tell us about the Boer genocide. The Second Anglo-Boer War managed to account for 22,000 British soldiers and 6,000 to 7,000 Boer Commandos. Strange sort of 'genocide'. But then the war had three phases. The first phase involved Boer attacks. The second covered British relief of sieges and the third, a Boer guerrilla war.
Dec 10th, 2014 - 01:13 pm +1Typical argie semi-literate garbage. Incidentally, Galtieri may have worn a uniform but there is no record that he was ever a 'soldier'. He was, of course, a coward. Something of which Churchill could never be accused. Good to note that the death squad, Intelligence Battalion 601, reported directly to Galtieri. One presumes that they didn't tell him that they were working hard toward exterminating 30,000. Wonder if they had visions of murdering more than the nazis?
What will you do when the end comes, Pablo?
Interesting article. We know that back in the 40s the Arg gov had some sympathy for the european portion of the Axis, but I wonder if they would have accepted such an offer from Japan.
Dec 10th, 2014 - 10:46 am 0Let´s not forget that in spite of any ideological stance, Argentina had substantial trade with the UK, even during the war.
In all honesty, I hardly believe such a plan would have being gladly accepted back in the day. I know that under the light of the events that took place in 1982 many may like to imagine an Arg gov happily accepting those islands from whoever may wanna hand them over.
Nevertheless, and even though the claim was already there in the 40s, it was not as strong as it is today, and ties with the UK were closer.
Again, I don´t see it happening, IMO.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!