Operation Tabarin

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Template:Mil-antarctica During World War II, Operation Tabarin was a small British expedition launched from the UK in 1943 to the Antarctic to establish permanently-occupied bases.

Led by Lieutenant James Marr, the team left the Falkland Islands in two ships on Saturday January 29, 1944. Bases were established during February near an abandoned Norwegian whaling station on Deception Island (February 3) in the South Shetland Islands, and at Port Lockroy (February 11) on the coast of Graham Land. A further base was founded at Hope Bay on February 13, 1945, after a failed attempt to unload stores on February 7, 1944.

1 Reasons for the expedition
2 Post-war developments
3 See also
4 External links

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Reasons for the expedition

The decision to launch the operation was taken when Winston Churchill was out of the country. A memo from him following news of the bases in the press also indicates that he was apparently unaware of the decision. In it, he expresses concern that the move may harm relations with the USA during the preparations for Operation Overlord (the invasion of Normandy). A reply from the Foreign Office indicated that the operation was launched not because the USA had failed to recognise British claims to the territory, but to reassert British territorial claims against Argentine and Chilean incursion.

It has also been suggested that the operation may have partially been a disinformation exercise, nominally to detect suspected German naval replenishment activity - information which was, in fact, being obtained from the cracking of the Enigma machine. Whether or not this was the case may be revealed when the remaining government files are released.

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Post-war developments

Following the end of the War, in 1945 Operation Tabarin was handed over to the civilians of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), subsequently renamed the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

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