Operation Tabarin
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| Activities in Antarctica During the 20th Century |
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| International agreements | |
| Antarctic Treaty System | |
| British Commonwealth activities | |
| Scott's 1st expedition (1901-04) | |
| Shackleton's 1st expedition (1907-09) | |
| Scott's 2nd expedition (1910-13) | |
| Shackleton's 2nd expedition (1914-17) | |
| Shackleton's 3rd expedition (1921-22) | |
| Mawson's expedition (1929-31) | |
| The Graham Land Expedition (1934-37) | |
| Operation Tabarin (1943-45) | |
| Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs-Hillary) (1955-58) |
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| French activities | |
| Charcot's 1st expedition (1903-05) | |
| Charcot's 2nd expedition (1908-10) | |
| German activities | |
| Drygalski's expedition (1901-03) | |
| Filchner's expedition (1911-12) | |
| The New Swabia Expedition (1938-39) | |
| Norwegian activities | |
| Amundsen's expedition (1910-12) | |
| U.S. activities | |
| Operation Highjump (1946-47) | |
| Operation Windmill (1947-48) | |
| Ronne's expedition (1947-48) | |
| Operation Deep Freeze (1955-56) | |
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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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).
[edit] See also
- Operation Highjump,
- New Swabia,
- List of Antarctica expeditions,
- List of operations and projects (military and non-military).
