Slitherine

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The Futuna island group was discovered by the Dutch in 1616 and Wallis by the British in 1767, but it was the French who declared a protectorate over the islands in 1842, and took official control of them between 1886 and 1888. Notably, Wallis and Futuna was the only French colony to side with the Vichy regime during World War II, a phase that ended in May of 1942 with the arrival of 2,000 American troops. In 1959, the inhabitants of the islands voted to become a French overseas territory and officially assumed this status in July 1961.

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On 21 January, the 2d Marine Brigade (the 8th Marines and the 2d Battalion, 10th Marines, the latter recently returned from Iceland) arrived in Samoa, along with Lieutenant Colonel Raymond E. Knapp's 2d Defense Battalion. The newcomers built on the foundation supplied by the 7th Defense Battalion and were themselves reinforced by the newly activated 8th Defense Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Augustus W Cockrell. The Marines in Samoa anchored a line of bases and airfields that protected the exposed sea routes to Australia and New Zealand, which were judged likely objectives for the advancing Japanese.

On 27 May 1942, the 8th Defense Battalion moved southwest from Samoa to the Wallis Islands, a French possession. Tanks, field artillery, motor transport, and infantry reinforced the defense battalion, which remained there through 1943. The stay proved uneventful except for a visit from Eleanor Roosevelt, the President's wife, who was touring the Pacific theater of war.

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This Force (FPO SF 207) was formed at Apia, Upolu by Defense Force, Somoan Group on 25 May 42 to occupy Wallis (aka Uvea Island). On 26 May May, a Free French corvette from New Caledonia deposed the pro-Vichy resident commissioner on Wallis.

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ORIGINAL: el cid again
Don't look at RHS unless you are interested in REAL history -

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ORIGINAL: US87891

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ORIGINAL: el cid again
Don't look at RHS unless you are interested in REAL history -

n terms of REAL history, they were Axis in 1941. Vichy France leaned Axis by necessity. Your argument is disjoint and unintelligible. What do these islands have to do with Sinkiang and the USSR?

As the YankeeAirRat fellow points out, these islands were secured by a show of force. They must have been something other than friendly to cause a visit by a Free French Aviso and the US Marines. That is REAL history.

Given the game system, an island group can be either Allied or Axis. There is no neutrality allowed. In both the game and in REAL history, if a set of islands needed a visit from a warship and the Crotch, then they were not Allied: i.e., they were Axis. Is this concept too difficult to grasp?