In May 1942, the British and several other Allied forces launched an invasion of Madagascar, seeking to protect its position as a link in Allied shipping and deny its use to the Axis. The northern naval base at Diego Suarez quickly surrendered. That September, newly arrived troops from East Africa, South Africa, and Northern Rhodesia launched an offensive to capture the rest of the island. British forces took the capital Tananarive in late September; on 8 November, the last Vichy forces surrendered. The British handed the island over to Free France in 1943, under whose control it remained for the rest of the war.