LONDON Wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered troops to the Falkland Islands in 1942 because he feared Japan could invade the far-flung British territory, according to documents at the National Archives in London.

He was concerned that Japan might use the islands as a base to disrupt valuable Allied shipping routes around Cape Horn and from Argentinas River Plate into the South Atlantic.

A total of 1,700 soldiers were dispatched from Britain to defend the outpost in this little-known episode of World War II.

On April 1, 1942, Churchill, writing to a committee of senior defense officials, 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.

They would certainly have to be retaken. The object of the reinforcement would be to make it necessary for the Japanese to extend their attacking force to a tangible size. This might well act as a deterrent.

Britain was anxious to retain the islands as they were the only base for its South Atlantic Fleet. There were also fears that if the Panama Canal was closed, then the route around Cape Horn would become critical for supplies from Australia and New Zealand to Britain.

But an examination of the files reveals Britain was slow to wake up to the Japanese threat and some officials were dismissive. Requests for soldiers and weapons were effectively declined until Churchill became involved in January 1942.

In August 1941, Britains military attache in Argentina urged the War Office to send troops to the Falklands to bolster local defenses. However, London declined, arguing Japan was too far away and afraid of U.S. retribution.

A few days after Japans attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Esmond Ovey, Britains ambassador in Argentina, wrote that the Japanese ambassador had assured the acting president that Japan would see that the Falklands are returned to Argentina.

Read the original here:

Churchill feared Japanese invasion of Falkland Islands, archives suggest