The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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The Maldive Islands are a chain of atolls located off the southwest tip of India. They are very low islands and suffer from the occasional storm and heavy seas.
In 1941, the British had begun work on a secret base on one of the southernmost of the Maldives, Addu Atoll. There was a small airstrip and a decent anchorage, but not yet a single coastal defense or antiaircraft gun. Nonetheless, the anchorage was unknown to the Japanese and was an important refuge for the Far East Fleet during the Japanese raid into the Indian Ocean in early 1942.
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