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The Bat Bomb Invention and Other Odd Facts from History and War

Khalid Elhassan May 10, 2020 33 min

33. Anguilla Gains Its… Continued Colonization

Soviets wishing their recent invasion of Czechoslovakia had been as enjoyable as the British invasion of Anguilla. FSU Digital Collection

The British invasion of Anguilla was ridiculed by the world press. Newsweek headlined it “The Lion That Meowed“. Time Magazine termed it “Britain’s Bay of Piglets“. Referring to the incompetent British diplomat who triggered it all, the Spectator termed it “The War of Whitlock’s Ear“. Whitlock was fired, and never again worked for Britain’s government.

Scotland Yard police officers taking a swim after helping invade Anguilla. Wave Train

The invasion force departed a few months later, to be replaced by British Army engineers brought in to improve Anguilla’s infrastructure. A more competent diplomat was sent, and he worked out a solution. Anguilla got its own constitution and effectively seceded from St. Kitts and Nevis in 1976, and formally disassociated from them in 1980 to become a British dependency. St. Kitts and Nevis went on to gain full independence in 1983, but Anguilla remains a British Overseas Territory to this day.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.