The British mounted a military expedition to Antarctica in 1944, Operation Tabarin, ostensibly for scientific research but primarily to assert territorial claims over the Falkland Island Dependencies (an area that included part of mainland Antarctica as well as South Georgia and other smaller islands). The expedition set up bases at Port Lockroy (Base A) and Deception Island (Base B), later Sandefijord Bay (Base C) and Hope Bay (Base D).

There was no military action, the main rival claims in the region were from Chile and Argentina and the expedition was only officially announced at the end of the polar summer, too late for rival missions to be sent. The team conducted scientific research for the rest of the war, forming the basis of the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey in July 1945 that continued post-war research. The expanded Base A at Port Lockroy now operates as a museum, and can be visited on Antarctic cruises.

Frozen empires : a history of the Antarctic sovereignty dispute between Britain, Argentina, and Chile, 1939-1959, AJ Howkins

[UK Antarctic Heritage Trust Website] (http://www.ukaht.org/discover/port-lockroy/operation-tabarin/)