Hitler's plan for Ireland

chughes

German WWII plan to invade Britain revealed in MI5 file


German shock troops would have landed at Dover, dressed in British uniforms, if the Luftwaffe had won the Battle of Britain, newly-released files suggest.
Details of the plan to invade Britain emerge from a post-war debrief of a German soldier and are in an MI5 file made public at the National Archives.
Cpl Werner Janowski was interrogated about his wartime work for the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr.
The plan was abandoned because invading troops would have faced RAF attack.


Dover was to be the focal point of the invasion, but troops would have landed elsewhere along the south coast, as well as in Scotland and the south of Ireland.

I just saw this on the BBC website. It looks like Ireland's policy of neutrality would have taken a serious hammering had this gone ahead. It looks like the RAF saved Devalera's blushes.

ChopShop

The Neutrality policy was, and still is, a facade.

deise go deo

chughes wrote: »

German WWII plan to invade Britain revealed in MI5 file


German shock troops would have landed at Dover, dressed in British uniforms, if the Luftwaffe had won the Battle of Britain, newly-released files suggest.
Details of the plan to invade Britain emerge from a post-war debrief of a German soldier and are in an MI5 file made public at the National Archives.
Cpl Werner Janowski was interrogated about his wartime work for the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr.
The plan was abandoned because invading troops would have faced RAF attack.


Dover was to be the focal point of the invasion, but troops would have landed elsewhere along the south coast, as well as in Scotland and the south of Ireland.

I just saw this on the BBC website. It looks like Ireland's policy of neutrality would have taken a serious hammering had this gone ahead. It looks like the RAF saved Devalera's blushes.

Yes it was called operation Green.
They planned to send about 50,000 troops here to land somewhere between Wexford and Waterford and then advance on Dublin.

I beleive there were plans to ask for British help from NI in the event of an Invasion.

Intrestingly though the British army at the time was studing Irish tactics from the war of Independance just 20 years before, as a template of how an island nation could fight against an occupation.

brianthebard

moved to wwII.

PatsytheNazi

chughes wrote: »

It looks like Ireland's policy of neutrality would have taken a serious hammering had this gone ahead. It looks like the RAF saved Devalera's blushes.

I watched a very good series of programmes on TnaG about neutrality during WW2 or " the emergency " as the older generation called it. Anyway it stated that the Irish army planned for both a possible British and German invasion. The plan was basically a division along the border to hold the British for several days when they would call on Germany to come to our assistance and another division in the south east to hold the Germans for several days when they would call on the British to come to our assistance. Those who lived through the period were more suspicious of the British invading than the Germans. Whether the British or Germans had any real intention to invade and how effective the above plans would have been is conjecture, but their's no doubt it was the correct and brave decision to keep us neutral.

So it could be said in a way that the Germans saved us our freedom.

deise go deo wrote: »

Yes it was called operation Green.
They planned to send about 50,000 troops here to land somewhere between Wexford and Waterford and then advance on Dublin.

I beleive there were plans to ask for British help from NI in the event of an Invasion.

Yes, and the Germans in the event of a British invasion as above.

PatsytheNazi

wernstrom! wrote: »

The Neutrality policy was, and still is, a facade.

How do you make that out ? As far as I know the south was neutral in WW2 :rolleyes: And are we now members of NATO or something ?

Prefab Sprouter

The term Neutrality was something that was fairly loosely interpreted during the emergency. Allied pilots from 1941-42 onwards were generally sent back to Britain if they crashed here, the Germans were interned. The Donegal Air corridor allowed Allied planes to cross Irish Territory thereby shortening their journey out over the Atlantic.

PatsytheNazi

Prefab Sprouter wrote: »

The term Neutrality was something that was fairly loosely interpreted during the emergency. Allied pilots from 1941-42 onwards were generally sent back to Britain if they crashed here, the Germans were interned. The Donegal Air corridor allowed Allied planes to cross Irish Territory thereby shortening their journey out over the Atlantic.

Yes British pilots were handed back after a brief period of internment. The excuse been that since we had a land border with the Brits we could hand them back without violating our neutrality !!!

As for the land border, I've heard in the Donegal mountains there still is the very rusted remains of planes that crashed there in WW2.

Tony EH

chughes wrote: »

German WWII plan to invade Britain revealed in MI5 file


German shock troops would have landed at Dover, dressed in British uniforms, if the Luftwaffe had won the Battle of Britain, newly-released files suggest.
Details of the plan to invade Britain emerge from a post-war debrief of a German soldier and are in an MI5 file made public at the National Archives.
Cpl Werner Janowski was interrogated about his wartime work for the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr.
The plan was abandoned because invading troops would have faced RAF attack.


Dover was to be the focal point of the invasion, but troops would have landed elsewhere along the south coast, as well as in Scotland and the south of Ireland.

I just saw this on the BBC website. It looks like Ireland's policy of neutrality would have taken a serious hammering had this gone ahead. It looks like the RAF saved Devalera's blushes.

The British had one too.



Besides, This sounds like a load of crap. If the Germans had "won" the Battle of Britain, how would a German invasion of Ireland come "under RAF attack" ? From the paltry few Hurricanes in the North? And all we have is a corporal's word on it. 5 years after 1940? Hmmmm.

There's musing whether this so-called 'Operation Green' was ever a serious proposition anyway.

Robert Fisk wrote in 'In Time of War' that:
It is possible that the German High Command never seriously intended to invade Ireland and there is evidence that they deliberately publicized Operation "Green" to stretch British defence preperations in advance of Sealion. Major General Walter Warlimont, Deputy Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command's Operation's Staff, noted that on June 28th an instruction was issued 'to the effect that in order to mislead the enemy "all available information media" should spread the word that we are preparing a landing in Ireland to draw the net around England tighter and reinforce the "siege".

In addition, given the fact tha Hitler's heart was never really in Sealion to begin with, it's difficult to believe that he would have been too bothered about invading Ireland...even if it was only to draw off British forces.

Tony EH

Prefab Sprouter wrote: »

The term Neutrality was something that was fairly loosely interpreted during the emergency. Allied pilots from 1941-42 onwards were generally sent back to Britain if they crashed here, the Germans were interned. The Donegal Air corridor allowed Allied planes to cross Irish Territory thereby shortening their journey out over the Atlantic.

Luftwaffe pilots were also let slip across to France as well.

The fact is, we didn't want the bother of having to watch these people. We hadn't the money or the facilities to do so.

Remarkably, the RAF actually sent a few of their pilots back to internment camps in Ireland after they'd reached English territory, in the early stages of the war.

Craptacular

There was a piece about this in the Irish Times about a month back which spawned a few letters. The most convincing response (IMO) was that the resources just weren't there to support a German invasion.