From the Polish perspective, Hitler was the devil incarnate, but there were those in Europe who saw in alliance with him a chance for their liberation. And they planned a Wehrmacht landing in their own backyard. But why are they telling everyone that they were neutral?
From the mid-nineteenth century, in Ireland, then ruled by the English crown, nationalism was spreading in opposition to the British. In the course of long, bloody fights - in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising, reaction to government repression and the exhaustion of the British empire with involvement in World War I - the Irish managed to win the country's practical independence. And although since 1921 the green island (with the exception of the separated, northern part) ruled on its own, the hostility towards the hegemons did not diminish at all.
The moment of the decisive test came in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II. The government in Dublin has decided not to get involved in the global conflict. Ireland's official neutrality was announced. This one, however, turned out to be purely phantom. Because although the cabinet led by Éamon de Valera remained passive, the Irish Republican Army entered the fight.
This radical organization was banned a few years earlier, but still operated underground, and the aggravation of the international situation only gave it wings. The IRA fighters were maximalist:they did not intend to lay down their arms until every inch of Irish soil was wrenched from the hands of the British.
Long tradition
Even during the reign of the Kaiser, the Irish, who had always fought for independence with Great Britain, conspired with the Germans. During the First World War, there were ideas for the creation of Irish units of prisoners from the Green Island within the German army. It was thought about transferring these troops to their homeland, giving them weapons and persuading them to start an uprising. And although this German aid in the rebellion never came true, the very idea of outflanking England did not die at all.
Irish leader Éamon de Valera who banned the IRA (photo:public domain)
British intelligence reports show that already in the 1920s representatives of the IRA met with delegates of the National Socialists from Germany. In the second half of the 1930s, the cooperation became more and more widespread.
The head of German intelligence, Wilhelm Canaris, without Hitler's knowledge (who still hoped to get along with England), started building a network of Nazi German agents in Ireland. The Irish were also promised arms deliveries.
Pact with Hitler
The active activity of the republicans from the Green Island - members of the infamous IRA - in cooperation with the Third Reich began before the Germans invaded Poland. It began with "Plan S," or sabotage actions against the civil, economic and military infrastructure of the United Kingdom. On January 15, 1939, the Irish Republican Army declared war with Great Britain and went into action. Bombs began detonating in London on January 16.
Just before the German attack on Poland, on August 25, 1939, the IRA carried out the first attack in which civilians were killed. As a result, 70 people were injured and 5 lost their lives. The body of one of the killed women was so massacred that she was only recognized by her engagement ring. The Irish wanted to create fear, an atmosphere of paranoia. This is why they were ready to launch up to 30 different attacks on one day.
MI5, the British counterintelligence, while investigating the attacks, checked what the Third Reich had to do with them. Officially, there was no evidence of Nazi patronage. Today we know, however, that the Abwehr supported "Plan S" through the Clan na Gael organization operating in America.
In late August 1939, James O'Donovan, who had compiled the Plan S, was meeting in Berlin with Captain Friedrich Carl Marwede, director of the Abwehr I West office. It was then that they discussed the detailed terms of cooperation, a kind of "pact with Hitler". As a result of the arrangements made at that time, the IRA became formally an ally Third Reich. The Irish were to receive from Germany means for the production of bombs, ammunition, weapons and money. Radio communication was to be established. O'Donovan also learned then that war would break out in a week's time.
Bombardment of Belfast. Just avoid our neighborhoods
During the Second World War, Belfast - the capital of the still remaining Northern Ireland - was of strategic importance to the British. It was here that airplanes, ships, tanks and ammunition for various types of weapons were produced. As emphasized by Radosław Golec, author of the new book "Hitler's IRA" that the city would become a target for Luftwaffe attacks seemed inevitable. Meanwhile, the government in London left them virtually defenseless.
The effects of the raid on Belfast (photo:public domain)
The Third Reich prepared for a long time to attack Belfast. Finally, on April 15, 1941, a whole bunch of German machines flew over the city. 180 aircraft dropped 200 tons of bombs. As Radosław Golec points out, 900 people died, 1,500 were injured, and 40,000 were left homeless. The bodies were everywhere. The population was so dreaded that 100,000 people left Belfast! No other city in the British Isles during the war has lost so many inhabitants in just one night.
Soon information began to circulate that IRA members were pointing the Luftwaffe plane during the raid. Republicans were to guide pilots to Protestant districts and, among others, to local churches. These rumors are not confirmed by the facts. What is certain is that before the raid, IRA members collected data on military facilities and other important potential targets. Meanwhile, after the bombing, they prepared a detailed report on the scale of damage and what survived military and industrial facilities.
This document was handed over to German intelligence. Interestingly, there was also a map on which districts inhabited by Republican sympathizers were marked in color, and a prison where IRA soldiers were detained, so that Nazi planes would avoid them.
Let's build airports!
In 1940, the Irish believed that the alliance with Hitler was their way to reunify the island and become completely independent from the former metropolis. On the other hand, the island was still theoretically neutral. In order to verify that its inhabitants were not really on any side, the British government sent a man to Dublin who had previously been a policeman suppressing ethnic and liberation movements in Mumbai. Now Charles Tegart was to use his experience in the fight against the IRA.
Propaganda poster (photo:public domain)
In May, he wrote in his report that members of the radical organization, along with representatives of the German legation, were buying land in the south and west of the island en masse. As we can read in the book by Radosław Golec "Hitler's IRA" According to the policeman, about 2,000 IRA members and German agents landed in Ireland between the start of the war and the time of his report. They not only bought land, but also felled trees and leveled them to make them perfect… landing sites for Luftwaffe machines. They were preparing for the landing of German soldiers, whom they were going to welcome as saviors!
Anyway, a joint plan for the invasion of Ireland prepared by the Third Reich and the IRA, involving the landing of tens of thousands of soldiers in Ireland, was already ready. Churchill was not in jest. Had England been encircled in this way, the prospect of defeat in the war would have become very real. Fortunately for the British, Operation Sea Lion, part of which was to be the invasion of Ireland, never took place ...
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