Axis invasion of Ireland WW2?

Unless Germany can repeat what they did on 1940 Norway..
at a larger scale and in 1939.......

Sent multiple cargo ships with hidden troops in its hold to travel to the various ports able to accommodate the German Cargo ships to 'offload' its 'guests' upon the various cities and try to defeat the Irish Military forces and somehow keep the British troops in Northern Ireland from counterattacking once the British Isles are aware of the sneak attack...

The British Navy and Air Force will undoubtedly run interdiction between the Irish Island and Germany & German occupied Europe so that any further attempts to supply needed reinforcements to their troops in Ireland will die on the whithering vine as they run out of combat troops, ammo and supplies as they combat the enraged Irish Populus and its Irish Military as they fight to evict the invaders...
and possibly British Troops to liberate any Irish Cities & Towns from German occupation...
Maybe...
 
Runs into the same problems as Hitler's plan to invade the British Isles, hell, aside from supplies and Germany's inadequate navy for doing so, they have one big problem which they cannot overcome, and that problem is known as the Royal Navy.
 
This would be extremely difficult. For the Germans to land troops there in 1940/1941 is possible (albeit unlikely), but for the operation to succeed would be almost ASB.

1. The German Navy did not have the capacity to land troops in Ireland in meaningful numbers.
2. The German Air Force never had the ability to support such an operation.
3. The Royal Navy would come and wipe out enemy naval forces as soon as they got wind of this.
4. The British Army would quickly deploy troops to Ireland where they would easily defeat the cut-off, isolated German troops.
6. The Royal Air Force would bombard the invading ships and troops.
7. The Germans would not want to lose Irish pro-Nazi sympathy.
 
This isn't like Norway and it's even less likely to work than Sea Lion. Whilst the Irish Army is rather weak, the Germans are going to have the joys of no supplies and no naval support, if they can land in the first place.
 
This isn't like Norway and it's even less likely to work than Sea Lion. Whilst the Irish Army is rather weak, the Germans are going to have the joys of no supplies and no naval support, if they can land in the first place.

And if they, somehow, manage to capture a few key cities (lets say they manage to take a line running from Cork to Dublin, and an enclave in Limerick), the chances of supplying them when Ireland will surely turn to Britain at this point for aid in sorting out a blockade (or even simply a blockade instituted unilaterally) is practically nill. And that's not withstanding the fact that you may see Britain sending some volunteer units from the Irish population in the country to help liberate Ireland without sending in the army and risking endagering the locals.

Funny thing is, this might in the long run turn out much better for Northern Ireland.
 
And if they, somehow, manage to capture a few key cities (lets say they manage to take a line running from Cork to Dublin, and an enclave in Limerick), the chances of supplying them when Ireland will surely turn to Britain at this point for aid in sorting out a blockade (or even simply a blockade instituted unilaterally) is practically nill. And that's not withstanding the fact that you may see Britain sending some volunteer units from the Irish population in the country to help liberate Ireland without sending in the army and risking endagering the locals.

Funny thing is, this might in the long run turn out much better for Northern Ireland.

Even that scenarios impossible without Britain actively doing nothing. If the first wave does manage to get through by some miracle, the second won't or any others. Meanwhile the first will have successfully secured it's beach head with the Irish forming a defensive line around them until they run out of food.

It would certainly be a good thing for Ireland, that captured German equipment will come in handy, as will American Lend Lease and Marshall Plan aid as well as much better relations with Britain and the north. The week long German occupation of a strip of soutern Irish coast would have have led to a happier Ireland in the long run.
 
Highly ASB, it's much more plausible for Ireland to simply go fascist of its own accord... But then it's unlikely it'd join the Axis, though still possible.
 
The only way you get even the most sympathetic fascist govn't in Ireland joining the Axis is if Britain bows out of the fight early with Halifax as PM. I can't see neutral Britain, even with Halifax, ever letting Germany invade and conquer Ireland for any reason.

The Germans can land troops in Ireland and defeat portions of the Irish Army but, unlike Norway, you have Britain right there. You have Northern Ireland with all its reserves and an impossible to interdict for more than a few days (and that's being extremely generous) short sea crossing. So, while the landings succeeding might not be ASB as it would with a certain Mammal that I dare not mention, any successes coming from it are.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
This is close to Sealion in likelihood. The RN & RAF were very powerful in the region thanks to the bases in Northern Ireland. The Eire military was also somewhat more on alert than the case in Norway thanks to the "Emergency".

The one extremely remote possibility (and we are really close to ASB here, maybe in ASB) would be if the rabidly anti-British Eire PM Eamon de Valera's government conspired to allow it and presented the UK with a fiat accompli.

Sans that ASBish situation, it is hard to see how the logistics work.
 

Cook

Banned
The one extremely remote possibility (and we are really close to ASB here, maybe in ASB) would be if the rabidly anti-British Eire PM Eamon de Valera's government conspired to allow it and presented the UK with a fiat accompli.

And even if he did offer the invitation in a Quisling type manor, how do German ships and planes get there? It’s one thing to sneak along the coast of Norway in freighters, taking advantage of the safety of neutral waters, it is quite another to try to get through the English Channel and across the Irish Sea. No, this isn't close to ASB, it is ASB.
 
The one extremely remote possibility (and we are really close to ASB here, maybe in ASB) would be if the rabidly anti-British Eire PM Eamon de Valera's government conspired to allow it and presented the UK with a fiat accompli.
Actually a rather plausible pro-Axis Ireland would be if the Blueshirts took over in a March on Dublin, which De Valera feared would happen. If they did and took over then who knows what Eoin O'Duffy may do as leader of Ireland, seeing as he believed himself to be the "third most important man in Europe" after Hitler and Mussolini he may get a bit too cocky and attempt war with Britain, maybe get resources from Germany in the 6 years between the March on Dublin and start of World War Two? Or he might actually be sensible and merely act like Spain.
 
Actually a rather plausible pro-Axis Ireland would be if the Blueshirts took over in a March on Dublin, which De Valera feared would happen. If they did and took over then who knows what Eoin O'Duffy may do as leader of Ireland, seeing as he believed himself to be the "third most important man in Europe" after Hitler and Mussolini he may get a bit too cocky and attempt war with Britain, maybe get resources from Germany in the 6 years between the March on Dublin and start of World War Two? Or he might actually be sensible and merely act like Spain.

Even assuming O'Duffy comes to power in that manner he is unlikely to initiate hostilities; the Blueshirts' stated goal was a united Ireland within the British Commonwealth, which would be impossible if Ireland and Britain were at war. While he might be friendly to the Axis he is not fool enough to join them in attacking Britain, when the British can bring overwhelming force to bear and his "allies" cannot possibly help him.

No, the Blueshirt government would have stayed out of it, just like Franco. Any suggestion of German forces entering Irish territory for any purpose would have been politely refused, just as IOTL.

As for the Germans invading Ireland, it's worth noting that they didn't even have a plan for it, unlike some of their other madcap ideas. (Such as invading Iceland; Operation Icarus). If they thought about it at all, it was as an afterthought to Sealion.
 
Why bother?

Why WOULD the Axis invade Ireland? It had zero strategic value, AFAIK, and was neutral. It would've been a better tactic to try to influence it politically, to harass the UK, and leave the UK with an unfriendly neighbor to the west.

There's lots of cards the Nazis could play: Use the "centuries of English opression", etc,
 
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