German invasion of Northern Ireland.
Kurt Student suggested the best date for the operation would be in April1941 , on the 25th Anniversary of the Easter 1916 Rising. His plan was to drop 20,000 paratroopers and 12,000 airborne troops by night on two areas of Northern Ireland. The first and larger force would land in the triangle between the northern half of Lough Neagh and Divis Mountain above Belfast, capturing the RAF fields at Aldergrove, Langford Lodge and Nutts Corner. At the same time, a second force of paratroopers would be dropped near Lisburn to destroy the planes on the Long Kesh airfield and cut road and rail links between Belfast and the south. Student's dummies would meanwhile be dropped over the Mourne and Sperrin Mountains to add to the confusion. At daybreak Luftwaffe fighter squadrons would then fly in from Brittany and land on the captured airfields.
Student claimed after the end of World War II that he thought the first part of the operation would have been a success, but if the landings in Britain had gone badly he and his men would have fought through to the territory of Éire and asked to be interned rather than be captured by the British Army.