When in control of France, why did Germans not just use IRELAND as an attack base?????????????????????????????

Question

When in contol of France, the Germans could have then been able to get their AIRPLANES and possibly submarines to Ireland.
In the west there was no radar stations for airplanes so why did the Germans not just invade small population, neutral Ireland and use it as an attack base????????????????????????

Answer 1

Well Ireland (the Republic) was technically neutral and attacking a neutral country that they didn't really want or need would be somewhat pointless.Logistically, you'd need to conquer Ireland - and that hasn't really worked out so well for anybody....although reportedly Ireland did leave the lights on during blackouts. Don't know if that's totally true as Belfast suffered during bombing raids.

I don't think opening yet another front, however small and/or brief, would have helped the German plan.The Germans did control/occupy some of the small British Isles, but that wasn't very productive. Just getting equipment over there would be a nightmare for them as Britain wasn't likely to just allow that to happen.

France was just as easy. Just over the channel and back again. They (Germans) were concentrating on the long range weapons in development.

Answer 2

Erica's answer is good, and sorry Charles, but you're a muppet.
Ireland was neutral and to invade it would have brought not only the British in as far as they could, it would possibly have brought the Americans in at a time when things were going very nicely for the Germans thank you very much.
After 41 when the Americans were in, the Germans had enough to worry about on the eastern front, let alone starting another in the Atlantic.
Remember, the Allies had Enigma and sonar had diminished the power of the U-boat fleet to a great degree.

Answer 3

Ireland was neutral and newly independent from Britain at this time, officially having their independence in 1936. This means that Ireland would not simply allow Germany in as it would give Britain cause for invasion. Therefore would have had to be conquered by Germany and the only way to do that would be to fly over British Air Space which the RAF would have met swiftly and gunned down, thus inhibiting Germany planes from getting to Ireland. Otherwise Germany would have to do a sea attack, which given the Germany Navy was being built back up after bing decimated by Britain earlier on in the war, was not going to get past the British who had the best navy in the world at the time.

As for the comment earlier on, Belfast was indeed hit to a small degree during the Battle of Britain but this was because Belfast, is part of the 6 counties still retained by Britain and Britain set up numerous hospitals for their wounded veterens in Belfast as it was a much safer place then London or most of Britain for that matter.

Answer 4

I wasn't there so I can't affirm the reasons but here are a few that may explain...
The fleet of the UK could abort any german naval attack on the Irish island, it would be hard to try an amphibious assault. Keeping supplied the troops, planes, etc... wouldn't be easy at all.
Many units would have been involved in a secondary target (the primary was britain) if (as probably) the irish population didn't welcome the invaders. That wouldn't help further plans for the war in Europe.
I think the bet was too high to place it, missing the operation would deserve a complete reconsideration of the middle-term plans for the III Reich.

Answer 5

The Germans lacked a sizable Navy under your scenario to maintain a base in Ireland. No-doubt there would have been many who wished to see England lose but not enough to prevent the British forces from forcing the Germans out. The main problem as I mentioned above was that the German surface fleet was too small to challenge the might of the Royal Navy.

Answer 6

The short answer is that war is a failure of policy. As a practice, war is morally bankrupt. We are at a point in human history where the consequences of war far outweigh most of the benefits. There is a need, however, to deal with violence and hold perpetrators accountable. That probably means sharpening our conflict resolution skills around the world, establishing international institutions--or strengthening ones in existence--that can limit the ability of one society to initate aggression against another. But we could write volumes on that subject. On the Nazi matter, if there had been institutions in place which would have limited Hitler's power early on, might there not have been a WWII? Some argue the Treaty of Versailles which ended WWI set the stage for a Hitler to arise, maybe. I am of the opinion one practical way to improve chances of ending war is to increase trade worldwide. Countries engaging in free and fair trade seldom kill each other, but I think you need international infrastructures in place to make sure it doesn't happen. I was not a fan of President George W. Bush, but he said that if democracy, or democratic institutions spread throughout the world that would reduce chances of war. I think he was right on that score, but he was wrong that democracy can be imposed from the outside, It has to be grown from the bottom up as well. I have included a link which tries to deal with the practicalities of peace and war.

Answer 7

Germany was never focused on just controlling france. Take a step back from the trees and look at the forest. They wanted to control the world. If France was their only issue at hand, they would have made many more precautions, but when they are involved with so much war it is hard to say why they didnt. You sure had a longgggg nap grandpa, this happened some time ago....

Answer 8

Here are the top reasons, combined these probably worked to prevent them taking up Ireland's offer....
Hitler was a barking mad Prat
Goering a right git
God was on Our side
And if they had invaded Ireland, or had taken residence by invitation, a good many of the Irish would have fought like Hell,
and
At Churchhill's command, every British and allied troop, as could be mustered would have been there to thrash them to shreds.
And besides, Ireland was on our side!
Post script:
Midden... RIGHT ON!

Answer 9

They tried to attack the British from Ireland in World War One, but the plan failed miserably, so you could say that the memories of that failure were still fresh.
Also why would the Irish want to support an oppressive regime like Nazi Germany?

Answer 10

There are several answers to that question. One is that it was in Germany's inteest to respect the neutrality of several European countries--Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland --for material, financial, strategic, espionage rerasons.