Why didnt Nazi Germany invade Ireland and then attacked from there into Britian?

Question

I was just wondering why they didnt do that if (i think it was Operation Sealion) failed

i know they both hated england.

Answer 1

I know the my own culture of irish descent. Adolf Hitler liked the irish, he had no hatred against or towards them whatsoever. This however doesnt mean that they were allies. Ireland hates England for hundreds of years of opression and terrorism. The british empire is a facist nation that was bent on taking over ireland because it was smaller.

Ireland probably would not of consented to admission of the nazi party into their country though. Last thing we needed was more pain caused by the british.

Answer 2

I think Irish Americans will always have a slightly simple and romantic view of the Anglo-Irish relationship. Its not as simple as all the Irish hating the British.

During ww2 the government of Ireland was neutral however 100,000 Irishmen volunteered to fight against The Axis Powers. The Irish allowed the British to fly over some parts of Eire and they passed on information on German ship movements. Most people had no love for the British but were smart enough to realise that Hitler was much worse. If the Germans had invaded they would have met with all the resistance Ireland could offer and immediate support from Britain. After all why would the Irish exchange one colonial master for another?


As other posters have said it would also be a question of logisitics. The coast of Ireland was much further than that of England and the German Navy was not up to the task. Even assuming that they succeeded they would then have to cross the sea again to invade Britain properly.

Answer 3

The german air force wasn't as strong as its counterparts the Army and Navy. The germans knew a sea attack wouldn't work with the cliffs of england like they are. To answer part two, the germans would have had to take England just to get take out the Royal Navy and RAF so they could get a fleet to America. At the same time Japan would have had to stop all other invasion and attacked America all at once. Of-course this means taking out several American Bases and Airfields along the way. This would have set of the early warning flags for the east coast. If the Axis powers could land on america soil ( The japanese did try to invaded alaska and failed.) they would not only have to fight the military but every American that had a gun in there house. This would have been a horrible and long out process which would have meant a large amount of men would die just trying to take America. So with this in mind America could and will always repel every invader.

Answer 4

Mostly a question of logistics. It just wouldn't have made sense for them to have to send ships and planes to Ireland through enemy territory just to invade it later when they already occupied France and could just send planes across the channel to attack England.

Plus another question would be would the Irish go along with it. Most likely no. While they hated the English I doubt they would have wanted the Nazis there either. They would have hated the Germans being around for the same reason they hate the British occupying Northern Ireland plus they probably would have been fearful Hitler would decide to take over them too while he was there anyway.

Answer 5

That would only have complicated things further, assuming the Irish would have gone along. The distance across the channel isn't much, and the Royal Navy would have been bottlenecked with Sealion. All they needed was a modest degree of air superiority and the proper amount of shipping, but they had nowhere near enough boats to carry the troops. Note that the logistics of Higgins boats, LST's, etc. was a major problem in the planning of the Allies' invasions later in the ETO. If you don't have the boats for a short trip, you certainly don't have the boats for a long trip with planes and ships shooting at you.

Answer 6

Ireland was a neutral country during World War II. That might have been one reason Germany didn't invade it. Also, look at a map. Ireland lies west of England. Considering Nazi Germany's relative naval weakness, how much military sense would it have made for German forces on the Continent to move around England into Ireland, then launch an attack on England's west coast?

Answer 7

It was a question of logistics and Britain's superiority of naval and air power. Also the Irish knew what side their bread was buttered. Although they did "shelter" known Nazis at the end of the war successfully - but not a very great number.

The French at the time of their Revolution tried to ally the Irish against the Brits - and you must all know what happened to that idea. We trounched the French on land and sea.

Why do US ex pats of Ireland keep on about British brutality etc etc.? Just look back historically how the immigrants to the US treated the indiginous Indian population at every opportunity - destroyed their land, gravesites,starved them into submisson and put them on Reservations - who are still second class citizens as also are the African-American if truth be told.

Those who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones!!

Answer 8

The same reason they couldn't invade England itself. Due to the British naval superiority the Germans were unable to invade England (or Ireland).

The German strategy was to cripple the RAF (Royal Air force) with the Luftwaffe and then with air superiority that could keep the English Navy at Bay launch an amphibious invasion (known as Operation Sea-Lion). As they could not destroy the RAF (Though they did come close) and due to their invasion of Russia the Germans had to abandon this plan.

Answer 9

For the same reason they didn't invade the main island of England. They were run off by the air power and sea power and courage of Great Britain. I don't believe you should assume that Ireland wasn't in WWII on the Allies side. On the contrary if the fraction of the Irish who felt antipathy toward Britain had tried to help Germany that would be the "last she wrote" for their cause against Britain. Traitors are executed you know.

Answer 10

The problem was crossing the channel without complete air-cover - whether it was crossing the channel to ireland or GB makes little difference.
the Nazis decided to wait until the RAF was effectively destroyed in a war of attrition (Battle of Britain) however, when that didn't work, they were already preparing for the USSR, and abandoned further expansion to the west