- 6/14/2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I
00:30May the 5th, 1940.
00:38Just before daybreak, a single German aircraft flew a secret mission over the British Isles.
00:46On board was a First World War veteran, a Nazi spy, codename Gilker.
00:54His mission was to make contact with Nazi collaborators.
00:57Together, they were to execute Plan Kathleen.
01:04Gilker floated silently down beneath his parachute and touched down in the Irish Republic.
01:11His aim was to plan the Nazi invasion of Northern Ireland.
01:17Those collaborators he was meeting?
01:20A group of Irish terrorists, the IRA.
01:23And so would begin one of the most bizarre stories of Nazi collaboration of World War II.
01:33In terms of the IRA's history, that collaboration or attempted collaboration is now really an embarrassment.
01:39To a large extent, it appears in retrospect as comedy and or tragedy, depending on your point of view.
01:48It's a series of events that the IRA would rather forget.
01:55It would lead to unbearable tension between the British and Irish governments.
01:58And if the plan had succeeded, it could have lost Britain the war.
02:07So why did the IRA collaborate with the Nazis?
02:11Was it just clear-cut hatred for the British?
02:14Have they been seduced with promises of a united and independent Ireland?
02:18And did they really understand the kind of people they were dealing with?
02:23Big health! Big health! Big health!
02:28Big health!
02:29Just eight months before the outbreak of World War II,
02:43a series of terrorist attacks, as skilfully coordinated as any by Al-Qaeda, were felt all over England.
02:52Bombs exploded in power stations and substations from Northumberland to Manchester, from Liverpool to London.
02:59This was the work of the I.R.A., the Irish Republican Army, the notorious terrorist group fighting for a united Ireland.
03:18And this campaign was part of something that they called the S-Plan.
03:23S stood for sabotage.
03:25In Britain, there was outrage.
03:31In response, the police arrested 66 terrorists and seized 1,500 sticks of gel at night,
03:38along with two tons of the highly explosive potassium chlorate.
03:43But the bombing went on.
03:49But one group of observers looked on, not with horror, but with admiration.
03:55The Nazis decided that here were people they could do business with.
04:03War with Britain was just months away, and these terrorists looked like they could be useful.
04:09So they began to search for someone they could trust to track down these potential allies.
04:14The man they found, Oskar Faus, had made his name fundraising in the United States of America on behalf of the Nazis.
04:31Before it entered the war, the USA had its own pockets of Nazi support, particularly in Chicago and New York.
04:47Faus's English was good, and when he returned home to Germany in December 1938, he was recruited to German military intelligence, the Abwehr,
05:01where he was soon presented with a challenging mission.
05:04They immediately sent Oskar Faus to Ireland in February 1939 to make contact with the IRA and to explore the possibility of cooperation.
05:17Oskar Faus was ill-informed.
05:21He didn't know how to contact the IRA, but nonetheless, by a roundabout route, he made contact with the IRA.
05:27Eventually, he met the two most senior members of the organisation,
05:33Chief of Staff Sean Russell and Head of Bomb Making Seamus O'Donovan.
05:42Both Russell and O'Donovan were veterans of the Irish struggle for independence.
05:49All of Ireland had been under British rule since 1801.
05:52On Easter Monday, 1916, hundreds of members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood seized key locations in Dublin
06:01and proclaimed the Irish Republic independent of Britain.
06:08O'Donovan and Russell were officers in the Dublin Brigade of the IRB.
06:13So, too, was Eamon de Valera, who later, as Prime Minister of Ireland, would be forced to confront them as adversaries.
06:22The rebels were no match for the British armoured cars, artillery and machine guns.
06:28After seven days of fighting, the Republicans were beaten.
06:32The IRB lost over 300 men, and more than 3,000 were arrested and interned.
06:49Among them, Sean Russell, Seamus O'Donovan and Eamon de Valera.
06:53But they were lucky. 15 were executed without trial.
07:03The legacy of the Rising was to drive many more Irish into the hands of the Republican movements.
07:07In 1920, all IRB prisoners were released.
07:21The group was renamed the Irish Republican Army, and it began a bloody guerrilla war with the British.
07:26After fierce fighting and over 5,000 IRA deaths, a truce was agreed.
07:35In 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, creating an independent Ireland in the south,
07:46but the six counties of the north would remain under British rule.
07:52Eamon de Valera was vehemently opposed to the partition, but chose to pursue a political solution.
07:58He would become Prime Minister in 1932.
08:05But for others, the separation of the north and south was unacceptable.
08:11Seamus O'Donovan, Sean Russell and the IRA turned back to the bullet and the bomb.
08:20It was a decision that would set them on a collision course with their former IRA comrade.
08:24As far as the IRA are concerned, they are as opposed to the government in Dublin,
08:31which they saw as puppets of the British, as they are to the British continuing to control northern Ireland.
08:38And the IRA are a substantial enough force in the 1920s and in the early 1930s in Ireland.
08:43They still have upwards of maybe 15,000 men.
08:46They're still attempting to arm and train and bring in new recruits.
08:49The IRA regrouped and retrained under the watchful eyes of a new and determined leader.
09:00Sean Russell becomes leader of the IRA in 1938.
09:03And in many ways, he's the archetypical IRA militarist.
09:08He has very little interest in wider politics.
09:11He says, we've done enough talking.
09:13We've had enough division over politics.
09:14This has got us nowhere.
09:15What people want from the IRA is a campaign to drive the British from Ireland.
09:20He comes to leadership in the IRA by promising a campaign.
09:25Sean Russell, now Chief of Staff, appointed Seamus O'Donovan as his Director of Chemicals.
09:32That is, Chief Bomb Maker.
09:34It was they who devised the S-Plan.
09:37The idea is that they'll be able to cause so much disruption that they'll put Ireland back on the headlines in Britain.
09:46That the British public will be forced to become aware of the partition of Ireland.
09:50And that therefore they'll put pressure on the British government as a result.
09:53But now, as war grew closer, the two became increasingly interested in how Germany could help their cause
10:02and relished the contact with German spy, Oskar Faust.
10:07They weren't driven by attraction to Nazism as an ideology.
10:11They were driven by this nationalist impulse to achieve unification and the ending of partition.
10:19And everybody who could assist in that was a welcome.
10:31On the basis that my enemy's enemy is my friend,
10:35O'Donovan made three trips to Germany in 1939 to meet German intelligence, the Abwehr.
10:43He was always escorted by his new German friend, the Nazi spy, Oskar Faust.
10:49At the first meeting in February, he discussed the supply of German arms and ammunition.
10:56But the Germans were not convinced, and he returned to Ireland armed only with a codename, Agent Hero.
11:06With Oskar Faust, he went back in April 1939, and again in August,
11:12where this time he was taken more seriously.
11:14At this last meeting, at the German Foreign Office, was Joseph McGarrity, an American IRA fundraiser.
11:25Seen here with Sean Russell in New York City,
11:28McGarrity is thought to have provided the cash to fund the S-Plan.
11:34McGarrity's job was to show the Nazis that there would be cash to back up the IRA's actions.
11:39O'Donovan returned to Ireland with a radio transmitter and a code for his Nazi contacts.
11:55But O'Donovan and Oskar Faust also carried a message from the Abwehr.
11:58It had told them that Hitler would supply German reinforcements
12:05if the IRA could devise a foolproof way of helping them defeat the British.
12:14But almost immediately, the relationship got off to a shaky start.
12:18The IRA couldn't work out how to reach Germany with the Abwehr radio.
12:25The signal was either too weak or was blocked.
12:30And it wasn't long before Eamon de Valera's Irish intelligence services were listening in.
12:35As a result of their incompetence and ineptness and lack of radio training,
12:41the Marconi transmitter was quickly located.
12:43At that point, there was no communication between Abwehr and the IRA.
12:55Though communications had broken down, the IRA would live to fight another day.
13:00On the 25th of August, they brought the S-Plan to Coventry.
13:05An IRA volunteer left a bicycle outside a shop in the city centre.
13:11In the basket was five pounds of high explosive.
13:15The timer was set for 2.30 in the morning.
13:19But the bomber planted the device at midday.
13:21And the bomb went off in the afternoon.
13:31Five people were killed instantly.
13:35The outcry was muffled when, nine days later, Britain declared war on Germany.
13:47But the actions of the IRA and their S-Plan would lead to bitter clashes between the British and Irish governments.
13:53Because the war created huge problems for Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera.
14:05The former IRA freedom fighter knew that it was politically unacceptable to support his nation's former rulers.
14:15Ireland had only just won its freedom after years of bloody suppression.
14:20Equally, though he was sympathetic to the IRA's demand for a reunified Ireland,
14:25he had no intention of reopening old wounds.
14:28You asked me what are my hopes for the future relations between the peoples of Ireland and Great Britain.
14:37I have always said that I desired to establish friendly relations between the two peoples.
14:44That is still my desire and hope.
14:47But the historic Irish nation has been artificially divided.
14:53De Valera had to tread a fine political line.
15:04Though the Irish were certainly not pro-British, they also didn't want the Nazis to succeed.
15:10It was simply not possible for De Valera's Irish Republic to join Britain as an ally.
15:17Though in fact many individuals did join up in the struggle against Hitler.
15:21De Valera decided that Ireland should remain neutral.
15:28De Valera has to walk a very narrow tightrope in 1939-1940
15:35because there is generally popular support for the policy of neutrality,
15:39for staying out of the war.
15:42And De Valera is very anxious to maintain neutrality despite being under pressure.
15:47From Britain, for example, to come in on the Allied side.
15:59Maintaining Ireland's neutrality would create enormous tension between Dublin and London.
16:05De Valera angered the British because the German and Japanese embassies remained open for business in Dublin.
16:12They were an obvious security risk.
16:15And De Valera also refused to allow the British to use Irish ports as bases,
16:21an act that caused great concern in the Royal Navy.
16:24While the loss of the use of the Southern Irish ports is a severe handicap to the Navy
16:31in its ceaseless life-and-death struggle in the Atlantic,
16:35their acquisition by Germany would be a disaster.
16:38In my view, the starvation of this island, rather than its invasion, is still Hitler's aim.
16:54And to achieve this, a German seizure of the South Irish ports may well be on his agenda.
17:03The threat of starvation was even more likely to succeed
17:06because De Valera had allowed German ships to use Irish waters.
17:09British convoys bringing supplies across the Atlantic were forced to divert
17:24to the longer northern approaches, leaving them vulnerable to attack by German U-boats.
17:29The Battle of the Atlantic would eventually be won,
17:36but only after the loss of over 3,500 ships and more than 30,000 men.
17:46The hour of victory is postponed,
17:48and therefore soldiers as well as sailors go to their graves
17:51with every ship sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic.
17:54Yet Mr De Valera will not budge.
17:56But the one thing he did agree to was to turn on the IRA.
18:02While he staunchly defended the right to Irish neutrality,
18:05his security service, G2,
18:07had struck a deal to share intelligence with MI5 in 1939.
18:16This so-called Dublin link, agreed by G2's colonel, Dan Bryan,
18:21and MI5's Guy Liddle,
18:22would do more to thwart the IRA than anything else during the war.
18:34De Valera had his own reasons for being seen to be dealing with the IRA.
18:40He regarded them as troublemakers
18:42who threatened to destabilise the neutrality of his republic.
18:45He knew that any IRA successes
18:49would harm his fragile relationship with Churchill.
18:55De Valera's government realised that
18:57they're attempting to maintain a policy of strict neutrality.
19:00If the IRA does assist the Germans,
19:03this could be used by the British
19:04as an excuse for intervening in the Irish Free State.
19:09And in December 1939
19:12came an event that left De Valera in no doubt he had to act.
19:17Two days before Christmas,
19:23a crack IRA team raided the Irish Army magazine fort in Dublin
19:27and stole over a million rounds of ammunition.
19:31Thirteen lorries were used to transport the 20 tonnes of shells away.
19:36Though almost all of the ammunition was recovered,
19:39the Germans heard about the raid
19:40and were suitably impressed.
19:42In response,
19:53De Valera and his government
19:54passed new emergency legislation,
19:57nominally to thwart any invasion by the Nazis,
20:00but in reality,
20:01to crack down on the IRA.
20:04The Irish Army and Navy were mobilised
20:06and routinely simulated a German invasion of Ireland
20:09to prepare for the real thing.
20:12Bizarrely, the Irish Army,
20:19keen to distinguish themselves from the British,
20:21chose a uniform with a Germanic style.
20:27News was heavily censored
20:28and G2, the Irish Intelligence Service,
20:30was given increased powers
20:32to suppress any anti-Irish activity.
20:35That included the IRA.
20:38And new laws gave police power
20:39to detain any of its members without trial.
20:42For Irish neutrality to be tolerable to Britain,
20:48Dublin had to enforce the rule of law
20:52with an iron fist, if necessary,
20:55which included draconian legislation
21:00and mass internment of suspects,
21:03and including the execution of a number of IRA activists.
21:13In early 1940,
21:15Sean Russell sailed for America again
21:18to drum up support and raise more funds.
21:20He temporarily handed over the reins of the IRA
21:26to an altogether different personality,
21:29Stephen Hayes.
21:31A militant and a risk-taker,
21:33his behaviour was compounded by his fondness for alcohol.
21:36He is out of his depth very quickly, I think.
21:42He's always on the move.
21:43He's wanted by the Irish government.
21:45He's going from safe house to safe house.
21:47He's head of an organisation that's under intense pressure.
21:52He seems at this stage to have, you know,
21:56dealt with very small numbers of people,
21:57not really had a complete picture of what was going on.
21:59Stephen Hayes' first act
22:03was to intensify the Bloody S campaign.
22:12On the 6th of February 1940,
22:15explosions occurred simultaneously
22:17in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
22:24The plan was a very ambitious plan
22:26to cause a huge level of disruption in Britain,
22:28with bombs in public places,
22:31in places like cinemas
22:32and in smaller targets like letterboxes,
22:35for example, in public lavatories,
22:37but also then bombs on railway lines
22:39and at power stations
22:40to effectively try and seriously disrupt life in Britain.
22:51Hayes' night of terror raised eyebrows in Berlin.
22:55The Nazis were becoming concerned
22:56about the S plan's lack of focus.
22:59They wanted the IRA to concentrate
23:01on military targets in Northern Ireland,
23:03but Hayes and O'Donovan
23:05seemed more interested in plain terror.
23:07To get control of their trigger-happy friends,
23:19on the 9th of February,
23:21German intelligence, the Abwehr,
23:23sent another agent,
23:24Ernst Weber Drom,
23:26to meet the IRA.
23:26A former circus strongman
23:35drawn that landed in Kalala Bay,
23:37County Sligo,
23:38on board submarine U-37.
23:42In his rubber dinghy,
23:45he brought a more powerful radio transmitter,
23:47$15,000 in cash
23:49and a message from Germany
23:51requesting the IRA
23:53to stop bombing civilians.
23:58What Abwehr would have preferred
24:00was that the IRA
24:02would have concentrated
24:03their activities in Northern Ireland
24:05against British military installations
24:07to generate broad public support
24:11in the nationalist communities
24:13north and south
24:14and therefore create, in effect,
24:17a rebellion
24:18in British territory.
24:25The message was heeded.
24:28The bombing stopped.
24:30But not before 300 bombs
24:32had been detonated.
24:3496 people had been injured.
24:37Seven had died
24:38and hundreds of IRA members interned.
24:40Reflecting in the 1960s,
24:45Seamus O'Donovan said
24:46the S-Plan campaign
24:47had brought nothing but harm
24:50to Ireland.
24:57Now the unpredictable Stephen Hayes
24:59knew that if he wanted
25:00Nazi support for his war,
25:02he would have to try
25:03a different approach.
25:05So he decided to offer the Germans
25:06something entirely new.
25:08He ordered one of his men,
25:10Stephen Held,
25:12and the Nazi spy,
25:13Oskar Faust,
25:14to deliver a plan
25:15he'd been working on.
25:19Faust and Held
25:20took the plan to Berlin,
25:22where it received
25:24an immediate response.
25:25That was why,
25:36on the 5th of May 1940,
25:38a lone German Heinkel
25:39was flying over
25:40the Irish Republic.
25:47And on board was a man
25:48known to the British intelligence
25:49as the Flying Spy.
25:51Hermann Gortz
25:56was a German intelligence officer
25:57who had spent three years
25:59in prison in Britain
26:00before the war
26:01on suspicion of spying.
26:04Now he had
26:05a new mission.
26:08Gortz's code name
26:09was Gilker.
26:13Gilker had studied
26:14the dossier sent
26:15by Stephen Hayes
26:16to Germany.
26:16It was nothing less
26:18than a plan
26:19for the Nazis
26:19to invade Northern Ireland
26:21with active IRA help.
26:23It was called
26:24Plan Kathleen.
26:28Plan Kathleen
26:29talks about
26:30facilitating German landings
26:32in the southwest of Ireland
26:33and also in the north,
26:35along with a more
26:36general uprising
26:37by the IRA
26:38to seize
26:39key posts
26:40within Ireland
26:41and begin to
26:42try and overthrow
26:43both the Dublin
26:44and the Belfast governments.
26:46Copies of
26:49Plan Kathleen
26:50are held in both
26:51Irish and British archives.
26:54And one section
26:55details reconnaissance plans
26:56for the northern Irish city
26:58of Londonderry.
27:00Two.
27:02Coastal defences.
27:03Accurate sketches.
27:04A.
27:04To the entrance
27:05of Loch Foyle
27:06protected by the
27:06Coastal Defence War.
27:07Four.
27:08Army.
27:09A.
27:10Infantry.
27:10Where.
27:11What strength.
27:12What kind.
27:13Active.
27:14B.
27:14Artillery.
27:15As to A.
27:16C.
27:17Motorised units.
27:18Where.
27:19What kind.
27:20Very important.
27:27Gilker was to establish
27:28a secure link
27:29between Ireland
27:30and Germany
27:31and to work with the IRA
27:32to plan attacks
27:33on British military targets
27:34as preparation
27:35for the full-scale invasion
27:37of Northern Ireland.
27:38Plan Kathleen
27:44proposed the conquest
27:45of Northern Ireland
27:46by a simultaneous IRA
27:48insurgency
27:49and the landing
27:50of German forces.
27:5250,000 Germans
27:54were to be dropped
27:55in the north
27:55while over 30,000
27:57IRA fighters
27:58were to be concentrated
27:59on the Irish border
28:00near Loch Earn.
28:02Together
28:03they would sweep
28:04through Ulster
28:04and destroy
28:05all British forces.
28:06On the 5th of May 1940
28:15the weather over Ireland
28:16was poor.
28:19According to his
28:19post-war statement
28:20Herman Gortz
28:22was supposed to land
28:23in Northern Ireland.
28:25In fact
28:25he touched down
28:26about 80 kilometres
28:27to the south.
28:30During the descent
28:31he lost his radio transmitter
28:32and the shovel
28:33he'd been given
28:34to bury his parachute
28:35and uniform.
28:38But to his credit
28:40he marched
28:40for five days
28:41to an agreed rendezvous point
28:43even asking the police
28:44for directions
28:45still wearing his uniform.
28:51Seamus O'Donovan
28:52met him
28:52and spirited him away
28:53to a safe house.
29:00Herman Gortz
29:01Stephen Hayes
29:03Stephen Held
29:04and Seamus O'Donovan
29:06met on the 17th of May 1940
29:09to discuss Plan Kathleen
29:11the Nazi invasion
29:13of Northern Ireland.
29:18On the surface
29:19the plan had appeared
29:19to be sound
29:20but it soon became apparent
29:22that things were not
29:23what they seemed.
29:24Hayes had exaggerated
29:32the IRA's strength.
29:34Instead of the promised
29:3530,000 men
29:36there would only be 5,000
29:38and most of them
29:39would be unarmed.
29:47Worse still
29:47the IRA
29:48had completely
29:49underestimated
29:50the strength
29:50of the opposition.
29:54Gortz later revealed
29:55that Plan Kathleen
29:57gave no thought
29:58to where
29:58or how
29:59the coast of Northern Ireland
30:00was fortified
30:01how German troops
30:04were to be brought
30:05to Ireland
30:05nor how control
30:07of the sea approaches
30:07was to be obtained.
30:10Plan Kathleen
30:11would have been a disaster.
30:17I don't believe
30:19that Herman Gortz
30:20believed Plan Kathleen
30:20was a feasible option.
30:22It's quite clear
30:24that when he arrived
30:25he was
30:26amused initially
30:28horrified
30:29eventually.
30:31To a large extent
30:33he saw them
30:33as dreamers
30:34ineffective dreamers
30:36who lacked
30:37strategic realism.
30:43After the meeting
30:45Gortz thought
30:45long and hard
30:46about whether or not
30:47the plan could be saved.
30:48five days later
30:52while he was out
30:53gathering intelligence
30:54the Irish police
30:55raided the safe house.
31:02Gortz's parachute
31:03typewriter
31:04maps
31:05drawings
31:06and a copy
31:07of Plan Kathleen
31:08itself
31:08were seized.
31:10The plan was blown
31:10but Gortz
31:12slipped away.
31:15However
31:15though Plan Kathleen
31:16was dead
31:17the invasion
31:18of Northern Ireland
31:19was still
31:19very much alive.
31:28On the same day
31:30that Gortz
31:30had left Germany
31:31Sean Russell
31:32had arrived
31:33from the USA.
31:34He was treated
31:35like a true friend
31:36and collaborator
31:37staying in the best hotels
31:39and sampling
31:39the finest food
31:40and wine.
31:42He was then
31:42taken to a secret base.
31:44Russell
31:47has given access
31:48to the Brandenburg
31:49camp
31:49where German
31:50forces are trained
31:51in sabotage
31:52special explosives
31:53training
31:54and he's also
31:56then introduced
31:57to various people
31:58in the Nazi hierarchy
31:59including
31:59von Ribbentrop
32:00the foreign minister.
32:02Von Ribbentrop
32:03assigned Foreign Office
32:04Minister
32:05Edmund Weizenmayer
32:06to oversee
32:08all joint IRA
32:09operations.
32:12Russell was given
32:13the details
32:14of Hitler's new plan
32:15to invade Ireland
32:16called Operation Green.
32:29Operation Green
32:30was to be carried out
32:31in conjunction
32:32with Operation Sea Lion
32:33the invasion
32:34of mainland Britain.
32:37It aimed
32:38to tie up
32:39British troops
32:39stationed in Northern Ireland
32:40who might have been sent
32:41to reinforce
32:42the southern English coast.
32:45It would also
32:46prevent Ireland
32:46being used
32:47as a refuge
32:48for evacuating troops
32:49and would provide
32:51a staging post
32:51to the Luftwaffe forces
32:52to attack
32:53Northern England.
32:57It is not known
32:58what role the IRA
32:59would have played
33:00in Operation Green
33:01though Sean Russell
33:02had that information.
33:04On the 7th of August
33:05he took it with him
33:06to Wilhelmshafen
33:07to board submarine
33:08U-65.
33:14It left Germany
33:15for Ireland
33:16the next day
33:16but during the trip
33:18Russell fell ill
33:19and died
33:20it is thought
33:21from a burst ulcer.
33:24He was buried at sea.
33:30In Ireland
33:31Stephen Hayes
33:32took over
33:32as full-time
33:33chief of staff.
33:35Under his erratic leadership
33:36the idea
33:37of invading
33:38Northern Ireland
33:38would live on
33:39and southern England
33:41was already
33:42being softened up
33:43for invasion.
33:58The Battle of Britain
34:00was raging.
34:02If Hitler wanted
34:10to conquer Britain
34:11he needed
34:11command of the skies.
34:13Throughout the summer
34:14of 1940
34:15the struggle
34:16for air supremacy
34:17was played out
34:18above the English Channel
34:19in southeast England.
34:20but on the 15th of September
34:33the Royal Air Force
34:34inflicted such damage
34:36on the Luftwaffe
34:37that Hitler
34:38postponed
34:38his invasion plans.
34:45Yet
34:46the very next day
34:47Irish intelligence
34:49intercepted a message
34:50to Churchill
34:50from two Irish Republicans.
34:54So you think
34:54you'll win the war
34:55you poor sap.
34:58The IRA
34:59were not about to give up
35:00and nor yet
35:01was Hitler.
35:08With Operation Sea Lion
35:10on hold
35:11Hitler asked
35:12the chief of the Navy
35:13and the head
35:14and the head of the Luftwaffe
35:14for one last report
35:16on the likelihood of success
35:17of an invasion of Ireland.
35:22The Navy replied
35:23that any such invasion
35:24would be
35:25completely hopeless
35:26believing there was
35:28a high probability
35:29that troops might be cut off
35:30and trapped.
35:35Operation Green
35:36was cancelled
35:37and then
35:39without warning
35:39Ireland itself
35:41became a German target.
35:54On Easter Tuesday
35:56in April 1941
35:57180 Luftwaffe bombers
35:59attacked Belfast.
36:02Their target
36:02was the
36:03Haaland and Wolf shipyard
36:04a vital base
36:05for the Royal Navy.
36:08But the bombing
36:09was inaccurate.
36:15Over a thousand died
36:16and half the city's
36:18housing was destroyed.
36:19Even Ireland's
36:24Prime Minister
36:24Eamon de Valera
36:25was outraged
36:26and sent 13 fire tenders
36:28to the city
36:29to help.
36:32In the dark hours
36:33that followed
36:34the whole of Ireland
36:35was united
36:36for the first time
36:38in decades.
36:42Maybe de Valera
36:44felt guilty
36:44having discovered
36:45that the Luftwaffe
36:46used the unblacked out
36:48Dublin to Belfast
36:49Railway
36:49to navigate
36:51to their target.
36:53But then Dubliners
36:55too looked up
36:55into the night sky
36:56and heard the drone
36:58of approaching aircraft.
37:04Unidentified warplanes
37:05dropped bombs
37:06on several occasions
37:07in different parts
37:07of Neutral Era.
37:09The bombs
37:09were subsequently
37:10proved, of course,
37:11to have come
37:11from Germany.
37:19On the 31st of May,
37:21just after midnight,
37:23explosions were heard
37:24around the city.
37:25When morning broke,
37:27Dubliners awoke
37:28to 400 homeless,
37:3090 injured
37:31and 34 dead.
37:34Many still believe
37:35that it was a German
37:36reprisal bombing
37:37for coming to Belfast's aid.
37:39But it is more likely
37:40that a Luftwaffe squadron
37:41simply flew off course
37:43and dumped their bombs
37:44on the coastal city.
37:56Plan Kathleen
37:57had been ditched,
37:58Operation Green
37:59had been cancelled
38:00and now the IRA's allies
38:02had bombed Dublin.
38:05The IRA was
38:06completely discredited.
38:11Worse still,
38:13Stephen Hayes'
38:13drinking habits
38:14had developed
38:15into an addiction.
38:18There are increasing reports
38:19that Hayes has effectively
38:21become an alcoholic.
38:23And as a result,
38:24some of his active officers,
38:27particularly from Belfast,
38:29begin to distrust him
38:30and begin to suspect
38:31that all the setbacks
38:32the organisation is having
38:34are down to Hayes' leadership.
38:37So the membership
38:38decided to take action.
38:42Stephen Hayes is one of the
38:44most controversial figures
38:45in the history of the IRA.
38:47The IRA were a small,
38:49marginal organisation
38:49under major pressure
38:51and there's really not much else
38:52Hayes could have done
38:53as leader.
38:54But they suspect
38:55that he's a traitor.
38:56And during 1941,
38:57they actually
38:58kidnap him,
39:00court-martial him,
39:01interrogate him
39:02for a long period
39:03and make him
39:04confess to having been
39:06a high-level spy
39:07on behalf of the Irish government.
39:10Though no evidence
39:11has emerged
39:12that Hayes was
39:13an Irish government spy,
39:15the IRA sentenced him
39:16to death.
39:17But he escaped
39:18and went to the Irish police.
39:20So he escapes,
39:26hands himself over
39:27to the police,
39:28his kidnappers
39:29are arrested
39:29and while the IRA
39:32still regard Hayes
39:33as a traitor,
39:34in terms, again,
39:35of public opinion,
39:36the IRA just looked like
39:37a far-skill organisation.
39:40While in custody,
39:41the IRA revealed
39:42the full extent
39:43of Hayes' involvement
39:44in Plan Kathleen.
39:45He would serve
39:47just five years
39:49in prison.
39:55By now,
39:56Hermann Gortz
39:57was on the run.
39:59He made several
39:59escape attempts,
40:00including by a motorboat
40:01that sank off
40:02the southeast coast.
40:04He even went
40:05to the German embassy
40:05to beg them for help.
40:07Though they agreed
40:08to pass his messages
40:09to the Abwehr,
40:10they were reluctant
40:11to help him further
40:12and turned him away.
40:17On the 27th of November,
40:19he too was discovered
40:20and arrested.
40:24Further pictures
40:24of the arrival
40:25of the first American
40:26expeditionary force
40:27to Britain,
40:28a troop ship
40:28crowded with men
40:29from the great cities
40:30and plains of North America.
40:31Greetings to them all
40:32from the rank and file
40:33of this United Kingdom,
40:35united now as allies
40:36of those United States.
40:39Any lingering hope
40:40of invading Northern Ireland
40:42was dashed
40:42when in January 1942,
40:45American troops
40:46were stationed in Europe
40:47for the first time.
40:51By May 1942,
40:5337,000 GIs
40:55were based
40:55in Northern Ireland.
41:01But the IRA
41:02still had a point
41:03to prove.
41:05It had 300 volunteers
41:07left in its Belfast unit.
41:10Called Northern Command,
41:11it was by far
41:12the strongest wing
41:13of the organisation remaining.
41:17There were 26 arms cases
41:19hidden over the border
41:20in the Irish Republic.
41:23By August 1942,
41:26those arms were dug up
41:27and smuggled north
41:28to begin what the IRA
41:29called the Northern Campaign,
41:31a planned series of assaults
41:33on the British Army
41:34and police.
41:41But joint British
41:42and Irish intelligence operations
41:43thwarted their plans.
41:46All they managed
41:47were sporadic attacks
41:48on barracks
41:49and police stations
41:50and the ambush
41:51and murder
41:51of several members
41:52of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
41:54By the time the Allies
41:59were preparing
42:00for the D-Day landings,
42:01the IRA's organisation
42:03was shattered.
42:07In June 1944,
42:09its new chief of staff,
42:11Charlie Kerins,
42:11was arrested
42:12and six months later,
42:14hanged.
42:14Irish Minister of Justice
42:21Gerald Boland
42:22boasted,
42:23the IRA was dead
42:24and I have killed it.
42:32The legacy of this period
42:33of IRA history
42:35is limited.
42:36It's devoid of any achievement
42:37from an IRA perspective.
42:40To a large extent,
42:42it appears in retrospect
42:43as comedy
42:45and or tragedy
42:47depending on your point of view.
42:51Even German spy
42:52Hermann Gortz
42:53wrote a series of articles
42:54in prison after the war
42:56about the challenge
42:57he faced
42:57in dealing with the IRA.
43:00He reflected that the Irish
43:01were very good at dying
43:03for their country
43:04but not so good
43:06at fighting for it.
43:09But it's not just the IRA
43:10who can be labelled
43:11as incompetent
43:12at this time.
43:13Between 1933 and 1944,
43:17the Abwehr
43:18sent ten agents
43:19to Ireland.
43:20All failed
43:21their missions.
43:25Certainly the German
43:27attempt to land
43:28agents here
43:29is very often
43:30farcical
43:31and comical.
43:33Agents land,
43:34they go to the pubs,
43:35they get drunk,
43:36they more or less
43:36tell people
43:37why they're in Ireland
43:38and they ask
43:39to be put in contact
43:39with the IRA.
43:41And in some cases
43:42they ask people
43:43for directions
43:43and this is immediately
43:44reported to the police
43:46and within,
43:47in some cases,
43:48the space of a few hours
43:49these people are arrested.
43:50The IRA's brief flirtation
43:55with the Nazis
43:55had come to nothing.
44:01All over London,
44:03the fortress of freedom
44:03in the dark days,
44:05millions rejoice
44:05in final and complete victory
44:07after a war
44:08lasting nearly six years.
44:09The war in Europe
44:15ended on the 8th of May 1945.
44:24German U-boats surfaced
44:26all around Ireland
44:27and surrendered
44:28to the British.
44:32Eight of them
44:33came to Londonderry
44:34in Northern Ireland
44:34where they surrendered
44:36to the commander-in-chief
44:37of Western approaches.
44:39But while all Europe celebrated,
44:44relations between Britain
44:46and the Irish Republic
44:47reached a new low.
44:50In Dublin,
44:52Prime Minister
44:52Eamon de Valera
44:53chose to visit
44:54the German embassy
44:55and send his condolences
44:57for the death of Hitler.
45:01He hadn't done the same
45:02for the recently deceased
45:03American president,
45:05Franklin D. Roosevelt.
45:07There were even rumours
45:09that the Irish tricolor
45:10flew at half-mast
45:11in some parts of Dublin.
45:18The victorious
45:19Winston Churchill
45:20attacked de Valera
45:21for allowing German shipping
45:23to pass through
45:24its waters
45:25unchecked.
45:27This was indeed
45:29a deadly moment
45:30in our life.
45:30and if it had not been
45:33for the loyalty
45:34and friendship
45:34of Northern Ireland,
45:37we should have been
45:37forced to come
45:38to close quarters
45:40with Mr. de Valera
45:41or perish forever
45:44from the earth.
45:51De Valera
45:51not only refused
45:53to apologise,
45:54he attacked the Allies
45:55over the trials
45:56of Nazi war criminals
45:57at Nuremberg.
46:00The men who not long ago
46:02bestrode the continent
46:03of Europe
46:03and committed mass crime
46:05on a scale
46:05which staggers the imagination
46:07are today
46:08in the dock.
46:13The Irish government
46:14refused to recognise
46:15the trials,
46:16comparing them
46:17to the British use
46:18of its legal system
46:19in Ireland
46:20before independence.
46:30Ireland also seemed
46:31to turn a blind eye
46:32to those with blood
46:33on their hands.
46:35It became a safe haven
46:36for several known
46:37Nazi collaborators.
46:39These included
46:40the Breton nationalist
46:41Celestine Lane
46:42who had collaborated
46:44with the Nazis
46:44by hunting down
46:45resistance fighters
46:46in Brittany.
46:48Lane escaped
46:51to Ireland
46:52in 1947.
46:54He died there
46:55in 1983.
47:00Nicknamed
47:00the Himmler
47:01of the Balkans,
47:02the Croat collaborator
47:03and Lija Artukovic
47:05escaped to Ireland
47:07in 1947.
47:09He was implicated
47:10in the extermination
47:11of 4,000 Serbs
47:13and the construction
47:14of a system
47:15of Croatian
47:15concentration camps
47:17in September
47:181941.
47:23Otto Scarfe Scorsini
47:25was a lieutenant colonel
47:26in the Waffen SS.
47:30After fighting
47:31on the Eastern Front,
47:32he commanded
47:33a rescue mission
47:34that freed
47:34the deposed
47:35Italian dictator
47:36Benito Mussolini
47:37from captivity.
47:38in 1959.
47:41In 1959,
47:41he was living
47:42in Ireland
47:43on a 200-acre farm
47:44in County Kildare.
47:46He later moved
47:47to Spain
47:48where he trained mercenaries.
47:50Why was the Irish government
47:57prepared to harbor
47:58such men?
48:00It's a question
48:01that is still reluctant
48:03to answer today.
48:05Since the war,
48:07Eamon de Valera
48:07has often been characterized
48:09as a stern,
48:10unbending,
48:11devious
48:12and even divisive
48:14Irish politician.
48:16But it's not entirely
48:17a fair portrait of him.
48:19In fact,
48:20de Valera had on occasion
48:21helped the British
48:22during the war.
48:23The German battleship
48:30Bismarck
48:30was about to attack
48:31the North Atlantic
48:32convoys in 1941
48:34when it was spotted
48:35by a British flying boat
48:37that was based
48:37in the Irish Republic.
48:39That information
48:40was passed
48:41onto the Royal Navy
48:42who intercepted
48:43and sank the Bismarck.
48:48And there was
48:49the crucial Dublin link
48:51between G2
48:52and MI5
48:53that undoubtedly led
48:54to the abandonment
48:55of Plan Kathleen
48:56and the thwarting
48:58of the IRA's activities.
49:09So what of the IRA's role?
49:12Perhaps the worst charge
49:14that can be leveled at them
49:15was that Churchill
49:16had to commit resources
49:17to find and stop
49:18the S-Plan terrorists.
49:21The emergency services
49:22and security services
49:24were too busy
49:24clearing up the IRA's mess
49:26when they should have
49:27been concentrating
49:28on the real enemy.
49:31And while there was
49:31no suggestion
49:32that the IRA
49:33was actively anti-Semitic,
49:35they had picked
49:36the most distasteful
49:38of friends.
49:41Suppose the IRA
49:42had won.
49:44Suppose Plan Kathleen
49:45or Operation Green
49:47or Operation Green
49:47or Operation Green
49:47had succeeded,
49:49the Nazis would indeed
49:50have had a presence
49:51in Ireland.
49:55Early in 1942,
49:57Adolf Eichmann,
49:58the man in charge
49:59of the logistics
50:00for the Holocaust,
50:01drew up a list detailing
50:03the number of Jews
50:04in Europe
50:04still to be exterminated.
50:08Ireland's 4,000 Jews
50:10were on that list.
50:11Had the IRA succeeded,
50:15there is a high probability
50:16that they would have
50:17all been killed.
50:19What would the legacy
50:20of the IRA
50:21have been then?
50:22I think some of them
50:23probably thought
50:24they were being
50:24extremely clever
50:25and that they would
50:26get assistance
50:26from the Germans
50:27and not have to
50:28give anything in return.
50:29You could also argue
50:30that some of them
50:31were extremely naive.
50:32So I don't think
50:32most of them
50:33did understand
50:34the nature of
50:35the Nazi regime
50:36or its ambitions.
50:37And where does
50:39that leave
50:39Sean Russell,
50:41a highly controversial
50:42figure whose obsession
50:43with the United
50:44Ireland blinded him
50:45to the Nazis'
50:46real intentions?
50:48There was no doubt
50:49that most of the IRA
50:51were firm
50:52in their aspirations
50:54to achieve
50:55the unification
50:56of Northern Ireland.
50:59Perhaps Sean Russell
51:00was the one individual
51:03who was most determined
51:06to lead,
51:07if necessary,
51:08a national revolution
51:11with German assistance.
51:15Sean Russell's statue
51:17still stands
51:18in Dublin's Fairview Park.
51:20It's been vandalised twice,
51:23once decapitated
51:24by an anti-fascist group.
51:33in Dublin's Fairview Park.
Recommended
49:03
|
Up next
58:55
1:18:14
59:15
50:22
58:39
57:40
1:28:10
59:10
58:59