Frank Ryan (Irish Republican) - Activities in Germany 1940 - 1944

1944

On his arrival in Berlin Ryan was introduced to SS Colonel Dr. Edmund Veesenmayer. Veesenmayer, as part of his roving SS and German Foreign Ministry brief, was intimately involved in the planning of all Abwehr operations in Ireland during 1940 - 1943, particularly those involving Russell and Ryan. The day after arriving, Ryan was asked by Russell to accompany him to Ireland as part of Operation Dove ("Unternehmen Taube" in German). Although Ryan had not been involved in the training or preparation for Dove both he and Russell departed aboard U-65 on 8 August 1940. When Russell became ill and died during the journey (of a perforated ulcer), Ryan asked the Captain of U-65, Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen, to cable Germany and ask for fresh instructions before proceeding. The mission was subsequently aborted and Ryan returned to Germany via Bordeaux.

After the failure of Operation Dove, Ryan remained in Berlin. Between Autumn 1940 and January 1943 he lived in a "large gloomy flat" in Berlin with an acquaintance from Ireland, Helmut Clissmann, and Hans Ritter, both of whom were Abwehr assets. Clissmann was married to Elizabeth "Budge" Mulcahy of Sligo, a friend of both Ryan and Leopold Kerney. As an exchange student in Dublin in the 1930s Clissmann had known Ryan and other republicans and socialists well, and before Hitler came to power had been a member of a left-wing student organisation. Ryan was not in good health, as a result of his wound and treatment in the Spanish prison, and at one stage he had a stroke, but he remained convivial and drew around him a small circle of friends. He had to remain incognito and in general did not discuss politics. He grew increasingly deaf (though his friends suggested that he sometimes feigned deafness in order to avoid uncomfortable conversations with the German authorities) so that he could not be left alone at night - he could not hear the anti-aircraft sirens. He later had to spend his days outdoors or in cafés (where he became friendly with Francis Stuart, whom he had known from Dublin) so that people could see him if the sirens sounded. To Stuart he took Irish newspapers and, being in a position to get extra rations, shared them generously with his friends. In return Stuart took Ryan, who had a lot of time on his hands, on trips to the countryside and on outings with his students. Stephen Hayes (Irish Republican), Chief of Staff of the IRA, claimed that Ryan and Stuart were carrying out propaganda work among Irish prisoners of war. This was untrue. They visited a camp for Irish prisoners who signified their intent of joining an "Irish Guard". Ryan and Clissmann also visited a camp containing some men who intended setting up this Guard. Ryan had nothing to do with this and the scheme came to nothing. Ryan regretted visiting the camp and told Stuart that the whole scheme disheartened him - he only had sympathy with men who were, like he and his comrades had been, in prison camps.

Ryan was given the cover name "Richard II" (Russell had been "Richard I"), and he was listed in the Abwehr (Intelligence) files as "Frank Richard". This protected him from the Gestapo, who might have been very interested in a former officer of the International Brigades, but they had no access to the Intelligence files until 1944. Around the end of 1940, a "Where is Frank Ryan?" campaign began in the Irish Press. In response to this Frank Ryan wrote a letter to Leopold Kerney, Irish Minister in Madrid, explaining his whereabouts. Abwehr II's war diary records that the Government of the Republic of Ireland ('Éire'), (the territory formerly known as the Irish Free State), was made aware of Ryan's whereabouts between 11 December and 19 December 1940 by Elizabeth ("Budge") Clissmann who had hand-delivered the letter on Ryan's behalf. Ryan instructed Clissmann not to tell Kerney that Russell had died on board U-65 although this information appears to have already been leaked.

In May 1941 Abwehr Operation Whale ("Unternehmen Walfisch" in German), a plan to land a seaplane on a lake in Ireland, was expanded to include resupply of the IRA with money and a transmitter. Ryan was to contact the IRA. After these changes to the plan it became known as Operation Sea Eagle ("Unternehmen Seeadler" in German). Ryan was asked for his co-operation in the planning for Operation Sea Eagle. The written proposal for Operation Sea Eagle gives some supposedly biographical details for Ryan composed by Veesenmayer. It is not known whether Ryan led Veesenmayer to include these statements in the proposal or whether Veesenmayer added them to increase the chances of Operation Sea Eagle being sponsored; either way Veesenmayer did not stress Ryan's Communist sympathies and included a number of inaccuracies and embellishments:

"... he is one of the leading Irish nationalists has been for many years a member of the leader's council of the Irish Republican Army, and a participant in numerous fights against England."

"In 1929 the Secret Service carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt against him and he has often been in jail since."

"He has extensive connections with the Irish republican circles up to de Valera's closest entourage and with de Valera himself, as well as to the Irish regular army, the nationalist Irishmen in Northern Ireland and especially the leading Irishmen in America."

Although Operation Sea Eagle was first postponed after being shown to Hitler on 6 September 1941 and then ultimately cancelled, Ryan's part in planning continued up to its cancellation.

Ryan had also been nominated for inclusion in Operation Osprey "Unternehmen Fischadler", an Abwehr plan to engineer resistance and sabotage amongst the Irish in the event of a feared American invasion. Osprey was planned to work in conjunction with a suite of German Intelligence operations devised by then Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg, Director of Office VI, Foreign Political Information Service, Reichs Security HQ. using No.1 SS. Special Service Troop. Ryan's role in the plan was to get De Valera and the IRA to work together. There was little realism in that part of the plan (as Ryan realized), but Ryan's main objective, after being four years out of Ireland and in increasingly bad health, was to get home.

The IRA under its new Chief of Staff, Stephen Hayes, now regarded Ryan as its "representative" in Germany. Ryan felt that, through circumstances beyond his control, he was the only European representative of the IRA. However, "he had no illusions about his old friends or his new friends". In a coded letter that was smuggled to Gerald O'Reilly, a member of Clan na Gael in the Bronx, New York, in May 1941, the writer (which O'Reilly understood was Ryan) explained the situation: despite their differences over the previous six years, he had been happy to meet Sean Russell; before his death, Russel had entrusted him with important papers that should be returned to the IRA; that he had a "free hand and was fully trusted"; that success (for the IRA) would depend on the left wing of the IRA working with the leadership, and that if this happened the IRA would emerge stronger after the war. A few weeks later O'Reilly was arrested by the FBI (they were looking for Sean Russell, who had skipped bail) who obtained the letter. They said they were aware of Ryan's "anti-Fascist credentials" and although due to his contacts and knowledge of languages would be useful to "the enemy" (the US was not yet in the war), they did not he believe he would work for Fascism. The leaders of Clan na Gael did not believe the letter.

As far as the evidence goes, Ryan did not change his political views after his release from the Spanish prison; Francis Stuart and the Clissmanns agreed on that. According to the Clissmanns he remained "an Irish Republican and a Connolly Socialist" all his life. However he was frustrated because he could do nothing for Ireland. After the Summer of 1941 he was concerned with defending Ireland's neutrality and he sided with De Valera on that point. There was also the shortage of arms in Ireland to defend itself - Churchill had prevented any supplies of arms to the Republic because Ireland would not give up the ports, and the Americans would not contravene the embargo. Churchill had also hinted at an invasion of the south of Ireland should it be required - there was a lot for all concerned to ponder about in those troubled times.

In 1941 Ryan wrote a number of letters to Irish Minister Leopold Kerney in Madrid. This was facilitated by the Germans in order to monitor events in Ireland and understand Ryan's position, as after the invasion of the Soviet Union the need to keep Ireland neutral grew, and Ryan was becoming increasingly important in their eyes (ironically, this invasion made Ryan even more suspicious of German intentions). In most, if not all, these letters he expressed his desire to return to Ireland. In November 1941 he wrote that he was treated as a "distinguished guest", a "non-party neutral", in Germany, and added:

There might also be a situation (I was always a pessimist) in which I might be asked to do something I don't like. Such a situation is - soberly speaking - highly improbable. But if the unlikely were ever to happen...I won't do the dirty. And when you plant my tombstone, let it be of granite (like my stubborn cranium) contents. (Not for nothing did I earn the nickname of "The Mule" in my schooldays!)

Once a feared invasion of Éire by US Troops stationed in Northern Ireland in 1942 failed to materialize, Ryan was dropped as a possible mission specialist in further covert Abwehr and Foreign Ministry plans and operations. He was approached late 1943 for his opinion on the feasibility of a "Geheimsender" (secret transmitter) propaganda operation in Ireland for broadcast to the United States, but the plan never reached fruition. It is also known that he discussed Francis Stuart's radio broadcasts with him prior to their commencement.

He died in June 1944 at a hospital in Loschwitz in Dresden. His funeral in Dresden was attended by Elizabeth Clissmann and Francis Stuart. Clissmann eventually forwarded details of Ryan's fate to Leopold Kerney in Madrid. According to Stuart and Clissmann, the cause of death was pleurisy and pneumonia.