The Kurt Student Plan 1941
Plan Kathleen, or a widened variant of the plan to take over Northern Ireland appears to have surfaced again in Nazi Germany during January 1941. During an audience with Hitler, General Kurt Student, commander of the German 11th Airborne Corps, discussed a plan to take over Northern Ireland and leave the territory of Éire free from, and unoccupied by, German troops. The discussions took place at the Obersalzberg on New Year's Day where Student was recovering from wounds received during the invasion of Holland. At this point, Hitler was still obviously considering an invasion of Britain, and it was within this context that Student suggested a diversionary paratrooper attack on Northern Ireland to coincide with German landings on the south coast of England. Student suggested a plan whereby dummies dressed as paratroopers would also be dropped to confuse the enemy. According to Student:
"...an even longer discussion followed on the question of the position of the Irish Free State. Hitler stated: 'Éire's neutrality must be respected. A neutral Irish Free State is of greater value to us than a hostile Ireland. We must be glad that Ireland has remained neutral up to the present. But we could not avoid trespassing on a small scale, through units losing their way by emergency landings at night, by dropping in the wrong area.'"
Student suggested the best date for the operation would be in April, 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. Despite this sentiment, Student was unaware of the cooperation between Dublin and London around Plan W, and most likely any invasion of German forces would have triggered an invasion by the British. Hitler made no decision on the matter and Student was told the next day by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring:
"Do not trouble yourself needlessly about Ulster . The Führer does not want to invade Great Britain. From now on Gibraltar will be the main task for you."
Read more about this topic: Plan Kathleen
Famous quotes containing the words student and/or plan:
“Now that Stevenson is dead I can think of but one English- speaking author who is really keeping his self-respect and sticking for perfection. Of course I refer to that mighty master of language and keen student of human actions and motives, Henry James.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“Solomon’s ... excess became an insult upon the privileges of mankind; for by the same plan of luxury, which made it necessary to have forty thousand stalls of horses,—he had unfortunately miscalculated his other wants, and so had seven hundred wives....
Wise—deluded man!”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)