An Cosantóir- Operation Sealion

[timhorgan]

Having found time to catch up on the excellent articles written in An Cosantóir after the war when the enterprising staff showed excellent ingenuity and enterprise in interviewing senior German Officers I was most impressed by the interview of General Blumentritt, Von Runstedt's Chief Of Operations on the Western Front.

Blumentritt is quite clear that during Dunkirk " Hitler had explained his intention to reach an agreement with England andat Dunkirk-our Panzer Divisions were held back, Air fleet 3 restrained from all-out offensive action". The article clearly shows that the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe allowed the British Expeditionary Army to escape.

The sigificance of these artices in An Cosantóir would also clearly indicate that the Irish Government were correct in maintaining neutrality as the Germans must have some good indicators of a possible deal.

This article in itself is well worth reading and all credit to Thomas Dunne who was described in An Cosantóir as "ex Army Intelligence".

[timhorgan]

The best copy of the January 1949 issue with the Blumentritt interview is here in fascimile-intersting article also on the "Navajo Codetalkers".

http://fileserver.4pm.ie/Upload/6/6203-HTH.pdf

[Flamingo]

Is there a link to anything online, Tim? (WB, by the way, it's been quieter here without you!)

[hedgehog]

Welcome Back Tim

Flamingo is right- it was quiet without you

[spaceghetti]

Is there a link to anything online, Tim? (WB, by the way, it's been quieter here without you!)

You could probably find it here somewhere:

http://www.dfmagazine.ie/back.aspx

[Flamingo]

Welcome Back Tim

Flamingo is right- it was quiet without you

I didn't say it was a bad thing

ps. Thanks Murph, I'd forgotten about that site!

[timhorgan]

Thanks for the welcome back , guys, I must admit I missed the site too.

Amurph0 is quite correct- all the issues are on the website going back to 1941.


In the Jan 1944 issue there is an excellent article by Commandant F.O'Donoghue on the
"Invisible Enemy" and he goes on to describe the "Illusion of the Empty Battlefield".
This is an excellent article and should be compulsory reading for all ISAF forces today.
Commandant F.O'Donoghue of course was the great Kerryman Florrie who was Tom Barry's right-hand man in earlier days.

[sofa]

Good to have you back Tim

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi all,
I always regarded that series, having discovered them in back issues in Cork City Library, as being wise after the event, as well as being a subtle anti-British sneer. They didn't feel the need to interview the British or American commanders of the same era.It never fails to amaze me that Irish military personnel, with comparatively little or no war experience feel the need to lecture the British or Americans on how to fight.
regards
GttC

[Flamingo]

Maybe the British or American commanders didn't have as much free time on their hands

You could have a point!

[timhorgan]

Good to have you back Tim

Thank you Sofa, Nurse is steadily reducing my medication- I hope I will be off it completely before too long!

[timhorgan]

Hi all,
I always regarded that series, having discovered them in back issues in Cork City Library, as being wise after the event, as well as being a subtle anti-British sneer. They didn't feel the need to interview the British or American commanders of the same era.It never fails to amaze me that Irish military personnel, with comparatively little or no war experience feel the need to lecture the British or Americans on how to fight.
regards
GttC

Any fair-minded person reading An Cosantóir could not possibly come to that conclusion.

Take the January 1946 issue for instance which has reprints from British and American military journals as well as an Irish view of the Swiss military system and an article by a Swiss Officer. This issue is fairly representative of the high professionalism of An Cosantóir throughout it's distinguished history.

The whole point of the interview with the German Generals was that they had not been intelligently and properly interviewed whilst the Allied Generals were of course given widespread coverage. This was a world-wide journalistic coup for An Cosantóir.

If you read the same January 1946 Editorial you will see that one of the objectives of the Journal was to improve the fighting capabilities and morale of the Irish Defence Forces. To do this they would of course need to comment on the tactics and strategies of the various belligerents-lessons learnt. This was done very professionally and I certainly cannot detect any "anti-British sneering". Men such as Florrie O'Donoghue were far too big for such pettiness and would have regarded it as beneath themselves- they saw Ireland in a world context and Britain as just another player.

For myself, I hope to find the time during the coming winter months to go through the complete set online.

[paul g]

Hi all,
I always regarded that series, having discovered them in back issues in Cork City Library, as being wise after the event, as well as being a subtle anti-British sneer. They didn't feel the need to interview the British or American commanders of the same era.It never fails to amaze me that Irish military personnel, with comparatively little or no war experience feel the need to lecture the British or Americans on how to fight.
regards
GttC

In the post war period, many of the german generals were financially hard up and An Cosantoir got the articles for a song. While the senior allied commanders weren't intrested in writing for an cosantoir, many of the german generals were, mainly for the money.

Never ceases to amaze me that irish people in many walks of life have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to to the anglo saxons, but such is life.

[timhorgan]

Never ceases to amaze me that irish people in many walks of life have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to to the anglo saxons, but such is life.

paul g:
You are not alone- sometimes it makes me cringe too.


When comparing the Swiss and Irish approach to neutrality what I found most interesting is that General Henri Guisan gave orders that the Swiss were to ignore any surrender broadcasts in the event of an invasion. The Swiss were more ruthless as well in dealing with fifth-columnists. I think that it was 13 Swiss who were executed during the war by the authorities. The Swiss traitors were shot by firing squads drawn from their own local cantonal units that they had trained with.

When the Fuehrer attacked Poland in 1939, Swiss General Guisan ordered the citizen army to resist any attack to the last cartridge. After Denmark and Norway fell in 1940, Guisan and the Federal Council gave the order to the populace:

"Aggressively attack invaders; act on your own initiative; regard any surrender broadcast or announcement as enemy propaganda; resist to the end".

This was published as a message to the Swiss and a warning to the Germans; surrender was impossible, even if ordered by the government, for the prior order mandated that any "surrender" be treated as an enemy lie.

[timhorgan]

Hi all,
I always regarded that series, having discovered them in back issues in Cork City Library, as being wise after the event, as well as being a subtle anti-British sneer. They didn't feel the need to interview the British or American commanders of the same era.It never fails to amaze me that Irish military personnel, with comparatively little or no war experience feel the need to lecture the British or Americans on how to fight.
regards
GttC

There was of course no need for the likes of Florrie O'Donoghue to "lecture the British on how to fight" at this stage.

They had taught them that lesson already many times over in the boreens and hills of Cork and Kerry. Having comparitively little war experience is fine as long as you make sure you are the one ending with the upper hand.