This represents the hardware that Ireland had to defend itself on outbreak of war
Defending the Seas
The Muirchu with one 12 Pounder naval gun
The Fort Rannoch, again with a 12 pounder naval gun
Two Vosper MTBs
Two Swedish Landsverk L60 tanks
One Vickers Mark II Medium tank
The army also had just four anti aircraft guns and four anti tank rifles (useless against even light tanks)
In the skies
The Irish Army Air Corp's strike capability consisted of three Gloster Gladiators. The Corps did also have Lysanders, Ansons and a number of Walrus seaplanes but these would have been ineffectual in an offensive roleThe purpose of this post is not to sneer at the Irish military but to give a small indication of what military hardware it had at the start of WWIIand a small contributing factor to staying neutral
4 comments:
I wish that was the level of armaments everybody had today.
Now that would be a good idea Susan
Maybe Ireland, as a country, was neutral, Jams. But a lot of Irishmen ran to England and enrolled in any of the Armed Forces which would take them. My ex-husband's father, who had been born in Dublin, moved to England at a mature age to fight in WW2. He got plenty of medals to prove it. He was very proud of it. He sent them to his first grandson (my older son). He never returned to Ireland.
Agreed Claude but then my dad was one of those who did the same!
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