WHY HITLER DECIDED TO MARCH ON MOSCOW? by Donal Kennedy

Many years ago a crawling letter in THE IRISH POST in London sneered at the Irish soldiers who faithfully served Ireland  during 1939 -1945, comparing them unfavourably with those Irish who joined the  British Forces.

WHY HITLER DECIDED TO MARCH ON MOSCOW?I wrote  to the paper recalling that in 1940 the veteran Dan Breen had joined the part-time Local Defence Force in Howth and was elected its platoon commander, and I suggested that   Churchill may have been thus persuaded not to try tangling with him again, and that when word reached Berlin, Hitler reckoned it would be a less hazardous venture to march on Moscow than on Dublin.

Some years later Robert Fisk’s study of Irish neutrality – “IN TIME OF WAR” recorded that Breen’s return to the Colours had indeed been noted in Whitehall.

 

2 Responses to WHY HITLER DECIDED TO MARCH ON MOSCOW? by Donal Kennedy

  1. Cal May 17, 2017 at 11:03 pm #

    I did not agree with the decision a while back to pardon the deserters that joined the British army during WW2.

    They went awol at a time when the south of Ireland faced invasion from both Germany and England. No pardon was warranted, it’s hard to see a man like Dan Breen going along with it.

  2. Ernesider May 19, 2017 at 5:25 pm #

    ‘Twas in the year of ‘thirty-nine
    When the sky was full of lead
    Hitler was heading for Poland
    And Paddy, for Holyhead

    Come all you pincher laddies
    And you long-distance men
    Don’t ever work for McAlpine
    For Wimpey, or John Laing

    You’ll stand behind a mixer
    Till your skin is burned to tan
    And they’ll say, Good on you, Paddy
    With your boat-fare in your hand

    The crack was good in Cricklewood
    They wouldn’t leave the Crown
    With glasses flying and Biddy’s crying
    Paddy was going to town

    Oh mother dear, I’m over here
    And I’m never coming back
    What keeps me here is the rake o’ beer
    The ladies and the crack

    I come from county Kerry
    The land of eggs and bacon
    And if you think I’ll eat your fish ‘n’ chips
    Bejausus you’re mistaken.

    McAlpine said on his deathbed in 1934: “If the men wish to honour my death, allow them two minutes’ silence; but keep the big mixer going, and keep Paddy behind it.”