Port Limerick, Ireland. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info ships carrying British officers and soldiers sailed into the harbor one after another, and the docks were full of handkerchiefs, flowers and hopeful smiles, but behind many of the harborside windows, a pair of eyes were watching what was happening outside with a look of indifference and even hatred......

After the Irish Brotherhood incident, the Irish independence forces quickly swept through the southern and central parts of Ireland like a storm, and Limerick, Wexford, Carey, and North Tipperary in the Munster region all declared their independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but the British garrison in this area was not broken by the independence forces like the British troops stationed in County Cork, and the Duke of Hill, who served as the local military governor of Munster, adjusted the deployment and reduced the strength in time. Concentrate the garrison forces in the area to the coastal port towns of Port Limerick, Port Kilrush, and Port Kenmall. By the time the British landing force quickly captured Cork Harbour and had a powerful deterrent effect on the Irish independence forces, these ports remained in the hands of the British garrison, and became a key base for the British government to send reinforcements from the British Isles and launch counterattacks.

After the troop carrier docked, a group of British soldiers in khaki uniforms and flat-brimmed hats disembarked from the ship, assembled in a formation at the command of the officers, walked through the port area with a steady pace, boarded the military column at the Limerick railway station, and drove towards the area controlled by the Irish independence forces.

On the train platform, the white-haired Duke Hill was dressed in a majestic royal admiral uniform, carrying a sword at his waist, and was heroic. After the Battle of Jutland, his application to return to the Navy was not approved, and he failed to realize his long-cherished wish to defeat the German fleet with his own hands. He was rewarded for his calm and wise decision-making, which saved hundreds of British officers and soldiers and kept the situation in the southwest of Ireland from spiraling out of control, by King George V as British Lieutenant Governor in Ireland and Commander of Task Force 2. Now, with the British Marines storming Cork Harbour, the seat of the Provisional Government of Free Ireland, the Irish armed independence was halted, and as soon as the first army reinforcements from the British Isles arrived, the Duke of Hill led his troops to reunite with the Irish Independence Forces, which occupied Limerick, Carey, and Cork.

The locomotive snorted steam, and Duke Hill's gaze swept over the ladies who had come to see him off, his wife, the Duchess of Hill, and the wife and daughter of his eldest son, Robert Hill, and his second son, Notting Hill. Some time ago, the news of the death of General Robert Hill came from Germany, and the heavy depression that had been condensed in the hearts of Mrs. and Miss Hill had subsided considerably, but the two ladies of outstanding appearance still looked haggard and full of uneasiness. The men who served in the army were facing death from time to time, and now even the elderly Duke Hill had to go into battle, and the anxious emotions permeated the Hill family, lest this farewell be a farewell, thinking of this, the ladies couldn't help but cry one by one.

Duke Hill almost opened his mouth, but he couldn't say anything about the comforting words, and just left a "God willing" in a daze before boarding the car.

At the same time, the main dreadnought group of the German High Seas Fleet, led by the "King", was sailing in the remote waters southeast of Iceland. Although the German Navy's landing fleet had sailed hundreds of nautical miles away to Irish waters, the final decision on the landing site was still in the hands of the High Seas Fleet command team for tactical reasons.

According to the original battle plan, the German troops had four alternative landing sites, namely Ballybaning and Waterville in County Murray in southwestern Ireland, and Cork and Skar in County Cork in southern Ireland.

In terms of port facilities, the port of Cork had an advantage over the other three landing options, and the German fleet could sail directly into the port and quickly transport troops and equipment ashore, but its disadvantages were also obvious. First of all, the geographical location, Cork Harbour faces the west coast of the British Island, only 110 nautical miles from Milford Harbour in Wales and Bodming Harbour in England, and the German landing fleet is vulnerable to British ships in the waters near Cork, and once it enters Cork Bay, it may also be blocked by the British Navy. The second is the position of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, because they do not want the German army to play too important a role in the process of Irish armed independence, at first they even felt that the Germans did not need to send troops to the war, until finally reluctantly accepted the German government's kindness, and before the occupation of Dublin, Cork Harbour will be the seat of the Provisional Government of Free Ireland, and the presence of a large number of German troops in Cork Harbour is politically easy to provoke reverie, so it is listed as the end of the four options.

Located at the mouth of the River Shannon, Ballybanin is undoubtedly the most accessible landing site, adjacent to the busiest shipping route in the southwest of Ireland, and more than 60 kilometers up the river is the port of Limerick, Ireland's military town and railway hub, but the British garrison is also relatively strong. In the German Navy's expectations, the possibility of the Irish Volunteers taking control of the area was very slim, and they were therefore in a position behind the four options.

Next up are Waterville in the southeast of Ireland and Skar in the south, two beautiful and calm little places. The distance from Waterville to Traeley, the capital of County Carey, is only 100 kilometres, and there is no railway between the two places, the roads are in poor condition, and it is remote, but it is close to the largest secret camp of the Irish Volunteers, from which a considerable part of the pre-war German arms were transported into Ireland. Located about 120 kilometres from Cork Harbour, Skar was also one of the clandestine transshipment points for German arms into Ireland, and there was also a secret training camp for the Irish Volunteers nearby. In contrast, Skar's strategic location was more suitable than Waterville's, as long as the German landing ships were moving in and out quickly, and the open coast was not easily blockaded by the British navy.

The situation of the war was rapidly changing, and with the strong landing of a large number of British Marines in Cork Bay and the rapid capture of Cork, Scar's status as the "best landing site" was greatly affected. At this time, although a number of German submarines were assembled in the waters near Cork Bay, the combat characteristics of the submarines could not effectively prevent the British fleet from sailing from Cork Bay to Skar, which was dozens of nautical miles away. Even if the German marines successfully landed at Skar, with only 4,000 troops, let alone recapture Port Cork from the British, it would be very problematic to hold on to the spot, and it would be destroyed by the British army in a long time.

As a result, Waterville went from being an obscure alternative to a regular one.

On the evening of November 4, 1914, the German landing fleet entered the southwest of Ireland, and except for two old battleships that could not enter the harbor due to the deep draft, and had to be transferred by small boats, the remaining 12 protective cruisers that served as troop carriers sailed into the port of Waterville, which had been controlled by the Irish Volunteers.

This is the first time that a Germanic army has set foot on Irish soil!

Due to the limited port throughput and the lack of tacit coordination between the two sides, the 4,000 German marines did not fully disembark until the early morning of the next day, but fortunately, most of the war materials they needed had arrived in Ireland ahead of schedule and were stored in the secret camps of the Irish Volunteers, otherwise it would have been difficult to unload thousands of tons of supplies from the port facilities in Waterville without two or three days.

After unloading the war materiel and some of the supplies, the German landing fleet quickly sailed out of Waterville Harbor, and by the time the British Admiralty and Wartime Cabinet received the astonishing news, the vulnerable German troop carriers had disappeared from view.

The news of the German landing in Ireland was like a boulder thrown into the water, which instantly stirred up layers of waves, especially shocking the British people. From the map of Europe, the British island faces the North Sea, holds the strait, and is the front line against the German navy, and the island of Ireland is west of the British island, facing the North Atlantic, which is equivalent to the backyard of the British Empire. As long as a military port was obtained in Ireland, the naval blockade of Britain would be exponentially more efficient, and Britain would not only have a bleak prospect of war, but would also be subject to German restraint after the war was over. As far as Britain's strategic situation is concerned, Ireland's independence with the direct military support of Germany is worse than Ireland's own independence, and it will be the worst natural and man-made disaster that Britain has ever encountered in thousands of years!

The British warships deployed in the waters south of Ireland swam one after another to Waterville like sharks stimulated by the smell of blood, but the Germans had simply laid a mine array in the channel outside the harbor, and the British submarine "Landelo," which was the first to arrive in the waters off Waterville, unfortunately hit a mine, and all the officers and men of the ship did not survive. Immediately afterwards, the British armed minelayer "Aberdel" encountered the German High Seas Fleet reconnaissance detachment in the waters south of Waterville, and before being sunk by the German battle cruisers, the "Aberdel" sent a telegram that was remembered and praised by the British Navy: "We see four German war cruisers in front of our ship, please be sure to sink them in the Atlantic waters, and Britain will win!"

After receiving this telegram, the main British fleet stationed in Portland Harbor was finally dispatched, and one after another the mighty warships sailed into the English Channel, but they did not go straight to the Irish Sea, as one had speculated, but sailed east into the North Sea. After all, chasing the Battlecruiser with a dreadnought will only be played by the opponent, and separating the Battlecruiser from the Dreadnought may be the best way for the opponent to seize the opportunity to break each other, and concentrate on intercepting its way back or in desperation.

(End of chapter)