At the beginning of May 1915, Ireland had a warm climate, a spring mood, and the fields were full of life, but Dublin, the former bustling and noisy capital of Ireland, was full of ruins, smoke, and the soldiers of the British Commonwealth Army in khaki uniforms were hiding in the criss-crossing bunkers like gophers, they were discouraged and dejected, completely missing the excitement and heroism of the Irish independence forces that had been severely damaged here more than a month ago, so that many people feel overwhelmed. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The recently concluded Battle of Cork became an important turning point in the Irish War of Independence, as the British Commonwealth army switched from offensive to defensive, and then besieged by more than 100,000 Irish independence forces and more than 30,000 "German volunteers". With the help of reinforcements, the Commonwealth army was saved from annihilation, but it had suffered its heaviest defeat in Ireland - the British home army suffered 30,000 casualties, and the Canadian and Australian New Corps combined suffered nearly 20,000 casualties, plus France reneged on the alliance and made peace with Germany alone, the Russian army was stagnant on the Eastern Front, the idea of an armistice was clearly revealed, the morale of the Commonwealth army was dealt an unprecedented heavy blow, and the remnants of the defeated army were constantly harassed by the local Irish forces on the way back to Dublin. Far more embarrassing than the loss of the North American colonies in the 18th century.

After gathering troops, the Commonwealth army still has 100,000 men in Dublin, many of whom are elite troops capable of fighting well, but the situation today is very different from that of a little more than a month ago. The German naval fleet, based in the port of Brest, had broken through the St. George's Strait into the Irish Sea, and the sea link between Dublin and the British Isles had been curtailed, and the Dublin defenders would soon be starved of supplies if they continued by means of fast ships.

On the other hand, after the signing of the armistice treaty between Germany and France, the million-strong German army on the Western Front became a strategic force ready to be deployed at any time, and ships sailing from the ports of northwestern France to the south of Ireland could arrive in a dozen hours or a day at a time. The British Navy did everything it could to send submarines and surface assault ships, but it was still unable to stop the German troops and equipment from arriving in large quantities to Ireland. In several strongholds on the outskirts of Dublin, British soldiers found themselves pitting not only German Marines in shear-ear helmets and Irish soldiers in cloth hats, but also wolf-like German troops with pointed helmets, armoured combat vehicles and heavy artillery that swept across the Western Front were increasingly appearing on the Irish battlefield, and German planes in gray livery were dominating the Irish skies like locusts.

The tide is over, and the idiom could not be more appropriate to describe the present situation of the Commonwealth army in Ireland.

The day before the German government announced that it would accept the British government's demand for a ceasefire on all fronts, the German-Irish forces launched a large-scale artillery bombardment of the Dublin Line of the British Commonwealth army, and the Marine Corps alone invested more than 600 artillery pieces, and a considerable part of them were heavy howitzers of 150 mm caliber, usually assigned to German troops at and above the division level.

On 9 May, the German and British governments declared a three-day ceasefire on all fronts, and military and diplomatic representatives of both sides negotiated an armistice on a ferry at the mouth of the Thames. The first round of negotiations did not yield any results because of the disagreement over the terms of peace. The British side offered to extend the cease-fire period, and the German side agreed to extend the period by three days, but reiterated that the British army must not use the cease-fire period to deploy and prepare for the resumption of the war.

The day after the ceasefire was extended, German warships intercepted a suspiciously identified American cargo ship in the waters north of Ireland and confronted the British warships that had come to meet them. Hearing this, the German negotiators put pressure on the British side, and the British side in turn accused the German army of still secretly transporting combat troops to Ireland, and then proposed to let the American cargo ship turn around and return to the United States.

A few hours later, the American-flagged cargo ship sank at sea, but the matter was not understood, and the British and German ships engaged in the confrontation scrambled to "rescue" the abandoned ship, and the result was a collision. The German side was a large torpedo boat of 900 tons, and the British Navy sent an old protective cruiser of 2,000 tons. Due to the large damage to the hull, the German crew failed to manage the damage and was forced to abandon the ship, and before evacuating, they sent a telegram that bleaked the prospects for Anglo-German peace talks: The British ship rammed and sank our boat, killing nine crew members including Chief Engineer William Menzette, and the rest of the crew were in danger.

By the time the other two German ships arrived, the number of German crew losses had increased to 17, and the news reached Germany, which immediately aroused strong indignation from all walks of life, and the telegram demanding that the German government suspend the negotiations and sweep away Britain flew like snowflakes to the table of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Moltke Jr., chief of the General Staff. Later that day, the German government announced the unilateral suspension of the Anglo-German peace talks, and the two countries would resume a state of war after midnight the next day.

In the face of the arrogant and hard-line attitude of the German high-level, the British did not grovel to make a final effort to save the peace talks, but pinned their hopes on military countermeasures to suppress the arrogance of the German army. As a result, the British submarines deployed around the mainland showed their sharp fangs, and they lurked near the ports of France and Ireland, where German ships frequently frequented, and launched attacks day and night, and in just two days after the resumption of the war between the two sides, the British submarine force achieved the record of sinking 10 ships and damaging 4, pouring cold water on the triumphant German navy; The dead but not stiff British surface fleet was reactivated, except for the fast raiders operating in the North Atlantic, the old battleships that had been retained due to their slow speed and poor performance passed through the English Channel at night, and carried out numerous artillery bombardments on the German troops stationed on the northern coast of France, killing and wounding hundreds of German officers and men; In view of the fact that the unfavorable situation of the British Commonwealth army in Ireland was difficult to reverse, the British high-level secretaries ordered the army to implement a scorched earth policy, and forcibly requisitioned a large number of civilian ships, trying to take advantage of the opportunity of the German capital ships leaving the Irish Sea to deal with the English Channel to deal with the old British battleships, establishing a maritime lifeline between Dublin and Wales, and withdrawing the Commonwealth troops trapped in Dublin as quickly as possible - but the Germans' submarines and mines hit the nail in the nail on the British plan, and they expected to evacuate 20,000 to 30,000 people a day, In fact, there were less than 5,000 people. In fact, the greatest effect of this plan of retreat was to make the officers and men of the Commonwealth army lose the idea of fighting the enemy in Dublin, and most of them were anxiously waiting to board the ship, and the will to fight was greatly weakened, and it was at this time that the Irish and their German allies launched a thunderous offensive against Dublin.

At two o'clock in the morning, artillery deployed on the periphery of Dublin began to bombard the defensive positions of the Commonwealth troops. The light from the explosion of artillery shells, flares in the air, and the blazing flames reflected the sky over the battlefield, creating a spectacular and terrifying picture. The heavy shelling lasted for three hours, and even the air was scorched by the continuous explosions, and most of the defensive positions exposed in the fields were blown to pieces, and with the beginning of the ground offensive, the Allied artillery fire gradually extended to the depth of the British defense, making it difficult for the British reserves to enter the combat positions in time, and the German armored fighting vehicles flattened the barbed wire in front of the positions like pressed paper, opening up passages for the infantry to attack, such a speed of advance was unprecedented on the battlefield in Ireland.

Until then, the British Commonwealth forces deployed to Ireland had never been subjected to a cluster of armoured fighting vehicles, and although they had planted mines along the road and placed a number of machine guns and flat-firing artillery at the main firing points, this was not enough to withstand the flood of coalition troops, and one defender stronghold after another, hidden in trenches, front-line forts, or the ruins of buildings, was bombarded by tank shelling and even crushed by steel tracks. In the face of such a strong attack, the Commonwealth forces were unable to repeat the outstanding performance of the previous battle, and they quickly abandoned their outer lines and retreated into the city.

At 6:30 a.m., the 1st Army Corps of the Irish Volunteers and the German Volunteer Corps, which had been engaged in the main attack, had basically achieved the objectives of the first phase of the operation, and at this time the visibility on the battlefield was suitable for aircraft sorties, and hundreds of gray painted fighters with iron cross insignia flew to Dublin in multiple waves, and German pilots who had gained rich combat experience on the Western Front carried out bombing and strafing with ease. Under the repeated onslaught of the aviation units, the British army's outer defense line completely collapsed, almost all the troops were desperately retreating to the city, and a large number of machine guns and field guns did not have time to move, so they were left in positions and destroyed or captured by the coalition forces.

As the Allied forces entered the British defensive area, the artillery barrage fire stopped, as did the cover barrage fire, allowing those units that were about to charge again to enter their positions and launch an attack in an hour and a half. The victors were ecstatic, for in such an offensive operation had never the number of casualties been so low, the number of prisoners captured and the guns captured had never been so great, thanks to the brilliant combination of chariots, infantry, artillery, and aviation. The German tanks, which had not participated in the first phase, were parked next to the attacking brigades, ready to advance to the third as soon as they reached the second objective.

(End of chapter)