Ireland

Ireland remained neutral during WW2. Despite the official position of neutrality, there were many unpublicised contraventions of this, such as permitting the use of the Donegal Corridor by Allied military aircraft, and extensive co-operation between Allied and Irish intelligence. Five thousand Irish soldiers who swapped uniforms to fight for the British against Hitler went on to suffer years of persecution. The world war in Ireland, was not referred to as a war but as 'The Emergency'. Ireland did not join the war because the Irish airspace had been violated repeatedly, and both Allied and German airmen were being interned at the Curragh. A possible cause was a navigational error or a mistaken target, as one of the pathfinders on the raid later recounted.