Chapter 552: Crossbari Ambush

As of now, the changes in the world situation have been very obvious.

At present, the views of Soviet Russia on this war are divided into two factions. One faction believes that the struggle should be carried out firmly and the unification of the whole of Russia should be pursued.

The other faction believes that a short-term peace should be pursued. Soviet Russia itself was established relatively recently, and its industry is in a mess, and its economy is even more miserable.

The slightly better agriculture has also suffered a major blow. At present, the domestic food gap is quite serious, and it is urgently needed to recuperate for a period of time, first of all to ensure agricultural production.

This faction believes that no matter what the price, if they can gain 5 to 10 years of development time, the situation they face will be completely different.

In addition to the situation in Russia, the Anglo-Irish War in the British Empire is also very tense.

Strangely enough, the current rebel forces in Ireland are completely insignificant compared to the strength of the British Empire, but the British government is unwilling to deploy more British regular troops in Ireland.

In addition to the two regular divisions sent at the beginning of the conflict, Britain only formed a military police organization to assist these two regular divisions, and there was no other action.

This also turned the British civil war into a spy operation between the two sides. Today, the Irish Republican Army killed 18 British agents in Dublin, and tomorrow the British military police organization went to the square where the crowds gathered to attack the crowd.

Such retaliatory actions back and forth caused the casualties of both sides to rise rapidly in a short period of time, and even hundreds of innocent people had been shot.

However, the targets of the Irish Republican Army were mostly British officials and military figures, which also directly transferred the hatred of the Irish people to the British army.

Even though the British martial law executed dozens of Irish Republican Army soldiers, it still could not prevent the frequent conflicts between the two sides and the rising death toll.

In the first two months of 1921, the casualties on the British side were 432 and 435 respectively; the casualties on the Irish side were 577 and 622 (including civilians).

As time arrived in March, the situation in Britain and Ireland was like fire and water.

As one of the leaders of the Irish Republican Army, Tom Barry decided to take his less than 100 men to do something big.

Tom Barry's so-called big thing was actually to ambush a small British army squad.

Of course, the size of this squad was not small, with a total number of about a regiment, more than 1,200 British soldiers.

Well, it was Tom Barry's sudden idea to besiege 1,200 British soldiers with less than 100 people, and he really took action for it.

On March 11, 1921, under the command of Tom Barry, the Irish Republican Army launched a large siege on the British regiment.

Although the early siege and raid were very smooth, the disadvantages in numbers and equipment soon caused Tom Barry's army to be defeated in an instant.

Fortunately, not all the Republicans were fools, and they knew the importance of avoiding being surrounded by the British army as much as possible.

As long as they were not surrounded by the British army, they would still have a chance to escape even if they suffered heavy casualties.

But if they were completely surrounded by the British army, according to the current severe situation of the Irish and British people, the fate of these IRA soldiers would only be execution.

The result is also obvious. This Irish army of about 100 people named West Cork Republican Army, while suffering nearly 50 casualties, also caused more than 20 deaths to the British army on the opposite side. The record is quite good.

In the case of backward numbers and equipment, it is quite difficult to create such a large number of casualties to the British army.

This attack seemed to open Pandora's box. The IRA set its targets on the British army and launched multiple attacks on the British army in a short period of time.

First, on March 13, two days later, the IRA in County Kerry attacked a train at the Hydeford Crossing, directly derailing the train, causing the deaths of more than 20 British soldiers and injuries to hundreds of British soldiers.

Because of the surprise attack, the Irish Republican Army suffered less than ten casualties, plus the casualties of some civilians, which was the most beautiful victory in the Irish War of Independence so far.

Still in March, in the town of Mill Street, the Irish Republican Army launched another attack on the British army, causing dozens of casualties to the British army.

Although most of these attacks were relatively small in scale, the casualties that could be caused were only dozens of people.

But the Irish army was very fond of such attacks. Frequent attacks made the British army unable to defend themselves, and the hatred for the Irish Republican Army rose to an extreme.

Of course, there will be successes and failures in surprise attacks.

In the two attacks in Upton and Cologne Marte, the Irish Republican Army did not cause casualties to the British army. Instead, it was caught off guard by the British army that was prepared in advance, causing dozens of casualties.

In February and March 1921, the Irish Republican Army launched 16 and 51 attacks on the British army respectively, a sudden surge in number.

The biggest action took place in Dublin, the largest city in Ireland. Hundreds of Republican Army soldiers directly occupied the center of Dublin and burned down the Customs House.

The Customs House is the administrative center of the Irish local government and also symbolizes the British rule in Ireland.

The reason why the Irish Republican Army burned down the Customs House was to convey the symbol that the British rule in Ireland was already vulnerable.

The attacks in Ireland gave the British government a headache. The guerrilla behavior of the Irish Republican Army also made the British government mistakenly estimate it as a force that could not be defeated militarily.

In addition, the Irish Republican Army was no longer satisfied with the struggle in Ireland and burned the war to the ports of Britain, which also gave the British government a headache.

However, the Irish Republican Army was not a cohesive force. Although the Republic of Ireland was nominally established, the Irish Republican Army was still under the management of various small leaders, and the power of the nominal Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense of Ireland was too restricted.

There is also an advantage to doing this, that is, the whole of Ireland is not as united as imagined.

Unlike the southern Ireland region, which seeks independence, parts of Northern Ireland want autonomy rather than independence.

This also caused ideological conflicts between the Republican Army in the North and the Republican Army in the South. The Irish Republican government asked the Republican Army in the North to launch a raid on the British army and maintain a consistent position with the Republican Army in the South.

However, the Irish Republican Army in the North has not had any armed conflicts with the British government since the outbreak of the conflict.

This gave the British government hope of dividing the Irish forces. The British government promoted the Irish Republican Army as an anti-Protestant force, encouraging the royalists among Irish Protestants to support Britain and draw a clear line with the anti-Protestant Irish Republican Army.

Under the promotion of the British government, the British media would involuntarily mention the religious beliefs of the British soldiers killed by the Irish Republican Army.

Of course, the religious beliefs of these soldiers who were killed were all Protestant, and most of the surviving soldiers were Catholics.

The British wanted to use this method to awaken the dissatisfaction of Irish Protestants with Catholics and to win the sympathy of these Protestants for the Irish Republican Army's brutal tactics against the British army.

What is somewhat surprising is that the British government has given up the option of escalating the conflict in Ireland, and the British government has never vigorously demanded war since the conflict broke out.

Winston Churchill, the future Prime Minister of the British Empire and now a member of the British Cabinet, directly stated in the face of such a situation: "What is the other option? In the past, a small corner of the empire was suppressed with an iron fist, and corpses were everywhere. Only when the country needs to protect itself can we forgive the consequences of this strategy. But now, no rational person can assert that this is a question of self-protection."

There is also bad news for the British Empire, that is, the atrocities of the British Empire were exposed by the Irish Republican Army, and even secretly printed and distributed to a large number of media newspapers at home and abroad and politicians in many powerful countries.

This also made some countries begin to favor the Irish Republican Army and believe that Britain's rule in Ireland is inhumane.

Even Pope Benedict XV encouraged both Britain and Ireland in a recent letter to think calmly and end the current dispute in the form of an agreement.

Benedict XV's speech made the British a little angry, because the British government had previously asked the Pope to make a statement condemning the Irish rebellion to influence the Catholics in the Irish Republican Army.

But unexpectedly, Pope Benedict XV publicly chose to support Ireland and encouraged the rebellious Ireland to communicate fairly with the British government, which made the British side angrily declare: "The Pope is putting His Majesty's government and the Irish murderer gang on an equal footing."

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