Men and women from the Irish Free State who fought in World War Two have not been given the respect they deserve, a historian has said. A new study by the University of Edinburgh has found more than 3,600 soldiers from the south of Ireland died on active service during WWII. BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | Roll of honour for Irish WWII dead
Hi Ike, thanks for this list. I always wondered about Irish casualty numbers for WWII as well as how many actually served during the war. Thanks for the info-link.
I think the figure of 3,600 is far short of the actual figure.Even today,when the political climate has improved, people here in southern Ireland still keep their time in the armed services during WW2 a secret. So a lot of families do not say or know how their relitives died. Also I wonder if this figure just includes Irish people from the Republic and not Irish that had settled in the UK and then joined the armed services. Ask any British vet and they will tell you they seved with at least one Irish man,regrdless of the regiment. Also there was a very small number of Irish and German-Irish that served with the German armed forces.
Your quite correct in what you say. However, I am glad to have something to go on if I ever find time to do any research?
