Failure

In fact, not only the Britain, but also the Ireland, never expected that the heavens would be on their side these past two days, and the attack seemed to be going quite smoothly. So at least those guys in the Irish Second Division couldn't help but have the idea of turning the charade into a real attack, thinking, "Why don't we just take Athlone for real?" Even the Irish Second Division O'Hara, had this thought, which can be described as Jerry not revolving—having the same idea as Tom.

But while he harbored the desire to attack Tom, actually doing Tom wouldn't be so easy. For one thing, the higher-ups hadn't provided them with much ammunition. In particular, the shells for the crucial "Gustav Recoilless Rifle" had already been used up by a third overnight. Therefore, if he really wanted to attack Tom, he first needed to get the Military Commission to allocate more shells to him.

"That won't do. The Military Council has already made a decision. This is a strategic decision, how can it be changed arbitrarily? Besides, we made good progress before because the weather was particularly suitable, but look, there's no fog today, so the Britain counterattack was easily repelled by you... Hmm, speaking of which, we've really been lucky, but we can't rely on luck in war, don't you think?" Thus, Division Commander O'Hara's suggestion was rejected by Chairman Russell.

However, Commander O'Hara still had to dump some shells, because in order to complete the feint attack and force the Britain to send troops to relieve Athlone before reinforcements had fully arrived, they did need to put more pressure on the Britain in Athlone.

The weather was no longer on the Ireland side; the fog disappeared. However, the Ireland, with their new weapons and high morale, still made progress that surprised the Britain.

However, the Britain still did not immediately send troops from Dublin and Galway to relieve Athlone. It seemed that the Britain believed they could continue to hold out. Therefore, in order to increase the pressure on the Britain, even Chairman Russell had to allocate resources to O'Hara.

However, the Britain adapted to the Ireland offensive quite quickly. They soon adapted to the Ireland recoilless rifles, which, while extremely powerful, had limited range. Although the France claimed a direct-fire range of 400 meters, to ensure accuracy, gunners often had to risk closing to around 200 meters before firing. And to conserve precious ammunition, gunners would often risk closing to around 100 meters before firing. At such distances, the Britain volleys of gunfire posed a considerable threat to the gunners.

The Britain specifically concentrated a group of skilled marksmen to specifically target the Ireland recoilless riflemen. This resulted in the Ireland gunners being consumed even faster than the shells. The lack of fog also made mine clearance more difficult. Although the France provided the Ireland with rocket-propelled mine clearance tools, they too were constrained by financial limitations, possessing very few of these (these tools were much more expensive than mine detectors). Using mine detectors was slow, and even at night, the presence of Britain searchlights made mine clearance on Britain front lines extremely difficult.

This made the subsequent offensive even more difficult, while the Britain, unhurriedly, awaited reinforcements from home. Based on intelligence reports from the Federation in Dublin regarding the daily arrival of Britain ships, it was deduced that Britain reinforcements from the mainland were steadily arriving, likely exceeding 20,000 men, with new troops continuously being sent to Dublin. It was estimated that in a few days, the total number of newly arrived British Army would rise to 50,000, and combined with the existing forces, the reinforcements that could be dispatched from Dublin alone could reach 70,000 to 80,000. Such a force was beyond the capacity of the Irish Independence Army's blocking forces to withstand. The fact that the Britain had not transported reinforcements to Galway indicated that Britain had no intention of sending troops from Galway to relieve Athlone. Therefore, the plan to block the reinforcements from Dublin in the east and seize the opportunity to eliminate the Galway reinforcements in the west was no longer feasible.

Given this, the Ireland changed their plans and added the Irish First Division to the siege of Athlone. However, this did not have a decisive effect, as the Athlone fortress was too small to accommodate so many attacking troops. As a result, the attacks in the following days made limited progress, but casualties increased.

The Duke of Norfolk's requested 50,000 reinforcements had mostly arrived. He even had time to let them rest before sending an army of 70,000 to relieve Athlone.

Although the Duke of Norfolk showed no urgency in sending out his troops, he kept urging them to speed up their advance once the reinforcements set out. He knew that once the reinforcements were deployed, the rebels would soon get wind of it, and if he didn't act quickly enough, they would all escape. If they couldn't capture them at the gates of Athlone, the ensuing war would become another quagmire.

However, after setting off, the British Army's movements were not as swift as the Duke of Norfolk had hoped, as the trains carrying the troops were ambushed shortly after they departed.

The ambush did not inflict significant damage on the British Army easily repelled the rebels. The real trouble came from the rebels' sabotage of the railway. Although the Britain were somewhat prepared for the damage and carried repair supplies on their trains, it still slowed them down. Even so, the Ireland had to act immediately.

Upon receiving news of the Britain reinforcements' advance, the Irish First Division was dispatched to hold them off, ensuring the safe retreat of other units, especially county brigades and district squads. Prior to this, the Irish First Division had established a relatively well-stocked defensive line between Dublin and Athlone, utilizing and modifying a series of small Britain outposts they had captured. Now, the Irish First Division relied on this line to resist the Britain reinforcements.

This defensive line was built rather hastily, and the British Army reinforcements were plentiful and their heavy firepower far exceeded that of the Ireland. However, in order to cover the retreat of other troops, the Irish First Division had no choice but to hold out against the British Army here. Although the Ireland Irish First Division was well-trained and had high morale, they only managed to hold off the British Army for two days after suffering heavy casualties. The defensive line was then breached by the British Army.

By this time, most of the Ireland troops involved in the battle had completed their retreat, but the Irish First Division's blocking force was finding it extremely difficult to retreat, as the Britain relentlessly pursued them. Finally, when the Irish First Division used its familiarity with the terrain to shake off its pursuers, its blocking force had been reduced to almost half its Irish First Division strength.