Seán Russell (13 October 1893 – 14 August 1940) was an Irish republican who participated in the Easter Rising of 1916, held senior positions in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War, and was Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1938 to April 1939 upon the onset of World War II. It was under Russell's leadership that the IRA began the Sabotage Campaign, in which the group began bombing civil, economic and military infrastructure in the United Kingdom, primarily England, between 1939 and 1940. In the same period, Russell actively collaborated with Nazi Germany; In early 1940 he travelled to Germany, where he personally met with German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and spent 3 months training in the use of explosives. In August 1940 Russell was to return to Ireland as part of a joint IRA/German plan entitled Operation Dove, however, Russell died aboard a Kriegsmarine U-boat transporting him home following a sudden stomach illness and he was subsequently buried at sea. Early life Born John Angelo Russell at 41 Lower Buckingham Street, Dublin, in 1893, he was one of the ten children of James Russell, a clerk, and Mary L'Estrange, both of whom were originally from County Westmeath. Irish revolutionary period Russell joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913. He participated in the 1916 Easter Rising as an officer in Dublin Brigade's 2nd Battalion, under Thomas MacDonagh. Following the Rising he was interned in Frongoch and Knutsford. After the Irish War of Independence began, he was attached to the IRA General Headquarters Staff (GHQ) and became IRA Director of Munitions in 1920. During the Irish Civil War, he fought against the Anglo-Irish Treaty with the Anti-Treaty IRA. Russell was interned along with Ernie O'Malley (the assistant chief of staff of the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War) in the Curragh Camp and was released on 17 July 1924, well over a year after the end of hostilities. In 1925, after the civil war, he was jailed in Mountjoy Prison but escaped on 25 November in a breakout he helped organise. Post-Civil War activism Russell was one of those within the much-reduced IRA pushing for more revolutionary activities in 1925. That year, he and Gerald Boland travelled to the Soviet Union on an IRA weapons-buying mission. On his return from Moscow, Russell reported back to Seán Lemass. He was appointed IRA