An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir April 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie 30 | By JoSEPh EA ConnEll JnR T he origins of Irish guerrilla tactics used during the War of Independence (1919-1921) are difficult to determine. Many writers claimed that the type of guerrilla campaign initiated by the IRA was without precedent, and some officers insisted that their methods were unique and home grown. however, as do all successful insurgents, the Irish volunteers/IRA studied the tactics of previous guerrilla wars and adapted the most favourable of them to the Irish terrain and circumstances, and this conflict demonstrated how insurgents can, and must, modify to be successful. The War of Independence (WoI) contributed four concepts adopted in later insurgencies: the insurgents could hold their own only in a guerrilla war; the insurrection itself brought about the conditions required for revolution (Che Guevarra used this later); the countryside was the basic area for armed fighting, but guerril- la principles worked well in Dublin, and this was probably the first urban war to succeed; the Irish made extensive use of roadside explosives, now called improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Irish WoI also saw the first significant counter-insurgency use of mechanised vehicles and the guerrillas had to develop tactics, techniques and procedures to disrupt and disable British counter-insurgency forces. Two things are needed for any guerrilla war, arms and money' and Michael Collins took the lead in providing both. When the war started in 1919, Britain became a vital source of arms for the IRA as Collins did business with gunsmiths in London, and members of the IRA sourced weapons and explosives from collieries in Scot- land and criminal gangs in the Midlands – in effect, anyone who would take their money. Liverpool Volunteer Paddy Daly recalled: "We found the Englishman always willing to do business." Ambush was widely used, with the primary purpose of acquir- ing weapons. (Guevarra later stated the principle that 'All attacks should recover at least the amount of ammunition as that ex- pended'. British standing orders required that all lorries on patrol carried a box of 1,000 rounds of .303 ammunition to supplement the troops (.303 ammunition was the most prevalent ammunition size used by weapons on both sides), so taking a lorry's spare am- munition was a prime motive for ambushes. The British started out using high driving speeds to avoid an ambush. In response, the Irish would dig a shallow trench in the roads to disable the British vehicles. Guerrilla wars constantly evolve, and the Irish found that their simple answer was soon unsuccessful as the British began using armour, so by autumn 1920, Irish ambush tactics began to change. To counter the use of armour, the IRA began to rely more on explosives. (The Irish were not the first to use explosives in ambushes. The first recorded roadside assassination attempt by explosives was made on Napoleon in 1803, while Irish revolutionaries had used explosive devices from the mid-19th century, but mostly in at- tacks on barracks and other buildings.) Where the Volunteers/ IRA were really innovative was in manufacturing their IEDs from raw materials: explosives, casings, springs, and all the other necessary bomb components. IRA IEDs came mainly from three sources: stolen from civilian companies, particularly Scottish quarries and mines; stolen from the military; manufactured in Irish home-based munitions factories. At the beginning of the war the most common explosive used was gelignite stolen from quarries, along with detonators customarily used in collieries. However, gelignite was susceptible to freezing and could not be left in the ground for long periods in cold weather. Also, as a commercial explosive it was simply not powerful enough unless used in very large quantities. As the supply of gelignite was insufficient and became more difficult to obtain, the Irish turned to chemists and others with military experience to develop home-made explosives. IEDs in the War of Independence British Whippet medium tanks patrolling Co Clare during the War of Independence 1919. General Michael Collins. An improvised armoured personnel carrier of the British Army during the revolutionary period.

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