The Road to Enniskean (Marc Bergeron action adventures Book 2) by Rea Tony

Author:Rea, Tony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

The Flying Columns

Moti Levitz was a stickler for detail, and one evening he quizzed me something rotten about the organization of the IRA. It was soon after he arrived on my doorstep. We were in Macroom, in the Gearagh Bar and Danny O’Hare had served pints of porter.

“The IRA is an army, like any other,” I said.

“Not all armies are the same.”

“Well, we’re normal. Like the English. We organise in the style of a traditional army.”

“You mean brigades, battalions, companies?”

“Aye, and sections. No platoons as such. The sections can be any size, mostly they’re small.”

“And these are arranged by geographical areas, I expect.”

“That’s right, all except the sections. So we’re 3rd (West) Cork Brigade. It’s made up of seven battalions. Tommy Deans is Officer Commanding. Each company is divided into sections.”

“And it works well?” he asked.

“If I’m honest. No. Not really. Some sections are too small, we don’t have enough weapons or ammunition. Some guns are really poor quality, old farm guns and the like.”

“The volunteers?” asked Levitz.

“Sure, they’re keen enough, but the boys lack battle experience, as you’d expect. Training has been a problem, but Tom Barry has taken that by the scruff of its neck.”

“Of course, but like we Bolsheviks, they make up for that with their fervor!”

“But for me, the main problem is the old-fashioned system. It might look good on paper, but it’s cumbersome. It’s so difficult to mobilise and deploy the boys quickly,” I said.

As I sat there drinking and chatting to Levitz in the Gearagh, little did I know that everything about that outdated system was about to change.

“Each Brigade is to form a single flying column,” said Tom Barry.

“Liam Deasey has asked me to take command of the West Cork Column.”

Tom had come over to Dunmanway to brief Tommy Deans, me and some other boys about the new flying columns.

“The column needs to be big enough to do damage, but small enough to disappear into the mist. We’ll move the weapons around the county, using them in the north one day, over in the south or west another. That way the English will feel we’re more powerfully supplied than we are. Our purpose will be to continuously harass, kill, capture and destroy the enemy forces.”

Later, Tom told me and Tommy Deans that the main objective of these new IRA flying columns wasn’t to fight, but to continue to exist. That way our inferior numbers of men could tie down enormous numbers of the enemy. I doubt any of us realised at the time, but Tom Barry was outlining almost perfect guerilla tactics. For me, however, he had a big surprise up his sleeve.

“I’m in command of the column, so I can’t take charge of the training as well. So I want you, Doncha, to take charge of training the boys.”

Now this was a bloody shock. I had little experience of training men, but the Boss had. Nobody other than Tom Barry himself could command the trust of a body of men better than the Boss.

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