Irish War of Independence Formations

[flags_of_war]

Does anyone know where i would be able to find details on the formations of the RIC, Auxies and the IRA if possible during the Irish War of Independence?

[flags_of_war]

Typical after asking the question i find info. It might help others in the future.

http://www.theauxiliaries.com/strength/structure.html



On the main page it says each Company had 4 Lewis guns so i guess that would suggest that it was one per Platoon. This would probably have went down to 3 per company when the number of platoons changed.

Im still looking to see what organisation the IRA had.

[flags_of_war]

IRA might be in here but im not find anything on sizes at section level. Im trying to do a platoon list for Chain of Command and Bolt Action.

http://www.militaryarchives.ie/en/collections/online-collections/military-service-pensions-collection/search-the-collection/organisation-and-membership/ira-membership-series

[gamer Mac]

Another new project Iain?

[flags_of_war]

Ermmm....no...well not just now mate. I know I'm like a bloody butterfly.

I did start one sometime ago and painted a load of Auxies but i then sold them all...which I'm gutted about. I still have loads of the Footsore IRA figures that i want to get painted up.

Ill get back to it one day when I'm done with my FIW stuff. I can use the boards from that to get a game of IWI. When doing it last time there wasn't any army lists for me to use, so im trying to be more prepared. Painting a 2 platoons would be easy enough but i have a load of lead I'm going to sell before i start anything.

[Iain]

If you are just getting into this period, I would recommend Bitter Freedom by Maurice Walsh.  I have just read it and found it fascinating.   There is a critical but fair review here:

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/bitter-freedom-ireland-in-a-revolutionary-world-1918-23-by-maurice-walsh-1.2247476

Other book ideas for the period would be welcome - this has just whetted my appetite to learn more. 

[skirmisher]

Hi, I have wargamed this period and this is a rough, general overview of IRA organisation at a tactical-level. See the end of post for books I found useful.

The IRA were organised at county level into brigade, battalion and companies.  Their sizes varied based on local county population/geography and did not equate in size to regular army formations of the same name. In rural Ireland, the company often equated to a townland-area.

The columns that carried out the main ambushes/barrack attacks would generally be drawn from several companies, or from men on the run (due to threat of raids and arrest) who formed flying columns; officers could come from across the brigade. These columns were usually 20-30 strong, but larger forces were occasional mustered e.g. the Kilmallock Barracks attack or the Crossbarry action. 

A column would have access to the brigade’s store of captured rifles (though this could be paltry in number) and might be reinforced by local company men armed with shotguns. E.g. the Modreeny ambush, County Tipperary 1921, was carried out by a column of 15 riflemen reinforced with 8 shotgun men from a local company.

The big determinant for forces mobilised for a large-scale action (ambush or barracks attack) was the availability of weapons, rifles, shotguns, pistols,  with their varying levels of ammunition-supply and conditions of maintenance.

In an operation, IRA men would be deployed in sections of varying size based on manpower/role/weapons available. Generally rifle-armed men would be grouped together separately from the shotgun-armed men as they would have different tactical roles and engagement ranges. Rifle/shotgun sections could roughly be anything from 5 to 15.

Depending on the resources or sophistication of the ambushing force, individuals or small sections would perform the role of scouts/signallers, reserve force, flank-guard, command post or specialised weaponry (mine-operater, machine-gunners, bombers).

E.g. the Toureen Ambush, County Cork 1920, involved a force of 33 men;  a section of 9 riflemen plus a section with a mine-operator and 2 riflemen to engage the first lorry; and a section of 10 riflemen to engage the second lorry; 11 riflemen in 4 small detachments for flank security. Unarmed men acted as lookouts.

E.g. Clofin Ambush, County Longford 1921, involved an ambushing force of 21 riflemen (though I’ve seen references to 50) against 17 to 20 R.I.C Auxillaries in 2 tenders, with the IRA deployed in 3 sections of riflemen, one of which included a mine-operator.

Books
The below books give good low-level/tactical military details and historical scenarios (as opposed to the wider political/social/strategic military aspects):

Ambushes and Armour: The Irish Rebellion 1919-1921, W.H Kautt (2010). A highly recommended military analysis.
British Intelligence in Ireland 1920-21: The Final Reports, ed. Peter Hart (2002).
Raids and Rallies, Ernie O'Malley (1982, 2001).
Guerilla Days in Ireland Tom Barry (1949, 1989).
Our Struggle for Independence, ed. Terence O'Reilly (2009).

"Guerilla Warfare, Ireland 1920-1921", a post-war staff lecture given by Lieutenant General A. E. Percival,
Chapter 8 in British Voices From the Irish War of Independence, William Sheehan (2005)

"Appendix X - 5th Division Standing Orders for Armed Parties moving by Lorry, and for Lorry Convoy"
"Appendix XXIV - Notes on Guerilla Warfare in Ireland"
in Hearts & Mines: The British 5th Division, Ireland, 1920-21, William Sheehan (2009).

Hope this helps,

Warren

[Arlequín]

Excellent summary there, thanks for taking the time to share it. 

While specifically the IRA model, the same would hold true for any 'partisan' force pretty much anywhere, there are always the descriptives of 'section/squad', 'platoon', 'company/column', or their national equivalents, but they only hold true for administrative and organisational purposes and cannot be relied on as a hard and fast 'sections had ten men' rule.

Spanish Republican Partisans in Nationalist-held areas operated in the same fashion and indeed a unit's strength would vary greatly. For example; a village squad might have eight people in total, with maybe six of them available at any one single time (as usually daily life goes on as normal, even in wartime, or at least must appear to). Factor in extraordinary problems, like Miguel's Mom has an hospital appointment, Paco is in bed with the flu, Manuel's casa is being watched and Rosita is carrying a message across the lines... and your squad is now only two men strong.

Those men 'on the run' are pretty much 'regulars' in comparative terms, but will always be a minority amongst a larger number of 'part-timers' or 'casual guerrillas'. This has pretty much been the case across all insurgencies, until the point comes when the insurgents have the numbers to directly threaten large formal military units (Soviet and Yugoslavian partisans, Castro's rebel army in 1959 etc), but even then there is a limit to how much time some individuals can devote to the cause, as opposed to growing food for it and so on.   

[skirmisher]

Thanks for that Arlequín. Your points about the 'full-time' and 'part-time' partizans are spot on and fully applicable to IRA members in 1919-21.

So in my wargaming, for a campaign game, if the IRA flying-column unit spent resouces to get local company support for an ambush, I would roll 2D6 to see how many men were actually available; a low roll = affect of domestic/work commitments, or weapon shortages, or local rivalries, or fear of arrest & reprisals, etc. The varying quality of these part-time, untested volunteers would also be a factor in wargame morale.   

Flags_of_War, I forgot to say that the Irish military archives website you referenced above does provide a flavour of IRA organisation if you wanted to set a wargame in a specific county with named units/officers. E.g. if you search the pension records (e.g. keyword ambush) and select an individual you will see detail like:

Organisation: Irish Republican Army
Name  John Vaughan
Rank: Private [= Volunteer rank in 1919-21]
Unit: 1st Battalion
Company: Cregmore Company
Brigade: 1st Galway Brigade
Commanding Officer(s): Michael Conway

Currently only pension details of participants in the 1916 Easter Rising are available online but many of these took subsequent part in the Independence struggle and Civil War 1922-23, so you will see details of what unit they served in at these later dates.

[flags_of_war]

Cheers for all the info guys. If i get round to the project ill look at doing some lists for CoC.

[Arlequín]

So in my wargaming, for a campaign game, if the IRA flying-column unit spent resouces to get local company support for an ambush, I would roll 2D6 to see how many men were actually available; a low roll = affect of domestic/work commitments, or weapon shortages, or local rivalries, or fear of arrest & reprisals, etc. The varying quality of these part-time, untested volunteers would also be a factor in wargame morale.   

Sure... you could modify the rolls for such things as density of population in a given area too. If you were to arbitrarily say 1:1000 (for example) people were potential Republican sympathisers and perhaps 1:6 of those would be fully committed to the cause, you have a baseline to generate support. So the second quantity determines the number of dice (and the minimum roll result = 5 dice will always give at least five men) and the first is the potential total number of men (5 dice = maximum of 30 men).

If you are talking campaigns then you can modify the dice by adding +1 for each successful Republican action, -1 for each Government one, either as a cumulative effect, or purely based on the last game or game month (people have short memories). Other modifiers might be linked to garrison numbers, or COIN activities like active house to house searches, road blocks and so on.

The numbers you retain from the rolls are essentially a straw poll of 'how well things are going' for both sides too. Active COIN and victories for the Government saps enthusiasm and moves things towards the 'lost cause' end of the spectrum in a given area (you lose dice), while when 'our boys' are doing well, the potential for maximising the number of potential volunteers to 'the max' increases (you add dice). 

So for example in a campaign month you have six dice to roll (6-36 volunteers, of which 6 are your hardcore men). Every time you call out the volunteers you subtract 1 from the roll for 'friction and attrition', you add +1 to each dice for each victory that month, -1 for each defeat (and anything else you can think of); that will give you your force within the month for each and any action you undertake.

At the end of the month you total the respective modifiers up and your result determines the numbers of dice for the next month. If the IRA has a good month, you add a dice, or two if it was a really good one. Correspondingly you reduce them if not. The 'win' for the Government player is that he is able to totally remove all the potential dice to be rolled - he's crushed the rebellion in that locale and your core men are 'on the run' and need to move on to another area.

You can take those ideas further... when you reach 'x' dice in one locale, you can transfer 'y' dice to an adjoining one, so as to start things moving in that area, which is pretty much the 'oil stain' effect of insurgency you read about. You would need some corresponding method to generate Government assets deployed too of course, but such a method would cause them to spread their resources over a wider area, giving some respite for hard-worn volunteers in another.

The possibilities are endless, just depends how deep you want to go.