Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: jharper%euroies.ucd.ie%CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Jerry Harper) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: urban combat Message-ID: <7476@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 15 Jun 89 03:53:22 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 41 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Jerry Harper Anyone interested, historically, in the formation of guerilla units to combat regular forces should read "Guerilla days in Ireland" by Tom Barry. The author was the leader of an IRA guerilla group colloquially termed a "flying column" due to the rapid mobility over vey rough terrain. Barry's group was probably the most successful of all the guerilla groups in acting against the British forces, and the book documents not merely the type of weapons they improvised/ used but also ambushing strategies and intelligence gathering techniques. The dates for these operations lie between 1919 and 1921 during what we term the War of Independence. The book may be unavailable at the moment except through libraries as the current situation in the North has negatively affected the reception of such books. Another book on the same theme is "My fight for Irish freedom" by Dan Breen, a prime instigator in the independence struggle. It, however, has much more political analysis than Barry's work and is slightly more conventional than the latter. By way of penultimate comment I should mention that Barry's work is considered a seminal textbook on guerilla tactics and was used extensively by partisan movements after WWII (particularly true of the Irgun, by the way). Finally, the current successors to the Old IRA legacy, the Provisional IRA, also publish a series of manuals on the conduct of guerilla warfare. However, these are illegal publications here, possession of which usually entails a four year prison sentence. Hopefully, anyone coming in contact with such materials will have the good sense not to circulate them. Just as a personal aside, which Bill may choose to excise if he wishes, I think readers of the group who may be considering adopting a fantasy concerning the excitment and nobility of urban combat would do well to reflect on the threat which many guerilla groups pose to the population they alledgedly represent. Disclaimer: The information herein is not provided with the objective of supporting or condoning guerilla warfare, or garnering sympathy for groups engaged in guerilla operations. Jerry Harper jharper@euroies.uucp AI Research Centre tel: 353-1-693244 x 2484 Computer Science Department University College Dublin Dublin 4 IRELAND