Ian Jones has passed me details of IEDs in Ulster in 1922. Ian is a real EOD history guru and I recommend his excellent books.
In 1922 Ireland was still being fought over and Irish republican bomb attacks were still relatively frequent (see my earlier posts such as this.)
Belfast was no different and a range of IEDs were encountered. There are details below of some interesting devices. But note that the military response to these was by the Royal Engineers, not the RAOC who later became responsible in the province for such activity. In a report published in the Royal Engineer Journal, which I cannot reproduce here for copyright reasons, Captain EW T Graham-Carter reports a series of incidents that his Unit responded to.
1. An attempted bombing of a telephone junction box in Arthur Square in the centre of Belfast, two IRA men disguised and equipped as telephone repair men opened a manhole cover and left a times device behind. A Sapper Unit was requested to deal with the device. The manhole was filled with water by the Fire Brigade (!) and after three hours the package was removed. The device, wrapped in sacking, consisted of a wooden box with a slider switch on the outside. The timing device was an adapted alarm clock. (There are pictures in the journal). The device failed because the alarm clock had not been wound up. The main charge was an unidentified home made explosive or incendiary material (possibly sodium chlorate and sulphur). The initiators were interesting – two glass tubes sealed with insulating tape with two copper electrodes immersed in magnesium flash powder. Subsequent experiments were able to cause the main charge mix to explode.
2. A series of other devices are interesting because like many modern devices in the Middle East they utilised artillery shells, in this case 18pdr, but filled with home-made explosive. These were left in a number of “picture-houses” (cinemas), but on a number of occasions failed to function and were recovered by the Royal Engineers.
3. Other devices were designed to be hidden by or in roads. One found near Armagh consisted of hollow concrete blocks, 9in X 9in X 9in, with the addition of scrap metal as improvised shrapnel. It held 5lbs of explosive and was initiated electrically by a command wire of 300 yards in length.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. Apart from the Sappers that is.
Hi Roger,
IOOs of the AOD, later RAOC conducted IEDD throughout Ireland from earliest times, based in Dublin and Queenstown. Their work included the Easter Rising of 1916 and the clear up of rebel bomb dumps and safety fuze initiated tin-can grenades, remarkably identical to those encountered in the 70s and 80s. Are referred to by the rebels as ‘Ordnance Experts’. They also did IEDD during the War of Independence from 1919 to 1921 also becoming ‘expert witnesses’ in Courts Martial and never being cross-examined, sound familiar.
I have several incident reports with their names, including the infamous Parnell Street bomb factory incident told in one of your earlier posts. Alas, no RSPs as such, the reports list what was found, and the results of their technical exploitation, using their inherent chemistry skills learnt during the Ordnance Cours at the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich to define the make up of explosive or incendiary compounds. Following partition in 1922, the DADOS HQ Ulster District, later NI District at Victoria Barracks in the New Lodge area did IEDD assisted by the District AE (Sgt), known as the Assistant IOO. No reports uncovered however, “DADOS cleared up bombs and grenades after a nights rioting in Belfast”. Am yet to visit the RE Museum[lockdown mucked up my plans] to pull the Journals etc as you know they have a robust charging mechanism and copyright inflexibility.
Regards, JB
Author
Fascinating details JB.