The popular memory of the Irish War of Independence, at least if you happen to be Irish, often revolves around the image of the IRA “flying column”. For a large number of people, those two words indicates a very particular type of unit:
A sort of mobile platoon that lived and operated in the field, targeted the Crown Forces as they wished, and proved to be the most potent form of guerrilla warfare that the Republic could call upon.
There is some truth to this, but in reality the flying columns were a bit more complicated.
Known more officially as “Active Service Units” or ASU’s (technically a slightly different unit, but, especially as time went on, in reality they were much the same), the flying columns were introduced officially in October of 1920, when a GHQ memo called for those men who were already “on the run” to form into such columns for the purpose of providing “standing troops of a well-trained and thoroughly reliable stamp” who could be “an exceedingly valuable auxiliary arm to the remainder of the Republican Army”.
Later, the objective of the ASU’s was more militarily defined as a force that would “continually…harass, kill, capture and destroy the enemy forces”. However, as was often the case, GHQ pronouncement was late, essentially endorsing an idea that had already been in existence for some time.
