I.R.A. RAID ON CAMP

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28514, 18 February 1958, Page 13

I.R.A. RAID ON CAMP

Scotland Yard Search

(N.Z. Press Association—Cony ng tit) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 17. Scotland Yard men last night watched the homes and clubs of London Irishmen after a speeding van crashed through a roadblock set to trap the Irish Republican Army gunmen who raided an Artny camp in Blandford, Dorset, early yesterday, the “Daily Herald” reported today. Police had to leap for their lives at the road-block, about 30 miles from London, as the van, with a driver and passenger, burst through. A warning was flashed to the next road-block towards London, but the van was not seen again.

The driver and the passenger of the van both wore battledress, the “Daily Herald” said. Special branch officers believed last night that they had, established the identity of one of the men in the van.

One young soldier was wounded in the stomach and another struck on the head with a revolver and knocked unconscious during the raid. Before they surprised the injured men, who were on patrol, they had already overpowered six other men and left them bound on the floor of the camp’s guard room. Two other returning late from a dance were surprised and struck with revolver butts. They, too, were tied up. The raiders had burst into the guard room and told the guards: “We are from the I.R.A.—this is a raid,” the “Daily Express” said. When they left the guard room one man loosened his bond and gave the alarm.

The 2000 soldiers in the camp immediately took up their emergency posts and the raiders fled without taking anything with them. One of their cars, which they had earlier hired from a London firm, was found abandoned.

A large-scale police search immediatelv went into operation. But nothing was seen of the raiders until they forced the roadblock last night. Today special branch officers were seeking “four quiet men.” They were Irishmen who had been staying at a Hammersmith boarding house. They left hurriedly, without breakfast, on Friday morning, carrying canvas hold-all bags. Outside the boarding house they had parked a ear similar to the abandoned car. The Irishman who hired the car gave an address in a street near the boarding house. Police Attacked

A party of men early this morning attacked a police post just inside the Northern Ireland border at Middletown, County Armagh. There was a 20-minute gun battle before police drove the raiders off. They used rifles, revolvers and automatic weapons. There were no police casualties and it was not known whether any of the raiders were hit. Police said today that the raiders were almost certainly members of the outlawed 1.R.A., which is pledged to bring about the reunion of Eire and Northern Ireland, by force if necessary.

Battle in Prison.—Eight convicts were killed and 20 wounded in a battle among 500 prison inmates yesterday at Muntinglupa, near Manila. The prisoners fought for six hours with sharpened spoons, table knives and clubs. —Manila, February 12.