GANG BATTLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

GANG BATTLE

SWOKDS AND HATCHETS SOHO POLICE POWERLESS TUMBLERS AS AMMUNITION With swords, iron bars, broken glasses and hatchets, two gangs battled in City. Road, Finsbury, London, on the night of Sunday, March 13. Gangsters from Soho "invaded" another gang's territory in retaliation for an attack on one of its members. Police were itnable to stop the fight until reinforcements had been brought up. The Soho gang, some of them in even-ing-dress, drove into the district in two Jarge cars on the Saturday night for a preliminary survey. They turned up again at 1 p.m. next day, and the fight started. Call For Help

The big battle came just as the local public houses were about to shut. For the third time the big cars drove up., and eight men got out. Four walked into the saloon bar of a neighbouring hotel, took a look around, then went out. As they did, a man ran out to a telephone to call up the defenders.

"There were nearly 20 men fighting furiously soon after that," an eyewitness told the Daily Herald representative.

"They were using swords, hatchets, bars of iron, and glass rods. One man ran into the bar of a public-house, scooped up an armful of tumblers, and used them as ammunition. "Another threw a glass bar at a rival, which missed, smashing against the side of a passing tram. An iron bar went through the plate-glass window of another public-hovse. A "Scimitar" "I saw men with bleeding faces. One man had his cut to ribbons. Two policemen arrived a few minutes after it had started, but they were powerless." When police reinforcements arrived, thp attackers drove off in their cars and the defenders dispersed.

Tho battlefield was strewn with scores of broken glasses, iron bars and swords, one shaped like a scimitar. Three men were later taken to St. Leonard's Hospital, in Bethnal Green, one in a serious condition. Criminal Investigation Department officers waited while their wounds wore being dressed, and later accompanied them to Shepherdess Walk police station. Police took possession of the numbers of the attackers' cars.