RAID ON FORT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23615, 27 March 1940, Page 6

RAID ON FORT

DUBLIN INCIDENT THEFT OF AMMUNITION GREATER PART RECOVERED [from our own correspondent] LONDON, March 1 The story of how the magazine of the fort in Phoenix Park, Dublin, was raided of nearly 30 tons of machinegun and rifle ammunition was told in the Dublin District Court when seven men were charged with the offence. Mr. Kavin Haugh, K.C., prosecuting, explained the elaborate system of guarding the fort, and told how the 12 soldiers who comprised the guard were disarmed and rounded up. Mr. ETangh said that on the night of December 23, the permanent officer-in-charge, a captain, who lived in the fort with nis family, had gone out and did not return until the raid was well Advanced. Anybody going into the fort first had to pass an iron-barred, padlocked gate. Behind that was a wooden • gate with a wicket door. Threatened with Revolver The tirst gate that night was in the charge /of a corporal and the second gate in tho charge of another corporal. Some distance from this corporal was tho first sentry, faie second sentry was in the magazine portion of tho prem- „ ises and the rest of the guard were in the guard room. At about 8.45 p.m. the bolt rang and a corporal saw a man outside tlie iron-barred gate. The corporal went to open the gate, when this man presented a revolver at his chest and'said, "Stick them up or I'll blow your brains out." Then three or four men who had been in hiding made a prisoner of the corporal and marched him to tho guardroom. On the way they adopted similar tactics with a private soldier, whose gun was taken from him. The remaining members of the guard, sitting round the fire, were held up in the same way and disarmed. Telephone Wire Cut By this time a number of men had followed till- first party of raiders into the fort. A corporal was taken by tho raiders to disarm the sentry in the magazine. The fire picket in the basement wore made captives in their room. Half an hour later, when the captain returned, he was made prisoner. A number of heavy motor-cars or lorjies were then driven into the fort. The telephone wire from the fort had been* Out. At the Island Bridge barracks close by, some time after 10 o'clock, a shot was fired as a military *car was being let out. The policeman reported the matter, and this was the first aj.arm Several arrests were made subsequently, and a careful search for the ammunition began. Most of it has been recovered. Armed men, soldiers and police picketed every road leading out of Dublin. Women were made to open their 'handbags; men were searched; cars were ransacked. Searches took place, in every county in Eire. The comb-out was particularly thorough in County Kildare, where a quarter of a ton of the ammunition was found.