21 March 1921: The Headford ambush in Co Kerry on this day. The plan was for an Active Service unit of the IRA to lay an ambush on a passenger train due to arrive at Headford Station with members of the British Military on board. However the train arrived a bit earlier than anticipated at 3pm [not stopping as usual on the way from Kenmare] and the 30 or so ambushers had to scramble up an embankment to take what cover they could and await the train coming to a halt at Headford where the military were to change trains. A party of four took over the Station Masters House to open up as well. On board the train were a British Royal Fusiliers party of 28 men.  As the soldiers alighted onto the station platform the IRA opened up on them and immediately a number were seen to fall.

We were billeted some miles from Headford and when word came we ran all the way to the station.  We were moving some wagons from the line when the train from Kenmare came in.  We had no prepared positions and scrambled in to position as best we could.  I was in a section commanded by Davit McCarthy.  We were on the railway embankment with very little cover, but a good field of fire.  I think most of the military were put out of action early on, but some two or three got down on the tracks under the train and kept up a continuous fire.  No doubt they could have been dislodged but a full train of troops entered the station and we had to withdraw.  I understand that 26 of the 30 British soldiers were knocked out.  Two of Ours, Dan Allman, and Jim Bailey – were killed, and Jim Coffey was wounded.

Denis Prendiville IRA.

As it turned out the British had a machine gun section guarding the carriages but  ‘the  IRA concentrated their fire on the Vickers machine gun on the front carriage manned by a sergeant and four men. The were soon killed or wounded, and the Vickers gun fell silent. Several attempts were made by the British to get to the gun to use it again, but these attempts were prevented by IRA fire from the men on the embankment.’

https://www.cairogang.com/soldiers-killed/headfordjunction/headford-junction.html

The other soldiers on board managed to eventually scramble under the carriages and could not be hit on a direct line of sight, of course their ability to hit back was also severely hampered by their cramped confines and they would surely have been slaughtered in turn except for a stroke of fortune when after some 50 minutes a 2nd train with military onboard reached their beleaguered comrades and freed them from their predicament of facing almost certain death. 

When the dust had settled there were eight British soldiers dead or dying and another 10 or 12 wounded out of the 28 who had boarded the train earlier that day. Two members of the IRA fell mortally wounded in the action and three civilians were also killed in the crossfire.

Those who died that bloody were:

Dan Allman IRA O/C Kerry No 2 Brigade

Jimmy Baily IRA 

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Lieutenant Edward Adams Royal Fusiliers [City of London Regiment]

George Brundish [RF]

Edward Albert Chandler [RF]

Arthur George [RF]

Frederick George West [RF]

Francis Edwards Woods [RF]

George Edward Leslie Young [RF]

Charles Rupert Greenwood [RF] DOW 22 March 1921

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John Breen Civilian

Michael Cagney Civilian

Patrick O’Donoghue Civilian