Larne gun-running
[1][2][3] The operation involved the smuggling of almost 25,000 rifles and between 3 and 5 million rounds of ammunition from the German Empire, with the shipments landing in Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor in the early hours between Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April 1914.
Crawford wrote to five arms manufacturers, including the Austrian Steyr and the German Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, seeking quotations for the purchase of 20,000 rifles and one million rounds of ammunition.
"[9] UVF membership grew to around 90,000 members, led by retired officers of the British Army, with the organisation under the charge of Lieutenant-General Sir George Richardson KCB, a veteran of the Afghan Wars.
[11] Throughout 1913 Major Crawford, with the use of aliases and disguises, had attempted to smuggle in arms bought in Great Britain and Imperial Germany, but vigilant customs officials had seized the goods at the docks.
[12] One week later, with the intention of forcing the government to accept that there was a real risk of armed resistance to Home Rule in Ulster.,[12] Crawford openly transported weapons to Belfast from several locations across England.
These were intercepted by customs officials, Major Crawford convinced the Ulster Unionist Council that he could provide the weapons and ammunition needed "to equip the entire UVF".
"[12] Crawford secured the services of the SS Fanny to transport 216 tons of guns and ammunition which he had purchased from Benny Spiro, an arms dealer in Hamburg.
The customs officials suspected that the cargo might contain weapons to arm militant Icelandic home rulers who sought independence from Denmark.
The UVF Motor Corps was summoned by the County Antrim commander, General Sir William Adair, and instructed as follows: It is absolutely necessary that your cars should arrive at Larne in the night of Friday-Saturday 24th-25th instant at 1 a.m. punctually but not before that hour for a very secret and important duty...[2]This was all part of a "meticulous" and "elaborate" plan to ensure that the operation succeeded; only 12 people knew the full details and reason for the mobilisation of the UVF members.
[14] The Belfast Evening Telegraph remarked that all present "put their backs into it" and that it "illustrated the old adage, 'One Volunteer is worth three pressed men'" and they "toiled like galley slaves".
The local population of Larne were noted as having lined the streets exchanging salutes and running makeshift canteens to supply the workers with refreshments throughout the night.
On its way, crew cut away the canvas sheets bearing the name Mountjoy II, revealing the ship's real name, Clyde Valley, and it proceeded south along the Irish Sea.
[14] After offloading Major Crawford at Rosslare, County Wexford, the Clyde Valley set sail for the Baltic Sea, travelling along the coasts of France and Denmark.
[14] One of the key figures in the operation was Captain Wilfrid Spender, a member of the UVF headquarters staff who is alleged to have been responsible for the entire scheme and helped in the Hoax masquerade.
It was accomplished with celerity, yet without fuss or splutter, because it was done in pursuance of a well-formed plan, executed as perfectly as it had been preconceived...So exactly had this mobilisation been arranged that these hundreds of motors reached the assembly point at an identical moment.
It was an amazing sight to see this huge procession of cars nearly three miles in length descending upon the town with all their headlights ablaze....[16]For the Unionist leaders, the Larne gun-running was even more of a political coup than a military feat.
The Irish Volunteers had been working on their own plan to acquire weapons, and the success at Larne heightened nationalist suspicions that the authorities were acquiescent towards unionist militants in Ulster.
[20] The Irish Volunteers arranged their own gun-running operation in July 1914, transporting the guns on a private yacht and unloading in daylight at the harbour, in front of a crowd.
