The phrase "a flying column" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used in a military context to refer to a mobile unit or group that can move quickly to engage in operations.
Example: "The general ordered a flying column to advance towards the enemy's position at dawn."
Alternatives: "mobile unit" or "rapid deployment force".
21, 1543, by Galawdewos and a flying column.
On the Bulgarian front they crossed the Danube in June 1877, and a flying column seized the Shipka Pass through the Balkan Mountains on July 19.
Charles reacted by dispatching Rupert and 7,000 cavalry in a flying column to disrupt and harass the Parliamentary retreat.
He remained in South Africa engaged in guerilla operations against the Boer forces until the armistice of 1902, commanding a flying column in the Cape Colony.
Heavy rain slowed both the king and his pursuers, and led Forbes to split his force again; moving on with a flying column of 160 men, he sent the rest back with the wagons.
On their right, with a gap of 1 mi, was the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, which was in touch with a small flying column; the Mobile Column of the City of London Yeomanry, 11th Light Horse Regiments and the Imperial Camel Brigade, which was to again attempt to get round the German and Ottoman left flank and cut off their retreat.
The Wind that Shakes the Barley follows the fortunes of an IRA flying column as it wages a ruthless guerrilla war on the feared and hated 'Black and Tans', a notorious British army regiment whose excesses are still etched in the collective memory around these parts.
A French military flying column then marched toward Antananarivo, losing many men to malaria and other diseases.
Its most affecting moments occur when Damien has to turn his gun on his own, first when he has to execute a friend who is uncovered as an informer, and later when the flying column splits down the middle in the civil war that followed the acceptance by Ireland's rebel leaders of a treaty weighted very much in Britain's favour.
It's a complex situation, but I think Ken and Paul [Laverty, the scriptwriter] addressed the historical complexities.' In the film, Murphy's character, Damien, is radicalised by his first-hand experience of the brutalities of the occupying British soldiers and forgoes a place at medical college in London to join the local flying column.
The idea of complete independence from external sources of supply the hard-hitting, self-contained "flying column"—has always been alluring but has seldom fully materialized.
