Operation Conservation

Operation Conservation
Operation Conservation
Part of The Troubles and Operation Banner
DCB Shooting G3 pictures cropped.jpg
H&K G3, the type of rifle used by the IRA team to cover its withdrawal
Date 6 May 1990
Location Cullyhanna, County Armagh
54°7′55.72″N 6°34′57.10″W / 54.1321444°N 6.582528°W / 54.1321444; -6.582528Coordinates: 54°7′55.72″N 6°34′57.10″W / 54.1321444°N 6.582528°W / 54.1321444; -6.582528
Result British Army operation thwarted
Belligerents
Flag of Ireland.svg Provisional IRA
(South Armagh Brigade)
United Kingdom British Army
(Scots Guards)
Commanders and leaders
Unknown Lance Sergeant Graham Stewart 
Strength
1 ASU 1 Infantry section
Casualties and losses
None 1 dead
Operation Conservation is located in Northern Ireland
{{{alt}}}

Operation Conservation was a British Army attempt to ambush a large Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit along the Dorsey Enclosure, between Cullyhanna and Silverbridge, in south Armagh, during the early days of May 1990. The operation was uncovered and thwarted by the IRA South Armagh Brigade.

Contents

British plan

The British Army, in the hope of luring a large IRA active service unit into attacking an entrenched Light Infantry unit, deployed its troops around the route between Cullyhanna and Silverbridge. A heavy machine gun ambush had taken place on another Light Infantry patrol on 28 April near the same area. More than 180 rounds were fired and a soldier was wounded in the leg.[1]

The main position was to be surrounded and watched by 16 concealed sections belonging to the Scots Guards regiment. The goal was to surprise and destroy any IRA unit attempting to penetrate the area.

The action

The troops were inserted into the zone on the first hours of 3 May. The IRA watched these movements and was able to spot several of the hidden observation posts (OPs). Eventually, they decided to attack one of the British positions at Slatequarry,[1] near Cullyhanna, which was in the more vulnerable situation.[2] According to author David McKittrick, the British soldiers were lured to an open field after seeing smoke coming from the chimney of a derelict building.[3]

On the very first hours of 6 May, the guards began to receive heavy fire from an IRA unit emplaced on the slope of a hill nearby. The OP was attacked with two 7.62 mm GPMGs and a Heckler & Koch G3 rifle; the latter used to cover the machine gun team's retreat towards Slatequarry road, where a vehicle was waiting to pick them up. A bomb was planted between the OP and the road, to prevent any attempt to give chase. The IRA members fired their machine guns from a rocky terrain next to an abandoned building. The shooting lasted some 90 seconds, and a total of 316 rounds were expended by the two sides. The section's leader, Lance Sergeant Graham Stewart was hit and died of wounds the following day.[2]

Aftermath

The sudden counter-ambush disrupted the British operation, and the officer in charge aborted it.[4] He later stated that:

In military terms, it was one of the IRA's finest attacks in South Armagh. They picked out the COP team in the most exposed position. With hindsight, it was the one weak link in the operation and it says something for the IRA's tactical and field skills that they identified that fact before we did.

After the incident, another British senior officer concluded that a skillful gun team was operating at that time near Cullyhanna.[2] Indeed, on 20 September, another soldier was hit and wounded there during a heavy machine gun attack on a 1st Cheshire Regiment patrol at Drumalt.[1] The IRA unit responsible for the ambushes was nicknamed the "Cullyahanna Gun Club" by the British army.[5] Author Toby Harnden suggests that the IRA show of force proved again that they could dispute the ground to the troops everywhere in south Armagh[6] due to its better knowledge of the terrain and use of rugged soil to conceal positions.[7][8]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c O'Brien, page 207
  2. ^ a b c Harnden, pp. 394-395
  3. ^ McKittrick, David (1999). Lost lives. Mainstream, p. 1198. ISBN 184018227X
  4. ^ "As soon as Lance Sargeant Stewart was killed, we pulled out all covert and overt troops and abandoned the operation." Harnden, page 395
  5. ^ Harnden, page 395
  6. ^ "Even before the single-shot sniping attacks began to take their toll, the capacity of IRA gun teams to engage troops on equal terms had become a major headache for the Army." Harnden, page 394
  7. ^ "They can observe, they can pick the time, they can pick the place, they can pick the weapons and they know the terrain." Harnden, pp. 393-394
  8. ^ "Once again, the enemy used dead ground to their advantage." Harnden, page 395

References

  • Harnden, Toby (2000). Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh, Coronet books. ISBN 0340717378
  • O'Brien, Brendan (1999). The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin, Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815605978

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Operation Banner — Part of The Troubles Two British soldiers at a checkpoint near Newry …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Demetrius — Part of The Troubles and Operation Banner The entrance to Compound 19, one of the sections of Long Kesh internment camp …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Flavius — Coordinates: 36°08′48″N 5°21′01″W / 36.1467°N 5.35031°W / 36.1467; 5.35031 …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Motorman — For the unrelated ICO investigation, see Operation Motorman (ICO investigation). Operation Motorman Part of The Troubles and Operation Banner …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Wallacea — logo. Operation Wallacea (known as Opwall) is an organisation funded by tuition fees that runs a series of biological and conservation management research programmes operating in remote locations across the world. These expeditions are designed… …   Wikipedia

  • CONSERVATION DES ŒUVRES D’ART — «Le premier sentiment de l’homme fut celui de son existence, le second celui de sa conservation», déclarait Jean Jacques Rousseau. Il est certain que les plus anciens témoignages que nous ait laissés l’humanité attestent le soin déployé de tout… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Conservation De La Masse — La conservation de la masse est une loi fondamentale de la chimie et de la physique. Elle indique non seulement qu au cours de toute expérience, y compris si elle implique une transformation chimique, la masse se conserve, mais aussi que le… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Conservation Alimentaire — Conservation des aliments La conservation des aliments comprend un ensemble de procédés de traitement des denrées alimentaires dont le but est d en conserver les propriétés gustatives et nutritives, les caractéristiques de texture, de couleur,… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Conservation Des Aliments — La conservation des aliments comprend un ensemble de procédés de traitement des denrées alimentaires dont le but est d en conserver les propriétés gustatives et nutritives, les caractéristiques de texture, de couleur, ainsi que la comestibilité,… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Conservation alimentaire — Conservation des aliments La conservation des aliments comprend un ensemble de procédés de traitement des denrées alimentaires dont le but est d en conserver les propriétés gustatives et nutritives, les caractéristiques de texture, de couleur,… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”