Glasdrumman ambush

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict = Glassdrumman ambush
partof= The Troubles


caption=
date=17 July 1981
place= near Crossmaglen, County Armagh
territory=
result= British Army operation thwarted
IRA retains ability of setting up roadblocks"After Dean was killed, some Army commanders concluded that it was not worth risking the lives of soldiers to prevent an IRA roadblock being set up." Harnden, page 172]
combatant1=flagicon|IrelandProvisional Irish Republican Army
combatant2=flagicon|UKBritish Army
(Royal Green Jackets)
commander1= "Unknown"
commander2= Lance Corporal Gavin DeanKIA
strength1= Up to seven volunteers
strength2= 1 undercover team
strength3=
casualties1= None
casualties2= 1 dead
1 wounded
casualties3=
notes=The Glasdrumman ambush was an attack on a British Army Observation post carried out by members of the IRA South Armagh Brigade at a scrapyard near Crossmaglen, South Armagh. The action took place on July 17, 1981.

Background

The crisis triggered by the Hunger strikes of IRA and INLA prisoners in 1981 led to an increase of Republican militant operations over Northern Ireland. [English, pp. 207–208] Intelligence reports unveiled the IRA intentions of mounting an illegal checkpoint and hijacking vehicles on the IRA-controlled roads in South Armagh, near the border. To counter it, the British army deployed the so-called COPs (Close observation platoons), actually small infantry sections acting as undercover units, a resource introduce in Northern Ireland by Major General
Dick Trant in 1977. [Harnden, page 169]

On 6 May, 1981, a day after the death of hunger-striker Bobby Sands, two IRA volunteers were arrested while trying to set up a roadblock east of the main Belfast-Dublin highway by twelve members of the Royal Green Jackets divided in three teams. Another IRA man escaped, apparently injured. [Harnden, pp. 169-170]

The action

After this initial success, the army continued this tactics. On July, another operation was carried out by 18 members of the Royal Green Jackets. On the night of July 16, four concealed positions -Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta- were inserted into the Glassdrumman area, around a scrapyard along the border. The plan was that another unit -called the "triggering" team- would ambush any IRA unit at sight, while the other four would block the expected escape routes. The next day, the commanders in charge of Delta and Alpha teams suspecting that the operation had been compromised by the presence of local civilians, ordered the withdrawal of his men. Shortly later, another army group -Bravo team- was suddenly cut down by automatic fire from an M60 machine gun and Armalite rifles fired by six or seven IRA men. The concealed position, emplaced inside a derelict van, was hit by some 250 bullets. The small section's leader, Lance Corporal Gavin Dean, was killed instantly, and one of his men seriously wounded. The IRA men fired their weapons from 160 yards away, across the border. [Harnden, pp. 170-171]

Aftermath

British army commanders concluded that risking lifes in order to prevent the IRA from mounting roadblocks was untenable. The incident also exposed the difficulties of concealing operations from local civilians in South Armagh, whose sympathy with the IRA was manifest. ["The small, tight-knit communities in South Armagh meant it was almost impossible for undercover troops to remain unseen or pass themselves off as locals." Harnden, page 172] Several years later, the IRA would repeat its success against undercover observation posts in the course of Operation Conservation in 1990. [Harnden, pp. 394-395]

Notes

References

Harnden, Toby: "Bandit Country:The IRA & South Armagh". Coronet Books, London, 1999. ISBN 0340717378.

English, Richard: "Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA". Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0195177533.