The cruelest massacre of the IRA against the English paratroopers: “There were dismembered legs hanging from trees”

2023-04-16 23:05:25
Brigadier of the 3rd Infantry, David Thorne, had a lot of war on his back. He was a 46-year-old veteran who had taken part in Operation Banner, tasked with reasserting the authority of the British government in Northern Ireland. His were not the offices, go. But even the old soldiers shudder. On August 27, 1979, a sour look crossed his face when a soldier handed him an epaulette outside Warrenpoint. It was the only thing left of Colonel David Blair, victim, along with 17 other British paratroopers, of an attack by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The rest of his body had volatilized. For the researcher and writer José Luis Hernández Garvi, an expert in the history of the military, that August 27 was the IRA’s bloodiest day of lead against the United Kingdom. And not just for Warrenpoint. «In addition to that ambush, the terrorist group carried out an attack that day against Lord Mountbatten, the cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and the tutor of Prince Charles, the current King of Great Britain. It was a particularly violent day for public opinion and a direct attack against the Royal Family,” the expert explained to ABC through a telephone interview. The saddest thing is that, fully immersed as we are in 2023, this terrorist group is back in the news. And it is that, the British Minister for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, has confirmed in the last hours that several dissidents of the already inactive IRA have perpetrated localized actions whose objective is “to return to the dark days of the past.” Those in which society watched, trembling, every shooting that took place in Northern Ireland. The politician does not speak from unconsciousness, but is based on a series of reports from the Northern Irish Police (PSNI) in which it was considered that the group’s commandos could attack Easter Monday. First surprise The Warrenpoint ambush was planned to the millimeter. The Provisional IRA – a split from the original IRA in the 1960s – hid a half-tonne bomb next to a two-lane highway located 71 kilometers from Belfast. The road lay next to Narrow Water Castle, on the border with Ireland. The target was the British military convoys that occasionally passed through the area. «Until then the patrols had been done by helicopter, but the police authorities of Northern Ireland had requested the physical presence of the army in the streets; they wanted the population to see that the troops were present,” Garvi explained to ABC. Related news standard No Biden, in his speech at the University of Ulster: “The enemies of peace in Northern Ireland will not prevail” Lourdes Gómez The president of the United States has traveled to the territory to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement That day, the patrol was led by a convoy led by a Land Rover and two Bedford trucks. In its guts were the soldiers of the Second Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment; elite fighters. “Displace them was an exaggerated measure, but the United Kingdom lacked police units prepared to face the conflict and they considered that the task should be undertaken by the armed forces. That is why they sent front-line soldiers belonging to the SAS, to the Royal Marines…”, completes the Spanish researcher. The tragedy occurred when the clock did not yet reach five in the afternoon, according to the BBC. The explosion was colossal and hit the last truck squarely. “He wrecked it. The bodies of the paratroopers were dismembered and scattered all over the road. The scene was gruesome; the driver was volatilized, only his pelvis was found, and because he stuck to the seat due to the heat », reveals Garvi. In total, the IRA claimed the lives of six paratroopers. The rest, desperate, got out of the two vehicles and stood guard. “They thought they were being shot at from across the border. They heard some kind of shots, but it was probably the ammunition that was inside the truck, which exploded in the heat. Bad luck caused them to end up with a tourist who was in the area, “he adds. New hell The British mobilized hastily. In the words of the BBC, two helicopters took off from the nearby base of Bessbrook, in County Armagh, with a rapid response unit inside led by Colonel Blair. As Barton Whaley reveals in ‘Practice to Deceive: Learning Curves of Military Deception Planners’, those men belonged to the ‘Queen’s Own Highlanders’. The soldier immediately took command of the operation and set up a command post in a country house located on the other side of the highway. That would be his grave. “The IRA had studied the behavior of the forces in the area a lot and knew that they were going to settle there. For this reason, they had hidden a second device in a milk jug in the house, ”Garvi completes. The attack on the Warrenpoint convoy in 1979 left 18 dead. A destroyed British Army truck is shown after the explosions on ABC Highway Half an hour after the first explosion, at 5:12 p.m., tragedy befell those men. The bomb, made of fertilizers, exploded while one of the helicopters was taking off with several wounded. Twelve more soldiers, two Highlanders and ten paratroopers, were killed. “He hit them full again. The testimonies corroborate that the bodies were dismembered and that there were arms and legs hanging from the trees. The worst unemployed was the colonel, who, as had happened to the truck driver, was volatilized. Only an epaulette was found, which was later given to Margaret Thatcher to explain the event,” says the expert. The chronicles say that the Iron Lady burst into tears when it was delivered to her. Blair thus became the highest-ranking soldier killed in the conflict to date. And the attack, the most bloody for the army. As ABC revealed on December 18, 1979, these deceased joined the death lists of the Provisional IRA: «With these casualties there have been 38 dead soldiers this year. Since the hostilities began, back in 1969, 327 members of the British Armed Forces have fallen. According to IRA data, 180 militants have died in the campaign and 1,000 were arrested. The fate of these is exposed by remembering that in the United Kingdom there is no amnesty, pardons, estranged or other outbreaks of political acquittals ». Six questions to José Luis Hernández Garvi -What was the situation in Northern Ireland in 1979? Conflict continued in the area. The Provisional IRA advocated the reunification of Northern Ireland, which belonged to the United Kingdom, with the Republic of Ireland. That was his fight. They faced the Protestant unionist paramilitary movements, in favor of staying in the United Kingdom. The conflict escalated until the RUC, the Royal Ulster Gendarmerie, was overwhelmed; could not cope with the climate of violence and had to resort to the British army to bring order to the streets. Did the arrival of the armed forces calm things down? Catholic Northern Irishmen took the British military presence as an occupation. A series of quite serious incidents occurred. The attacks went up a notch of violence. The best known was that of Bloody Sunday; several civilians died in it at the hands of the British Army. One of the most striking actions was this, that of the Warrenpoint ambush. -Apparently, the paratroopers were shocked… Yes. A journalist arrived at the scene. He was a photojournalist and started taking pictures of the massacre. Shocked by the explosion, the paratroopers were about to open fire on him. He annoyed them that he didn’t help. Have the culprits been found? Two IRA members were captured in Ireland, but their direct involvement could not be proven. -Did this attack change Thatcher’s policy? The attack did not bring about a drastic change. Thatcher always maintained a position of strength. In Northern Ireland it was no less. She reinforced the military presence with various checkpoints in the region. Airborne patrols were resumed to surprise IRA members and the British vehicles became armored. She tried to ensure the safety of the troops more. Related News standard No PODCAST ABC A former agent of the most lethal unit of the Civil Guard reveals to ABC what his hellish access course was like ABC STORY standard Yes Two days in the Bildu bastions with a former anti-terrorist commando of the Civil Guard: «We are better than the SEALs» Manuel P. Villatoro -How have the police forces in Northern Ireland evolved? The RUC is now the Northern Ireland Police Service. They changed its name after the Good Friday Agreement to remove the bad reputation they had. Most were Protestants who had been accused of torture. It was a necessary change.
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