Drummuckavall Ambush

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Drummuckavall Ambush
Part of The Troubles
Date 22 November 1975
Location Drummuckavall, County Armagh
Result Introduction of undercover units by the British Army in Northern Ireland
South Armagh dubbed Bandit Country
Belligerents
Flag of IrelandProvisional Irish Republican Army Flag of the United KingdomBritish Army
(Royal Fusiliers)
Commanders
Unknown Lance Corporal Paul Johnson
Strength
1 ASU 1 Infantry section
Casualties and losses
None 3 dead
1 wounded

The Drummuckavall Ambush was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attack on a British Army observation post in South Armagh, Northern Ireland, near Crossmaglen, on November 22, 1975.

Contents

[edit] Background

After a bomb attack which claimed the lives of two Royal Marines at Drummuckavall (1974), the British Army withdrew from several manned observation points along the border between South Armagh and the Republic of Ireland. It was not until 1984, when the first surveillance watchtowers were erected, that the army presence in this region became permanent.[1]

The intelligence and control over the area relied then, and for about ten years, mostly on mobile posts, comprising small infantry sections.

[edit] The ambush

A section of four members of the Royal Fusiliers regiment, coming from Crossmaglen, mounted an observation post at 2:00 on 22 November 1975. Unknown to them, an IRA unit of 12 men had been watching their movements. At 16:20, heavy gunfire erupted, killing three Fusiliers and disabling the communications equipment. The Lance Corporal in charge of the party, unscathed during the first burst, was seriously injured when he tried to react, after the IRA men asked him to surrender.[2]

[edit] Aftermath

Shortly after the ambush, Merlyn Rees, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, issued a famous statement dubbing South Armagh Bandit Country.[3] The next year, the British Government deployed the Special Air Service into the province in order to deal with the IRA. The secretive and undercover nature of this elite force made of them the best choice to infiltrate the South Armagh area.

The British Army also changed tactics: Major General Dick Trant established small teams of troops, called COPs (Close observation platoons), with the purpose of collecting information, often in plain clothes or camouflaged in the landscape. They were also able to set up ambushes, like the ill-fated Operation Conservation, in 1990.[4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Harnden, page 254
  2. ^ Harnden, pp. 67-68
  3. ^ Harnden, page 68
  4. ^ Harnden, page 169

[edit] References

  • Harnden, Toby;Bandit Country:The IRA & South Armagh. Coronet Books, 1999.