Steven Taylor - Air War Northern Ireland: Britain’s Air Arms and the ’bandit Country’ of South Armagh, Operation Banner 1969 - 2007

Air War Northern Ireland

Britains Air Arms and the Bandit Country of South Armagh

Operation BANNER 1969-2007

Steven Taylor

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

Pen & Sword Aviation

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Steven Taylor 2018

ISBN 978 1 52672 154 9

eISBN 978 1 52672 155 6

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52672 156 3

The right of Steven Taylor to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.

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F or their assistance with official records and historical information, I wish to thank the staff at the National Archives, Kew; the RAF Air Historical Branch; 38 (Irish) Brigade; the MoDs Army Secretariat; and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

For permission to quote extracts from published sources, I would like to thank The OBrien Press Ltd ( Insider and Enemy of the Empire ); Routledge ( British Generals in Blairs Wars Jonathan Bailey, Richard Iron and Hew Strachan, 2013); Flight International magazine (extract reproduced with permission of Reed Business Information Limited via PLSclear); HarperCollins Publishers Ltd ( Hellfire Ed Macy, 2009); Guy Warner ( Sycamores Over Ulster ); Headline ( Heroes of the Skies 2012 MAA Publishing Ltd. Extracts reproduced by permission of Headline Publishing Group); Imperial War Museum, London (various sound archives); Pan Macmillan ( Northern Ireland: Soldiers Talking Max Arthur, 1987. Extracts reproduced with permission of Pan Macmillan via PLSclear); Duncan Rogers of Helion & Company ( A Long Long War and Wasted Years, Wasted Lives - The British Army in Northern Ireland Vol. 2 ); Stuart Leasor ( Rats: The Story of a Dog Soldier ); and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc ( Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein Peter Taylor, 1997).

My thanks are also due to the following for their kind permission to use the illustrations featured in this book: The International Auster Club; Eamon Melaugh; Tony Crowley and the Claremont Colleges Digital Archive Murals of Northern Ireland; David Townsend; Donald MacLeod; Museum of Army Flying; the Airborne Assault Archives, Duxford; www.flyingmarines.com ; Victor Patterson; and BAe Systems.

Finally, I wish to thank Richard Doherty and the team at Pen & Sword.

Map of Northern Ireland ( Queen Mary University of London)

Bristol F2B (public domain)

Auster WE551 ( The International Auster Club)

Westland Sioux AH1 over Londonderry, 1972 ( Eamon Melaugh)

GPMG-armed Westland Sioux AH1 (Courtesy of flyingmarines.com )

Bessbrook Mill ( Museum of Army Flying)

DHC-2 Beaver AL1 ( BAE Systems)

Aerospatiale Gazelle AH1 (Courtesy of flyingmarines.com )

IRA volunteers manning Browning M2 ( Victor Patterson)

Westland Wessex HC2 XR506 ( Aviation Photo Company)

Test-firing of FIM-92 Stinger ( US Department of Defense)

Russian DShK 12.7mm heavy machine gun (iStock)

Mural of Lynx being shot down ( Tony Crowley)

Westland Lynx hovering over South Armagh field ( Museum of Army Flying)

View of Romeo watchtower from door gunners position ( Airborne Assault Archives, Duxford)

Britten-Norman Islander AL1 ( David Townsend)

Boeing Chinook HC2 airlifting section of watchtower ( Donald MacLeod)

Jonesborough, South Armagh 17 February 1978

T he Arospatiale Gazelle skimmed over the fields of South Armagh, flying at a height of just fifty feet. The rolling countryside flashing below was some of the most scenic in the British Isles, but the officer sitting in the observers seat of the sleek helicopter, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Corden-Lloyd, wasnt interested in taking in the sights. Instead, his mind was firmly focused on reaching the village of Jonesborough, just a few hundred metres from the border with the Irish Republic.