Barrack buster

Last updated
Mk-15 Barrack Buster
Barrack buster feb 2010.jpg
IRA's Barrack Buster mortar
Type Mortar
Place of origin Northern Ireland
Service history
Used by Provisional IRA
Wars The Troubles
Production history
Designed1992
ManufacturerHomemade
Specifications
Shell HE 196–220 pounds (80–100 kg)
Caliber 320mm (12.75in)
Maximum firing range275 yards (250 m)
Detonation
mechanism
Impact

Barrack buster is the colloquial name given to several improvised mortars, developed in the 1990s by the engineering unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Contents

The improvised mortar properly called "barrack buster" - known to the British security forces as the Mark 15 mortar - fired a 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long metal propane cylinder with a diameter of 36 centimetres (14 in), which contained around 75 kg (165 lb) of home-made explosives and had a range of 75 to 275 metres (246 to 902 ft). The cylinder is an adaptation of a commercial gas cylinder produced by the Cobh company Kosangas for heating and cooking, and used in rural areas across Ireland. [1]

The Mark 15 was first used in an attack on 7 December 1992 against an RUC/British Army base in Ballygawley, County Tyrone, [1] [2] The projectile, fired from a tractor parked near the town's health center, was deflected by the branches of a tree besides the perimeter fence. A number of civilians had to be evacuated. [3] [4] It took ten hours for the British Army technicians to defuse the device. [5] A later IRA statement acknowledged that the mortar bomb had "failed to detonate properly". [6] The following, more successful attack took place on 20 January 1993 in Clogher, also in County Tyrone, [2] where the local RUC compound was heavily damaged, [7] and several RUC constables wounded. [8]

Provisional IRA's mortars

The barrack buster belongs to a series of home-made mortars developed since the 1970s. The first such mortar—Mark 1—was used in an attack in May 1972 and it was soon followed by the first of a series of improved or differentiated versions stretching into the 1990s:

Strategic impact

The intensification of the IRA's mortar campaign in the late 1980s led the British government to increase the number of army troops in Northern Ireland from its lowest ebb of 9,000 in 1985 to 10,500 in 1992. [28] Also in the 1980s, defense authorities undertook a huge and costly plan to fortify its security facilities across the region to tackle the threat. [29] The IRA's use of mortars combined with heavy machine guns compelled the British Army to build their main checkpoints more than a mile away from the Irish border by 1992. [30]

These mortars were also used against targets in England, such as the Downing Street attack on 7 February 1991, and the Heathrow mortar attacks in March 1994. Both attacks were intended by the IRA to put pressure on the British Government to negotiate with them. [31] [32]

Use by other groups

In 1972 the Official IRA developed a type of mortar which was used in attacks against several British Army installations on 5 December that year. [33] Provisional IRA-type mortars have been used by the Real IRA, who also developed their own fuzing system, in the 2000s. [34] In early 2000 a new type of mortar was tested by the Real IRA in County Fermanagh. The weapon was classified as a "Mark-19" by the British Army. [35] Furthermore, what appears to be a similar or identical mortar technology known in Colombia as "cilindros" (or "cylinders" in English) have been used since 1998 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). ETA in Spain was in 2001 rumoured to have built mortars "very similar" to the IRA's. [36] The possible transfer of this mortar technology to the FARC was a central issue in the arrest in August 2001 and later trial of the so-called Colombia Three group of IRA members, who were found innocent of false claims by Colombian authorities and the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs that they “allegedly” trained FARC in the manufacture and use of this mortar technology even though there was no evidence presented at trial to prove the claim. [37] [38]

A derived term in Belfast refers to a two or three-litre bottle of inexpensive white cider. [39]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Geraghty 1998, p. 193
  2. 1 2 Ryder 2005, p. 256
  3. "New IRA mortar threat", Sunday Tribune, 7 March 1993.
  4. The Irish Emigrant, 1 February 1993
  5. "150lb bomb defused". Aberdeen Press and Journal. 8 December 1992. p. 1.
  6. "Barrack Buster Bomb". ulib.iupuidigital.org. The Irish People. 13 February 1993. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  7. Fortnight Magazine , Issues 319-23, p. 33 (1993)
  8. "RUC police officers injured in mortar attack". UPI. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  9. 1 2 Oppenheimer and English (2009), p. 229
  10. CAIN database of deaths, 10 December 1972
  11. 1 2 Geraghty 1998, p. 189
  12. Geraghty 1998, p. 190
  13. 1 2 3 Geraghty 1998, p. 191
  14. Geraghty 1998; Smith 2006; Davies 2001, p. 13.
  15. Reynolds, David (2001). Commando: The Illustrated History Of Britain's Green Berets. Haynes / Sutton Books, p. 163. ISBN   0750922095
  16. 1 2 Davies 2001, p. 14.
  17. 1 2 Geraghty 1998, p. 192
  18. Geraghty 1998, p. 195
  19. Geraghty 1998, p. 196
  20. Potter, John (2008). Testimony to Courage: The History of the Ulster Defence Regiment 1969–1992. Pen and Sword. p. 350. ISBN   978-0850528190.
  21. Ryder, Chris (2005). A Special Kind of Courage: 321 EOD Squadron -- Battling the Bombers. Methuen. p. 256. ISBN   978-0-413-77223-7.
  22. The Daily Telegraph 10 October 1993
  23. Brady, Tom (27 February 1993). "Hammer blow to Provo bombs factory". Irish Independent. p. 1.
  24. Harnden 2001, p. 398
  25. Oppenheimer and English (2009), p. 238
  26. Geraghty 1998, pp. 196–197
  27. "Inside the Ira - Weapons & Technology | the Ira & Sinn Fein | FRONTLINE | PBS". PBS .
  28. Ripley & Chappel 1993, p. 20
  29. Taylor, Steven (30 June 2018). Air War Northern Ireland: Britain's Air Arms and the 'Bandit Country' of South Armagh, Operation Banner 1969–2007. Pen and Sword. ISBN   978-1-5267-2155-6.
  30. 'Official describes British-Irish border as 300-Mile Difficulty Associated Press, 12 May 1992
  31. Neumann, Peter R. (1 January 2007). "Negotiating With Terrorists". Foreign Affairs. 86 (1). Archived from the original on 26 February 2017.
  32. O'Brien, Brendan (1999). The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin. Syracuse University Press. p. 310. ISBN   0815605978.
  33. Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party. Penguin UK, 2009. Chapter 4: Defence and Retaliation.
  34. Smith 2006; Davies 2001, p. 14.
  35. Henry McDonald (25 June 2000). "Republican rebels gain strength". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  36. Davies 2001, p. 15.
  37. Committee on International Relations (24 April 2002). "Summary of Investigation of IRA Links to FARC Narco-Terrorists in Colombia". US House of Congress. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 16 June 2007.
  38. "Colombia clears IRA suspects". the Guardian. 27 April 2004. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  39. Belfast slang

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References