Battle of Newry Road | |||||||
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Part of the Troubles and Operation Banner | |||||||
![]() RAF Puma helicopter | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
![]() • South Armagh Brigade | ![]() • ![]() | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
5 Improvised tactical vehicles | 5 helicopters 16 soldiers | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1 heavy machine gun 2 light machine guns 1 assault rifle | 2 helicopters damaged | ||||||
Location within Northern Ireland |
The Battle of Newry Road was a running gun battle between British Army helicopters and Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) armed trucks, fought along the lanes east of Crossmaglen, County Armagh, on 23 September 1993. The engagement began when an IRA motorized team from the South Armagh Brigade attempted to ambush three helicopters lifting off from the British Army base at Crossmaglen, one of them carrying the 3rd Infantry Brigade Commander.
According to British Army reports, the IRA carried out 23 attacks on helicopters in south County Armagh during the Troubles. [1] Until the early 1990s, when the Westland Lynx were fitted with heavy machine guns, all British helicopters in Northern Ireland flew unarmed. [2]
Following two attacks with rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) in 1974 and 1976, the introduction by the South Armagh Brigade of M60 machine guns raised its level of firepower. [1] In February 1978, in the follow-up of a shooting between British troops and IRA members, a Gazelle helicopter crashed when its pilot attempted to avoid machine-gun fire, killing a Royal Green Jackets Lieutenant Colonel on board. [3] Exactly a year after, a Scout helicopter was hit nine times while flying over Glassdrumman. A Grenadier Guards Major was wounded, but the pilot managed to land the machine safely. [1] One Gazelle was damaged in January 1980 and another in May 1981, both near the village of Cullaville. [4] In yet another incident, an RAF Wessex was hit nine times over Croslieve mountain, west of Forkhill, in 1982, by rounds fired from an M60 and a .50 Browning machine gun, allegedly recovered by the IRA from an Allied aircraft that crashed on Lough Neagh during World War II. [5] The same weapons were fired at the same Wessex (serial number XR506) [6] flying over Aughanduff Mountain in May 1983. [5] This time, the machine was hit by 23 rounds and received severe damage. [6]
The Libyan shipments of weapons for the IRA in the mid-1980s included 18 DShKs 12.7mm machine guns, which further enhanced the anti-aircraft capabilities of the South Armagh Brigade. [5] These weapons were used for the first time against a British Army helicopter in June 1988, when an Army Air Corps Lynx was hit by 15 rounds and brought down by an IRA unit near Cashel Lough Upper. [7]
Another incident occurred on 20 February 1990, when an IRA team composed of at least 20 volunteers attempted to attack a helicopter at Newtownhamilton, but their efforts were thwarted when a van, a car, and several masked men manning a light machine gun were spotted by an RAF Wessex on a reconnaissance mission. After a hot pursuit in which some vehicles and some IRA volunteers escaped, three of the men were tracked to Silverbridge, where the Wessex landed three soldiers and two Royal Ulster Constabulary constables. The men were arrested, but the security patrol was suddenly overwhelmed by a stone-throwing crowd of 40 residents, who forcibly released the suspects. One of the men arrested was Jim Martin, who had recently been part of a scheme to smuggle anti-aircraft missiles from the United States. He was still at large and living in the area at the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. In later searches in the area, security forces recovered two AK-47 and a Heckler & Koch rifles and two light machine guns. The AK-47s had been used in the killing of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan in 1989. [8]
On 13 February 1991 a Lynx helicopter was heavily damaged and brought down near Crossmaglen by an IRA unit using a heavy machine gun and two GPMG machine guns. The machine was hit by eight DShK rounds and two GPMG rounds, and eventually crash-landed near Silverbridge. The crew were rescued unhurt by a second Lynx. [9]
On 11 June 1993, the South Armagh Brigade attempted to shoot down a Puma helicopter taking off from the Crossmaglen base with an improvised mortar. The barrack buster, fired from the back of a local baker's delivery van, exploded on the helipad shortly after the pilot had managed to take off. Two Lynx helicopters escorting the Puma failed to prevent the attack. The IRA action was carried out to coincide with a one-day visit to Northern Ireland by Queen Elizabeth. [10] [11]
On 23 September 1993, [12] approximately at 2:00 pm, members of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade deployed five armed trucks in different positions around the Crossmaglen barracks. [13] The targets were a troop-carrying RAF Puma helicopter lifting off from Crossmaglen's helipad and its escort of two British Army Lynx. [12] On board the Puma was the 3rd Infantry Brigade Commander, who was paying a visit to different bases in a farewell trip to the soldiers at the end of their operational tour. [14] Author Toby Harnden states that the IRA used two DShK heavy machine guns and three light machine guns and opened fire from near St. Patrick's Church and the community centre. [12] Staff Sergeant Shaun Wyatt, commander of one of the two Lynx initially under attack, identified two firing positions, one of them from a 4x4 vehicle. [15] The IRA version is that they fired from a wooded area, and that their firepower became diminished when a number of weapons jammed. They claimed that the helicopters were in the process of landing when the shooting began. [13] The IRA report also lists rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) among the weapons deployed in this action. [13]
The Puma was hit by a heavy 12.7mm round almost immediately and climbed away, while the two escorts, Lynx 1 and Lynx 2, were also targeted from another firing point. Two other escorts, Lynx 5 and Lynx 7, came to support their colleagues. Lynx 2 avoided being hit by heading to the north at low level. [15] Some sources claim that the Puma was hit several times. [16] [17] The IRA acknowledge that the helicopters manoeuvred away from the stream of bullets directed at them and that they were joined by the other two helicopters. Two of the trucks headed east along Newry Road and a 12-mile chase ensued, amid a fierce exchange of gunfire; one of the helicopters was hit and forced to disengage, according to republican sources. [13] Harnden says that, besides the Puma, one of the Lynx was also damaged in the action. [12]
The British helicopters initially spotted two trucks and one supporting car, but they lost track of the smaller vehicle, while one of the trucks turned off into a farmyard. Lynx 2 rejoined the battle by engaging the retreating trucks from the south. The aircraft tried to fire upon the truck's convoy twice, but the machine gun jammed in the first occasion and another Lynx crossed the line of fire in the second. [15] The IRA claim that the helicopters fired 'indiscriminately' against civilian property and cars with 'rockets and machine gun fire'. [13] The remainder lorry stopped in the main street of a village near Crossmaglen, and a number of men transferred weapons to a Transit van. At this point Lynx 1, which had come back to base to muster troops, landed eight soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment, who engaged the van with small arms fire. [15] Three masked men got out unscathed from the vehicle and hid in a bungalow. They later slipped away in another car, [15] but the soldiers were powerless to intervene since the individuals were not carrying weapons [12] and the officer in charge of the operation was not sure whether the men were the same ones who had driven the van. Other troops were delivered by Lynx 2 near the farm where the other truck had been concealed, only to find that the vehicle and its occupants had vanished. [15]
The helicopters fired 200 rounds, [12] while the IRA report put the number of rounds spent in the whole engagement in the thousands. [13] The action lasted for 10 to 30 minutes, [12] [13] and was assessed by the British Army as the most intense gun battle ever in South Armagh. [13] The authorities recovered a DShK, two light machine guns and an AK-47. [12] There were no casualties on either side, [15] and all the IRA volunteers got away. [13]
According to author Nick Van Der Bijl, the Gardaí found two IRA trucks on the southern side of the border. [18] Six months later, on 20 March and 12 July 1994, the IRA in South Armagh managed to shoot down one British Army Lynx and one RAF Puma with home-made mortars. [19]
After the incident, the British Army improved armour protection for their helicopter crews in Northern Ireland, as well as the machine gun mountings and sightings. There were plans to purchase a Skyship 600 Airship in the role of flying command post to improve co-ordination from a safe height. Within days of the gunbattle, Royal Navy's Sea King helicopters were deployed to the west of the country to release Army Air Corps and RAF helicopters to boost South Armagh's effort. [13] On 26 April 1994, Staff Sergeant Shaun Wyatt, commander of Lynx 2, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his deeds during the battle. [15] The medal won by Staff Sergeant Wyatt was sold at Bosleys auction house for more than £100,000 in June 2011. [20]
The East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles". It is believed to have drawn its membership from across the eastern side of County Tyrone as well as north County Monaghan and south County Londonderry.
The DShK 1938 is a Soviet heavy machine gun. The weapon may be vehicle mounted or used on a tripod or wheeled carriage as a heavy infantry machine gun. The DShK's name is derived from its original designer, Vasily Degtyaryov, and Georgi Shpagin, who later improved the cartridge feed mechanism. It is sometimes nicknamed Dushka in Russian-speaking countries, from the abbreviation.
The South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operated during the Troubles in south County Armagh. It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. By the 1990s, the South Armagh Brigade was thought to consist of about 40 members, roughly half of them living south of the border. It has allegedly been commanded since the 1970s by Thomas 'Slab' Murphy who is also alleged to be a member of the IRA's Army Council. Compared to other brigades, the South Armagh IRA was seen as an 'independent republic' within the republican movement, retaining a battalion organizational structure and not adopting the cell structure the rest of the IRA was forced to adopt after repeated intelligence failures.
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).
On 13 December 1989 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacked a British Army permanent vehicle checkpoint complex manned by the King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) near the Northern Ireland–Republic of Ireland border at Derryard townland, a few miles north of Rosslea, County Fermanagh. The IRA unit, firing from the back of an armoured dump truck, attacked the small base with heavy machine-guns, grenades, anti-tank rockets and a flamethrower. A nearby Army patrol arrived at the scene and a fierce firefight erupted. The IRA withdrew after leaving a van bomb inside the complex, but the device did not fully detonate. The assault on the outpost left two soldiers dead and two wounded.
Operation Conservation was an attempt by the British Army to ambush a large Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit along the Dorsey Enclosure, between Cullyhanna and Silverbridge, in south County Armagh. The action took place on 6 May 1990 but was thwarted by the South Armagh Brigade of the IRA.
The Glasdrumman ambush was an attack by the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) against a British Army observation post in Glasdrumman, County Armagh on 17 July 1981. An attempted ambush by the British Army on IRA members at a scrapyard southwest of Crossmaglen was itself ambushed, resulting in the death of one British soldier and the IRA retaining the ability to set up checkpoints in South Armagh.
The Drummuckavall ambush was an attack by the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on a British Army observation post in Drummuckavall, southeast of Crossmaglen, County Armagh, on 22 November 1975. The attack, which occurred along the border with the Republic of Ireland, resulted in the deaths of three British soldiers and underlined the inefficiency of conventional military skills to deal with the situation in South Armagh, prompting the deployment of the Special Air Service (SAS) in this area.
The South Armagh Sniper is the generic name given to the members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) South Armagh Brigade who conducted a sniping campaign against the British Army from 1990 to 1997. The campaign is notable for the snipers' use of .50 BMG calibre Barrett M82 and M90 long-range rifles in some of the shootings.
This is a chronology of activities by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from 1980 to 1989. For actions before and after this period see Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions.
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The Clonoe Ambush was a military action between the British Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) that occurred during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. On 16 February 1992, an IRA unit attacked the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) security base in the village of Coalisland in County Tyrone, and was ambushed shortly afterwards by the Special Air Service (SAS) in the grounds of a church in the village of Clonoe whilst attempting to make its escape, resulting in several IRA fatalities.
On 19 March 1994, a British Army Lynx helicopter was shot down by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland. A unit of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade fired a heavy improvised mortar at the British Army base in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The mortar round hit and shot down the helicopter, serial number ZD275, while it was hovering over the helipad. Three British soldiers and a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) member were wounded.
On 11 February 1990, an active service unit of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade shot down a British Army Gazelle helicopter along the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It took place between Augher in County Tyrone and Derrygorry in County Monaghan. The helicopter was hit several times by heavy machine-gun fire and crash-landed on an open field, injuring three members of its crew of four.
On 17 February 1978, a British Army Gazelle helicopter, serial number XX404, went down near Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, after being fired at by a Provisional IRA unit from the South Armagh Brigade. The IRA unit was involved at the time in a gun battle with a Green Jackets observation post deployed in the area, and the helicopter was sent in to support the ground troops. The helicopter crashed after the pilot lost control of the aircraft whilst evading ground fire.
The occupation of Cullaville took place on 22 April 1993, when 12 armed members of the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) set up a checkpoint on the main crossroads of Cullaville, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, isolating the small village for a two-hour period, despite the presence of a British Army watchtower some yards away. The IRA men withdrew before the security forces in the area could react.
On 23 June 1988, an Army Air Corps (AAC) Westland Lynx, serial number XZ664, was shot down by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Aughanduff Mountain, County Armagh, in Northern Ireland. A unit of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade fired at the British Army helicopter using automatic rifles and heavy machine guns. The disabled helicopter was forced to crash-land in an open field; the aircraft and its crew were eventually recovered by British forces.
Throughout the protracted conflict in Northern Ireland (1960s-1998), the Provisional IRA developed a series of improvised mortars to attack British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) security bases. The organisation also purchased both light and heavy machine guns in order to hamper the British Army supply of border bases by helicopter. The IRA fitted vehicles, specially vans and trucks, with both types of weapons. Vans, trucks and tractors were modified to transport concealed improvised mortars to a launch area near the intended target and fire them, while light and heavy trucks were employed as firing platforms mounting machine guns, particularly M60s and DShKs. Improvised armoured vehicles and heavy equipment were also used to penetrate the perimeter of fortified security bases. The IRA vehicles were often disguised as belonging to civilian companies or even government agencies.
On 13 February 1991, an Army Air Corps (AAC) Westland Lynx Mk7, serial number ZE380, was shot down by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the vicinity of Crossmaglen, County Armagh, in Northern Ireland. The IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed the aircraft while approaching the joint British Army-RUC base in Crossmaglen using automatic rifles, general-purpose machine guns and heavy machine guns. The heavily damaged helicopter was forced to crash-land in an open field; the aircraft and its crew were eventually recovered by British forces.