Page 119 - RSDG Year of 2021 CREST

Regiment was attacked in almost exactly the same area and, due to the IRA cleverly placing two bombs on the north side of the border, killed 18 soldiers.
I did see some action as I was luckily allowed to use a section of Royal Marines (RM), based in Newry, for odd police work, and had much success on one occa- sion in catching a gang of youths who used to regularly stone the local police cars in the town. This section was composed of the cooks, clerks and administrators for the RM Newry Company site who were desperate to see some action. The situation on the ground was such that the RUC were reluctant to attend any callouts. I encouraged them to attend what was obviously a ‘come- on’ and encircled the area with my little band so that the youths could not escape, as they normally did. We caught the ring leaders red handed and no further inci- dents occurred. I do not know what happened to the ring leaders but suffice to say you do not tangle with a Royal Marine. The RUC were very grateful and I thor- oughly enjoyed the outing.
It was then back to Edinburgh for R and R(Rest and Recuperation). While I was still the RSO for the new Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Arthur, I spent most of my time running the Regimental stables at Berwick while other officers did their stints in Northern Ireland. Before going back for my 3rd tour, it was decided I would be the Police Liaison Officer (PLO) with the task of being the link between the RUC and our troops, who were to be based at Belfast Airport in an infantry role supporting the Belfast Brigade who were having a horrible time with bombs and riots. Before deploying to the Province I was sent on an Intelligence Course at Hythe, then the home of the Army Intelligence Services (AIS). The course was very interesting and gave me an insight into my new role.
At the start of Summer 1973 I arrived at Antrim RUC station to carry out my new role of PLO. D Squadron was sent to Belfast Airport at the same time for a 4 month tour, and I used them for most of my tasks out- side Belfast. I was now on a 6 month tour assisting with handovers of the squadrons as they changed. I had a small office in the RUC compound where a Corporal from the Intelligence Corps worked for me and I was allocated an old caravan in the car park where I slept. I was also allocated Corporal Groat as my driver and com- panion because we did not often work alone for safety reasons. He was from D Squadron and luckily was an excellent pistol shot and a very good driver. For trans- port I was given a 3 litre Vauxhall Velox which the RUC had confiscated from a bank robber. With both car and pistols Corporal Groat and I had some exciting outings.
I had some interesting jobs during this tour and was given a lot of help from the local Special Branch who I worked with, mainly within County Antrim. There was an IRA bomber who did not specifically try to kill peo- ple, but only to destroy property. He always gave a warn- ing to the RUC but sometimes his descriptions of where the bombs were placed, or a timescale when they would explode, were not sufficiently accurate to allow every- one to escape unhurt. Still, his trail of destruction was immense and it was my task to assist in apprehending him. One day we were given a tip off that he would be playing Gaelic Football for a local team and we staked out the match, but with no success. However, on our way home with two Special Branch officers we stopped a car leaving the match that looked suspicious. We arrested the driver and, after four days of holding him under arrest, he admitted he was the bomber. He was imprisoned for several years and it greatly improved the working relations between the RUC and the Army.
A second task was closer to home when, from a tip off I made contact with a protestant worker at the RAF Aircraft Repair Centre, at Belfast Airport, where the RAF’s fast jet fighters went for major overhauls. It turned out that the contact knew the Ulster Defence Associate (UDA) were unable to acquire detonators for their bombs and were stealing them from the repair cen- tre, where they were used in the repair of the ejection seats for the aircraft. Closing down this supply chain was very satisfactory and, I believe, saved a number of lives later on in the troubles.
Due to the number of bombs that were being reported at this time , and the small number of available ‘EOD’ bomb disposal teams, the other PLOs and I were given the task of attending bomb reports from the public to decide whether they were hoaxes or for real, before the EOD were involved. I am glad to say many calls were false alarms but we also came across real bombs which stirred up the adrenalin. My very first call to attend a pos- sible bomb was the reported bomb on a fishing boat on Loch Neagh. The crew had reported a rucksack which had been placed in the engine room of their boat and which they did not recognise. With this limited infor- mation I boarded the boat on my own and, with some trepidation, descended into the engine room. There I found the rucksack and, upon peering inside, saw what I thought looked like a real bomb. I got out as quickly as I could and sauntered back to Corporal Groat as if there was nothing to be worried about. We had been told that we should do this so as not to frighten the general public who had gathered to watch. Once back a safe distance I called for EOD team who came and, due to the difficulty of moving the bomb, decided to blow it up in situ. The explosion was huge and the boat promptly sank. I am just glad it did not go off while I was on board.
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