Page 189 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
uniform and introduced himself and his Sergeant all while speeding – as fast as possible – towards the open road.
The Army Captain and his colleague were in civilian kit and both were carrying weapons from the local camp. There had been a shooting in Middletown on the Border and with the gunman still at large and, driving a stolen car, the British Army and the RUC were out to make sure that the man didn’t make it back over the Border. Within minutes of picking-up their ADU passengers, the Captain and his Sergeant had the gunman’s car speeding up right behind them. Lights on full beam he flashed them and then dashed ahead while giving off even more smoke than the old Cortina! Then, as Sgt Playfoot recalled: “... like something from TV’s The Sweeney we sped after him, and he kept his speed. As he drove faster, around corners and bends, the tyres squealed on both cars and the smell of rubber in the car was horrendous. Then, suddenly, we saw the car ahead brake heavily, slow down and vanish around a sharp corner. To our surprise the gunman had stopped and reversed through a farm gate. We saw his headlights, which he immediately switched off as we passed the bend, and the front of the car protruding from the farm building! ‘Got Him!’ was the Captain’s relieved reaction as he pulled up and jumped out of the vehicle with his Sergeant.”
As the men cocked their weapons and dived into the prone position, one of them shouted to the gunman: “Get out of the car! Get... out... of... the car!” Slowly, the ‘gunman’ opened his car door, hands high in the air, and cried out: “Please don’t shoot...I’m Police!”
Sea Dogs
Operation GRENADA (known as Op G to the handlers), covered the regular seaborne patrols of Ulster’s coastal waters mounted by the Royal Navy (RN). The aim of the patrols was to prevent both Loyalist and Republican terrorist groups moving arms or explosives in or out of Northern Ireland by sea. The ADU Sea dogs – officially called Naval Vehicle Search dogs, are funda- mentally the same as a regular VS dog with the double capability of working on sea going vessels. Handlers, mainly from the 39th Inf Bde, covered this duty on a rotational basis, on average, twice a month spending 7 – 10 days aboard RN vessels, accompanied by Royal Marines (RM), routinely searching inside and out of all size of vessels in every kind of weather with their canine partners beside them. This was no easy task especially as
the handlers’ uniform included a cumbersome, thermal insulated immersion suit which, worn in conjunction with a lifejacket, protected them from cold water temperatures easily capable of causing hypothermia.
The duties of the seaborne search team were particularly perilous. Scaling the soaring side of a ship on rope ladders, that had slimy green wooden slats, made securing a foothold very risky. At the same time, the majority of Search dogs adapted quickly to being hoisted aboard and then getting to work as the ships cut through the cold waters. While the dogs found their sea legs very quickly, not all handlers coped so stoically with the sickness and so, for a few devoted land lovers, the RN combined missions were never a favourite.
The affiliation of the ADU with HMS Quorn, became a poignant memory for more than those involved in the searches at sea when, in February 1990, circumstances conspired to create a breach of the sea wall. High spring tides, storm force gales and a pumping failure contributed to the HQ being flooded out for two days but, as expected ADU HQ at Ballykelly continued to operate as ‘normal’. When the electricity supply was finally restored on 6th March the Unit took stock and were relieved to discover, as one veteran said: “there were no reports of any fish being recruited for the service!”
Partnerships
The Ammunition Technical Officers or ATOs, like ADU’s handlers risked their lives on a daily basis to save lives and property, defusing a multitude of IEDs – sometimes simple, crude devices, more often than the extremely complex designed to cause maximum devastation. Equally the Royal Engineer Search Teams (see later under training) always arranged Search dogs to support their work, particularly the ‘high risk’ searches. Undoubtedly, lives depended on the close working relation- ships that were formed between all professional operators in the Province during the Troubles. They were relationships that remained intact and ongoing – no matter where future campaigns were being fought across the globe. The close relationship with Special Forces remained so during Op BANNER. Lieutenant Colonel Chris Ham was posted to Northern Ireland as a young Cpl dog handler in March 1984 and on one occasion during December 1984, working alongside a specialist unit at a location at Kesh in County Fermanagh, shots were heard close by. The victim, a British soldier, had been mortally wounded by an IRA gun team hiding in a hedge. The IRA had
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