Glasdrumman ambush

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Glassdrumman ambush
Part of The Troubles
Date 16 July 1981 Location near Crossmaglen, County Armagh Result British Army operation thwarted IRA retains ability of setting up roadblocks
Belligerents
Provisional Irish Republican Army	British Army (Royal Green Jackets)
Commanders
Unknown	Lance Corporal Gavin Dean †
Strength
1 ASU	1 Infantry section
Casualties and losses
None	1 dead 1 wounded

The Glasdrumman ambush was an attack on a British Army Observation post carried out by members of the IRA South Armagh Brigade at a scrapyard near Crossmaglen, South Armagh. The action took place on July 16, 1981.

Contents 1 Background 2 The action 3 Aftermath 4 Notes 5 References

[edit] Background

The crisis triggered by the Hunger strikes of IRA and INLA prisoners in 1981 led to an increase of Republican militant operations over Northern Ireland. The most common of them, besides the violent street protests, was the mounting of illegal checkpoints, mainly on the IRA-controlled roads in South Armagh. To counter it, the British Army deployed the so-called COPs (Close observation platoons), actually small infantry sections acting as undercover units. On May 6, 1981, two IRA volunteers were arrested while trying to set up a roadblock east of the main Belfast-Dublin highway.^[1]

[edit] The action

Upbeat by this success, the army continued this tactics. On July, five concealed positions were inserted into the Glassdrumman area, around a scrapyard along the border. One team was under orders of purchase any IRA unit at sight, while the other four would block the expected escape routes. Unknown to the British, the IRA pinpointed most of the observation posts. After about 12 hours, the officer in charge suspected that the operation had been compromised and ordered the withdrawal. Shortly after, one of the sections was suddenly cut down by automatic fire from an M60 machine gun and Armalite rifles. The team, emplaced inside a derelict van, was hit by some 250 bullets. The section's leader, Lance Corporal Gavin Dean, of the Royal Green Jackets regiment, was killed instantly, and one of his men seriously wounded. The IRA ASU fired its weapons from across the border.^[2]

[edit] Aftermath

British army commanders concluded that risking lifes in order to prevent the IRA from mounting roadblocks was untenable. The incident also exposed the difficulties of concealing operations from local civilians in South Armagh, whose sympathy with the IRA was manifest. Several years later, the IRA would repeat its success against undercover observation posts in the course of Operation Conservation in 1990.^[3]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Harnden, Toby:Bandit Country:The IRA & South Armagh. Coronet Books, London, 1999.