1978 British Army Gazelle downing

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Coordinates: 54°5′10.15″N 6°21′59.12″W / 54.0861528°N 6.3664222°W / 54.0861528; -6.3664222
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1978 British Army Gazelle downing
Part of the Troubles and Operation Banner

A British Army Gazelle helicopter
Date17 February 1978
Location
Jonesborough, southern County Armagh
54°5′10.15″N 6°21′59.12″W / 54.0861528°N 6.3664222°W / 54.0861528; -6.3664222
Result IRA victory
Belligerents
Provisional IRA
  United Kingdom
• British Army
Commanders and leaders
unknown  † Lieutenant Colonel
Ian Douglas Corden-Lloyd
MC OBE
Strength
1 active service unit 1 Army section
2 helicopters
Casualties and losses
unknown 1 killed
2 wounded
1 helicopter lost
1978 British Army Gazelle downing is located in Northern Ireland
1978 British Army Gazelle downing
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Location within Northern Ireland

On 17 February 1978, a

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.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Douglas Corden-Lloyd, 2nd Battalion Green Jackets commanding officer, died in the crash. The incident was overshadowed in the press by the La Mon restaurant bombing, which took place just hours later near Belfast.

Background

By early 1978, the British Army forces involved in

the border, especially in south County Armagh, where the level of IRA activity meant that every supply and soldier had to be ferried in and out of their bases by helicopter since 1975.[4]

The Royal Green Jackets had been in South Armagh since December 1977, and had already seen some action.[5] Just a few days after arrival, two mortar rounds hit the C Company base at Forkhill, injuring a number of soldiers. In the aftermath of the attack, two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were wounded by a booby-trap while recovering the lorry where the mortar tubes were mounted.[6] Two days later,[6] a patrol near the border suffered a bomb and gun attack, leaving the commanding sergeant with severe head wounds.[5] The sergeant was picked up from the scene by helicopter.[6] He was later invalided from the British Army as a result of his injuries.[5]

Shooting and crash

On 17 January 1978, a Green Jackets observation post deployed around the village of

Irish border to the east, along the Dromad woods. The soldiers returned fire, but the short distance to the border and the open ground prevented them from advancing.[7]

The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel

serial number XX404) hit a wall and crashed on a field,[9] some 2 km from Jonesborough.[7] According to the crew and passengers of the Scout, the Gazelle hit the ground twice after losing power, with its rotor blades trashing into the soil following the second impact, and then cartwheeled across the field. The Scout landed the ARF still under IRA fire. The soldiers rushed to the wrecked helicopter, some 100 metres away from the site of the initial crash.[8]

Corden-Lloyd was killed

Gardaí witnessed the attack from the other side of the border.[11]

Aftermath

The gun battle and Gazelle shootdown was displaced from the headlines by the deaths of twelve civilians in the La Mon restaurant bombing on the same day, some of whom were burned to death.[13] Initially the British Army downplayed the IRA's claim as published by An Phoblacht,[13] that the helicopter was shot down, on the basis that no hits were found on the wreckage, but finally they acknowledged that the IRA action had caused the crash.[10]

The death of Corden-Lloyd, a former

Irish republicans had accused Corden-Lloyd and his subordinates of brutality against Belfast Catholics during an earlier tour of the Green Jackets in 1971, at the time of Operation Demetrius.[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gazelle – Thoroughbred racer[permanent dead link] Soldier's magazine, February 1978
  2. ISBN 0-89141-100-3
  3. ISBN 0-86232-047-X
  4. ^ "Since the mid-1970s virtually all military movement has been by helicopter to avoid casualties from landmines planted under the roads; even the rubbish from the security forces bases is taken away by air." Harnden, p. 19
  5. ^ a b c Dewar p. 154
  6. ^ a b c Barzilay, p. 177
  7. ^ a b c Barzilay, p. 180
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-1-5267-2155-6
    .
  9. ^ a b UK Military Aircraft Losses – 1978
  10. ^ a b "A Chronology of the Conflict, 1978". Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  11. ^ a b "British Army to publish Gazelle crash findings." Flight International, 18 March 1978.
  12. ^ Newsweek, Volume 91, Issues 1–9. Newsweek, 1978.
  13. ^ a b Coogan, p. 292
  14. ISBN 0-85342-938-3
  15. ^ Dewar, p. 156
  16. ^ London Gazette
  17. ISBN 978-0-900-06819-5 Chapter 11
  18. ISBN 1-84415-956-6

External links
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