Forkhill land mine attack

Forkhill land mine attack
Part of the Troubles
Date	17 July 1975
Attack type	Roadside bomb Gelignite Explosive material Landmine Attack
Weapons	Command Wire Detonation
Deaths	4 British Soldiers
Injured	1
Perpetrator	Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade

On 17 July 1975 the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA (IRA) detonated a land mine when a British Army foot patrol passed over the land mine, killing four British soldiers and seriously injuring another.^{[citation needed]} This was the first major breach in the truce negotiated by the IRA and British government back in February 1975. The attack took place in Forkhill which was right on the Irish border and a safe haven for IRA Volunteers from South Armagh.^[1]

Background[]

The Provisional IRA & the British government agreed to a truce in February 1975.^[2] The first major breach in the truce came in May 1975 when the RUC arrested Shane Paul O'Doherty who was an IRA volunteer who carried out a letter bomb campaign in England in 1973 & 1974 injuring scores of people,^[3] then two days later a volunteer from the Provisional IRA Derry Brigade shot dead RUC officer Paul Gray (20) with a high powered rifle while he was patrolling near Derry city's walls.^[4] The next major breach in the truce happened on the 7 July, just ten days before the Forkhill attack when RUC officer Andrew Johnston (27) was killed by a booby-trap bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) at a school in Lurgan, County Armagh.^[5]

The attack[]

On 17 July 1975 Major Peter Willis, the Green Howards company commander in Crossmaglen was accompanied by three British soldiers, all of whom were bomb disposal experts.^[6] They were investigating a milk churn at Cortreasla Bridge in Tullydonnell. They walked through a gap in a hedge which was next to a signpost. As they passed through the hedge an IRA Volunteer pressed a button which sent an electric current through an almost 400-yard long command wire which detonated a bomb which had an estimated between 70 - 80lbs of explosives in a beer keg which was very large for IRA bombs at that stage. All of four soldiers were killed instantly with another soldier injured by shrapnel.^[7]

The soldiers killed were Major Peter Willis (37), Edward Garside (34), Robert McCarter (33) and Calvert Brown (25).^[8] They were the first British soldiers to die at the hand of the IRA since the February truce.^[9]

Aftermath[]

The IRA claimed in statement that the attack had been in revenge for the killing of two of their own Volunteers. British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Merlyn Rees, issued a statement condemning those responsible for the killings.^[10]

Eventually an IRA Volunteer called Pat Thompson was convicted of the attack in March 1976 in which Thompson signed a statement saying that the Crossmaglen IRA unit was the unit who planned and carried out the attack. Thompson maintains however that he was forced to sign the statement after beatings & threats to his family. Thompson was not released until 1991, serving 15 years.^[11]

See also[]

• Ballygawley land mine attack
• Bessbrook landmine attack
• Dungannon land mine attack

References[]