Magazine St
by John Bradbeer
I remember the incident reasonably well some 31 years on. I had arrived in Northern Ireland a slightly jittery private soldier, much like the others in our battalion. My first tour and it was to be Londonderry City Centre. Several months of training including the obligatory 'tin city' was not enough to quell our nerves. Of the members of my brick (a four man patrol) only one had served in the province before. He did his best to make matters worse with stories of bombings, ambushes and shootings, that he would have us believe happened on a daily basis. The situation was not helped by the fact that the outgoing battalion had lost a man in the last couple of days of their tour.
As it happened, for the first couple of weeks, life was actually quite boring. Nothing happened, no bombs, no shootings etc. Perhaps it was the fact that we were like cats on a hot tin roof! The IRA was probably just waiting.
Inevitably we all calmed down and became more aware of our surroundings, although this did not mean less cautious. The first of the bombings started, banks were a popular target with a simple carrier bag complete with petrol can and explosive hung over the railings outside. Then came the snipers, but try as they might, they were unsuccessful. A near miss was the best they could manage, when their potential victim knelt down as the shot was fired. A nice impact about six inches over the soldiers head nearly turned his hair white!
Then there was the time when our brick was 'volunteered' to be the bait in an attempt to catch an IRA RPG team. Despite several hours sat in a pig armoured car in the car park above the Strand rd Police station, the only thing that happened was boredom. The RPG team never materialised in my time on tour.
But the incident that I spoke of in the beginning of this was possibly the best attempt by the IRA. Londonderry is a walled city, actually quite a pretty historic city. At various points in the walls were gates that could be locked to ensure that access to the City at night is only available through manned check points. Now some bright spark decided that the gates should be locked and unlocked by a patrol at 6am and 6pm every day. Although access to the top of the walls had been barred for some years, there was still great potential for an ambush. With this in mind the brick unfortunate enough to be tasked with locking or unlocking was supplied with a sniffer dog and handler.
Early in May our brick was given the task of unlocking the gates at 6am. We moved from the guildhall gate sanger following the wall on the inside to Magazine St. The brick would move with the dog and handler on the front right with Purse, our Corporal. One man to his left and two of us behind to the left and right with a decent space as tail end charlies. I was at the rear left.
Once into Magazine St we headed towards Butchers gate, our first gate to unlock. As we were almost adjacent to a notorious night club on the other side of the walls, a loud explosion took place immediately on the walls beside us. The dog and his handler were completely bowled over, as was Purse. I felt a rush of air and debris knock me over, but in an instant I had regained my feet and had my SLR cocked and ready. The training I had received kicked in immediately, that and a healthy degree of self preservation! Our first thoughts were that we would be fired upon from the night club that stood some height above the walls. With this in mind we ran towards the nearest cover available, a large gateway beside a building being renovated. Remarkably everyone was ok. The dog although subdued was being petted by his handler. There followed a contact report and a quick conflab. Looking around we were still quite exposed from our rear where there was an empty building. With this in mind we decided to bug out. By this time I was at the front right with Purse to my left and the others in their positions behind. We took a quick peek out onto the street and nothing stirred, it was almost as if the explosion had not happened. Purse and I stepped out into the street. As this was very much a side street and in the early hours of the morning there was complete silence. We trained our rifle sights on potential sniper positions, partly as a deterrent and partly because the recently issued scope sight on the SLR gave a degree of magnification. Looking to my left I saw a large builders skip; I could see Purse looking at it as well. As we looked there was a tremendous explosion and the skip appeared to lift up from the ground. Simultaneously a wave of debris and blast hit us. I found myself several yards down the street in a complete daze. Purse was not far away. He got to his feet and took control of the situation and helped by our colleagues we withdrew to the doorway we had only just left.
Fortunately neither of us was serious hurt, cuts and bruises were all we had. As with all squaddies in Northern Ireland at the time we wore flak jackets that were of a fibreglass composite, without a doubt these had saved us from serious harm. After sending a further contact report we ran from the doorway up the Street to more secure cover. The skip looked just like a flattened box. Fortunately for us the blast from the considerable amount of explosive in the skip had been deflected upwards due to the shape. Other patrols rushed to our aid, but there was little to do. No follow up from the IRA came. We later discovered through Intel that that this had been a carefully planned attack, the bomb on the wall had been placed there to funnel us up the street to the skip bomb. Fortunately for us we took cover first and this had undoubtedly saved us from more harm. Although having said that, the design of the skip had been instrumental in the failure of the second bomb to claim victims.
There were many other incidents before the battalion finished the tour. But for the first time in years the terrorists had failed to kill a soldier on tour.
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