Operation Banner

[SARGE!!!!]

Operation Banner is the British army,s longest operation.For those who don't know,It was designed to support the civil authorities in Northern Ireland, and has done so for 38 years.
I didn't want to start a thread that's going to be pulled apart for historical inaccuracies, I just couldn't find anywhere else to say.......Thanks Andy,I owe you one,I won't forget..............................R.I.P.

[JAILER]

Want to share Andy's story with us?

[SARGE!!!!]

My best mate in basic. Got killed by a command wire bomb in Northern Ireland 21 years ago. nothing more to say........****ing miss him!

[SARGE!!!!]

Sorry 'bout the swearing.

[EsoognomEhT]

Yep good work boys, RIP to all those lost defending our country from terrorists long before it was fashionable



OP Banner Details : http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/DA8CD95F-90D4-4720-8EC9-C850EDA5443C/0/op_banner_analysis_released.pdf

[Royal]

RIP to all of you, but Steve and Jase especially.

Fair winds and following seas. You'll never be forgotten.

[Irish]

The British army's role in Northern Ireland officially ends at midnight tonight.
Hugh Orde, the Chief Constable of the PSNI, said he is confident his officers can cope without the support of the British army, which is ending its 38-year role supporting the police in Northern Ireland.
Mr Hugh added there had been no reliance at all on back-up from the army for many months and that they were no longer needed.



He expressed confidence that he would not need to call on the army again for back-up, but that the PSNI had to be mindful that there was still a very real dissident republican threat.


Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said Northern Ireland is taking another major step towards normality.
He said the completion of the demilitarisation programme authorised two years ago by former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain was welcome.
He said it was a further significant step towards the realisation of a normal, peaceful, and prosperous society in Northern Ireland.
A garrison of 5,000 soldiers will remain, but they will be deployed in other countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.


Operation Banner began when troops arrived at Belfast Docks in the late summer of 1969, with no notion they were commencing what would become the longest continuous military operation in British history.
They were first mobilised because the then police force, the RUC and the B Specials, were unable to deal with growing unrest.
As the troubles deepened and guns came out, the British Army became participants in the conflict.


Of the almost 4,000 victims of the troubles, one fifth were British soldiers or members of the RIR or UDR.
In 1972, there were 27,000 members of the British armed forces in Northern Ireland.
Gradually the numbers were reduced. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 established the conditions to end Operation Banner.
As a consequence of the end of its role on the ground in Northern Ireland, the British army will stand down the home service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment.


Only the First Battalion, based in England, will remain.
A new regional army brigade, composed almost entirely of members of the Territorial Army, will be formed.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0731/north.html

[Irish]

Key events in 38-year British army mission in Northern Irelandhttp://img.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif
The Associated Press

Published: July 31, 2007
http://img.iht.com/images/articletools/dots_at_narrow.gif

BELFAST, Northern Ireland: Key events for British army in Northern Ireland.
1969
Aug. 14-15: Troops deployed as peacekeepers after Catholic rioters in Londonderry rout province's mostly Protestant police force and Protestant mobs burn Catholic homes in west Belfast. Catholics welcome soldiers as protectors.

1970
April 1: Army's locally-recruited Ulster Defense Regiment founded. Initially 18 percent Catholic, but intimidation from outlawed Irish Republican Army and Protestant hard-liners transforms regiment into virtually all Protestant.
July 3-5: Army imposes curfew on Catholic west Belfast, mounts house-to-house search for IRA weapons. Army kills four civilians in gun battles with IRA — its first killings — in key turning point for Catholic-army relations.

1971
Feb. 6: IRA sniper kills first British soldier, Gunner Robert Curtis, 20, in north Belfast.

1972
Jan. 30: Army's elite Parachute Regiment shoots to death 13 Catholic demonstrators in IRA-controlled part of Londonderry, which had been off limits for months to police and soldiers. Worst act of violence committed by army becomes known as Bloody Sunday.
July 31: Army launches biggest operation in Northern Ireland, codenamed "Motorman," involving 30,000 troops. Bulldozer-equipped tanks smash IRA road barricades.

1976
Britain deploys undercover Special Air Service soldiers to ambush, kill IRA units.

1977
Britain returns top authority for security to Northern Ireland police, with army in support. Army remains dominant in hardest-line Catholic areas, particularly west Belfast and Republic of Ireland borderland.

1979
Aug. 27: IRA kills 18 soldiers, mostly from the Parachute Regiment, with twin 800-pound (350kg) bombs detonated from across Irish border. Worst death toll suffered by the army in Northern Ireland.

Mid-1980s
Army in South Armagh borderland, where IRA ambushes force troops to travel by helicopter rather than road, build 14 hilltop surveillance posts to monitor "bandit country."

1987
May 8: 24-member Special Air Service team ambushes IRA unit in Loughgall village. Seven IRA men and a Catholic civilian shot dead with more than 600 bullets in what was army's biggest killing of IRA members.

1990
Oct. 24: IRA takes hostage the families of army civilian employees, who are forced to drive car bombs into army bases, their deliveries detonated by remote control. Six soldiers and one employee, a Catholic cook, killed. Army engineers design new security systems to counteract IRA's "human bomb" tactic.

1992
July 1: In bid to erode Protestant domination of Ulster Defense Regiment, army merges it with Republic of Ireland-recruited unit. The new Royal Irish Regiment remains overwhelmingly Protestant.
Sept. 4: Soldiers from Scots Guards regiment commit army's last fatal shooting in Northern Ireland. An unarmed 18-year-old Catholic, Peter McBride, is shot in the back as he runs away from soldiers searching him in north Belfast. Two soldiers convicted of murder but paroled as part of 1998 peace accord. To Catholic fury, both rejoin Scots Guards.

1996
Oct. 11: IRA drives two car bombs into army's Northern Ireland headquarters, killing one soldier and wounding 40.

1997
Feb. 12: IRA kills its last British soldier, when a South Armagh sniper shoots Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, 23, through the back as he chats to a local Catholic woman.

1998
April 10: Britain commits itself to "demilitarization" as part of Good Friday peace accord. Years of gradual troop withdrawals, base closures and security reductions commence.

2005
Aug. 1: Britain unveils two-year plan to cut army in Northern Ireland to peacetime level of 5,000 troops.

2007
July 31: Deployment of troops to support Northern Ireland police, codenamed Operation Banner, officially ends after 38 years.

http://www.shadowspear.com/vb/showthread.php?p=73775#post73775

[stoddy9311]

Paul RIP mate. see you for drinks at the big Sqn bar in the sky