A few weapons and explosives finds
Andytown 006.jpgAndytown 007.jpg
At the top left of the first image is an intelligence report into the weapons find which I had during one of our searches. The photo of the weapons was taken by a police officer from the RUC after we brought the weapons back to our BHQ at the Andersonstown RUC station. The newspaper cutting of the ‘large gelly find’ concerns an explosives cache discovered by my mate Bdr Brian ‘Horace’ Corser of 2 Troop - while he was out on one of his ’sneaky-beaky’ patrols on the Glenhill park estate. Our battery was the first unit to mount foot patrols in Andersonstown, all other units that had previously served there considered it far-too dangerous - and would only carry out operations from inside an armoured vehicle.
On the night in question, Horace had decided to return to base. The PYE radio’s were playing up, and the battery in the A42 manpack radio was running flat - there was the very real danger that they would lose contact with base completely. The patrol was moving through some gardens in Glenhill park and were just about to cross a road, when Horace heard a car approaching. The patrol took cover behind a hedge by the side of a house and waited… A car drew up directly opposite, and a man got out and walked around to the boot. The other occupant went inside a house and waited. Provo terrorist Joe Rice, lifted out a long plastic bag - and upon seeing this, Horace quietly walked up behind him… ‘I quietly opened the gate and walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. I said to him something like… "What have you got there mate?" he quickly turned around and looked at me with an expression of total shock on his face. He muttered to me: "gelly" and then promptly dropped the lot on the floor at my feet. I must have presented a right sight to him, because I was all blacked-up with camo paint and armed with a .303 sniping rifle.’
Shortly afterwards there was an exchange of gunfire as the Provo’s backup opened up on the patrol. The Provo’s themselves saw the funny side of the incident, and in the next issue of their magazine:‘The Volunteer,’ they published a cartoon of the incident. Horace added the stripes and glasses to the cartoon illustrated here. Even in times of adversity there could be moments of humour! The next image is of some IRA propaganda which was aimed at our battery. We had built up a reputation of being fair-handed when dealing with the locals, and the Provo’s went out of their way to discredit us. The piece about the use of ‘helicopters’ refers to an operation we mounted which caught them completely off guard. They reckoned that the only way we could have pulled it off was by being brought in by air - but that really wasn’t the case.
The last two images are of our regimental Part 1 orders for March 1972 after we returned to England. The glowing praise heaped upon our regiment is a testament to the way we carried out that tour of duty under the most trying of circumstances. The letter also shows that at least some of the locals appreciated our efforts. Click on images to enlarge, and then click again for maximum size.
Cheers,
Steve.
