1st Battalion
The Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders
Ballykelly 1980 - 1982
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1st Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
Ballykelly 1980 - 1982 |
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All photographs are the property of RHQ Argylls and may not be reproduced or copied without permission from RHQ Argylls.
6th March the battalion took over Shackleton Bks, Ballykelly from 40 Commando RM as a Resident Infantry Battalion under command 8th Infantry Brigade. As a Northern Ireland Resident Battalion life was rather different from the previous four-month emergency tours the battalion had previously done. To be accompanied by families was the most significant (and nicest) difference; there were material differences such as a large and comfortable base at Ballykelly with its excellent facilities and with all our belongings with us; and there were differences in the quality of life; less hectic and with considerably greater freedom for all than in, say, Belfast. However used as we were to the restrictions and intensity of work of a four-month tour, a Resident tour of twenty months or so did require a more gentlemanly pace.
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Ballykelly was considered to be quite a good posting. For the single jocks, the accommodation blocks had been or were in the process of being modernised into bedrooms units with considerably more privacy; there was a good Junior Ranks Club with a full programme of shows, film nights, and disco evenings (with girls 'bussed' in), and a shop. There was a library, an air-hall for indoor sport, a heated indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley and even a traditional (plastic) pub all within the safety of the barracks; all this in addition to acres of playing fields sometimes waterlogged and good training and administrative facilities. Off-duty walking out was allowed (subject to sensible safety-rules of course), but many jocks preferred to save their money and were content to make use of the facilities in camp; besides, off-duty time was often short because of operational and other duties, many of which go on round the clock.
For the families, the quarters were generally adequate, some were very good, and there were nearly enough so the waiting list was not long. The local school was considered good; emphasis is on the 3Rs, discipline was good, and generally it was run on lines similar to Scottish schools, which for the battalion was appropriate. There was a garrison kindergarten, plus the battalion’s own kindergarten, which was run by Mrs Grant and catered for about forty sons and daughters of the Regiment. The local shopping town was Limavady and was roughly the same size as, Helensburgh; about half an hour's drive beyond was Coleraine, which was about as big as Oban. Opportunities for wives to work outside the Army environment were virtually non-existent, but this was offset by wives enlisting into the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), where jobs were available as secretaries, radio and telephone operators, drivers, kitchen staff and so on. There was a thriving community centre on the quarter’s estate and the Wives Club flourished. For the rifle companies, separation of husbands from families amounted to about forty days in four months, plus some night guards; naturally the married men do just as much as the single men, not to mention the washing up.
Work for the four rifle companies (A, B, C and D Companies) was shared round with a different task each month; for one month a company was Brigade Reserve Company, at readiness to be called to any trouble spot in the Brigade area or even further a field; another company provides guards, escorts and duties; another was on training or leave or carrying out extra operational assignments; and the fourth company was deployed away on operations based at Strabane. Once completed, the cycle comes round again and it has its fair share of variety.
The operational cycle required considerable support and Headquarter Company provided this; this had operational elements such as the Close Observation Platoon and the Operations Room complex in Battalion Headquarters, which includes signals and intelligence teams. The rest of HQ Company provides the essential administrative support such as transport, repair and recovery of vehicles and weapons, the Quartermaster's departments, catering staff and messes, orderly room and pay staffs, medical and families' staffs, PT instructors and regimental police, a holding platoon (Aden Platoon) for the underage soldiers, the Band, the Chaplain and so on. For the first few months in Ballykelly, the manpower shortage required bandsmen to fill many of the administrative posts, but when welcome reinforcements arrived due to improved recruiting and some reorganisation, the Regimental Band were restored to their proper musical role. The Pipes and Drums had a double existence as a fully operational rifle platoon in C Company, and a Pipe Band it did them credit that they maintained their high standards of piping and drumming, especially on occasions when the weather was very Irish.
Those who know the Regiment may be interested to learn that except for band ceremonial, and on formal mess occasions, the Highland uniforms were virtually in mothballs for the duration; daily working dress in Northern Ireland was camouflage combat clothing and the familiar large cap badge was blackened, but the khaki Tam O'Shanter bonnets continue to identify the battalion on operations and the guard wore the Glengarry.
On a more serious note it would only be honest to say that some things have not gone as the battalion would have wished; a woman was accidentally shot at Strabane; the officers mess ante-room was destroyed by fire and some priceless Regimental treasurers thereby lost. The cowardly murder of Corporal Owen McQuade while waiting outside Altnagelvin Hospital for a fellow NCO to visit his wife reminded us all that life in the Province is anything but normal. We will remember with respect and affection this mild, yet strong man. He was a competent section commander and soldier on previous tours in Belfast. He was a loving husband, kindly father and firm friend. His contribution to the battalion in the Families Office during this tour was considerable. He will be missed.
The first six months at Ballykelly were relatively quiet; the Marching season necessitated a good deal of standing by, and frequent involvement in Londonderry and South Derry. Meanwhile there were regular sorties to South Armagh, and operations in South Fermanagh and Tyrone for periods of a week or more. The battalion’s commitment to supply a company to Strabane finished in October and it began to prepare for its next permanent company task in Dungannon where it was firmly installed by mid November.
In the space of nine months the battalion had operated in five of the six counties, and trained in the sixth. Not bad for a residential battalion based in the far North West of the Province at a time of easing tension and increasing stability. For the last ten weeks of 1980 the tasks were increased, and the battalion worked at 4 month tour pace. A 'temporary' deployment to South Fermanagh lasted nearly seven weeks. A company deployed to Dungannon, and the prison officers dispute necessitated the setting-up and manning of a temporary prison HMP Foyle fifteen miles from Ballykelly, alongside the permanent prison of Magilligan. Argyll companies guarded the prison from 28 October until 28 December when relieved by 1st Battalion Scots Guards. The Second-in-Command had the dubious privilege of commanding the prison as a local Lieutenant Colonel, ably supported by the CSM and CQMS of Headquarter Company throughout the tedious eleven weeks. It might amuse some readers and horrify others to know that the same local Lt Col, started his army career guarding Egyptian generals and politicians in Port Said in 1956, guarded Greek Cypriots in Pyla Detention Camp with his platoon over Christmas 1958 and commanded a company whose platoons guarded Hess in Spandau in 1969/70.
1980 was a busy year and one could muster depressingly easily a list of cancelled events — the Battalion Highland games, the Balaklava Day inter platoon football and inter company rugby competitions and the Novices Boxing Competition. The battalion also withdrew from the Northern Ireland Boxing and Rugby competitions. Training had to be planned, postponed, cancelled and restaged ad hoc. On the other hand the footballers were still in the Infantry Cup having shown some grit in doing so. The hockey team played with distinction.
Social life had been sporadic until October and then virtually suspended. Excellent entertainment was been provided by the Bandmaster and his team whenever possible. This has ranged from CSE shows and groups to exotic dancers! Often the barracks has resembled a ghost town populated by the odd sapper or UDR soldier.
1981
The year began relatively quietly with the companies changing over tasks each month that was until April when the hunger strikes began. Bobbie Sands was the first terrorist who starved himself to death in the Maze Prison on the 5th May. 12th May a second protestor died. The hunger strike went on, and between May 12th and August 20th 1981 nine more prisoners starved themselves to death. During this time the battalion moved into a period of overstretch which lasted until early July. The term "Exceptional Circumstances" becomes a misnomer when used a second and third time. So it became routine to have three rifle companies deployed and, during the Sands, Hughes and O'Hara funerals, all four were out. Headquarter company, already represented in four company locations and with Tactical Headquarters, became experts in guarding Ballykelly.
From mid April 1981 Battalion tactical headquarters was set up in the RUC station in Armagh. The Commanding Officer, relieved by the Second-in-Command and supported by Operations officers, and teams of watchkeepers and signallers, commanded the central area of the border between Fermanagh and South Armagh. For two months the battalion had companies in Dungannon and Armagh, then it was reduced to one company. It also had a battery of RHA under operational control, also a battalion of UDR. So where else had the companies been and what were their tasks? They have revisited Strabane, Magherafelt and spent a long day in Bellaghy. Companies have secured the routes to Forkhill and Crossmaglen. C Company will remember the freezing rain of February, while A Company savoured some rare summer sun. Fermanagh, that temporary deployment which started in October 1980, continued for the battalion in varying strengths from a company to one platoon until June. There the companies patrolled, and manned permanent sand-bagged vehicle check points close to the border in conditions which would probably have reminded old soldiers of "the trenches." The close observation platoon meanwhile operated mainly in Fermanagh and South Derry without the spectacular success they deserved. The finds of weapons and ammunition was steady without hitting the headlines. Hours of ambushes were not rewarded, one will never know how much they and the greater amount of patrolling have served to deter the terrorist.
Through all this, which has of course meant unreasonable separation for a two year battalion, all ranks and their wives have remained good tempered and resilient. As in 1980 there has been a pattern of planned and subsequently cancelled competitions both military and sporting. However in one week in April, the battalion managed to stage a two-day Skill at Arms Competition in good weather, and a Battalion Swimming Gala. There was a Grade One Board, and a most valuable regular radio users cadre. The MT held a safe and skilled driving competition. NCOs and men have continued to go on School of Infantry courses despite deployments as a vital investment for the future. Much credit went to company commanders for managing to operate without them, and to the NCOs who have prepared for the courses in difficult circumstances, and compounded their separation by attending them.
The sporting record was lean. Although the footballers had a good record in the unfinished Northern Ireland league, they played miserably in both the Army and Infantry Cups. Lack of practice and match fitness mainly contributed to their poor displays. The hockey team, consisting of many mature players, acquitted themselves with distinction in the league and might well have been runners-up had they always been able to field the regular side. Lieutenant Docwra, Cpl Bratton and L/Cpl Ward entered the Northern Ireland Boxing Competition. Cpl Bratton was beaten in the final, and no one disgraced himself. There was an adventure training, canoeing and hill-walking, expedition near Mallaig for a party of twenty-seven. The anglers were spinning yarns and occasionally catching fish from river and sea. The sub-aqua club continued to thrive. A few individuals went sailing in dinghies and bigger vessels, Pte MacMillan from Mull even managed a cruise in the Mediterranean. The golfers started a golf monthly medals competition and recruited more fanatics to the fairways. Leave was the main recreation, after a delay to A Company's leave and some individuals in Headquarters Company, leave went more or less as planned.
The end of the two years in Ballykelly ended quietly, the handover to 1 Cheshires went smoothly and the battalion went home on leave for three weeks before flying out to the sun of Cyprus in March 1982.
Updated: 15 April 2015