FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1972
1972 - 0050.PDF
34 IRELAND- RIGHT International, 6 January 1972 -THE BORDER GUARD ing the border from the south, spotting the helicopter and immediately turning back. "We had one incident recently," said my staff sergeant friend, "when we had some IRA men fire on a patrol from Eire territory here"—•indicating a spot near Garrison, a border town in Co Fermanagh. "There was quite a battle, then they ran to a car. The Irish Army and the Gardai [police] assembled but took no action. I watched as the terrorists' car drove along a minor road in the Republic running parallel to the border, and approached the Irish soldiers and police from behind. They then got out and casually waved to me. All I could do was fly up and down giving a running commentary to our people on the ground but they were equally powerless." It is not only on border operations that the air recce squadrons' Sioux are employed; major search operations take place all over the province. Frequently the Sioux and 72 Sqn Wessexes work together in rural searches, the Sioux maintaining an overall scan of the area for suspect movement while a Wessex nips in and deposits a load of troops for a snap search. Then the smaller helicopters may quickly land to pick up pairs of soldiers to search outlying locations. Northern Ireland is a classic guerilla war in the sense that the enemy can be anywhere at any time. Foe is indistinguishable from friend. The initiative in timing and direction of attack is entirely his—the Army can only respond. Because of this no place can be considered entirely secure except heavily guarded Army compounds (and in the urban areas soldiers have even been killed by IRA marksmen or bombs while inside these). So no attempt is made at mobile refuelling for helicopters and, on border operations, considerable time is spent flying between the operational area and refuelling dumps at a few military camps, as safe as can be. For the same reason, that the attack can be anywhere, helicopter pilots carry side-arms for their self-protection should they be forced to make a precautionary landing into a hostile reception. Operational units are well spread out in the Northern Ireland operations and unit commanders are frequently whisked from one location to another by the ubiquitous Sioux. They have also been used occasionally to fly troops injured in skirmishes for medical attention but, paradoxi cally, these have been people with only minor injuries— walking wounded. The staff sergeant again: "Lying out on a stretcher mounted above the skids on a Sioux is frighten ing, cold and probably weakening for anybody seriously injured and perhaps semi-conscious. He can't be reached if he needs attention by anybody riding inside. In Northern Ireland you're never very far from good hospitals and in the case of a serious casualty it is more comfortable, medically safer and nearly as quick to take them by road." It is a point echoed by the RAF squadron leader attached to the Army's Northern Ireland headquarters at Lisburn, where he has set up and runs a joint tasking agency which co-ordinates the operations and tasks of all the aircraft involved in the emergency—a procedure giving maximum flexibility in their use. The presence of military helicopters in the province has led inevitably to requests from both military and civil authorities for cas-evac flights. "Some of these are rather unrealistic," the RAF advisor said. "We have to look at each request very hard. We ask the doctors in charge whether there really is any medical advantage in subjecting a possibly critically ill patient to the cold, noise and vibration of a helicopter to save very little time over a warm, comfortable ambulance proceeding over good roads. Often, not even this time would be saved. They usually agree there is no point." There have been cases, however, where a helicopter has still proved advantageous, and occasional aero-medical flights are made into a landing pad at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, around which there is a whole cluster of specialist clinics. Similarly, even the Irish Air Corps, Alouette Ills have been seen on this pad, on aero-medical flights to or from points in the Republic. A fairly recent addition to AAC training, not made SIP llllPI !••• •siSsWiSWJIili Co-ordination with ground units is evidenced by the two photographs, above and bottom, of a Sioux with Ferret Scout cars specifically in the Ulster context, has been the provision of "button-on" machine-gun kits for both Sioux and Scouts. Several demonstrations of helicpoters flying in the armed role have been given in Northern Ireland and one was witnessed by Flight at Magilligan Point, a sand-dune training area at the mouth of Lough Foyle on the north coast. There is some evidence that the authorities now regret their making a public spectacle of "gunships"—the resulting publicity, suggestive of Vietnam-type gunship operations being launched against the Irish public, is not what they sought. The facts are that in only one instance has an armed helicopter been flown operationally in Northern Ireland, although during the peak of the action last August they were on readiness to do so if needed to provide cover for troop-lifting helicopters. It is hard to see it being generally required, and less likely that it would be widely used. Certainly dispersion of fire, and its ferocity, evident in the demonstration we saw, one-and- one tracer colourfully illustrating every richochet off even the light sandy soil, would render it almost an indiscri minate area weapon, the use of which in most Northern Irish locations would hazard the innocent, while the inter national political damage resulting from misplaced shots from gunship helicopters would probably be disastrous. The button on kits all employ the 7-62mm GPMG, with a rate of fire of about 800 rounds a minute. They include a twin forward-firing installation for Scouts, with one gun *»«§§! iLiaLfei^.. • T y(•• !• W|p~-.. . ...f: • llti!*- BEB«aBBSMill& •* ffJMPJK .**••*. ...*•.*• •*_»..*.•.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
