William Matchett: The elite military was the last line of defence against heavily armed and barbarous IRA terrorists

During the ‘Troubles’ to be in the Provisional IRA and kill a SAS soldier was to be exalted in song, made a Christ-like figure in posters and earn the grandest headstone.

Elite soldiers faced this mortal danger without showing fear or complaining. They just got on with it.

One such incident was at Clonoe in 1992. In the confusion of darkness and noise, fast decisions left four attackers dead. Several were arrested and others fled among stolen vehicles and assault rifles. A monster machine gun usually fitted to a Russian tank was bolted onto a tipper truck. All the barrels of the Soviet weapons were hot. Terrorists who hated everything British and adept at murder were stopped, to the relief of ‘legitimate targets’ like a farmer in a field or construction workers in a bus.

The East Tyrone and Monaghan Provisional IRA, which included the Clonoe gang, was the most bigoted and barbarous of its day. It was responsible for several hundred murders, mainly in counties Tyrone and Fermanagh but also in places like Magherafelt, Loughgall and Tynan. On the 15th anniversary in 2007 of the Clonoe martyrs, republicans boasted of the gang being the ‘most active’ in the Brits-out war. Thirty-three years after the incident, the legacy inquest controversially ruled the four deaths were “not justified” (different to ‘not lawful’) as the SAS soldiers did not fear for their life! It also ruled that the plan and control of Special Branch for arrests were inadequate.

For a bit, I was in a police SWAT team sprinkled with ex-special forces. We were good, very good. But we were not the SAS, which is what it takes for frenetic terrorists. For a Clonoe situation, the tactical option in today’s world is a Predator Drone with Hellfire missiles. No nation would put its troops on the ground. In basic risk analysis, it is too dangerous. A hot topic globally of late is collateral damage. At Clonoe, no bystander was harmed. During the ‘Troubles’ collateral damage in covert operations was next to zero. Typical of legacy, this remarkable feat, which common-sense tells us is worth airing, was not in the ruling nor in reports by the big broadcasters.

Special Branch intelligence triggered SAS arrest operations, but the terrorist had a significant say in how they played out. Tasking elite soldiers against the highest-threat gangs constituted 5% of covert operations. The Clonoe ruling emphasised the SAS not giving a warning, as if this did not increase the threat to them, and attackers fleeing, as if running off meant no danger to SAS lives. Reality intrudes. In 1978, Corporal David Jones while on a ‘stake out’ challenged suspects. They killed him and badly injured another soldier. In 1984, SAS trooper Alistair Slater was murdered by a fleeing gang. The learning curve was unforgiving and one that elite soldiers did not row back on.

These were not jolly nice chaps who come quietly. Add a green head band to their black face masks and AKs, and you see the real Clonoe gang. More than just the Slater and Jones families will have been disgusted by the inquest verdict. Their voice in legacy has been lost due to weak and short-sighted British governments. No cop, soldier or innocent victim of the notorious cross-border terror group got the multi-million-pound inquest, media coverage or hefty civil claim given to a martyr.

In the face of murderous chaos, teetering on the edge of a sectarian bloodbath, elite military support for the civil police organisation was the last line of defence. Anything less would have resulted in body counts in the five or six figures, not four. The bravery, service and sacrifice of SAS soldiers in a highly hostile operational environment should have been honoured. Instead, it was tarnished.

William Matchett, Author of Secret Victory – The Intelligence War that Beat the IRA