Operation conservation

Operation Conservation was a British Army attempt to ambush a large IRA unit along the Dorsey Enclosure, between Cullyhanna and Silverbridge, at South Armagh, during the early days of May 1990. The operation was discovered and thwarted by the IRA South Armagh Brigade.

British Plan

The British Army, in the hope of luring a large IRA ASU into attacking an entrenched Light Infantry unit, deployed around the route between Cullyhanna and Silverbridge. The position was to be surrounded and watched by 16 concealed platoons belonging to the Scots Guard regiment. The goal was to surprise and destroy any IRA unit that attempted to penetrate the area.

The action

The troops were inserted into the zone on the first hours of May 3. The IRA was observing this movements, and was able to located several of the hidden Observation Posts. Eventually, they decided to attack a platoon near Cullyhanna, which was in the more vulnerable situation.

On the very first hours of May 6, the Guards team began to receive heavy fire from an IRA unit emplaced on the slope of a hill nearby. The OP was attacked with two 12.7 mm GPMGs and a Heckler & Koch G3 rifle, the latter used to cover the machine gun team runaway. The IRA members fired their machine guns from a rocky terrain next to an abandoned building. The shooting last some 90-seconds, and a total of 216 rounds were expended by the two sides. The platoon's leader, Lance Sargent Graham Steward was hit and died of wounds the following day.

Aftermath

The sudden counter-ambush disrupted the British operation, and the officer in charge aborted it. Author Toby Harnden suggests that this IRA show of force proved again that they could disputed the ground to the troops elsewhere in South Armagh, seriously hampering their freedom of movement.

References

Harnden, Tobin: Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh, Coronet books, 1999.