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24 January 2015

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Secret report reveals Irish Republican Army DID bring down army helicopter over south Armagh

SECRET Ministry of Defence files show that IRA gunfire DID bring down a military helicopter in south Armagh in 1978, killing a high-ranking British Army officer who served with the SAS, something British commanders refused to admit at the time such was the achievement of the IRA and the blow to British military morale.

In a statement published in An Phoblacht at the timethe IRA reported that it had shot down the aircraft but the Ministry of Defence strenuously denied this, stating definitively:

“Lt Col Corden-Lloyd was killed in a flying accident – repeat, a flying accident – while engaged in operations over south Armagh.”

The unionist daily the News Letter reports today:

“An official report into the incident, released following a Freedom of Information request, records that, shortly after 5pm on 17 February 1978, South African-born Lt Col Ian Corden-Lloyd, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion Royal Green Jackets, took off from the Army base at Bessbrook Mill.

“The senior officer took off in a Gazelle helicopter after reports that a patrol from his regiment was under heavy attack from IRA gunmen near Jonesborough.”

As the Army Air Corps crew tried to track the withdrawing IRA unit for British Army reinforcements, IRA Volunteers opened fire on the aircraft, hitting it and the soldiers inside. (The IRA unit withdrew safely to base.)

The News Letter adds:

“Corden-Lloyd, who was awarded the Military Cross for an earlier tour in Northern Ireland and also served on attachment with the SAS, was killed in the impact, while the pilot and Captain Schofield were wounded, the latter suffering serious injuries.”

Lt Col Corden-Lloyd was posthumously awarded an MBE and buried with full military honours.

A sheepish Ministry of Defence has declined to comment this weekend on the revelations other than to say:

“We have nothing more to add to the air accident investigation.”

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