Difference between revisions of "Special Reconnaissance Unit"

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The [[Special Reconnaissance Unit]] (SRU) was an undercover British Army unit which operated in Northern Ireland from 1972.
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{{Template:Northern_Ireland badge}}
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The [[Special Reconnaissance Unit]] (SRU) was an undercover British Army unit which operated in Northern Ireland from 1972.<ref>[http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Image:PREM16slash154.pdf Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland], National Archives PREM 16/154.</ref> It is better known even within the Army, by a variety of cover names, most commonly [[14 Intelligence Company]].<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.39.</ref> It seems likely that it was incorporated into the [[Special Reconnaissance Regiment]] on its creation in 2005.
  
 
==Formation==
 
==Formation==
 
According to a top Secret briefing prepared for Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] in April 1974, the Special Reconnaissance Unit replaced the [[Military Reaction Force]] units created in 1971:
 
According to a top Secret briefing prepared for Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] in April 1974, the Special Reconnaissance Unit replaced the [[Military Reaction Force]] units created in 1971:
  
−
::In 1972 the operations of the MRF were brought under more centralised control and a higher standard of training achieved by establishing a Special Reconnaissance Unit (SRU) of 130 all ranks under direct command of [[HQNI]].<ref>[[Image:PREM16slash154.pdf]] National Archives PREM 16/154 Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland.</ref>
+
::In 1972 the operations of the MRF were brought under more centralised control and a higher standard of training achieved by establishing a Special Reconnaissance Unit (SRU) of 130 all ranks under direct command of [[HQNI]].<ref>[http://www.spinprofiles.org/index.php/Image:PREM16slash154.pdf Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland], National Archives PREM 16/154.</ref>
  
 
==Secrecy and cover names==
 
==Secrecy and cover names==
 
The April 1974 briefing states:
 
The April 1974 briefing states:
−
::The term "Special Reconnaissance Unit" and the details of its organisation and mode of operations have been kept secret. The SRU operates in Northern Ireland at present under the cover name "[[Northern Ireland Training and Advisory Teams (Northern Ireland)]]" - NITAT(NI) - ostensibly the equivalent of genuine [[NITAT]] teams in [[UK Land Forces|UKLF]] and [[British Army of the Rhine|BAOR]].<ref>[[Image:PREM16slash154.pdf]] National Archives PREM 16/154 Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland.</ref>
+
::The term "Special Reconnaissance Unit" and the details of its organisation and mode of operations have been kept secret. The SRU operates in Northern Ireland at present under the cover name "[[Northern Ireland Training and Advisory Teams (Northern Ireland)]]" - NITAT(NI) - ostensibly the equivalent of genuine [[NITAT]] teams in [[UK Land Forces|UKLF]] and [[British Army of the Rhine|BAOR]].<ref>[http://www.spinprofiles.org/index.php/Image:PREM16slash154.pdf Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland], National Archives PREM 16/154.</ref>
  
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The secrecy about the unit's name appears to have been maintained until this briefing was released to the [[National Archives]] three decades later. One apparent reference comes in Martin Dillon's 1990 book ''The Dirty War'', which reports that according to Special Branch inspector [[Jimmy Blair]], Special Branch Sergeant [[Charlie McCormick]] and informer [[Anthony O'Doherty]] both "worked for a special unit of the Army. His use of the words 'special unit' is 'in itself' significant."<ref>Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, Arrow, 1991, p.356.</ref>
+
The secrecy about the unit's name appears to have been maintained until this briefing was released to the [[National Archives]] three decades later. One apparent reference comes in Martin Dillon's 1990 book ''The Dirty War'', which reports that according to Special Branch inspector [[Jimmy Blair]], Special Branch Sergeant [[Charlie McCormick]] and informer [[Anthony O'Doherty]] both "worked for a special unit of the Army. His use of the words 'special unit' is in itself significant."<ref>Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, Arrow, 1991, p.356.</ref>
  
 
Most accounts refer to what is clearly the same unit by a variety of cover names. The clearest account of these is perhaps in [[Mark Urban]]'s ''Big Boys' Rules''. According to Urban, the NITAT name was replaced in 1978 or 1979 by [[Intelligence and Security Group (NI)]] or [[Int and Sy Group]]. As with NITAT, there were genuine Int and Sy Groups in England and Germany. In the early 1980s, this name was replaced in turn by [[14 Intelligence and Security Company]]:
 
Most accounts refer to what is clearly the same unit by a variety of cover names. The clearest account of these is perhaps in [[Mark Urban]]'s ''Big Boys' Rules''. According to Urban, the NITAT name was replaced in 1978 or 1979 by [[Intelligence and Security Group (NI)]] or [[Int and Sy Group]]. As with NITAT, there were genuine Int and Sy Groups in England and Germany. In the early 1980s, this name was replaced in turn by [[14 Intelligence and Security Company]]:
 
::The name, usually contracted in speech to [[14 Intelligence Company]], 14 Company of simply 14 Int, became widely used within the Army. Indeed most people who have worked with the Army in Northern Ireland know it as such and that is why I will use this name, even to describe activities in the mid 1970s before the Army adopted it. This cover name suggested an analogy with [[12 Intelligence and Security Company]], a unit of report writers, index keepers and computer programmers rather than an organized force of undercover surveillance specialists.<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.39.</ref>
 
::The name, usually contracted in speech to [[14 Intelligence Company]], 14 Company of simply 14 Int, became widely used within the Army. Indeed most people who have worked with the Army in Northern Ireland know it as such and that is why I will use this name, even to describe activities in the mid 1970s before the Army adopted it. This cover name suggested an analogy with [[12 Intelligence and Security Company]], a unit of report writers, index keepers and computer programmers rather than an organized force of undercover surveillance specialists.<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.39.</ref>
 +
 +
Urban also states that [[4 Field Survey Troop]] was a cover name for the [[3 Brigade (Northern Ireland)|3 Brigade]] detachment of the unit during 1974.<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.</ref>
 +
 +
Minister [[Roger Freeman]] confirmed the presence of [[4 Field Survey Troop]] at Castledillon during this period in response to a question from [[Ken Livingstone]] in March 1988. He added:
 +
::Detailed information on this unit, which is not now deployed in the Province, is no longer available. The role of a Royal Engineer field survey is to provide or process aerial photographs, ground surveys and mapping for the Army as required. The strength of such a unit at that time varied between about 30 and 40, depending upon its specific task, and usually included two officers.<ref>[http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1988/mar/28/royal-engineers-surrey-troop-castledillon Royal Engineers Survey Troop, Castledillon], House of Commons, Written Answers, 28 March 1988.</ref>
 +
 +
In response to a second question from Livingstone on the role of NITAT's in Northern Ireland since 1973, Freeman stated:
 +
::Detailed organisational information on this is no longer available. There is no Northern Ireland training and advisory team (NITAT) currently in Northern Ireland. The role and composition of the NITATs are as described in my reply to the hon. Member on 29 February at column 422.<ref>[http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1988/mar/28/northern-ireland-training-and-advisory Northern Ireland Training and Advisory Team] House of Commons, Written Answers, 28 March 1988.</ref>
 +
 +
In an unpublished letter to the ''Guardian'' which appeared in ''Lobster'' magazine, former military intelligence officer [[Fred Holroyd]] commented:
 +
 +
::4 Field Survey Troop, Royal Engineers does not appear on the official list of Sapper units in Ulster for the three years mentioned. This is not surprising as the title was the first layer of cover which hid the fact that it was an SAS Troop. It's two Officers Commanding in my time were both infantry officers currently serving in 22 SAS Regiment, the second of these was Captain [[Julian Ball|Julian (Tony) Ball]], KOSB. His 2i/c was Captain [[Robert Nairac]]. The CSM, NCO's and operational members were either former, serving or recently trained SAS personnel. As it was co-located at Castledillon with an Engineer regiment, a second layer of cover was provided to satisfy soldiers of this regiment. They were told that the unit was a Northern Ireland Training and Tactics Team (NITATT).<ref>Fred Holroyd, [http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/online/issue16/lob16-02.htm Letter from Fred Holroyd to The Guardian], Lobster, June 1988.</ref>
 +
 +
Following the publication of the 1974 memo in 2006, ''Lobster'' editor Robin Ramsay concluded that "Holroyd's account has now been confirmed."<ref>Robin Ramsay, [http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/online/issue52/lob52-24.htm Fred Holroyd vindicated], Lobster 52, Winter 2006/7.</ref>
 +
 +
==SAS involvement==
 +
The SRU has had a close relationship with the [[SAS]] which has been the subject of some confusion. The first evidence came to light on 19 March 1974 when [[Robert Fisk]] reported in ''The Times'' that SAS members had been sent secretly to Northern Ireland "to serve as military undercover intelligence agents in Belfast and Londonderry:
 +
::Between 40 and 50 SAS men are serving in Northern Ireland. Attached to various regular army battalions on the province, they are operating mostly in plain clothes,carrying out patrols in civilian cars, keeping watch on the homes of suspected IRA men and Protestant extremists and, on some occasions, assuming false identities in order to  gather information in republican and loyalist districts.<ref>Robert Fisk, SAS men serve in Ulster as undercover agents, The Times, 19 March 1974.</ref>
 +
 +
The April 1974 briefing states:
 +
::Men who have served with the SAS are serving in the SRU but no SAS units are operating in Northern Ireland. One officer and 30 soldiers serving with the SRU since early January are due to resume service with [[22 SAS]] by 7 April. Their presence with the SRU went undetected until the Robert Fisk article in "The Times" on 19 March.<ref>[[Image:PREM16slash154.pdf]] National Archives PREM 16/154 Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland.</ref>
 +
 +
Attached to the briefing was a statement, which had been passed to the Irish [[Department of Foreign Affairs]]. It stated: “The facts are as follows. No SAS unit has been or is stationed in Northern Ireland.” The statement added that the policy had been not to use former SAS personnel on plain-clothes duties until two or three years after their service with the regiment had ended, but that in the past three months “use has been made of a number of volunteers, whose experience has been acquired only just beforehand.” There was mention of the fact that the soldiers involved would also be returning to the SAS immediately after serving in Northern Ireland.<ref>[http://www.spinprofiles.org/index.php/Image:PREM16slash154.pdf Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland], National Archives PREM 16/154.</ref>
 +
 +
Former senior [[SAS]] NCO [[Ken Connor]] has described the regiment's role in creating the unit he referred to as 14 Int:
 +
::The SAS developed a selection procedure, ran the induction course and training and staffed the upper echelons of the company with [[SAS]] officers.
 +
::That gave the Regiment a means of maintaining its influence over an area that should technically have been controlled by the [[Intelligence Corps]]. The SAS could have its cake and eat it too, maintaining an involvement in Northern Ireland without using manpower that was needed in the Middle East.<ref>Ken Connor, Ghost Force: The Secret History of the SAS, Cassell, 1998, p.269.</ref>
 +
 +
The deliberate ambiguity about the SAS role contributed to some obfuscation in the 1980s following Fred Holroyd's allegations about the unit at Castledillon, which he described as "an SAS troop" manned by "former, serving or recently trained SAS personnel", and perhaps most pointedly as "SAS by any other name".<ref>Fred Holroyd, [http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/online/issue16/lob16-02.htm Letter from Fred Holroyd to The Guardian], Lobster, June 1988.</ref>
  
 
==Role==
 
==Role==
Line 19: Line 49:
 
::The prime task of the SRU is to conduct covert surveillance of terrorists as a preliminary to an arrest carried out by security forces in uniform. The SRU may also be used to contact and handle agents or informers and for the surveillance and for the surveillance and protection of persons or property under terrorist threat. The SRU works to a great extent on [[RUC Special Branch|Special Branch]] information and the Special Branch have a high regard for it.<ref>[[Image:PREM16slash154.pdf]] National Archives PREM 16/154 Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland.</ref>
 
::The prime task of the SRU is to conduct covert surveillance of terrorists as a preliminary to an arrest carried out by security forces in uniform. The SRU may also be used to contact and handle agents or informers and for the surveillance and for the surveillance and protection of persons or property under terrorist threat. The SRU works to a great extent on [[RUC Special Branch|Special Branch]] information and the Special Branch have a high regard for it.<ref>[[Image:PREM16slash154.pdf]] National Archives PREM 16/154 Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland.</ref>
  
 +
==Structure==
 +
According to [[Ken Connor]], 14 Int was organised into 3 detachments, each about the size of an SAS troop, corresponding to three IRA brigade areas.<ref>Ken Connor, Ghost Force, Cassell, 1998, p.269.</ref> Urban also states that there were three detachments, but links them to the British Army's own brigade areas,<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.38.</ref> which he states were "[[39 Brigade]] in the Belfast area, [[8 Brigade]] in Londonderry and [[3 Brigade]] in Portadown covering the border.<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.16.</ref>
 +
 +
According to Urban each detachment consisted of about 20 soldiers, commanded by a captain, assisted when available by a lieutenant as liason or operations officer.<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.38.</ref>
 +
 +
===39 Brigade Area===
 +
The SRU's precursor, the Military Reaction Force was based in a compound at [[Palace Barracks, Holywood]].<ref>Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, Arrow, 1991, pp.75-85.</ref> According to [[Brendan Hughes]], [[Vincent Heatherington]] told his IRA interrogators in Crumlin Road prison in 1974 that he worked for a British intelligence unit based at Palace Barracks.<ref>Ed Moloney, Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland, Faber and Faber, 2010, p.179.</ref> It is possible that this may have been a detachment of the SRU.
 +
 +
===3 Brigade area===
 +
According to Urban, the [[3 Brigade]] detachment was commanded by Captain [[Julian Ball]], with then Lieutenant [[Robert Nairac]] as his liason officer, and operated under the cover name [[4 Field Survey Troop]].<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.</ref>
 +
 +
===8 Brigade area===
 +
A number of accounts link the [[4 Field Survey Troop]] unit at Castledillon to a similar unit in the Derry area.
 +
 +
[[Fred Holroyd]] states:
 +
::Around late 1972, MRF was wound up in Belfast and and another, more professional unit consisting of more reliable recruiting material, was formed at Ballykelly, disguised as a Signals Troop, a common cover for SAS. Soon after, a third undercover troop was set up as [[4 Field Survey Troop Royal Engineers]].<ref>Fred Holroyd and Nick Burbridge, War Without Honour, Medium, 1989, p.86.</ref>
 +
 +
Holroyd linked this unit with the activities of RUC officer [[Charlie McCormick]].<ref>Fred Holroyd and Nick Burbridge, War Without Honour, Medium, 1989, p.85.</ref>
 +
 +
[[Martin Dillon]] also links a Derry unit related to the one at Castledillon with McCormick and his IRA informant [[Anthony O'Doherty]] but gives a slightly different location:
 +
::[RUC officer Jimmy] Blair confirmed that both McCormick and O'Doherty worked for a special unit of the Army. His use of the words 'special unit' is in itself, significant. Is it possible that O'Doherty was trained in Castledillon? He was trained by the Army, but the Castledillon unit, according to my source, was one of several in Northern Ireland, which were responsible to London and not Army authorities in Northern Ireland. These units communicated with each other and there was one in South Derry which probably trained O'Doherty and liased with McCormick.<ref>Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, Arrow, 1991, p.356.</ref>
  
 +
The significance of the term 'special unit' would seem to lie in the name of the Special Reconnaissance Unit, still secret at the time Dillon's account was published in 1990.
  
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The SRU was a secretive British Army unit operating in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It had close links to the [[Special Air Service]].
+
==People==
 +
*[[Julian Ball]] - commanded [[3 Brigade (Northern Ireland)|3 Brigade]] detachment in 1974.<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.</ref>
 +
*[[Robert Nairac]] - Ball's number two, or liason officer.<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.</ref>
 +
*[[William Hatton]]<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.41.</ref>
 +
*Captain [[Anthony Pollen]]<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.42.</ref>
 +
*Corporal [[Paul Harman]]<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.43.</ref>
 +
*Lance Corporal [[Alan Swift]]<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.44.</ref>
 +
*Sergeant [[Paul Oram]]<ref>Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.253.</ref>
 +
*L Cpl [[William James Simpson]]<ref>Ciarán MacAirt, [http://www.papertrail.pro/special-forces-and-a-casual-cover-up/ Special Forces… and a Casual Cover-Up], Paper Trail, 17 October 2015.</ref>
 +
*Ranger [[John Patrick Tymon]]<ref>*Ciarán MacAirt, [http://www.papertrail.pro/special-forces-and-a-casual-cover-up/ Special Forces… and a Casual Cover-Up], Paper Trail, 17 October 2015.</ref>
  
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::SAS troops were operating in the North two years before their presence was acknowledged by the British government, according to a document uncovered by [[Justice for the Forgotten]] and the [[Pat Finucane Centre]].
+
==External resources==
−
::The 1974 file from the prime minister’s office – found at the [[National Archives]] in London in January – sheds new light on the early history of British covert operations during the Troubles...
+
*Ciarán MacAirt, [http://www.papertrail.pro/special-forces-and-a-casual-cover-up/ Special Forces… and a Casual Cover-Up], Paper Trail, 17 October 2015.
−
::The newly-discovered files show that the [[Northern Ireland Office]] (NIO) and the [[Ministry of Defence]] were tasked to produce a briefing on the SAS ahead of Wilson’s meeting with Taoiseach [[Liam Cosgrave]] on April 5, 1974.
 
−
::They produced a document entitled Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland, together with a copy of a statement that had been delivered to the Irish government.
 
−
::The statement to the Irish said: “The facts are as follows. No SAS unit has been or is stationed in Northern Ireland.”
 
−
::It added that the policy had been not to use former SAS personnel on plain-clothes duties until two or three years after their service with the regiment had ended, but that in the past three months “use has been made of a number of volunteers, whose experience has been acquired only just beforehand.”
 
−
::The full extent of the SAS role is only revealed in the briefing itself which states:
 
−
:::“Men who have served with the SAS are serving in the SRU [[Special Reconnaissance Unit]] but no SAS units are operating in Northern Ireland.
 
−
:::“One officer and 30 soldiers serving with the SRU since early January are due to resume service with 22 SAS by April 7. Their presence with the SRU went undetected until the Robert Fisk article in The Times on 19 March.”...
 
−
::The SRU is almost certainly the unit generally known by the cover name [[14 Intelligence Company]], and the precursor of the new [[Special Reconnaissance Regiment]], which was involved in the London shooting of [[Jean Charles De Menezes]], as well as a controversial incident in Basra, only months after becoming operational last year.
 
−
::The SRU replaced Brigadier [[Frank Kitson]]’s MRF, an acronym which stood for [[Military Reaction Forces]], according to the briefing.
 
−
::It states:
 
−
:::“Plain-clothes teams, initially joint RUC/army patrols, have operated in Northern Ireland since the IRA bombing campaign in Easter 1971.
 
−
:::“Later in 1971 the teams were reformed and expanded as Military Reaction Forces (MRFs) without RUC participation.
 
−
:::“In 1972 the operations of the MRF were brought under more centralised control and a higher standard of training achieved by establishing a [[Special Reconnaissance Unit]] (SRU) of 130 with all ranks under direct command of HQNI.
 
−
:::“The term ‘Special Reconnaissance Unit’ and the details of its organisation and mode of operations have been kept secret.
 
−
:::“The SRU operates in Northern Ireland at present under the cover name “[[Northern Ireland Training and Advisory Teams (Northern Ireland)]]” – NITAT(NI) – ostensibly the equivalent of genuine NITAT teams in UKLF [United Kingdom Land Forces] and BAOR [British Army of the Rhine].”
 
−
:::“The prime task of the SRU is to conduct covert surveillance of terrorists as a preliminary to an arrest carried out by security forces in uniform.
 
−
:::“The SRU may also be used to contact and handle agents or informers and for the surveillance and protection of persons or property under terrorist threat.
 
−
:::“The SRU works to a great extent on [[RUC Special Branch|Special Branch]] information and the Special Branch have a high regard for it.”
 
−
::Although the briefing survives in the files from the British prime minister’s office, a copy was also originally held by the NIO.
 
−
::According to a note left by officials this was destroyed “on the need to know principle” in 1976, some months after the official deployment of the SAS to the North.
 
−
::The picture revealed by the briefing closely parallels allegations made in the 1980s by former British army major, [[Fred Holroyd]], who has accused the army of murder, kidnapping, collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, and infiltration of the Republic’s security forces during the mid-1970s.
 
−
::In his report on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings Mr Justice Barron said that, while not all Holroyd’s claims were true, they had contributed to his inquiry’s view on the possibility of collusion between loyalists and the security forces.
 
−
::Holroyd claimed that an SAS troop led by Captain [[Julian Ball]] and Captain [[Robert Nairac]] was operating at Castledillon in Co Armagh under two cover names, [[4 Field Survey Troop, Royal Engineers]] and NITAT.
 
−
::In response to a question from [[Ken Livingstone]] in 1988, ministers denied that the NITAT unit existed, and claimed that records relating to 4 Field Survey Troop were no longer available.
 
−
::The emergence, two decades later, of records confirming the existence of a unit corresponding closely to the one described by Holroyd raises two questions: was the British Parliament misled? And if Holroyd was right about this unit’s existence, was he also right about its involvement in collusion?<ref>Irish were lied to about SAS, by [[Tom Griffin]], [[Daily Ireland]], 5 June 2006.</ref>
 
  
 
==Notes==
 
==Notes==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
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[[Category:Counterinsurgency]][[Category:Spooks]][[Category:British Military Intelligence]][[Category:Northern Ireland]]
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[[Category:Counterinsurgency]][[Category:Spooks]][[Category:British Military Intelligence]][[Category:Northern Ireland]][[Category:State Violence and Collusion Project]]

Latest revision as of 13:20, 17 January 2020

Northern Ireland.jpg This article is part of SpinWatch's Northern Ireland Portal.

The Special Reconnaissance Unit (SRU) was an undercover British Army unit which operated in Northern Ireland from 1972.[1] It is better known even within the Army, by a variety of cover names, most commonly 14 Intelligence Company.[2] It seems likely that it was incorporated into the Special Reconnaissance Regiment on its creation in 2005.

Formation

According to a top Secret briefing prepared for Prime Minister Harold Wilson in April 1974, the Special Reconnaissance Unit replaced the Military Reaction Force units created in 1971:

In 1972 the operations of the MRF were brought under more centralised control and a higher standard of training achieved by establishing a Special Reconnaissance Unit (SRU) of 130 all ranks under direct command of HQNI.[3]

Secrecy and cover names

The April 1974 briefing states:

The term "Special Reconnaissance Unit" and the details of its organisation and mode of operations have been kept secret. The SRU operates in Northern Ireland at present under the cover name "Northern Ireland Training and Advisory Teams (Northern Ireland)" - NITAT(NI) - ostensibly the equivalent of genuine NITAT teams in UKLF and BAOR.[4]

The secrecy about the unit's name appears to have been maintained until this briefing was released to the National Archives three decades later. One apparent reference comes in Martin Dillon's 1990 book The Dirty War, which reports that according to Special Branch inspector Jimmy Blair, Special Branch Sergeant Charlie McCormick and informer Anthony O'Doherty both "worked for a special unit of the Army. His use of the words 'special unit' is in itself significant."[5]

Most accounts refer to what is clearly the same unit by a variety of cover names. The clearest account of these is perhaps in Mark Urban's Big Boys' Rules. According to Urban, the NITAT name was replaced in 1978 or 1979 by Intelligence and Security Group (NI) or Int and Sy Group. As with NITAT, there were genuine Int and Sy Groups in England and Germany. In the early 1980s, this name was replaced in turn by 14 Intelligence and Security Company:

The name, usually contracted in speech to 14 Intelligence Company, 14 Company of simply 14 Int, became widely used within the Army. Indeed most people who have worked with the Army in Northern Ireland know it as such and that is why I will use this name, even to describe activities in the mid 1970s before the Army adopted it. This cover name suggested an analogy with 12 Intelligence and Security Company, a unit of report writers, index keepers and computer programmers rather than an organized force of undercover surveillance specialists.[6]

Urban also states that 4 Field Survey Troop was a cover name for the 3 Brigade detachment of the unit during 1974.[7]

Minister Roger Freeman confirmed the presence of 4 Field Survey Troop at Castledillon during this period in response to a question from Ken Livingstone in March 1988. He added:

Detailed information on this unit, which is not now deployed in the Province, is no longer available. The role of a Royal Engineer field survey is to provide or process aerial photographs, ground surveys and mapping for the Army as required. The strength of such a unit at that time varied between about 30 and 40, depending upon its specific task, and usually included two officers.[8]

In response to a second question from Livingstone on the role of NITAT's in Northern Ireland since 1973, Freeman stated:

Detailed organisational information on this is no longer available. There is no Northern Ireland training and advisory team (NITAT) currently in Northern Ireland. The role and composition of the NITATs are as described in my reply to the hon. Member on 29 February at column 422.[9]

In an unpublished letter to the Guardian which appeared in Lobster magazine, former military intelligence officer Fred Holroyd commented:

4 Field Survey Troop, Royal Engineers does not appear on the official list of Sapper units in Ulster for the three years mentioned. This is not surprising as the title was the first layer of cover which hid the fact that it was an SAS Troop. It's two Officers Commanding in my time were both infantry officers currently serving in 22 SAS Regiment, the second of these was Captain Julian (Tony) Ball, KOSB. His 2i/c was Captain Robert Nairac. The CSM, NCO's and operational members were either former, serving or recently trained SAS personnel. As it was co-located at Castledillon with an Engineer regiment, a second layer of cover was provided to satisfy soldiers of this regiment. They were told that the unit was a Northern Ireland Training and Tactics Team (NITATT).[10]

Following the publication of the 1974 memo in 2006, Lobster editor Robin Ramsay concluded that "Holroyd's account has now been confirmed."[11]

SAS involvement

The SRU has had a close relationship with the SAS which has been the subject of some confusion. The first evidence came to light on 19 March 1974 when Robert Fisk reported in The Times that SAS members had been sent secretly to Northern Ireland "to serve as military undercover intelligence agents in Belfast and Londonderry:

Between 40 and 50 SAS men are serving in Northern Ireland. Attached to various regular army battalions on the province, they are operating mostly in plain clothes,carrying out patrols in civilian cars, keeping watch on the homes of suspected IRA men and Protestant extremists and, on some occasions, assuming false identities in order to gather information in republican and loyalist districts.[12]

The April 1974 briefing states:

Men who have served with the SAS are serving in the SRU but no SAS units are operating in Northern Ireland. One officer and 30 soldiers serving with the SRU since early January are due to resume service with 22 SAS by 7 April. Their presence with the SRU went undetected until the Robert Fisk article in "The Times" on 19 March.[13]

Attached to the briefing was a statement, which had been passed to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. It stated: “The facts are as follows. No SAS unit has been or is stationed in Northern Ireland.” The statement added that the policy had been not to use former SAS personnel on plain-clothes duties until two or three years after their service with the regiment had ended, but that in the past three months “use has been made of a number of volunteers, whose experience has been acquired only just beforehand.” There was mention of the fact that the soldiers involved would also be returning to the SAS immediately after serving in Northern Ireland.[14]

Former senior SAS NCO Ken Connor has described the regiment's role in creating the unit he referred to as 14 Int:

The SAS developed a selection procedure, ran the induction course and training and staffed the upper echelons of the company with SAS officers.
That gave the Regiment a means of maintaining its influence over an area that should technically have been controlled by the Intelligence Corps. The SAS could have its cake and eat it too, maintaining an involvement in Northern Ireland without using manpower that was needed in the Middle East.[15]

The deliberate ambiguity about the SAS role contributed to some obfuscation in the 1980s following Fred Holroyd's allegations about the unit at Castledillon, which he described as "an SAS troop" manned by "former, serving or recently trained SAS personnel", and perhaps most pointedly as "SAS by any other name".[16]

Role

The April 1974 briefing described the SRU's role as follows:

The prime task of the SRU is to conduct covert surveillance of terrorists as a preliminary to an arrest carried out by security forces in uniform. The SRU may also be used to contact and handle agents or informers and for the surveillance and for the surveillance and protection of persons or property under terrorist threat. The SRU works to a great extent on Special Branch information and the Special Branch have a high regard for it.[17]

Structure

According to Ken Connor, 14 Int was organised into 3 detachments, each about the size of an SAS troop, corresponding to three IRA brigade areas.[18] Urban also states that there were three detachments, but links them to the British Army's own brigade areas,[19] which he states were "39 Brigade in the Belfast area, 8 Brigade in Londonderry and 3 Brigade in Portadown covering the border.[20]

According to Urban each detachment consisted of about 20 soldiers, commanded by a captain, assisted when available by a lieutenant as liason or operations officer.[21]

39 Brigade Area

The SRU's precursor, the Military Reaction Force was based in a compound at Palace Barracks, Holywood.[22] According to Brendan Hughes, Vincent Heatherington told his IRA interrogators in Crumlin Road prison in 1974 that he worked for a British intelligence unit based at Palace Barracks.[23] It is possible that this may have been a detachment of the SRU.

3 Brigade area

According to Urban, the 3 Brigade detachment was commanded by Captain Julian Ball, with then Lieutenant Robert Nairac as his liason officer, and operated under the cover name 4 Field Survey Troop.[24]

8 Brigade area

A number of accounts link the 4 Field Survey Troop unit at Castledillon to a similar unit in the Derry area.

Fred Holroyd states:

Around late 1972, MRF was wound up in Belfast and and another, more professional unit consisting of more reliable recruiting material, was formed at Ballykelly, disguised as a Signals Troop, a common cover for SAS. Soon after, a third undercover troop was set up as 4 Field Survey Troop Royal Engineers.[25]

Holroyd linked this unit with the activities of RUC officer Charlie McCormick.[26]

Martin Dillon also links a Derry unit related to the one at Castledillon with McCormick and his IRA informant Anthony O'Doherty but gives a slightly different location:

[RUC officer Jimmy] Blair confirmed that both McCormick and O'Doherty worked for a special unit of the Army. His use of the words 'special unit' is in itself, significant. Is it possible that O'Doherty was trained in Castledillon? He was trained by the Army, but the Castledillon unit, according to my source, was one of several in Northern Ireland, which were responsible to London and not Army authorities in Northern Ireland. These units communicated with each other and there was one in South Derry which probably trained O'Doherty and liased with McCormick.[27]

The significance of the term 'special unit' would seem to lie in the name of the Special Reconnaissance Unit, still secret at the time Dillon's account was published in 1990.

People

External resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland, National Archives PREM 16/154.
  2. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.39.
  3. ↑ Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland, National Archives PREM 16/154.
  4. ↑ Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland, National Archives PREM 16/154.
  5. ↑ Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, Arrow, 1991, p.356.
  6. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.39.
  7. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.
  8. ↑ Royal Engineers Survey Troop, Castledillon, House of Commons, Written Answers, 28 March 1988.
  9. ↑ Northern Ireland Training and Advisory Team House of Commons, Written Answers, 28 March 1988.
  10. ↑ Fred Holroyd, Letter from Fred Holroyd to The Guardian, Lobster, June 1988.
  11. ↑ Robin Ramsay, Fred Holroyd vindicated, Lobster 52, Winter 2006/7.
  12. ↑ Robert Fisk, SAS men serve in Ulster as undercover agents, The Times, 19 March 1974.
  13. ↑ File:PREM16slash154.pdf National Archives PREM 16/154 Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland.
  14. ↑ Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland, National Archives PREM 16/154.
  15. ↑ Ken Connor, Ghost Force: The Secret History of the SAS, Cassell, 1998, p.269.
  16. ↑ Fred Holroyd, Letter from Fred Holroyd to The Guardian, Lobster, June 1988.
  17. ↑ File:PREM16slash154.pdf National Archives PREM 16/154 Defensive Brief D Meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach 5 April 1974 Army Plain Clothes Patrols in Northern Ireland.
  18. ↑ Ken Connor, Ghost Force, Cassell, 1998, p.269.
  19. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.38.
  20. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.16.
  21. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.38.
  22. ↑ Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, Arrow, 1991, pp.75-85.
  23. ↑ Ed Moloney, Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland, Faber and Faber, 2010, p.179.
  24. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.
  25. ↑ Fred Holroyd and Nick Burbridge, War Without Honour, Medium, 1989, p.86.
  26. ↑ Fred Holroyd and Nick Burbridge, War Without Honour, Medium, 1989, p.85.
  27. ↑ Martin Dillon, The Dirty War, Arrow, 1991, p.356.
  28. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.
  29. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.40.
  30. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.41.
  31. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.42.
  32. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.43.
  33. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.44.
  34. ↑ Mark Urban, Big Boys' Rules, Faber and Faber, 1993, p.253.
  35. ↑ Ciarán MacAirt, Special Forces… and a Casual Cover-Up, Paper Trail, 17 October 2015.
  36. ↑ *Ciarán MacAirt, Special Forces… and a Casual Cover-Up, Paper Trail, 17 October 2015.
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