Soldiers who burst into the Bogside on Bloody Sunday were "raring to go" and arrest rioters, a British Major General said today.
Major General Michael Steele, who was a Brigade Major of 8 Infantry Brigade, and was a senior staff officer at Ebrington Barracks in January 1972, recalled they were keen to be deployed to clamp down on troublemakers.
At 3.59 p.m. they were informing brigade headquarters of a group gathered near Barrier 14 in Derry's Bogside on a January 30th 1972 civil rights march. British paratroopers shot dead 13 unarmed men later that day.
Radio messages recorded in the army logs show reports of hooligans in the area of William Street/Little James Street and around Barrier 14, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was told.
Soldiers on the ground reported back: "Would you mind informing Zero (headquarters) of this, as they appear not to believe us on this point."
Maj Gen Steele told the inquiry this message was "a little bit cheeky" adding: "They are using the opportunity of saying 'well please let Zero know', that is to say brigade headquarters, as they do not appear to believe us on that point, and that indicates to me that they were indeed raring to go.
Paratroopers eventually went in to begin their arrest operation at 4.10 p.m. but they were ordered not to become involved in a running battle down Rossville Street.
Maj Gen Steele told the central London hearing that paratroopers had been refused one earlier request to proceed because there was not the crucial clear separation between rioters and innocent civilians needed to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.
Maj Steele, who was being fed information from the army helicopter of the scene, said there was "wide" separation by the time he passed on the order to move in from Major General Patrick MacLellan, a brigadier and commander of 8th Brigade, who was in command of the British army on that day.
The army logs build up a picture of the situation at about 4.04 p.m.
There were hooligans at Aggro Corner, (the William Street/Rossville Street/Little James Street junction), the crowd at Free Derry Corner had grown to 500 and some were making their way home and going down the Lecky Road near the Rossville flats.
Maj Gen Steele said: "There was, in my estimation ... a situation where the Brigadier's separation between marchers and hooligans had been achieved."
Maj Gen MacLellan had been seeking a clear split between hooligans and marchers at Free Derry Corner, a distance of about 400 metres. There were also some hooligans at Barrier 14 at this point, the inquiry was told.
Maj Gen Steele said he had no information on how many people were in Rossville Street, which links the two points and was where the paras advanced.
Lord Saville, the inquiry chairman, said it could be viewed that separation had been achieved because rioters and marchers were in different areas.
He said it would then be necessary to mount an arrest operation which did not destroy that separation.
Maj Gen Steele said that is why Maj Gen MacLellan "very sensibly in my mind" added the demand that there be no running battle to the order - something which had not been previously discussed.
PA