Soldiers who burst into the Bogside in Derry on Bloody Sunday were "raring to go" and arrest rioters, a British major-general told the Saville inquiry in London yesterday. Maj-Gen Michael Steele, who was a brigade major of 8th Infantry Brigade and a senior staff officer at Ebrington Barracks in January 1972, recalled that 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 the Bogside during a civil rights march on January 30th, 1972. 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 and Little James Street and around barrier 14, the inquiry was told.
Maj-Gen Steele said paratroopers had been refused an earlier request to proceed because there was not the crucial clear separation between rioters and civilians needed to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.
Maj-Gen Steele, who was being fed information from the army helicopter, said there was "wide" separation by the time he passed on the order to move in from Maj-Gen 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 down the Lecky Road near the Rossville flats. 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, the inquiry was told.
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 was why Maj-Gen MacLellan, "very sensibly in my mind", added the demand to the order that there be no running battle, which had not been previously discussed.
Maj-Gen Steele said the order to 1 Para was to arrest any hooligans in the area of the waste ground at the junction of William Street/ Rossville Street. He told 1 Para to launch the arrest operation and one of its sub-units was to go through barrier 14. He did not specifically say it should deploy its three sub-units.
He insisted that he gave a full order for 1 Para to be deployed with no limitations on either the number of units to be used or the locations they should come from. There was not a demand that the arrest operation only be in the area of William Street/Little James Street, he said.
He relayed the same information to the watchkeeper so it could be recorded. The fact that the army logs recorded an order for one unit to go in meant the watchkeeper simply made a mistake and the record was incomplete, he told the inquiry. He had also mentioned this at the 1972 Widgery inquiry.
The hearing resumes today.