19th May
On 19 May 1981, one of the deadliest attacks on British soldiers during the Troubles took place near the village of Bessbrook in County Armagh. The attack happened on Chancellors Road at Altnaveigh, a rural area outside Newry in South Armagh, a region that had become notorious for IRA activity and was often described by soldiers and journalists as “bandit country” because of the level of guerrilla warfare against the British Army.
The five soldiers killed were Andrew Gavin, Paul Bulman, Michael Bagshaw, John King and Grenville Winstone. Four belonged to the Royal Green Jackets while Paul Bulman served with the Royal Corps of Transport. They were travelling in a Saracen armoured vehicle as part of a British Army patrol moving through the countryside near Bessbrook.
The Provisional IRA had buried a massive landmine beneath the road inside a culvert. Estimates put the explosive charge at around 1,000 pounds, making it one of the largest roadside bombs used during that period of the conflict. The device was detonated remotely when the second Saracen vehicle drove over the hidden bomb. The explosion was devastating. The armoured vehicle was destroyed instantly, the engine was reportedly hurled over the nearby Belfast–Dublin railway line, and a huge crater was blasted into the road. All five soldiers were killed instantly.
The attack shocked both the British Army and the wider public because of its scale and sophistication. It was the deadliest attack on British troops in Northern Ireland since the Warrenpoint ambush of 1979, when eighteen soldiers were killed by the IRA in County Down. South Armagh had already developed a reputation as one of the most dangerous postings for British troops, and this attack reinforced that fear.
The timing of the bombing was significant. Northern Ireland was in the middle of the 1981 hunger strikes, one of the most tense and emotional periods of the Troubles. Republican prisoners in the Maze Prison were refusing food in protest over political status. Raymond McCreesh, one of the hunger strikers, came from nearby Camlough in South Armagh. He died just two days after the landmine attack. Many historians believe the bombing was intended as a show of strength and support for the hunger strikers.
Immediately after the blast, security forces sealed off the area fearing secondary devices, a common IRA tactic. Helicopters and spotter aircraft searched the surrounding countryside for the IRA unit responsible. South Armagh’s rural landscape, filled with narrow roads, farms and routes close to the Irish border, made it extremely difficult for British forces to catch IRA volunteers after attacks.
Bessbrook itself became heavily militarised during the Troubles. The old linen mill in the village was converted into a major British Army base and helicopter hub. Because roads in South Armagh were considered so dangerous due to roadside bombs, helicopters became the preferred method of transport for soldiers. At one stage, military helicopter traffic around Bessbrook was said to make it one of the busiest heliports in Europe.
The attack also demonstrated how the IRA had evolved tactically by the early 1980s. Earlier in the conflict many attacks involved shootings, but roadside bombs and remote-controlled explosives increasingly became the IRA’s preferred weapons in South Armagh. These devices could inflict enormous casualties while reducing the risk of IRA members being caught. The British Army found it extremely difficult to defend against hidden bombs planted beneath roads or inside culverts.
Years later, former soldiers who served in South Armagh continued to speak about the psychological impact of the attack and the fear soldiers experienced during patrols in the region. One Royal Green Jackets soldier later recalled that the battalion lost the five men in a single landmine attack just outside Newry, describing the destruction and tension that surrounded service in South Armagh during the hunger strike period.
The deaths of the five soldiers became part of the wider story of violence in County Armagh during the Troubles. Bessbrook and the surrounding area witnessed repeated bombings, shootings and ambushes over several decades. More than twenty British soldiers and members of the security forces were killed in and around the village during the conflict.
Today, the Altnaveigh landmine attack remains one of the most remembered incidents of the Troubles in South Armagh. For many unionists and former soldiers it symbolises the dangers faced by the British Army during Operation Banner, while republicans viewed it as part of the IRA campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland. More than four decades later, the attack is still discussed in books, documentaries and remembrance events connected to the conflict.
