Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Book in excellent unread/unused condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Ken Wharton’s answer has been to break down nearly four decades of Operation Banner into multiple volumes. The emphasis since he started producing his books in 2008 has been on voices from the British military. His focus is unashamedly that of the Parachute Regiment Tom in Newry or the bombardier ‘stagging on’ for hours in his sangar overlooking the Bogside. These are not intended to be balanced accounts of the ‘there were bad men on all sides’ variety but relay the views of the men and women in khaki. They use words that I wouldn’t but then that’s sort of the point of these books. The voices of the ordinary soldier were surprisingly rarely heard during the Troubles themselves. As a newspaper reporter trying to cover the upcoming 20th anniversary of Operation Banner in the late 1980s I had to apply repeatedly to be allowed to accompany soldiers on the streets and write about their experiences. In the end it was only by pointing out that I had just returned from Afghanistan where I had been allowed to embed with Soviet Army soldiers on operations that I was able to overcome the MoD’s absurd position that reporting on the Army in Northern Ireland by British national newspaper correspondents was in their words ‘unhelpful’. For many years then the ordinary soldier experiencing operations in rural Fermanagh or the Divis Street flats was effectively silenced by his or her own political masters. When some spike in violence or tragedy occasionally brought the issue centre stage there were various phrases used to describe the military role in Northern Ireland. from being piggy in the middle to holding the ring buying time or reducing violence to ‘acceptable levels. Doing this involved a great deal of difficult dangerous and unglamorous work. Often mundane or mind-numbingly boring sometimes terrifying. the foot patrols or OP stags went on year after year rain or shine on a scale that almost defies any chronicler. (SP)