May 8, 1987, a Friday afternoon. Kelly, a Northern Irishman, drove his van to the police station. The police station, on a street next to the church, is a two-story building. There is a tall reinforced fence built around it. A year ago, they blew up The Beaches police post. This time, they were prepared to use the same method.
The town police station has a schedule at 4:40 p.m., and officers will leave work. Arthurs drove an excavator down the street toward the police station. Olakahan and Gormley dressed as maintenance workers stood on either side of the cab. The excavator's bucket contained an oil drum with two fuses in it. 90 kg of plastic explosives were switched on.
Behind the excavator, followed by a blue Toyota van. There were six other members of the carriage, all carrying assault rifles. In the early eighties, the British suppressed the Irish Republican Army. A large number of major IRA cadres were arrested. Jailed in Royal Air Force prison in Belfast. What the prison authorities did not expect was that these backbones were superficially subservient and respectful to the prison guards. Secretly, pistols are smuggled into prison. Over time, the guards gradually relaxed their guard against these terrorists, and some of them became friends with them. One day in September 1983, while cleaning up the prison, more than a dozen key members spent 15 seconds with pistols and daggers controlling the guards around them. Then, he changed into a prison guard uniform and drove a food truck to successfully escape.
Most of the escaped cadres were recaptured, with only a few hiding in Ireland. Among those people was Kelly. They regrouped into a new army, known externally as the East Longtai Brigade, which belonged to the Provisional Faction of the Irish Republican Army.
They attacked police stations several times in Northern Ireland, using mainly excavators. Use a bucket to break through the perimeter of the police station, and then detonate the bomb. Unsuspecting police officers and civilians have been killed in one after another in explosions.
The night before, Arthurs had snatched the excavator from Farmer Markle. In order to prevent the farmer from reporting the crime, he and his accomplices took the farmer's family as hostages. As soon as the police acted, they were executed immediately.
After receiving accurate intelligence, the Royal Special Service (SAS) was prepared in advance, with 20 SAS members and the Army acting in concert. Their superiors attached great importance to the operation. The operatives were required to annihilate all IRA members and not to arrest them. The Special Service set up a special "Ulster" squad and ambushed in the empty police station in advance. Other SAS members are hidden around the building. and the road side in the opposite cross-section of the dwarf woods. Several interception groups were arranged at the two entrances and exits of the town.
Ulster, a total of 15 members of the Operatives, armed with two machine guns and assault rifles, quietly lurked in the bunker. In order not to fight grass snakes, the group members did not blockade the town and martial law.
Two days later, IRA members moved as planned. Arthurs did not perceive the anomaly. The excavator drove slowly into the town, as usual, and in the shops on the side of the street, shoppers came out with bags. A group of elderly people sat in chairs facing the street, drinking beer and chatting about the sky. Soon, they sped up to the front of the police station and crashed into the fence, the steel fence was hit, twisted and rolled together. Unfortunately, the fence did not break and the excavator was unable to break through the fence.
The three men jumped out of the car, and the van caught up behind them, putting a sharp brake in front of them. Three IRA members jumped out the back door, raised their assault rifles and began to aim. After Arthurs crouched down and lit two fuzes with a lighter, the three men on the excavator raced toward the van as fast as they could.
Just as the explosives were about to explode, SAS members in the woods fired a row of bullets at the excavator and, at the same time, fired more intense fire into the van. Arthurs was the first to be shot and collapsed on the tarmac. He was hit in the head and body by crossfire from both sides. Gamley was hit in the torso and at the same time in his temple, and he fell down against the door of the cab, a large trail of blood smeared on the wound. The rifle in his hand fell to the road, making a heavy metallic crashing sound.
Kelly hurriedly stepped on the accelerator and tried to leave, but unexpectedly, the bullet hit him through the car door. He struggled out of the cab and staggered across the road, trying to climb over the court's door, but was shot again and collapsed covered in blood.
None of the five members of the Donglongtai Brigade in the van escaped, and although they were wearing military breakproof jackets, a dense rain of bullets passed through the thin body, beating them into a blur of flesh and blood. At this time, the explosives inside the excavator bucket detonated, and the air waves overturned the roof of the police station, destroying the nearest outer wall. The wreckage flew everywhere. The excavator exploded into a pile of hot scrap iron.
With better luck, O'Callahan ran more than 70 meters toward the back of the van and fired a row of bullets with an AK47. Soon, he was shot and fell on the road.
The SURROUNDING SAS team members kept firing. Then the shooting stopped, and the silence on the tarmac was frightening. Sergeant Graham, under the cover of his colleagues, jumped out of the bunker and went forward to examine the bodies lying on the ground. Arthurs fell on his back and his skull was pierced. O'Callaghan had an obvious gunshot wound in his left ear.
The Hughes brothers were shot and killed in the carriage. They were local residents, driving out into town in white Citroën sedans, completely unaware of what was going to happen ahead. On this day, they took a friend's daughter to a nearby orchard and crossed the town in order to get closer. Because their profession is car repair, it is too late to take off their blue overalls after work.
Leaving 50 bullet holes in the trunk of the car, the SAS interception team, which was ambushed 10 meters away, thought the Hughes brothers were comrades and immediately shot at the car. One person died on the spot, and the other survived the rescue.
The British Army has become completely impatient with the IRA violence. During several years of operation, the IRA posed a serious threat to Britain. But in Lovegao was an action to win completely. Storage points where explosives are temporarily stacked are under 24-hour surveillance. But the INDISCRIMINATE KILLING OF THE SAS team in the action caused even stronger outrage among Northern Irish. From this incident, it has also aroused people's reflection, is it possible to truly solve the problem of separatism by eliminating terrorists only by relying on the weapons of special forces and the combat effectiveness?
