The soldier recalls one particular incident while stationed on the Derry Walls when his post came under fire from an IRA sniper. He says he was left with a difficult decision whether or not to shoot a teenage girl he spotted carrying a rifle. The sniper, moved by the youth of the girl, decided not to shoot her - something which, he says, he has reflected on ever since.


It was on a late hot afternoon in August 1973. I had been tasked the previous evening from my unit at Ballykinler to report to the Royal Fusiliers in the area of the city wall above the Bogside in Derry.
I arrived about 4pm and reported to the Royal Fusiliers and started to set up a sniper hide on the ramparts of the wall. Sniper hides are difficult in an urban situation, so concealment from fire was the best we could achieve, and sooner or later we would be seen. To solve this problem, we moved our position from time to time along the wall. My task was to: 'Observe the situation, locate the sniper and return fire for effect'.

I positioned myself and my fellow sniper, Pte Swannick. on the city wall. The wall was a high stone structure with a drop of about forty feet down onto a sloping grass bank. The bank sloped right down to the Bogside Inn, which was situated 200 metres below us on the part of the main residential area of the Bogside facing our position.

We chose a sniper hide on the wall near to the Walker Memorial. We set up and prepared our 'optics', loaded and sat and observed and waited. We positioned ourselves about 10 metres apart. Swannick was an excellent rifle shot. He was renowned for his shooting skill in the Regiment. He was a quiet Monmouthshire man and as steady as they come. I loved to watch him fire on the range, especially at longer ranges. It was as if the rifle grew out of his shoulder, there was no visible bodily movement as the shot was discharged.

Wily Irish

I was not convinced that the sniping, as was firmly believed, was from the Bogside Inn. It couldn't be. There was no cover, no covered escape route and certainly no unobserved firing positions there. Also, it was too public and wide open. I liked the wily Irish and they were too clever to use that place. For planning, yes, but not for the action!
About six pm that second evening, two shots came at us from a great distance away and went some feet overhead. The shots came from an area on the edge of The Creggan, about 600 metres away or, perhaps from Cable Street. The 'crack and thump' give us that indication of distance. Was it the IRA testing a rifle perhaps? 'Why waste rounds when there are Brits about!'

Some time later, I saw a young girl walking hurriedly towards a block of flats to my front. It was a hot night and she was wearing a heavy thick check long coat. She walked awkwardly and, in my opinion, she was carrying a rifle. She ran the last few steps to the flats, opened the swing doors and went inside. In all this time I was discussing with Swannick that I would do the shooting while he observed in case this was a 'set-up' for someone bigger about.

The girl and two youths appeared in an open window of a living room on the second floor, distance was about 200 metres. The three disappeared from view. I went with my telescopic sight from window to window on the same level. All eight or so windows were open, most with curtains which were closed or partially open. Once I saw the girl come forward in a window. She was standing alone and looking directly up at our position, she was without her coat. She turned her head as if speaking to someone. I thought that they were probably waiting for a target.

Position hit

Suddenly a high velocity shot rang out and hit our position. A near miss! I did not see which window it came from. I kept my rifle on the flats and waited, my sights moving from window to window. I thought there would certainly be a second shot.

Then I saw the girl appear at the entrance door on the lower floor. She had her coat on again and obviously carrying the rifle. She stood for some seconds and looked directly up at our location. I placed the pointer of my rifle telescope scope right on her breast, just below her throat. I saw a young face with dark hair, a slight girl, a pretty face. I took the first pressure on the trigger and stalled as she looked up towards me. Suddenly she started to run to her right towards the Bogside Inn and then away from me in a straight line. I placed the rifle telescope on her back and took the first pressure again, an easy target; …I couldn't do it!

As she ran, I fired two shots, the first a deliberate shot aimed one metre to her left and the second shot a deliberate one metre to her right. The noise of incoming rounds of high velocity so near must have been horrific to her.

I saw her run behind a wall about three hundred metres away. She must have been in a state of shock. A young lieutenant of the Fusiliers talked a foot patrol onto her position by radio. She was found and taken into the base, where I believe she was charged with the offence of carrying arms.

For my part, I felt that I had failed as a soldier in my duty. At first I was sorry that I had let her go to carry arms again. I cared little about my reputation as a sniper. I cared more that I felt it was not an entirely military target: a young teenage girl - perhaps not yet seventeen.

For missing the target, I was called to account by my commanding officer; as a father of two young girls I took it on the chin and made no reply as his ravings went on for some minutes. He kept repeating: 'You missed!' you missed!' I made no reply, as he glared at me. Then, after another pause, he quietly said: 'Go back to your company and polish up your bloody sniper skills.'

As time went on, I became glad I'd let her go. Some months later, when Pte Swannick was killed at Ballykinler and later more of my friends killed in the county of Armagh, I thought deeply about the incident and regretted my actions.

Now, over thirty years later and, in different times and with a welcome peace in Ireland, I am truly quite happy with my choice of action. It was a moral issue - not a military one. Only the man on the spot has the right to make such choices.

Happy mother

The young girl came from Ivy Terrace. If she reads this narrative, or another of her contemporaries reads it, then I am sure she will know exactly who she is! I hope now that the girl is a happy mother of children. I often wonder if she thinks of that August afternoon in 1973 and does she ever realise that my bad shooting was completely intentional. Having seen her face and small feminine figure magnified to three times magnification…I just could not do it!

Haydn,Cardiff