A British Army lorry destroyed in the ambush. The hills of the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth can be seen in the background, behind Narrow Water Castle.
Date
27 August 1979
Location
Narrow Water Castle near Warrenpoint, County Down, Northern Ireland
Deadliest attack on the British Army by the Provisional IRA[1]
Belligerents
United Kingdom
Provisional IRA
Commanders and leaders
Lt Col David Blair † Maj. Peter Fursman †
Brendan Burns
Units involved
British Army
South Armagh Brigade[2]
Strength
50 soldiers[citation needed]
Unknown
Casualties and losses
18 killed Over 20 wounded[3] 1 RAF Wessex helicopter damaged[4]
None
Civilian: 1 killed, 1 wounded by British Army gun fire
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Location within Northern Ireland
v
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e
The Troubles in Ireland
1960s and 1970s
Battle of the Bogside/1969 riots
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Falls Curfew
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Battle of Lenadoon
Springhill massacre
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Dublin Airport bombing
Dundalk & Silverbridge attacks
Central Bar bombing
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Flagstaff Hill incident
Charlemont pub attacks
Store Bar shooting
Chlorane Bar attack
Ramble Inn attack
Stag Inn attack
Andersonstown incident
Garryhinch ambush
Jonesborough Gazelle shootdown
La Mon restaurant bombing
Warrenpoint ambush
Dungannon land mine attack
1980s
Dunmurry train bombing
Lough Foyle attacks
Altnaveigh landmine attack
Glasdrumman ambush
Divis Flats bombing
Droppin Well bombing
Ballygawley land mine attack
Darkley killings
Kesh ambush
Strabane ambush
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Ballygawley barracks attack
Birches barracks attack
Clontibret invasion
Loughgall ambush
Remembrance Day bombing
Milltown Cemetery attack
Corporals killings
Avenue Bar shooting
Lisburn van bombing
Aughanduff Lynx shootdown
Ballygawley bus bombing
Drumnakilly ambush
Jonesborough ambush
Derryard checkpoint attack
1990s
Derrygorry Gazelle shootdown
Downpatrick landmine attack
Operation Conservation
Armagh City roadside bombing
Fort Victoria
Proxy bombings
Lough Neagh ambush
Silverbridge Lynx shootdown
Mullacreevie ambush
Cappagh killings
Craigavon mobile shop killings
Glenanne barracks bombing
Coagh ambush
Musgrave Park Hospital bombing
Craigavon Hyster killings
Teebane bombing
Sinn Féin Headquarters shooting
Sean Graham bookmakers' shooting
Clonoe ambush
Cloghoge checkpoint attack
Coalisland riots
South Armagh sniper campaign
Forensic Lab bombing
James Murray's bookmakers attack
Castlerock killings
Cullaville occupation
Battle of Newry Road
Shankill Road bombing
Greysteel massacre
Fivemiletown ambush
Crossmaglen Lynx shootdown
1994 Shankill Road killings
Loughinisland massacre
Killeeshil ambush
Drumcree conflict
Thiepval barracks bombing
Coalisland attack
1997 riots
Quinn brothers' killings
Banbridge bombing
Omagh bombing
See also: The Troubles in Britain & Europe, Assassinations during the Troubles, and Loyalist feud
The Warrenpoint ambush,[5] also known as the Narrow Water ambush,[6] the Warrenpoint massacre[7] or the Narrow Water massacre,[8] was a guerrilla attack[9] by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 27 August 1979. The IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed a British Army convoy with two large roadside bombs at Narrow Water Castle outside Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland. The first bomb was aimed at the convoy itself, and the second targeted the incoming reinforcements and the incident command point (ICP) set up to deal with the incident. IRA volunteers hidden in nearby woodland also allegedly fired on the troops, who returned fire. The castle is on the banks of the Newry River, which marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Eighteen British soldiers were killed and over twenty were seriously injured, making it the deadliest attack on the British Army during the Troubles.[3] An English civilian was also killed and an Irish civilian wounded, both by British soldiers firing across the border after the first blast. The attack happened on the same day that the IRA assassinated Lord Louis Mountbatten, a close relative of the British royal family.
^
Barzilay, David. British Army in Ulster. Century Books, 1981. Vol. 4. p. 94. ISBN 0-903152-16-9
Wood, Ian. Scotland and Ulster. Mercat Press, 1994. p. 170. ISBN 1-873644-19-1
Geddes, John. Highway to Hell: An Ex-SAS Soldier's Account of the Extraordinary Private Army Hired to Fight in Iraq. Century, 2006. p. 20. ISBN 1-84605-062-6
Forest, James J. F. (2006). Homeland Security: Critical infrastructure. Greenwood Publishing Group, 93. ISBN 0-275-98768-X
Kennedy-Pipe, Caroline (1997). The origins of the present troubles in Northern Ireland. Longman, p. 84. ISBN 0-582-10073-9
^English, Richard. Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. Pan Macmillan, 2008. p.221
^ abMoloney, Ed (2007). A Secret History of the IRA (2nd ed.). Penguin Books. p. 176. ISBN 978-0141028767.
^Taylor, Steven (30 June 2018). Air War Northern Ireland: Britain's Air Arms and the 'Bandit Country' of South Armagh, Operation Banner 1969–2007. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-5267-2155-6.
^
Bowyer Bell, John: The IRA, 1968–2000: Analysis of a Secret Army. Taylor & Francis, 2000. p. 305. ISBN 0-7146-8119-9
Faligot, Roger: Britain's Military Strategy in Ireland: The Kitson Experiment. Zed Press, 1983, p. 142. ISBN 0-86232-047-X
Ellison, Graham, and Smyth, Jim: The Crowned Harp: Policing Northern Ireland. Pluto Press, 2000, p. 145. ISBN 0-7453-1393-0
^
"Smithwick Tribunal to examine bomb attack that killed 18 soldiers". Belfast Telegraph, 5 December 2011.
"Garda 'told not to aid ambush probe'". Irish Examiner, 13 March 2012.
Moloney, Ed (2007). A Secret History of the IRA (2nd ed.). Penguin Books. p. 735. ISBN 978-0141028767.
^
"1979: Soldiers die in Warrenpoint massacre". BBC News "On This Day"
"Police net closes in on Omagh murder gang". Irish Independent, 5 January 1999.
^
O'Brien, Brendan. The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin. Syracuse University Press, 1993. p. 205
"Narrow Water para returns after 30 years". Belfast Newsletter, 24 August 2009.
"Top diplomat thought Hume wanted return of internment". Belfast Telegraph, 30 December 2009.
^
Carr, Matthew (2007). The infernal machine: a history of terrorism. New Press, p. 173. ISBN 1-59558-179-0. "...the assassination of Lord Mountbatten at his holiday home at southern Ireland on 27 March 1979, the same day that another IRA unit ambushed and blew up eighteen British soldiers at Warrenpoint in a more conventional guerrilla operation."
Geraghty, Tony (1998). The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence. JHU Press. pp. 212. ISBN 0801864569.
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