Army Morale Starts to Disintegrate

In January, the British Government applied to Sweden for an extradition order. It was for a deserting soldier. When he heard his unit was to be sent for another tour of duty in the North of Ireland he preferred instead to walk for three days across snow covered mountains to find asylum in Sweden. He said he wanted no part in the killing.

His case was the tiny tip of a very large iceberg. Everyone living in the minority areas of the North knows of the soldiers that "break" the men who run from the barracks seeking escape, usually only to be dragged back by the snatch squads. :

The demoralisation of the British Army is not surprising. They have used every tactic at their disposal in an attempt to bludgeon the anti-unionist people into submission, and they have clearly failed. Morale is disintegrating, the soldiers whose consciences are immune to their anti-working class activities are shaken by the unabated resistance they are facing.

The soldiers have found many outlets for their frustrations, and they are not merely the petty bullying of the foot patrol and the searches. In one recent month alone, 27 "guardians of law and order" were convicted in court on charges ranging from theft to rape. But they have some other, more sinister pastimes - the shooting of innocent civilians, whether openly while in uniform, or hiding behind the guise of sectarian murders, in plain clothes from passing cars.

Only last month there were the open murders of two supposed "gunmen". On 13 March, Mr. Eddie Sharpe was shot dead by an Army sniper as he stood in his own doorway in Ardoyne. Only one shot was fired around that time - it was by a British paratrooper. On 4 March, 12 year old Kevin Heatley was murdered as he stood with some friends in his home estate, Derrybeg in Newry. Only one shot was fired that night -it was by a drunken British soldier.

These have been no isolated incidents but just a part of the pattern that makes up occupation by the British Army. These murders have been regular occurences since the arrival of the troops in 1969, The British Army has admitted to FREE IRELAND MAY 1973 PAGE EIGHT nearly 170 men killed since 1969, though the true figures are somewhat higher. These are their biggest losses since the Korean War. Now, especially since the introduction of the RPG-7 rockets at the beginning of the year, the IRA‘is,fighting with better equipment than.ever before, and British soldiers are more vulnerable than ever. The rockets were a development the British just had no answer for. Soldiers were made vulnerable everywhere, at any time, whether in armoured car.or in barracks. A weapon designed specifically for use against armoured cars has been proved effective on several occasions, despite Army denials.

There is another factor which the British Army has never had to cope with in war before. Because advanced English hospitals are comparatively near, the injured and maimed are gettifig unusually good medical treat-. ment. This has saved the lives of many soldiers but has also had the effect of keeping alive casualties as little more than vegetables.

This has obvious consequences on wives and relatives of the patients and their reactions reverberate through the married quarters and home towns. Clearly-this not only shatters British Army morale but also builds up a desire in Britain for pulling out of Ireland.

FACTS CLEAR The facts of collapsing British Army morale are clear.

In October last year Army enlistment figures were 25 per cent down on_the previous year. . ; In November an "over tired" member of the Labour Party front bench revealed in the bars of the House’ of Commons that the British Army had experienced its first mutiny of the present campaign. Units stationed in Germany, believed to be from the énd Battalion, The Light Infantry and the Royal Regiment: of Fusiliers, refused to contemplate a return to Ireland.

In the same month it was admitted, and published in most English newspapers, that large numbers of soldiers of Colchester in Essex, where the British Army dries out soldiers returning from Ireland,°had been arrSUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIPTIONS- ONE YEAR FOR £1.00 including postage. PLEASE SEND SUBSCRIPTIONS TO -ANTI-INTERNMENT LEAGUE ,88 ROSLYN ROAD,LONDON N15 Articles appearing in Free Ireland’do not necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board, or of the constituent organisations of the Anti-Internment League.

Tested on drugs charges.

block of the barracks.

the Six Counties.

EFFECTS IN BRITAIN — South.

FROM 'THE PLOUGH ' Printed by F.I.Litho(TU)Ltd 182 Pentonville Rd London Nl On'9 December, a short paragraph in the Daily Mirror reported that British soldiers at Colchester had opened fire on the administrative Later in the same month the Daily Mail reported an attempt by just under 30 paras to buy themselves out of the Army. Their regiment was to return to Those were incidents given or accidentally leaked, to the Press in only three recent months. Obviously, they are just the affairs the authorities could not hide, and they indicate far : deeper crises in the Army which have been kept from general knowledge.

And all these British Army casualties and the continued resistance is having political effects in Britain itself. British war weariness is beginning to be reflected in Parllament. Slight cracks have been appearing in the bipartisan approach to Ireland by the two major parties and several Labour members have been making speeches calling to "bring our boys back home", It would probably take only one major political figure to express similar sentiments to unleash a tidal wave of public opinion demanding withdrawal from Ireland.

And if the White Paper fails to pacify the North, imperialism will be in crisis. The British will be forced back on their usual tactic -sheer military force. But that is a strategy they have been following for three years, and it has not paid off. The Army is war weary, the British people are war weary. The only’ comparatively new.factor on the side of Britain is’ the willingness of the Southern regime to attack anti-imperialists just as vehemently as imperialists themselves. This is a crucially important aspect of the situation and must be combatted by socialists and Republicans North and But the way forward for the antiunionist people of the Six Counties is clear-resistance in all its forms must continue against the British Army, against imperialism. The i