Down to Earth The Paras

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

'Training was over.

'The extra troops of 480 Platoon were on their way to Northern Ireland.

'After so long, hung up on Parachuting,

'hyped up on heroism, Red Devilry

'and the prospect of a glorious patriotic war,

'it was time to come down to Earth.'

BIRDSONG

'Their first posting was an attachment to 1 Para,

'who throughout the war in the South Atlantic had been in South Fermanagh,

'occupying British territory in quite a different way.

'Since 1969, when the smouldering Irish bonfire reignited,

'the nearest thing to action for the Paras had been patrolling a land

'where the enemy were often their own countrymen.

'So the skills now required of 480 Platoon

'were the reverse of everything they had been taught.

'Instead of up and at 'em, an agony of restraint.

'Mustering for their first eagle patrol,

'little Sean Day and big Andy Cunningham

'soon learned that whatever the difference

'between training in Aldershot and real life in Ireland,

'one thing's the same. You listen to the experienced corporal.'

Basically, what we'll be doing is flying around in a chopper,

covering various roads.

The area we're working is Bravo 3, you all know where that is.

And we'll fly around in the chopper until we see a car or cars,

zap down on them, stop at a point in front of them,

as close to the road as possible, jump out and sort the car out.

Can I have a look in your boot, please?

Where are you taking all this lot?

- Up to that shed up the road. - Is it yours, is it?

- As far as I know it is. - As far as you know? How's that?

How is it only as far as you know?

Who's this in the car with you?

INAUDIBLE

Have you got any form of ID?

We're just here to give support to the RUC and the UDR as well.

A policeman's job, more or less.

'But in Northern Ireland, policemen get three times the pay of Paras,

'and Paras three times the complaints of other regiments.

'There is mutual resentment.

'On this, as on everything else, the public is divided.'

50/50, really.

A lot of them, they give you biscuits and sweets and stuff, like.

Other people just, they go at you.

- Some people try and get you going? - Yeah.

They try to get you to hit them and stuff like that

so they can put in reports against you, some of them.

For obvious reasons, they're two Irish people

and a lot of them support the IRA

so there's not much you can do with them.

You've just got to be polite to them.

Go on, then, love, on your way.

You should smile a bit more, you would be more prettier then.

INAUDIBLE

Got to keep the troops happy.

'Apart from eagle patrols, there are permanent vehicle checkpoints.

'Phil Tateham was working from a concrete bunker, or Sanger,

'and living behind it six days at a time in a fortified Portakabin.'

I thought it'd be different to this, you know,

but nothing's happened up to now.

You might as well be out on Salisbury Plain, really.

I know you're there for a purpose,

deter them from trying anything and that.

I suppose you're doing a good job in that sense.

But, you know, I don't know how I would react

if something did happen, but you just want it to happen so I'll find out.

- What things would you like to do? - I don't know.

I would like to work in the cities more, I think,

where there's the possibility of riots and that,

and you're working with people around you and things do happen,

sort of thing, different incidents,

but out here, mainly, you know, where trouble's going to come from,

it's either a bomb in the road or something like that, or a shooting,

that's about it, really, when you're out on patrol.

'The field patrols last sometimes 48 hours, sometimes a week.

'They live rough, constantly on the move.

'Traditional rights and boundaries are curiously disregarded

'as the troops protect some and question others.'

Is your husband about, is he? Is your husband is, is he?

- He's not, no. - Is he not? Where would he be?

- We can contact him all right. - Well, where is he? Is he local?

He's at the garage.

'But how useful to the experienced patrol commanders

'was the arrival of 480 Platoon

'with its inexperienced squaddies like Spider Craddock?'

In this situation when you're in Northern Ireland,

you don't want them, basically.

But when you do get them, obviously you've got to sort them out

and the best thing to do is get them out on the ground ASAP,

as soon as possible, and get them working.

What you generally do is delegate one of your senior privates and say,

"Look after him."

- I'll check the barns out the back. - All right.

The first thing they do as soon as they get out on the ground,

they start flapping and getting things wrong,

standing out like a sore thumb.

If they stand out while you're on patrol,

we can see it and so the terrorists can see it straightaway.

And if they do make mistakes,

do you go for them in an aggressive manner like they do at depot?

No. It's a different world once they come out of depot, they get up here.

We do keep a grip of them.

What we try to do is, instead of breaking them down,

pushing their morale down, you boost it up slightly.

OK, you made a mistake there, mate, don't worry about it.

You know, get it right next time.

'For most of 480 Platoon, like Tony Butler, patrols were the exception.

'As a rule they were manning border crossings,

'some of which with only half a dozen cars a day

'are frankly maintained not for military reasons,

'but public relations, reassuring local Protestants.'

'With no facilities and nothing to do,

'they're no place for a judo champion.

'On a hill above the road, the section was living in a dugout

'reminiscent of the Somme, but as always,

'Stephen Burrell contrived to be as happy as a sandbag.'

You have fun anyway, even though you're working, with the lads.

Even though I'm only watching out and things like that,

you know you're doing something worthwhile...

Protecting the area, giving the people confidence,

assisting the RUC in their work and checking vehicles and that,

making sure there's nothing going from A to B or B to A.

The normal score. The guard have just been down to the house.

- The derelict on the border there. - Yeah.

He's just been searching it.

Nothing else has much been happening except the farmer out on the field

to the right there by the command centre

and that's about it. - Where's that?

He's still up on the top of the hill getting his cattle in.

That's about it.

- Do you want a cup and bread? - I'll have one.

Bob?

Yeah.

- Can you really say you enjoy it? - I do, yeah. That's one thing I do.

Would you like to go on doing it, living in these conditions?

Well, I'm going to do it for six years.

And hope you get posted to a little hole like this?

- Yes. A nice fire and that will do me.

I've got a fire there, scoff, bed.

Do your mates believe you?

I think so.

- You believe me, don't you? - I believe you.

- Steve does, don't you? - Yeah.

'The local agricultural community prefers county regiments

'like the Devon and Dorsets who shut gates and don't distress the natives.

'And the RUC who have to live there are inclined not to notice

'expired licences and missing side lights,

'but the Paras are puritans, baddies are baddies.'

If... there's some blokes that we know...

..you know, we know are...

..sympathisers with certain people and they come up,

you know, we always ask to have a look in their boot, always.

So they might say, "What for? Why? You've no right to do it."

And they get a bit snotty.

But when they get snotty, we just take... You know, take our time.

I wouldn't say mess them about, but we do a good search of their car

and everything and keep them waiting for a little bit longer.

Hold him for a minute, till they come back. Keep him there.

Pax is going from Lisnaskea to Teemore,

over 21, has no other pax in vehicle, vehicle has been searched,

has been cleared, over.

Has anyone been really unpleasant to you at all?

- Yeah, one or two people. - In what sort of way?

One of them called the Parachute Regiment...

He said, "second-class soldiers".

Very nice.

It's not exactly the sort of thing that goes down well with the Paras?

What happened?

It wouldn't go down well with any regiment, I don't think.

- What happened? - Yeah.

He was outside there for about two-and-a-half hours, three hours.

'In a land where forces are airborne only because

'it's too dangerous to travel on the ground

'and aggression is expressed by keeping people waiting,

'480 Platoon, who weren't bred for boredom,

'had time to question why they'd ever bothered to spend six months

'training to hurl themselves out of the sky and into action.

'They knew that occasionally there would be a NATO exercise

'like this one in Norfolk, involving the whole of the second battalion.

'Indeed to retain Parachute pay, £1.52 a day,

'they would have to jump four times a year.

'But however much it does for esprit de corps,

'Parachuting, as the regiment puts it,

'is only one form of transport.

'And in this country, successive governments have declined

'to foot the bill for airborne training on a large scale.'

'The truth is that in the scenario for which everyone has planned,

'a NATO war in Europe, there is no central role for airborne forces,

'though the Paras might just be used on the fringes,

'especially over difficult terrain.

'That at least is the view of their Colonel Commandant,

'retiring NATO Commander General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley,

'known to the crap hats as Farah the Para.'

But surely with the kind of modern missiles and technology of weapons,

the airborne forces would simply get shot of the sky even before

they got out of the aircraft?

If you mean going into a dense air defence environment,

the answer is yes.

You have put your finger on one problem, of course.

If the air defence environment is high, you hit a Hercules

or whatever the carrier is, you could lose 65 men at one go.

In other operations,

rescue operations or the emergency types of operation that we've had

since the end of World War II,

there is still a role for Parachute troops.

There comes a time when the only way you can get people somewhere

is by air, dropping them by Parachute

and when you want them, you want them in a hurry.

Get on there. There they are. In the house there. Look.

Go.

GUNFIRE

SHOUTING

'The rescue operation,

'480 Platoon had trained for that too.

'Ever since Brunaval, the Paras have been ready for the lightening drop,

'the quick shootout, up and away.'

Come on.

India 2-1. Roger, I read, inbound with me

in one zero minutes. Over.

You have my blue smoke, over.

'In the absence of large scale conventional war

'or occasional crises like Suez or the Falklands,

'the regiment has longed for its own Entebbe or Kolwezi.

'So far, it hasn't happened.

'The sad fact is that it's more than a quarter of a century

'since the Paras jumped into action of any sort.

'Normality is not a romantic escape from a grass strip

'in a giant Hercules,

'but taxi rides into the ugly cages of concrete, wire and wriggly tin

'which house both police and troops in Northern Ireland.'

'Life inside is claustrophobic, unglamorous, tedious.

'But patrolling outside isn't a total doddle either,

'even to the older hands.'

You're biting your tongue all the time and you're off again,

and you're up and you're down. You're sliding all over the place.

You've just got to keep going cos you can't use the roads in case

-somebody leaves a present for you. - So you're always in the field?

You're always wet anyway cos you're sweating, the kit you've got...

It's really hard work, it is.

And if you've got a cold or something, do you just carry on?

Carry on. You've just got to hack it.

Will he get used to it, young Spider?

- Oh, yeah. - You get used to it in the end.

He's coping now. He's doing a good job.

You get used to it. Takes some getting used to though.

Are you going to go on doing it for a living?

What? Patrolling?

When I get told to it, that's the only time I'll do it.

I won't do it of my own choice.

It's boring there, you know,

cos, well, half the time you do ten hours on, ten hours off.

And in the ten hours that you're off, you sleep most of the time anyway.

And all you got time for is to get some scoff down your neck

and then get your head down

and it's just boring over there anyway for six days.

'Since 1969 the Paras' three battalions have spent between them

'a total of nine years and 11 months in Northern Ireland,

'increasingly besieged in undignified quarters like these.'

Is it what you expected?

No, not really.

What did you expect?

It's hard to say, I just didn't think it would be like that.

So in the end of the day, is this the life you really wanted?

I don't know. It's difficult to say, isn't it?

I've only seen what the Army is in Northern Ireland.

I haven't seen what battalions are like, what else they do and that.

It might be totally different. We've got a tour of Cyprus coming up.

It might be good fun. I don't know, we'll have to wait and see.

I signed on for three years, I don't know if I'll sign on again...

we'll have to wait and see, won't we?

The Parachute Regiment is a regiment for all seasons or it's nothing.

It must take on whatever task it's given and do its best at it

and our soldiers respond to that.

It tries the patience. It is long and tiring hours.

Well, they must get on with it.

And if there is violence there,

they will and can respond to that as necessary.

'In Northern Ireland, extra mural activities, physical or otherwise

'are out of the question and watching Alistair Melvin and friends

'pounding the track inside the wire,

'like so many prisoners of war, only reinforced the thought,

'of all troops, aren't Paras the most dangerous of men to keep confined?

'Especially when they're reminded, as they often are,

'that even inside these friendly local neighbourhood

'police stations in the United Kingdom in 1983,

'they can still be got at.'

What happened...an articulated lorry

drew up from over the border,

moved up to within about 200 meters of the police station

and on the back it had ten remotely controlled mortar tubes.

The driver flicked a switch

and the mortars started arriving in the police station.

In fact, I've got here the fin of one of the mortars,

you can see it's actually quite a big thing.

There is a little plaque on it, I notice.

That's right. It says presented to Rosslea Police by Monaghan IRA.

'This was the damage to the living quarters,

'but with the luck of the Irish, the attack came when almost all

'the inmates were in one room watching the Cup final.

'Two were injured, none killed.

'The Paras have not always been so fortunate.

'39 members of the regiment have been killed in Northern Ireland.

'In August 1979, 16 were blown to smithereens

'at Warrenpoint in South Down.

'In two fell swoops, first a group travelling by truck

'and then some of their rescue party were slaughtered by remote control

'from a few hundred yards across the river and the border.

'And every new recruit patrolling the streets

'in that special border atmosphere of silent suspicion

'has had the legend of Warrenpoint planted in his mind,

'nurturing regimental pride, breeding resentment.'

There are those both in and out of the Army

who say that it's really a mistake to send men of such a get up

and aggressive character to do a job like that

because they become provocative.

Of course, there are those who would say that anything

that is done by the British Army in Northern Ireland is provocative.

Light a cigarette, it's provocative. Or don't light one and it is.

This was the sort of thing that maddened me

about the great term Bloody Sunday. Whose blood were we talking about?

Time and again it is the British soldiers' blood

that the public are able to see thanks to television

and the newspaper pictures running in the gutters.

If fire is opened on men who are trained to be soldiers,

they will at some stage return fire.

We train them specially to return fire in a particular way

in Northern Ireland, or to open fire initially in a certain way.

'The Paras deny that they opened fire initially

'on that Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.

'Without doubt, as they broke up the illegal march

'they too were fired on.

'But the fact is, it was civilian blood that was shed.

'Lord Widgery's report concluded that some of the deaths certainly

'resulted from firing that bordered on the reckless

'and at least one officer had to restrain his men from shooting

'at non-suitable targets.'

GUNFIRE

Do not fire back for the moment,

unless you identify a positive target.

SCREAMING

You mad bastard, you.

Appearing to be dead are the three in that Saracen car,

there are two men lying at the end of this block of flats,

there's another man at least very close to being dead.

There are two others up there.

I'm told there are some more in these flats here that I haven't seen yet.

'The Paras shot 13 civilians dead in 20 minutes, a number in the back.

'None were proved to have been IRA members or carrying firearms.'

Can you tell me what happened when the Paratroopers came in, father?

They just came in firing. There was no provocation whatsoever.

- Firing what? Rubber bullets? - No, it was lead bullets they fired.

They seemed to fire in all directions.

There were some rubber bullets too. They didn't even seem to fire gas.

It was completely outrageous, disgraceful. I don't know...

They call themselves an army, it's utterly disgraceful.

I rest on the reputation of the regiment there,

and I am not ashamed of that reputation.

Of course, there will always be the odd mistakes.

As the first commander to land forces there in Northern Ireland,

I am well aware that the army has made mistakes,

and no doubt occasionally, they'll continue to.

That is because they are not impeccable.

But would you accept that the Paras are the sort of soldiers,

by their training, who can and do overreact?

No, I certainly do not accept that they overreact,

because they are a disciplined force.

But they will react toughly when the occasion requires.

One of the biggest problems that we had during the terrible crowd days

in '70, '69 in Northern Ireland,

was this question of a British soldier not liking,

even though people are hurling rocks at him,

to lay hands on their fellow citizens.

Well, the Parachute Regiment were a bit better at that than some,

and they were ready to do it if ordered to do it,

but not in an uncontrolled way and certainly not in a provocative way.

'Yet surely, through every yard of their training,

'the Paras are persuasively invited

'to demonstrate more and more aggression.'

Don't stop there, then. Keep going.

When you get around the corner, you switch off. Now bloody well drive!

Come on, work!

Move yourself, for Christ's sake!

We've got to turn them into aggressive soldiers.

It's no good jumping out of the sky, landing, doing a 20 mile tab

and then getting out the other end and turning round and being weak.

They've got to get stuck in and win whatever they've got to do.

You're airborne, come on!

They've got to be able to fight and enjoy it.

It's no good them fighting and not enjoying it

and backing out at the last minute, so you've got to teach them

and you've got to put it into them to be aggressive.

Like the milling.

If you asked them, did they want to mill, you know,

you'd probably get people saying "No, I don't fancy that sort of thing",

but when you stick them in there against a guy and say "box",

he's got to fight, or he'll get punched all over the place.

I mean, that brings out his aggressiveness

and if he's a poof, he's out.

It's awkward, really. You teach a guy

to be able to look after himself, basically, you know.

But then when he goes down town, has a few pints, starts scrapping

and gets roped in with the police, that's a bad way.

If they get like that and they get roped in with the police

when they're off duty, they've got no discipline.

But there is a certain reputation, is there not, amongst the Paras

that they are the sort of people

you don't want to meet on a dark, drunken night.

They're normally fighting amongst themselves, and beating up crap hats.

We are not looking for thugs.

If we have thugs who insist on being thugs, we throw them out.

Keep coming. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Let's go.

I dare say some people,

seeing your following of the platoon through here,

will say this is a sort of brutalisation. No, it isn't.

He doesn't have to go on being a Parachute soldier.

You've got a good long hill before you catch them up.

And quite a number leave here anyway

because we don't think they're up to it.

One, two, three!

'What the regiment wants, the regiment gets -

'men ready for anything.'

Right, listen in. With these gas masks on

during the flight phase and approaching the landing phase,

you have got distorted vision.

The ground will look nearer than it really is.

'Back at Aldershot, they'd already

'begun training in NBC gear - nuclear, biological, chemical,

'accepting the unacceptable.

'On exercise, or for real, when ordered, they jump.

'Over nine months as part of the maroon machine,

'they'd acquired a pride in themselves, a creed, a family,

'an identity. In exchange, they'd accepted that their lives

'might be short, their lifestyle nasty and brutish.'

If at any stage, you feel sick,

lift that bloody mask up. I do not want to see

carrots and tomato skins coming up over the eyepieces.

It's up to you, if I see that, you keep it until you hit the deck.

'Whatever the nature of the next conflict,

'they were ready to kill for their country.

'If they couldn't parachute to war, they'd walk,

'as their comrades had in the Falklands

'and where beyond question, they proved that the training works.

'We pay our money,

'he Government pays the army, and the Paras pay the price -

'Perhaps in the way they die,

'but perhaps in the way they live.

'But this, it seems,

'is what is required to produce 16 young men sufficiently programmed

'to submerge their individual personalities

'and, whatever the odds, do whatever they're told.'

Hooper. Cunningham.

'On his return from Ireland, Philip Tatum was found

'to be suffering from asthma, and will be discharged from the army.

'Mark Hunt, Gobby Taffy, after a pub brawl

'and before the resultant court case, skipped the country

'and is now serving with the French Foreign Legion.

'The 14 surviving graduates of 480 Platoon continue to serve

'with the regiment of their choice.

Well, that was in 1982. So, where are they now?

Two years later, have the graduates of 480 Platoon

justified the confidence and time and money spent on them

by the Parachute Regiment?

Well, one who's very firmly back in Civvy Street is Philip Tatum.

We can put it together for £24.90 for you.

'Today, far from being in some heroic imperial battleground

'serving his Prime Minister, Philip Tatum is serving her constituents

'in the Finchley branch of Radio Rentals.

'Yet in 480 Platoon, he'd always been a front-runner,

'doing and saying the right things.'

When you go into battle, you're outnumbered,

you're low on ammunition and that,

your life expectancy is about six hours.

But it's a great regiment.

Do you recognise yourself, Phil?

Mm-hmm, just about.

Do you still feel the same way about it?

Yeah, exactly.

In fact, you don't realise what a great regiment it is

until you have to leave and then you realise what you're missing then.

Not only in the field, but when you're actually out in town as well.

You can always rely on your mates

being there to watch your back no matter what the situation is

and they're always there standing by you.

If they need anything, you'd do the same for them.

A lot of times, I wished I was back on Civvy Street where it was easy.

But if I could, I'd go back tomorrow

and do it again if they'd give me the chance, which they wouldn't.

'One recruit who did get a second chance was Private Balland.

'He'd begun badly'.

Balland, you make me despair!

'Later in Wales, other talents emerged.

'He won the confidence of the staff and a prize.

'But in the rigorous P Company test,

'Johnny Balland, like many another, fell by the wayside.

'Yet even in defeat,

'he showed a fighting spirit and after a spell in hospital,

'joined a later platoon and is now a successful member of 3 Para.

'Taffy Hunt, meanwhile, has deserted

'the Foreign Legion after a brawl in defence of his old regiment.

'At present, at a cost of four months in jail,

'he's back with the Paras.

'But what of Private Cunningham,

'who staggered from one misfortune to another,

'but finally staggered through,

'despite the misgivings of his instructors?'

I think Cunningham

would probably have to work about 20 years at his fitness.

'Two years later, he is, according to his CO, a much improved soldier,

'serving like most of the other 480 graduates

'with 3 Para in Belize and, says the regimental colonel,

'all the other graduates have also justified their selection.

'Including the tiny Sean Day, who on the trainasium catwalk

'had refused to jump a few feet'.

There's 32 men behind you in that aircraft.

You've got no second chances. Stand by!

Go!

Come on! Climb down.

'Later, after a month's retraining, he'd succeeded,

'but in parachuting,

'one man's hesitation could mean another man's death.

'Many said he should never have been passed.

'Yet within a year, Sean Day

'had joined perhaps the world's most famous free-fall parachute team,

'led by Captain Mickey Munn.'

I think he's proved with the Red Devils

that that decision made to pass him was a really good one.

In my seven years as the team commander,

I don't think I've had a chap who's joined us

who's been such a good soldier

as young Day, and he's a very quick learner.

He's a super fella.

'Also in the team, another 480 graduate, Graham Robertson,

'the only boy to join straight from school.'

I'm surprised at the speed I've managed to get into the team.

I spend a lot of weekends parachuting and I think in a way, I'm very lucky

to have got on to the team so quickly.

'But as Sean Day prepares to jump, does he think how on that catwalk,

'he came within a whisker

'of never being a red beret, let alone a Red Devil?'

I must admit it does enter my mind now and again.

I still wouldn't go and do the trainasium. But I'm happy jumping.

I suppose that you didn't think you'd be doing anything like this

anyway at that time?

No, not really.

And freefalling up to 8,000 feet?

Love it. I can't get enough of it.

'Two years on, then,

'whether they're sweating it out on the ground in Belize

'or, like Sean Day, coolly airborne in biplane formation,

'the Paras believe that given a cold climate outside,

'the graduates of 480 Platoon

'have, in more senses than one, fallen on their feet.'