Saturday 11th August 1973 More than 150 shots fired at troops in Strabane There were no Army casualties and troops returned fire after more than 150 shots were fired at them. Twentyeight shots were fired at a foot patrol in the Ballycolman housing estate and between 100 and 150 rounds were aimed at the vehicle checkpoint on the Lifford Road. Monday 13th August 1973 Policeman’s son latest victim of the gunmen A Belfast teenager gunned down in the Ormeau Road area was a policeman’s son. Norman Hutchinson (17), a Protestant, who lived in Cregagh, was walking along the Ormeau Road with two girls when the killer struck. He died later in hospital. Detectives think the killer walked up to the group, fired a single shot, which hit the teenager in the stomach and made his getaway in a waiting car. Neither of the two girls was injured in the attack but both witnessed the shooting and were badly shocked. After the shooting, an anonymous caller phoned the Sunday News and claimed the Ulster Freedom Fighters had carried it out. Monday 13th August 1973 Gunmen plant bomb in Newry pub Considerable damage was caused to the interior of Kelly and Calvert’s pub at Water Street, Newry. Four armed men walked into the bar carrying a parcel. They held up one of the owners and a traveller who were the only people in the building at the time. The gunmen ordered
them into a room at the rear. The men then sprinkled an inflammable liquid on the seat and ground floor of the three-story building. Then one of them shouted to Mr. Harold Graham and the traveller that they had three seconds to get out. The men made off in a car before Mr. Graham and the traveller got out. They had moved a short distance when the bomb went off. There was slight damage to buildings nearby. Monday 13th August 1973 RUC station hit by rocket barrage A large number of troops continued a widespread search in the South Armagh area for those who mounted the weekend attack on Crossmaglen RUC station, one of the heaviest in any IRA campaign. Seven soldiers were slightly hurt in the attack during which close on a thousand shots were exchanged between troops and the gunmen. Seven rockets and seventeen mortar bombs were fired at the border station. At least 20 IRA men are thought to have been involved. They were held at bay by 40 members of the security forces inside the station during the half-hour attack. One unusual aspect of the raid, apart from it’s intensity, was the fact that almost all the Russian made missiles and mortar bombs exploded near their target. But although there was extensive damage to the police station, the worst injury sustained by any of the soldiers was a leg wound requiring two stitches. Monday 13th August 1973 Downpatrick families flee as bomb is defused Families were hurriedly evacuated from St. Patrick’s Estate, Downpatrick, after an anonymous telephone warning stated that a bomb had been left in the livestock market yard on the main Newcastle Road. Long queues built up as traffic was diverted away from the area and the Ulsterbus depot was closed for a time. Unsuccessful attempts were made by an Army robot to defuse the bomb but it was finally dealt with by an Army expert. Monday 13th August 1973 Ambush victim buried Several hundred mourners attended the funeral of the 17 year-old Co. Donegal building worker who was killed in a machinegun ambush on a worker’s van on the M2
LEFT - The scene at Grampian Avenue in Holywood Road shortly after a fatal explosion