The Rifles

Lord Lieutenant’s Award

for Major (Retd) Roy Stanger

Major (Retd) Roy Stanger Lord Lieutenant for Hampshire, Nigel Atkinson Esq

In Autumn, a Lord Lieutenant’s Award was presented to Roy Stanger. The award was presented (virtually) on 7 October 2020 by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for Hampshire, Nigel Atkinson Esq, who himself served six years as a Royal Green Jacket Officer.

The citation covers Roy’s achievements in his capacity as Winchester Garrison Welfare Officer, the organizer of the Royal Green Jackets Association Annual Reunion and Supporter of The South Winchester Golf Club.

Citation

After 45 years of successful military service, Roy Stanger retired from the Army in 2004. Within three weeks of retiring he returned to public service by joining the Civil Service in the role of Garrison Welfare Officer of Winchester Garrison, delivering welfare and community support to 500+ military families across the Garrison. During his 15 years in this role, the improvement in the department’s output in terms of volume of support, quality of service and efficiency of resources has been striking; he has redefined the approach to complex problem sets, specifically in the management of housing allocation issues, delivery of community support and refurbishment of the Community Centre at Worthy Down. Roy has laid the foundations for significant improvements to the living experience for Serving personnel and their families in Winchester Garrison applying his tried and tested ability to deliver change and make things happen. Under his guidance the welfare department has established a multi-faceted and deliverable local engagement plan with neighbouring units from a cold start. This drive and engagement with the military community and local authorities in Winchester, has seen a marked increase in access to welfare facilities and support, particularly to those leaving the Armed Forces. He has also inspired those living within the military community to commit their time to local initiatives, such a mental health courses, seasonal events for military children and the formation of a Community Welfare Committee.

Roy Stanger’s legacy will endure well beyond his tenure to the undeniable benefit of the Garrison, the support it delivers to the community and the people who serve in it.

Since The Royal Green Jackets Association’s inception at the end of the Regiment’s time in the United Kingdom’s Order of Battle in 2007. Roy Stanger has been the organiser of the Association’s Annual Reunion in Winchester. This is a major national event with a turnover of in excess of £40K each year. He has lead a small team of volunteers who help mainly on the day but the responsibility and detailed planning for the whole event has been his alone. Without exception he has always ensured a well organised and popular event attended by between 500 and a 1,000 veterans and their families every year most of whom stay in hotels and accommodation in Winchester for the weekend thus adding significantly to the economy. The work involved is painstaking in its attention to detail and year on year, based on feedback, he has improved the facilities available and the cost effectiveness of the event. All of this has been tempered with Roy’s wonderful sense of humour and his unfailing, infectious enthusiasm. He has now retired from his Civil Service post at Worthy Down but has insisted that he will continue to run the Reunion. His dedication and inspired commitment to his comrades and his Regiment, over an extended period of time, has been quite inspirational and certainly worthy of formal recognition. Roy Stanger’s impact on the South Winchester Golf Club for the last 15 years has been felt in two particular areas. The first and that for which he is best known is his management of the Junior Section of the Club. He has been responsible for organizing fixtures, selecting teams and planning each year’s diary. He has explained the spirit of the game and he has excelled at this. His ability to engage with the Juniors has been outstanding and has given them skills which they are unlikely to have learnt elsewhere and which has added significantly to their education. The second area has been the source of information and assistance that he has given to the organisers of the Club’s activities. All Past Captains would acknowledge that if they had a problem, they would turn to Roy Stanger. It is his combination of golfing knowledge and his military background that has made him an invaluable supporter of the Club and those people of all ages who use it. It is this quality which has earned him the annual “Clubman of the Year” award given to the person who has made the greatest contribution to the Club. In summary, it is considered that Roy Stanger is worthy of recognition by the Lord Lieutenant for his work for three very different organisations in Hampshire.

Who remembers Op Casement?

The Bloody gun battle for the bakery

The Bloody gun battle for the bakery began in Belfast at 03:50 9 August 1971. That was when B Coy 1RGJ moved in to ‘The Markets’ to flush out a gang of gunmen who had expelled the night shift at gun point. Dawn was in the sky, but for the previous five hours Riflemen had already engaged snipers from the fringes of the catholic area near the City Centre. around the Inglis Bakery, the largest in Northern Ireland, terrorists were believed to be waiting and the Army Command were convinced that an ambush was being set up. The four platoons waited until dawn then they executed a ‘back door’ pincer movement, it was just as well, as Eliza Street, the main approach to the Bakery, was sprayed with automatic fire from both ends as the Riflemen began their approach. They encircled the narrow streets among the meanest of the City’s ghettos. From Lagan Street, Cromac Street and Stewart Street they gave covering fire while their main attack was spearheaded along McAuley Street.

The terrorist raked the streets with a Thompson sub-machine gun, 303 rifles and .22 small-arms fire, the fighting was savage with the Republican side being organised by Official IRA commander John McCann who had also it was believed organised the ambush that killed Cpl Bob Bankier 1RGJ the previous May. McCann was later shot dead in central Belfast in 1972.

As the soldiers moved from doorway to doorway, one gunman was killed near the barricades of Market Street and Eliza Court. By 05:15hrs the Riflemen had reached Bond Street. Two of the gang, one still armed, had been captured. But six terrorists were thought to be on the roof.

At 05:45hrs The Riflemen were outside the Bakery, but the doors were locked. As they smashed through them they were met with a spray of bullets. Inside the building they were engaged in savage fighting with two terrorists believed to be fighting a rear guard action while the rest escaped. One is believed to have been hit. An Officer said: “The place was like a rabbit warren with hiding places everywhere.” At 06:15hrs The last shots were fired and Riflemen began the hazardous operation of searching the three floors. Six people in the Bakery were handed to the police for questioning, five who were employees were later released. By 08:00hrs the building had been combed and the Riflemen moved to the nearby houses. They had seen men running through back doors and out through the front and down the alleys between the streets during the battle. The search produced a 303 rifle from a drain and ammunition found on an outhouse roof.

At 09:00hrs The army began to bulldoze the barricades. Five men were in police custody. All that remained were streets littered with debris, a two foot pile of bread and a pool of blood in Eliza Street.

The curious case of the 9mm automatic carrier bag

There were other incidents but the funniest and probably the scariest came after I had come back from two days compassionate leave to sort my marriage out, it was coming up to my birthday and we were based at RUC Woodbourne a police station to the south of our area in the lenadoon.

Kev my mate asked our boss Lt Stileman if we could somehow go out for a bit in the safe protestant Lisbon area. Generally on four month tours apart from your four days R&R you weren’t allowed out because it was too dangerous, however the boss said we could go on certain conditions, one we were to be armed, carry a 9mm pistol, complete with shoulder holster and secondly don’t drink and don’t go to any dodgy areas (as if). The plan was for us to get changed into civies and when the RUC finished their shift, they were driven home to their safe area by police land rover, all we had to do was hitch a lift, which we did without incident and found ourselves in Lisburn High Street, trying not to look like squaddies and trying to conceal the guns under our arm. We went to Woolworths where I brought some music tapes then guess what? We ended up in a bar, bad move; I was fed up with my pistol digging in my side so I went to the toilet and took it out of the holster and placed it in the woolies bag!! and returned to my seat. To cut along story short we got more and more inebriated, we got a cab going to Belfast city centre where we ended up in a night club well leathered, I with a pistol in a carrier bag! (Kev had his still in his holster). It was obvious we were Brits and probably more obvious we were squaddies because of our hair cuts (longish hair was fashionable then) how we didn’t end up dead I will never know. Eventually we got back to camp and an almighty bollocking.

Daren Branch

Newry Road Bomb 77/78 Tour

We had been dropped by a Wessex helicopter and consolidated in the field awaiting the second drop to make up the multiple. After the Wessex departed, we got up and moved to the other side of the Newry road, one of five leading out of Crossmaglen (XMG). As I approached the road, I saw a bit of red coated fine wire all scrunched up lying on the hedgerow. I picked it up and put it in my pocket and continued patrolling. On return to base many hours later we were being debriefed and I remembered the wire so I took it out and another member of the multiple (Rfn Templeton?) said he too had picked up some wire on the other side of the road and he showed it to me, It was the same type but green coated. I submitted my patrol report with the two bits of wire and after my egg banjo went to bed. At about 02:00hrs I was rudely awakened and told to report to the ops room where I was asked where I had found the wire. I wanted to say: “Read my effin report it’s all in there.” But instead, I showed them on the map where it was found. BIS had examined the wire and declared it to be DuPont detonator wire. This meant that there was possibly a device somewhere along the Newry Road so it was immediately placed out of bounds. We as foot soldiers never used the road other than for short bursts or for crossing but covert vehicles and the COP operating out of other locations frequently drove up and down there. It had been OOB for about 10-14 days when the local RUC Sgt decided he wanted to go to Newry in his civilian car. He had done this on numerous occasions during the time he had been stationed in XMG but with no set pattern and his theory was that the speed he drove out of XMG was such that it was too fast for the PIRA to be able to react in time. On this fateful day he drove out of the station gate and entered the square and at speed drove down the Newry road. He was passing the area where we had found the wires and was travelling fast when PIRA detonated the device. It exploded slightly after he had driven over it hurling his car further along the road towards Newry. Dazed and in shock he pulled himself from the wreckage and went up to a house and forced the occupants at gunpoint to let him in. Needless to say, they were unwilling to do this without the pistol as persuasion. He tried to call XMG but the explosion had brought down the telephone wires but luckily for him the lines to Newry were still working and he was able to call for assistance. I don’t remember ever seeing him at XMG after this so I can only assume he was offered a posting to another station. A lucky boy.

Mike