Battle of Newry Road

Battle of Newry Road
Part of the Troubles and Operation Banner
RAF Puma helicopter
Date 23 September 1993 Location East of Crossmaglen, County Armagh 54°5′5″N 6°35′28″W / 54.08472°N 6.59111°W / 54.08472; -6.59111Coordinates: 54°5′5″N 6°35′28″W / 54.08472°N 6.59111°W / 54.08472; -6.59111 Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
Provisional IRA	British Armed Forces
Strength
5 armed trucks	5 helicopters
Casualties and losses
1 heavy machine gun 2 light machine guns 1 assault rifle	2 helicopters damaged
Location within Northern Ireland

The Battle of Newry Road was a running gun battle between British helicopters and Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) armed trucks, fought along the lanes east of Crossmaglen, County Armagh, on 23 September 1993. The engagement began when an IRA team from the South Armagh Brigade attempted to ambush three helicopters lifting off from Crossmaglen barracks.

According to British Army reports, the IRA carried out 23 attacks on helicopters in south County Armagh during the Troubles. Until the early 1990s, when the Westland Lynx were fitted with heavy machine guns, all British helicopters in Northern Ireland flew unarmed.

Following two attacks with rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) in 1974 and 1976, the introduction by the South Armagh Brigade of M60 machine guns raised its level of firepower. In February 1978, in the follow-up of a shooting between British troops and IRA members, a Gazelle helicopter crashed when its pilot attempted to avoid machine-gun fire, killing a Royal Green Jackets Lieutenant Colonel on board. Exactly a year after, a Scout helicopter was hit nine times while flying over Glassdrumman. A Grenadier Guards Major was wounded, but the pilot managed to land the machine safely. One Gazelle was damaged in January 1980 and another in May 1981, both near the village of Cullaville. In yet another incident, an RAF Wessex was hit nine times over Croslieve mountain, west of Forkhill, in 1983, by rounds fired from a .50 Browning machine gun, allegedly recovered by the IRA from an Allied aircraft that crashed on Lough Neagh during World War II.