Saville files and orders 'do not match'
Official documents recording the orders given to the Bloody Sunday paratroopers to enter the Bogside do not match the events on the ground, the Saville Inquiry heard today.
A Lieutenant Colonel who was a watchkeeper at an operations room at Ebrington Barracks on Bloody Sunday said any verbal orders would immediately have been written out precisely.
The soldier, identified only as INQ 2091, was involved in making a log of radio communications on January 30 1972 when 13 unarmed marchers were shot dead by British paratroopers in Derry.
The inquiry, sitting in London, was told that an order was given verbally at 4.07pm on a secure network, called a Bid 150, for 1 Para to go into Bogside.
They were to go through Barrier 14 at William Street and were not to engage in a running battle down Rossville St.
But three units of 1 Para, including some in armoured vehicles, went into the scene at different sites.
The verbal order would have been passed on to a watchkeeper who would have written it down with absolute clarity in the army log, the inquiry was told.
“Whatever he told you to write down, you would write down,” INQ 2091 said, adding that he doubted the barracks had the equipment for a secure link.
“If you had that specific instruction you would clear it with him, you would write and say ‘is that all right, boss?’ and he would agree it“.
No entry recording the order to send several units of 1 Para appears on the log.
INQ 2091 said that although he doubted the barracks had the capability to operate a secure link it was possible that such a network was placed in the Brigade Major or the Commander’s offices.
The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.
