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mentioned before but just a reminder:
27 Aug 1979:
18 x British Soldiers die in Warrenpoint Massacre
At least 18 soldiers have been killed in two booby-trap bomb attacks at Warrenpoint, South Down, close to the border with the Irish Republic.
It is the highest death toll suffered by the British Army in a single incident since it arrived in Northern Ireland to restore order a decade ago.
It came only hours after the Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was killed in an IRA bomb attack in Donegal Bay in the Irish Republic.
The dead at Warrenpoint included the most senior Army officer killed in Northern Ireland to date, the commanding Officer of the Queen's Own Highlanders, Lieutenant-Colonel David Blair.
The IRA admitted carrying out the attacks the following day
IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten
The Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, has been killed by a bomb blast on his boat in Ireland.
One of the earl's twin grandsons, Nicholas, 14, and Paul Maxwell, 15, a local employed as a boat boy, also died in the explosion.
Lord Mountbatten, aged 79, and his family had traditionally spent their summer holiday at their castle in County Sligo, north west of Ireland.
They were aboard his boat, Shadow V, which had just set off from the fishing village of Mullaghmore, when the bomb detonated around 1130 BST.
A witness said the blast blew the boat "to smithereens" and hurled all seven occupants into the water.
Nearby fishermen raced to the rescue and pulled Lord Mountbatten out of the water, but his legs had been almost severed by the explosion and he died shortly afterwards.
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Today marks the 99th Anniversary of one of the most celebrated actions of the early days of the Great War. The 2nd Battalion Royal Munster fusiliers fought an epic, brave, but slightly controversial regard action at the small French village of Etreux on the 27th August 1914. The battalion had men from Cork, Clare, Kerry, Waterford Limerick Tipperary and other area of Ireland and the UK, and in them they upheld the honour and reputation of the Royal Munster Fusiliers. Their action became the classic engagement and practice of the Rear-guard action. They fought a long hard engagement against a fast moving overwhelmingly numerically superior German force, and delayed their advance for over 12 hours, allowing the rear elements of the British Expeditionary Force to retreat in order to survive and fight another day. The Munster Fusiliers fought hard through out the day with elements of the Coldstream Guards, and with minimal support form a unit of the Royal Field Artillery. However the crushing number of German troops eventually told and the Munster's slowly fell back to a small orchard on the outskirts of the village. This was their last stand, and they fought hard and inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing, and no encircling German units. With their ammunition exhausted, and with very heavy casualties they eventually were forced to surrender. The survivors were treated with great respect by the Germans for their bravery. the Munster held the orchard for as long as they could, indeed many of them hold it still. It is in this orchard that many of the men who fought and died that day lay at rest. The actions of the Royal Munster Fusiliers at Etreux would pass in to the lore of the Irish in the British Army, and stand to this day as an example of the classic rearguard actions. Up the Dirty Shirts, Lest we forget.
Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.
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