Trevor Booker: This is an account of the incident where Chinn won his MM. I was there, as they say, albeit off to one side, tactically speaking. I'll do it as close to Orders as I can remember but if I ramble off at a tangent for the sake of the story, don't worry

Ground (and period): T'was shortly after Internment, A Company was based off to the west of Lenadoon in an infants' school; very small chairs but perfect for me. Lenadoon housing estate hadn't been completely built then and the big school, on Finaghy Road North was still a building site. If you recall, the road layout is a bit like a big cross; Falls Road crosses from the east to west; Finaghy Road North comes up from the south(that's Irish for a start), and Shaws Road heads north. About halfway up Shaws Road, on the east side, is an open area called The Greenan, with a crescent shaped road around the perimeter. Beyond that, to the east is the Glassmulluin estate and, back then, there was open ground to the n/west, below Lenadoon Avenue. Located in the s/west quadrant of the crossroads is an Agricultural College, standing on a high knoll, overlooking the crossroads.

Situation: Enemy Forces; The estate area of Glassmullin had a strong elemnt of Fianna Na Eirrean? youth wing of PIRA; no effective leadership (they'd all been lifted) and so they were hell bent on brassing up the Brits, with ambitions to create a No-Go- Area. Barricades were erected along the length of Shaws Road, chiefly concentrated to give a good field of fire across the Greenan against anyone coming to clear them.

Friendly Forces; Grouping and tasks-

1 Pln to secure the open ground to the west; no deployment further east than than a ridge line running minus 150 metres short of Shaws Road.

3 Pln to secure the high ground of the Agricultural College- to give covering fire east along Falls Road and north across the Shaws Road and the Greenan.

2 Pln (Chinn's lot) to clear the area around the barricades and secure for Holdfast to remove the obstacles.

Okay, 'nuff of that. Needless to say it turned into a jolly little shoot-out. We (3Pln) get into position and its a grandstand view. There are a few scrotes of various ages running around the area but no sign of weapons; all the street lights are lit up and everyone is watching TV, judging by the flickering windows.

Enter 2Pln, churning up the road in Humber Pigs. Lots of dustbin lids banging... then silence. Get the odd feeling that something is about to happen. They drive past the first barricade, then the second. By this time they are just about to enter the Greenan and some Fianna scrote gets buck fever and opens fire too soon.

There is no cover but the mighty Chinn debusses and, standing there in full view, begins to engage the enemy, roaring at the top of his voice and urging everyone to 'Get out and get f***in' shooting!' This wasn't as popular an idea as it first seems because, from what I could see, there was strike all over the Pigs; the noise inside must have been pretty intimidating. Chinn was joined by Peter Eliot and together they put down heavy and accurate fire, sufficient to tone things down a bit. I have to say that we did our bit, firing at some muzzle flashes and busting the street lights but we stopped pretty quickly as some of 2 Pln got the idea that we were engaging them and had a pop at us!

Endex!

That was the incident that earned Bob the MM; Peter Eliot got a Mention in Despatches; the rest of us got gravel rash from diving away from of 2 Pln's incoming fire. The debrief was interesting!

I'm sure that the ear incident that Martin cited is one of those apocryphal tales that have attached themselves to Bob. I asked him about it, one night when we were exploring a bottle of brandy, up at Morphou Gate. He grinned, and growled, 'It's all bollocks, anyway. Have another drink!' at least I think that's what he said, it was very close to the bottom of the bottle.

Ross Pritchard: As we approached the barricade. Bob was sitting in the front seat of the "Pig" and I, being his 2/ic was sitting in the back by the two doors, opposite Pete, which we had open ready for action. Directly we came under fire, Bob shouted "Debus". Pete Eliott, our section sniper, immediately "double tapped" at a muzzle flash bringing the terrorist down, I was first out of the vehicle, and laid down covering fire at the three to four muzzle flashes to our right hand side, the rest of the section took cover to our left hand side which was a low hedge with a field behind it. When Bob opened his door to get out, about four rounds from our front hit his door, one hitting the top of his door which was approx. two inches wide. His head was level with this part of the door at that time, the others hitting roughly central. At that moment in time I was at the back moving to cover. If he had not opened the door at that time those rounds would have all gone into the middle of my back - the gods were on our side that night. Quarter inch lower, Bob, would also have been history. (The armoured window was open!)

Once under cover, Bob put up a "Schermuly" covering us in smoke. That caused a few chuckles - it was useless, we couldn’t see anything. We then started taking incoming fire from our rear which rather worried us a bit as we thought we were surrounded. We returned fire (now I know it was 3 Pl. trying to shoot out the street lights). We did realise it must of been our side due to the fact all the shots were high: we could hear them hitting the metal poles. After a quick "O Group" we moved out up the line of the hedge to the top of the road, we crossed the road unseen and holed up in the bottom stair well of some flats. It was a good spot as we had all round defence. At one time I had to persuade Bob not to shoot, as he put it, "A f*****g old bag banging a dustbin lid.” That was a fraught 10 minutes I can assure you. The terrorists didn’t know we were there until in the early morning they sent two unarmed men to check our location, we gave them a scaring of their lives. We were in that location all night. When we got the word to move, we went back to our vehicle, the driver (he was MT and was a Australian) I have just remembered his name, Cabbosh, (I'm not sure how you spell it) He had hulled down, told us the noise of the rounds hitting the vehicle was deafening. Later on return to location, he counted 42 hits. Apart from a few scratches and all being "dog" tired, we luckily were all ok.

Back in England (Tidworth) we were informed that a few of us had been put in for awards. Eventually when they came through, Bob won the MM and Pete Eliott, Mentioned in Dispatches. I went with Bob to Buckingham Palace and was with him when the Queen awarded and pinned on the medal. What he said to her God only knows. Whatever it was made her smile. I served with Bob until I left in 75 but we still meet up every so often for a few beers!!!! and keep in contact by phone and letter. He is in good health, living with a nice lady and enjoying a well earned retirement in Cornwall. BACK