Timeline of Ulster Defence Regiment Operations - 1983

1983

• January - Intelligence leads 3 UDR to believe that INLA is about to assassinate a member of the security forces living in the Mourne area. An operation lasting for six months is set up using vehicle checkpoints to prevent the movement of terrorists. The planned attack never happens but INLA members try to provoke UDR soldiers at checkpoints to create a disturbance which could lead to the withdrawal of the patrols. As a result, a woman is charged by the police for assaulting a UDR sergeant and a Greenfinch.
• March - A patrol from 3 UDR carrying out search operations in Castlewellan finds a revolver down the back of a seat in a public house. 4 UDR- a patrol from the Lisnaskea company is dispatched to Inishfendra Island (home of the Earl of Erne) to investigate suspicious activity and arrest a party of German tourists who are removing an antique cannon from the island believing it to be abandoned.
• 10 May - Three foot patrols from 2 UDR are ambushed near St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Armagh. A man is seen running into the cathedral and in a follow-up search is arrested by the police who found him hiding in a confessional.
• July - A foot patrol from 2 UDR are surrounded by a crowd in the centre of Armagh. Before the police arrive to take over the crowd-control a struggle ensues between a member of the patrol and one of the crowd during which a shot is discharged killing the civilian.
• 21 September - 7 UDR deploys a search team to a housing estate after a foot patrol spots several men suspected of robbing a bank nearby just minutes earlier. The RUC enters the suspect house and arrests two men and recovers a loaded shotgun plus a revolver which had been used in several sectarian murders. The 7 UDR search team recovered £7,000 in banknotes from the robbery. An entire UVF cell was arrested as a result.
• 25 September - 8 UDR part-time soldiers find 1950 lbs of home-made explosives near the Cookstown-Omagh road. 3 UDR deploys on land and sea in a VCP-and-search operation in conjunction with the police and Royal Navy following a mass break-out from the Maze Prison by PIRA. Four prisoners are recaptured.
• October - * UDR's operations platoon provides a "quick reaction force" to cover an operation by the SAS in Dungannon. The operation is a failure and the terrorists escape. 1 UDR finds 845 lbs of explosives near the Tyrone border, 6 UDR finds 66 bombs totalling 3,800 lbs near Sixmilecross. 8 UDR finds 1,200 lbs of explosives and 11 UDR find a 700 lb device and two petrol bomb "factories" in Lurgan.