17 December 1971: Anthony Aspinwall, 22-years-old, married with 3 children and a soldier with the Gloucester Regiment holding the rank of Private was from Somerset. Pte Aspinwall was fatally wounded by an IRA sniper the previous evening in a street off the Falls Road. The IRA ambushed an army patrol that was moving through the Alma and Raglan Street area hitting Pte Aspinwall in the stomach. After being hit in the stomach, he was able to fire 6 shots at the snipers position. The inquest was told that he had been covering another patrol from his regiment that was operating in Alma Street. Pte Aspinwall was ordered to move his position at 3:00AM and when he and a colleague did so, a gunman in a nearby house fired at them. The inquest was told by the colleague: I saw Aspinwall rise. Then I saw a muzzle flash from the gunmans weapon. He said that Pte Aspinwall fired a half a dozen rounds at the sniper who was hiding in a hole in the wall. He said that he had fired 4 shots before going to his colleagues assistance. He added: I applied a shell dressing to his wounds, then an ambulance arrived but as it did the gunman opened fire again. It looked to me that Aspinwall had been hit by a shot from an Armalite weapon. The ambulance was hit by 2 bullets but none of its crew was injured. Pte Aspinwall was serving with his regiments 1st Battalion and had been in Northern Ireland for only a week. He was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he died. His wife, father, sister and a brother, who was also serving with the regiment, was at his bedside at the time of his death. LEST WE FORGET!
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:28:27 +0000
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