| Operation Motorman | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Troubles and Operation Banner | |
| Location | |
| Planned by | Major-General Robert Ford |
| Objective | Retake republican-controlled areas |
| Date | 04:00, 31 July 1972 (+01:00) |
| Executed by |
|
| Outcome | British victory
|
| Casualties |
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Operation Motorman was a large operation carried out by the British Army (HQ Northern Ireland) in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The operation took place in the early hours of 31 July 1972 with the aim of retaking the "no-go areas" (areas controlled by residents,[1] including Irish republican paramilitaries) that had been established in Belfast and other urban centres. In Derry, Operation Carcan (or Car Can), initially proposed as a separate operation, was executed as part of Motorman.[2]
- ^ Managing Terrorism and Insurgency: Regeneration, Recruitment and Attrition ISBN 978-0-415-48441-1 p. 101
- ^ Sanders, Andrew (2012). Times of Troubles: Britain's War in Northern Ireland. Edinburgh University Press. p. 123. ISBN 9780748646579. Retrieved 7 August 2018.; Burke, Edward (2 September 2015). "Counter-Insurgency against 'Kith and Kin'? The British Army in Northern Ireland, 1970–76" (PDF). The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (PDF). 43 (4): 658–677. doi:10.1080/03086534.2015.1083215. S2CID 154044385. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.; Charters, David A. (2017). Whose Mission, Whose Orders?: British Civil-Military Command and Control in Northern Ireland, 1968–1974. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. pp. 167–177. ISBN 9780773549272. Retrieved 7 August 2018.