Battle of the Bogside

Squaddies on the Frontline tells the story of the British Army's experience of the Northern Ireland conflict through the eyes of the ordinary men and women that soldiered here. For almost 40 years between 1969 and 2007, a total of over a quarter-of-a-million soldiers served on the streets of Northern Ireland in 'Operation Banner', the British Army's longest ever operation. These men and women were at the heart of the key events of the conflict, with over 700 soldiers killed and more than 6,000 injured, and a further 305 deaths attributed to them. Squaddies on the Frontline is their story, taking viewers into the heart of 'Operation Banner' and the day-to-day realities of life and work here as a soldier through some of the toughest years of the Troubles, looking at the impact that it had, and continues to have, on their lives and the lives of those around them, both in Northern Ireland and beyond.

On the 14th August 1969 the British Army were deployed onto Northern Ireland’s streets for the first time, to relieve an exhausted RUC in the wake of the Battle of the Bogside. As they entered the city the troops were confronted with a ring of barricades surrounding the Bogside area and manned by the rioters, presenting them with an instant dilemma – to attempt to remove the barricades and provoke a confrontation, or to leave the barricades intact and allow the Bogside to remain beyond official law & order?