British army boss gives Inquiry evidence

General Mike Jackson, the British army's Chief of the General Staff, interrupted his duties in the Iraq war today to give evidence at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

Gen Jackson, 59, was adjutant to the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment in January 1972, when paratroopers killed 13 Catholic men on an illegal civil rights march in Derry.

Gen Jackson, who was then a captain, was on the ground with 1 Para’s commanding officer Colonel Derek Wilford as the paratroopers burst into the Bogside.

When asked by Christopher Clarke QC, counsel for the inquiry, whether tempting the IRA into a fight on Bloody Sunday was any part of the operation, General Jackson replied firmly: “No.”

Gen Jackson told the British government-appointed public inquiry, sitting in central London, that he believed he was being shot at.

He was at a look-out post behind Barrier 12 with Col Wilford near the Presbyterian Church.

Gen Jackson recalls that he “ran like fury” across the wasteground with Col Wilford, who wanted to get forward among the troops to see what was going on.

In his inquiry statement, Gen Jackson said: “As I sprinted across the wasteground, I had an absolutely firm impression that I was being shot at.

“What I thought was ’some bugger is firing at me’.

“I could hear the crack of incoming rounds but cannot describe this further or distinguish it in my memory now from the noise that was all around. I did not see the strike of rounds.

“All around me the soldiers that I saw had the postures of men who were under fire, who had been under fire or thought they were going to be killed.”

As 1 Para’s adjutant in 1972, he was in charge of routine administration but joined Col Wilford and Major Ted Loden, a company commander, on the ground once the arrest operation began.