‘Counter-Insurgency Against Kith and Kin’: British Army Combat and Cohesion in Northern Ireland

"The Argylls made a mistake in approaching the ambush site with such a lack of caution and by crowding around the suspected device. Some soldiers were also struck by a sense of stunned disbelief when they came under fire from a ‘real enemy’ for the first time. However, they were quickly snapped out of their stunned disbelief by their NCOs. By moving towards the firing-position, they forced the IRA unit to retreat and got their unit out of the ‘kill zone’. One soldier recalled Sergeant Jimmy Kilcullen constantly hammering home the fundamental message of why his sections needed to ‘fire and manoeuvre’: ‘If we come under fire, you locate the fire. Advance towards the fire and clear it. If you sit down, you die.’ Others reported that the intense familiarity with this infantry drill was critically important – responses learned in training kicked in: ‘All you think about is the next ten metres.’ An Argyll officer later noted that,"