Lichfield gun attack
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
14:49 (UTC)
| Lichfield gun attack | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Troubles | |
 Front of Lichfield City Station where the attack took place | |
| Location | Lichfield, Staffordshire, England |
| Date | 1 June 1990 14:49 (UTC) |
| Target | British military personnel |
Attack type | shooting |
| Weapon | Handguns |
| Deaths | 1 British soldier |
| Injured | 2 British soldiers |
| Perpetrator | Provisional IRA |
| Assailants | IRA active service unit in West Midlands, England |
The Lichfield gun attack was an ambush carried out by the Provisional IRA (IRA) on 1 June 1990 against three off-duty British soldiers who were waiting at Lichfield City railway station in Staffordshire. The attack resulted in one soldier being killed and two others badly wounded.[1]
The IRA had stepped up their campaign against British military targets outside Northern Ireland in the late 1980s. In May 1988 they killed members of the RAF in attacks in the Netherlands.[2] On 13 July 1988 nine British soldiers were injured when the IRA detonated two bombs at a British military barracks in Duisburg, Germany. On 1 August 1988 the first Provisional IRA bomb in England in four years was set off by a timer device at the British Army base at the Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill, North London. The two storey building containing the single men's quarters was completely destroyed. One soldier, Lance Corporal Michael Robbins, was killed. Nine others were injured.[3] In September 1989 eleven Royal Marines were killed and 22 others injured when the IRA bombed their barracks in Deal, Kent, England.[4] On 18 November 1989 two British soldiers were wounded when an IRA car bomb exploded at a British Army barracks in Colchester, England. On 20 February 1990 the IRA bombed a British military recruitment office in Leicester, England. Two people were injured in this attack. Five days later on 25 February 1990, another recruitment office was bombed, this time in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Less than three weeks before the Lichfield attack 16 May 1990 the IRA detonated another bomb under a military minibus in London, killing Sergeant Charles Chapman, and injuring four other soldiers. After this attack the IRA released a statement which read: "While the British government persists in its continued occupation of the north of Ireland the IRA will persist in attacking the British government and its forces in England."[5]
