Gunner Robert "Geordie" Curtis

[Jock2413]

Gunner Robert Curtis of 156 (Inkerman) Battery, 94 Locating Regiment, Royal Regiment of Artillery.
6 February 1971 New Lodge, Belfast.

In the early hours, a troop from 156 Battery were deployed in anti riot formation across Lepper Street at the junction of New Lodge Road tasked with preventing a mob from attacking people at the interface with Tiger Bay. A nail bomb was thrown at the troop and in the aftermath of the blast, the crowd split allowing a gunman to fire a long burst of automatic fire from an SMG. The crowd then reformed allowing the gunman to escape. Gunner Curtis was hit and died almost instantly. Four other troop members were wounded, one seriously.
This was the first officially recognised fatality that the army suffered as a direct result of terrorist action.

R.I.P. Geordie.

We Will Remember Them.

[Jock2413]

As an after note to this, the terrorist thought to be responsible for this act was himself shot dead in a shootout with security forces in .....Curtis Street.

[Stuart]

Always remembered.

[weemac]

never forgotten

[Jimmy Mac]

Lest We Forget

[boden]

once a Gunner allways a Gunner

R.I.P

[P-C]

Rest In Peace

[Filbert Fox]

The first of so many remembered today and for evermore.

[yanto888]

His wife was pregnant at the time, wonder how the kid he never saw went on? The box formation used that day was last used in the indian mutiny and was never used in NI again. Heinz Pisarek had a lucky escape that day only to be killed on our next tour. rest in peace Geordie

[Jock2413]

On that night, Heinz Pisarek was carrying an A41 radio. During the shooting, he felt a heavy thump to his back but didn't pay it much attention. When the lads got back to HMS Maidstone, Heinz was taking off his kit when something fell onto the deck. It was a spent 9mm bullet. That heavy thump he felt was a bullet hitting him. It went through the battery of the A41, through his flak jacket and lodged in his web belt. Sadly, fate conspired against him and he was one of two lads tragically killed during the attack on Tango 2 OP at Rossville flats in the Bogside on 25 November 1973.