South Armagh Sniper Campaign

*"The Armagh Sniper, the Legion's terrified*

*They just can't pin'im down, no matter how they try*

*If he gets you in his sights, you won't escape in time*

*So Legionnaires leave while you're still alive*"

- *"The Armagh Sniper"*, Author unknown
The South Armagh Sniper Campaign was the use of snipers by the Phoenix Front to deny the Allies the use of the isolated country roads that made up the majority of their logistics train in the southern region of Northern Ireland. The campaign has become infamous for the fact that the Front was able to use such small numbers to effectively curtail Allied ground movements in the region, to the point where the Allies were forced to move all forces and materiel via Cardinal helicopters. For the Legion, it meant a restriction of drug trafficking through Armagh and Crossmaglen, though traffic continued through other border towns.

## Background

Following the Battle of the Bogside and initial recruitment by the Front, the Armagh Brigade of the Front decided that they needed to strike on their own terms outside Crossmaglen. As with many operations, this was easier said than done. Allied patrols in the region were on constant alert for any suspicious activity to prevent trafficking across the border. Likewise, the Legion maintained a discrete presence to facilitate the moving of drugs and other contraband down the quiet country backroads of Armagh.

A relatively isolated county filled with apple orchards, Armagh had a strong history in the tradition of republicanism. Though the Phoenix Front's very makeup made cooperation with unionists a necessity for survival, cooperation was slow going in Armagh. ACIN had initially hoped that the noticeable split would become a possible wedge between the Armagh Brigade and the rest of the Front. Feelers were sent out to try and gauge the possibility, but the brigade quickly found the possible trap and closed in on themselves even further, choosing only to interact with known members of the Phoenix Front

Simultaneously, the Front had gotten a shipment of modified MX-15 rifles from America meant for sniper work. The rifles came fully equipped with telescopic sights, though there was another surprise. Hidden along with the MX-15s were three advanced anti-materiel rifles, custom made in America to eliminate enemy vehicle threats. Sensing opportunity in the countryside, the Front funneled the weapons to South Armagh, into the hands of the Armagh Brigade. Plans were quickly drawn up to affect the life of Allied and Legion soldiers in Northern Ireland, primarily by affecting one of their most basic needs; the ability to travel quickly and safely through enemy territory.

The Reservists themselves often felt safer in the countryside. Lacking the sheer numbers of a city of rioters or the hiding places for volunteers, the Allies were hopeful that they could at least deny the Front a crucial point in the region. The Syndicate hoped they could insert themselves into the patrol pattern for the sake of the shipments being sent into the Republic and spread everywhere; Allied actions had inadvertently affected narcotics shipping, and Front Action Against Drugs had in fact pinpointed Armagh as the focal point for such shipments to the Republic, leading to the decision to begin a full armed-campaign in the countrysides.

## Initial Actions

The first shots of the sniper campaign were fired on August 21st, during a dusk patrol of the border by a Reservist platoon. The platoon, finishing their patrolling for the day, hadn't expected any activity so far from Crossmaglen. To their relief, the Armagh volunteers had little training with the new rifles and scopes and no casualties were suffered by either side. Immediately, Maj. Lee ordered up six Retriever APCs to accompany the reservist patrols to at least blunt the majority of the danger posed by possible snipers. The introduction of armored transports only forced another change to the Front's strategy, and on September 3rd the first casualty was reported when two reservists were shot at a crossroads southeast of Cullaville as they left their Retriever. One was mortally wounded, the other transported back to barracks and on to further treatment at the RIR garrison in Ballymena. After another sniper attack mortally wounded a reservist on the Blaney Rd. east of Lough Ross, Maj. Lee ordered all reservists only exit their APCs when necessary, but continued the border patrols drew in a third actor in the form of two cohorts from Legion Security who came in under orders from the British military to aid the patrolling of the Armagh border. Confirming with his commanders, Maj. Lee gave Cent. Festa orders to patrol the Western region of the border, as the Reservists focused on the Eastern border.

In the West, the Reservists primarily held to their strategy of holding to their vehicles and patrolling the roadways near Crossmaglen. Primarily focusing on the small roads branching off from the A37/N53, the Reservists typically focused on road checkpoints and checking the homes and farms of potential Front sympathizers, as given to them by ACIN. To the West, the Legion and their auxiliaries typically patrolled to prevent the Front from interrupting their own illegal shipments, while willingly handing over the Front's smuggled goods to the Reservists. The trade was that the Legion's willingness to leave their auxiliaries in the open essentially killed twelve auxiliaries in addition to another two reservists wounded in action.

By October 10th, the Front had decided to take further actions against the reservists by sending explosive mines south from Belfast to the border. In a series of combination bomb-sniper assaults over the next week, the Front managed to destroy two Retrievers, killed seven reservists and wounded twelve. The Legion suffered similar casualties south of Meigh, destroying a Testudo, killing two centurions and fifteen more auxiliaries, and wounding five centurions and ten auxiliaries. By this point, frustrated with the constant raids and no closer to shutting off the flow of illegal smuggling across the border, Maj. Lee made the decision to request Peacekeeper assistance.

## The Peacekeepers Arrive

Deciding that the smaller the number of peacekeepers would equal the smaller number of locals outraged, Maj. Lee only requested a small platoon of Peacekeeper pathfinders, which he believed would allow them to easily move about in their Cardinals and try to neutralize the Front's sniper teams. On their arrival on October 18th, Maj. Lee and Lt. Reno met to discuss the roles each force would play. Emphasizing that his reservists had the primary focus of securing the area roads, Lee reportedly said he wanted the Front sniper teams, "Strung up by their shorthairs off the nearest bridge." Lt. Reno is reported to have answered, "Is there a particular rope you would like used?" Cent. Festa was not contacted to attend the meeting, but declassified communications do reveal that the *centuria* was made aware of the presence of the pathfinders in the area.

Unable to secure anti-air missiles in numbers, the Front had to restrict their attacks against the reservists knowing that the pathfinders would be able to respond to any attack in under a half hour. Instead, they quickly changed their tactics to focus on the Legion-patrolled western border. From October 22nd to November 1st, the Legion suffered two more destroyed Testudos, seven dead legionnaires and anywhere from twenty to thirty dead auxiliaries. According to the Legion, the Front has tried to inflate the numbers to make their actions seem more impressive. The Front has stated the Legion is trying to cover up the exact number of auxiliaries lost to prevent recruits from joining. However many auxiliaries were lost, Cent. Festa reportedly ordered that his forces now start to act as bait for his own spotting. Official records state that the decision was due to the need to eliminate the sniper teams as quickly as possible. However, legionnaires have stated later that Festa felt that his own skills as a sniper were being called into question because of the actions by the Front, who had succeeded in killing two more auxiliaries during a sniper attack on the border at Dromad.

Initially, the pathfinders began their operations by performing flyovers and foot patrols of the South Armagh countryside to feel the terrain under their own boots. By November 9th, they felt ready to start effectively responding to attacks near the border. The first response was on November 19th, the platoon flying out from Crossmaglen to the Legion's patrol area after reports of an attack on a Legion foot patrol. On landing, the pathfinders found one dead legionnaire, one wounded hoplite, and a large squad of auxiliaries without orders. Securing the area, the pathfinders secured medical aid for the hoplite and auxiliaries and started to comb the area. Though unable to find the sniper team, one of the squads did locate a snipers nest a quarter kilometer away from the road the patrol had taken.

By this point the media had started to pick up on the attacks, reporting on every attack made by the "South Armagh Sniper". Though the Allies initially tried to correct the statement by noting that such attacks by necessity meant that the Front was operating in groups, the media continually attached the campaign to a singular sniper. Capitalizing on this new attention, the Front started a new phase of their operation.

On the night of November 23rd, one of the Reservist Retrievers was fired on by a Front sniper team wielding an anti-materiel rifle and specialized armor-piercing rounds on Newry Rd to the east of Creggan. With their last line of defense eliminated and still required to patrol the border, Maj. Lee requested that Cardinals be flown in to allow his company to continue operating. Effectively handicapped until the helicopters could arrive, the Front was able to operate almost unopposed in the western part of the Armagh border. The eastern region was still in dispute, as Cent. Festa continued to hunt the snipers almost non-stop, to the point where the Front ceased firing on auxiliaries altogether, though they still wounded a junior centurion three days later south of Jonesborough.

By now becoming concerned with the brazenness of the Front's actions, Lt. Reno ordered the pathfinders to operate on a rotating, 12-hour schedule. One Cardinal was almost constantly in the air with one squad, the other remaining on-call with the second squad. This did little for the security of Crossmaglen, as during this time the first use of flamethrowers was used on the fortified watch points in the city. Desperate to try and reign in the loss of control, Lt. Reno asked for permission to utilize one of Maj. Lee's own platoons. Just as desperate, Lee agreed.

## Bandit Country

Emboldened by their successes, the Front decided that they could now focus on dismantling the Legion's hold on the western border. Acting on intelligence from Belfast of a shipment of narcotics, two sniper teams were deployed along the A1 just north of Killeen. On December 2nd, they fired on what at first was suspected to be a civilian cargo truck. Responding, the pathfinders found that it was in reality bound from Belfast laden with narcotics to be shipped through the Republic of Ireland. When asked if his auxiliaries had been prepared for the truck, Cent. Festa revealed that his men had been fired on shortly after the truck was disabled, so no one could definitively say whether or not they knew about the real purpose of the shipment. Though Lee was prepared to recommend Festa's contract be terminated, events took a startling turn the next week.

Video had been sent to the BBC showing armed Front volunteers stopping cars on isolated roads, asking for identification and where the driver was headed. Though primarily focused on the smaller country roads that were of little importance, the sight of Front volunteers essentially doing the job of the reservists was a bold new media attack by the Front. Hemmed in due to the danger and now humiliated by the Front's propaganda, Maj. Lee's only good news of the month was that his requested Cardinal "Slick" helicopters had finally arrived, but too little too late. Lt. Reno was ordered to continue his helicopter sweeps, using one of the reservist Cardinals as a backup.

Likewise, the severely weakened Legion *auxilia* meant the threat that more valuable legionnaires could be lost. Though he sent his *centuria* back to Belfast, Cent. Festa chose to remain in Armagh, reportedly despite repeated orders from Legion leadership to return in order to hunt down the Front's sniper teams. As for the drug shipments, the Legion chose to instead reroute the shipments via other border towns away from Armagh and across the waters, not wanting any more cut in their profits.

Currently the Armagh Brigade continues to act with almost sheer impunity in the Irish countryside, the Reservists and pathfinders held in place until the Front anti-materiel rifles can be neutralized. Though still able to move via helicopter, the diminished combat capability and lack of means to search for illegal shipments outside of Crossmaglen has greatly hampered the abilities of the Reservists, especially to support local civilian law enforcement, who have also been forced to remain within Crossmaglen unless there is an emergency call.

While the Armagh Brigade have enjoyed success, many question whether it can last. Though calling themselves a brigade, estimates state that the highest number of volunteers the Front could even hope to have is roughly 40 men. If the United Kingdom ever decided to ask for Reservist support from Ireland, the Armagh battalion would again be restricted to attacks once in a blue moon. Conversely, the Irish republic are loathe to cross the border, for fear of sparking a unionist outcry against the Allied Nations for allowing such action and potentially igniting further bloodshed. For now, South Armagh is completely in the hands of the Phoenix Front, but for how long is the question on everyone's mind.