BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 2
Fifty Years ago on Wednesday 1st April 1970, the Ulster Defence Regiment,
being a locally recruited corps within the British Armed Forces, officially
began Military Operations and Security duties throughout Northern Ireland.
Uniquely within the British Army, the Regiment was on continuous active
duty throughout its twenty-two years of service and well as being the first
infantry regiment to fully incorporate women into its structure. In 1992 the
UDR was amalgamated with the Royal Irish Rangers to form the Royal Irish
Regiment and in 2006 was retroactively awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry
Cross which entitled it to be known as:
~ THE ULSTER DEFENCE REGIMENT CGC ~
As a prelude to VE Day itself; on May
4th 1945, in his tent at Luneburg Heath
near Hamburg, Field Marshal Sir
Bernard Law Montgomery, accepted
Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeburg's
unconditional surrender on behalf of
the German Forces in the Netherlands,
and north-west Germany, including the
islands in and around Denmark, as well
as all naval ships in those areas.
When the German Admiral tried to
negotiate the terms of surrender, Monty
reportedly 'cut him short and gave him
a tongue-lashing' about the bombing of
Coventry and the horrors of Belsen and
other concentration camps
Front Cover Print: 'VE Day Celebrations' by Kevin Walsh : Above Print: 'The German Surrender at Luneburg Heath in 1945' by Terence Cuneo