Original subtitles

August the 27th, 1979, Mulloch Moor, Eire.

A small fishing boat chugged out of harbour.

A few minutes later, as it stopped to pick up loctopods, a massive explosion

shatters the boat, killing four of the seven people on board and maiming the

rest.

Among the dead is one of the most revered figures in modern Britain.

But who would want to assassinate a 79 -year -old?

who has long been retired from active service.

August 27th, 1979.

Mullock Moor, County Sligo, Ayr.

The fishing boat Shadow 5 was the last sea -going command of Admiral of the

Fleet, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma.

Royal born at the heart of the British establishment, Mountbatten had played a

leading part in some of the most momentous events of the 20th century.

His assassins were to claim that his killing was an execution.

intended to tear out the sentimental, imperialist heart of the British people.

Far from doing this, the cold -blooded killing of an old and widely respected

man and of innocent members of his family only stiffened the resolve of the

British people and their government not to be intimidated.

And ironically, far from being an imperialist, Mountbatten had been the

for one of the greatest acts of liberation in the history of the British

The road to this atrocity had begun many centuries before, as Ireland became, in

effect, the first of England's colonies.

From the 12th century onwards, settlers had moved in from England and Scotland,

and the English in particular imposed their rule on Ireland.

By the beginning of the 17th century, a Protestant, English -descended

aristocracy was ruling over a Roman Catholic people.

Only in the northeastern province of Ulster had mass immigration resulted in

largely Protestant population.

Mountbatten had become involved with Ireland through marriage.

Part of his wife's family was from the Anglo -Irish aristocracy.

and one of their family homes was Classybourne Castle, near Malkmore, in

north -western county of Sligo.

It was here that they traditionally spent their summer holidays.

Always known to his family as Dickie, Mountbatten was born in 1900 as Prince

Louis of Battenberg.

His father, also called Louis, was nominal head of a small German state.

but now a senior admiral in the Royal Navy.

In 1912, his father became first sea lord, professional head of the Royal

But he was forced to resign because of his German background shortly after

War I broke out.

He also changed the family name from Battenberg to Mountbatten and gave up

title of prince.

Dickie followed his father into the Navy, going to Dartmouth Naval College

then becoming a midshipman on the battle cruiser HMS Lion.

In 1917, he's appointed sub -lieutenant and second in command of the anti

-submarine patrol boat P -31.

July the 18th, 1922.

Mountbatten marries Edwina Ashley.

granddaughter of the banker Sir Edward Castle, and one of the richest heiresses

in the world.

It is the wedding of the year, attended by King George V, Queen Mary, and the

Prince of Wales.

The wealthy young couple become leading members of 1920s society, close friends

of the Prince of Wales, and celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, whom they meet

while on honeymoon in California.

But Mountbatten is determined to succeed in his profession.

During the 1920s and early 30s, he's marked out as an able and ambitious

naval officer.

He specializes in signals and becomes signals officer of the Mediterranean

Fleet.

Then in 1932, Mountbatten gets his first command, HMS Daring, a new destroyer.

And in 1939, just before World War II begins, he's appointed commander of HMS

Kelly and captain of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla.

In August 1941, Mount Batten's luck seems to run out.

Kelly is sunk by German Stukas during fighting in the Mediterranean.

But just two months later, he is chosen by Winston Churchill to become commander

of combined operations, with the rank of acting vice -admiral.

Then, in August 1943,

Mountbatten gets an even more extraordinary promotion, one which takes

being a highly regarded professional warrior to a political figure who his

enemies could one day kill with the excuse that they were attacking British

imperialism.

August, 1943.

At the age of 43, Acting Vice Admiral Louis Mountbatten is appointed Supreme

Commander, Southeast Asia, now with the acting rank of full Admiral.

He inherits a theater of war in which an apparently unstoppable Japanese

blitzkrieg has thrown the British out of Malaya and Burma, the Dutch out of the

East Indies, and the Americans out of the Philippines.

The first humbling attempts by the Allies to fight back have become bogged

and morale is at a low end.

But Mountbatten's energy and self -confidence swiftly transformed the

giving commanders such as William Slim and Joseph Stilwell the support needed

beat the Japanese in Burma and China.

September 1945,

Singapore.

Mountbatten takes the surrender of all Japanese troops in Southeast Asia.

He stays on as Supreme Commander until June 1946 to help restore order.

Mountbatten is about to return to his naval career when he's asked to take on

one more political job.

March 20, 1947.

After reluctantly agreeing, Mountbatten leaves with Edwina for India to become

viceroy.

He is to undertake the most difficult and controversial job of his career,

bringing independence to the jewel in Britain's imperial crown within 18

But after meeting the Hindu and Muslim leaders, their irreconcilable

make Mountbatten decide that partition is inevitable.

and that it must be done quickly.

On June 3rd, it's announced that separate nations, Hindu India and Muslim

Pakistan, will come into existence in just 12 weeks' time.

Despite appalling rioting and massacres, partition is achieved on schedule.

Mountbatten stays on as Governor -General of India, trying to lessen

-religious tensions.

At last, in June 1948, Mountbatten is able to return to Britain and resume his

naval career, becoming commander of the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the

Mediterranean.

From then on, his rise to the highest ranks is swift.

In 1950, he becomes 4th Sealord.

Two years later, he becomes commander -in -chief of the British Mediterranean

Fleet. and NATO's Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, Mediterranean.

Once again, he proves an able and well -respected commander of an international

force. When he leaves the post, his fellow NATO admirals themselves row him

his flagship.

For Mountbatten has achieved his life's ambition.

On April 18, 1955, he becomes First Sea Lord.

Forty years after his father had been hounded from office, another Lord Louis

Mountbatten is the professional head of the Royal Navy.

In July 1958, Mountbatten reaches the pinnacle of his career, becoming Chief

of the Defence Staff.

Finally, in 1965, Mountbatten retires.

Edwina had died suddenly five years earlier while abroad working for one of

many charities.

She was buried at sea.

Mountbatten also now took on a variety of charitable jobs and tried to avoid

direct involvement in politics.

Thus, he was in no way involved and the problems of Ireland, which had been

dormant for many years, suddenly flared up in 1968.

But it was this new conflict, another religious divide with a long and bitter

history of the sort which Mountbatten had encountered in India, which was

directly to claim his life and those of hundreds of other innocent people.

For centuries, Ireland's situation... as effectively an English colony with a

Protestant minority ruling over a Roman Catholic majority has caused unrest and

regular rebellions.

Attempts to achieve independence through parliamentary means repeatedly come

close to success during the 19th century, but are always thwarted.

As a result, some Irishmen resort to extreme measures.

There are attempted risings in 1845 and 1867.

But the worst single outrage is the stabbings in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in

of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the new Chief Secretary for Ireland, and his

senior civil servant.

In 1914, the Protestants of Ulster...

come close to beginning a civil war to prevent the passing of another Home Rule

Bill.

And the tension only ends with the outbreak of World War I.

But demands for independence redouble at the end of the war.

Soon there is a full -scale guerrilla war led by the Irish Republican Army.

and within two years, British rule has effectively collapsed.

The British government recognises the inevitable, and an agreement is

negotiated, creating an Irish Free State, Eire, in the south of the island.

The north -eastern counties of Ulster, where Protestants are in the majority,

remain part of the United Kingdom, but with their own devolved government.

The civil war, which breaks out in error between those who accept the partition

and those who regard it as a betrayal, enables the Protestant majority in

to entrench its power and reduce the Roman Catholic minority there to second

-class citizens.

August, 1968.

Coal Island, Ulster.

Protestant domination is challenged for the first time.

when a civil rights march protests against discrimination against Roman

Catholics.

Over the next few months, nationalist and Roman Catholic protests grow, while

extreme unionists try to provoke violence.

In the summer of 1969, serious rioting begins against Protestant marches

celebrating historic victories over the Roman Catholics.

And on August the 14th, British troops have to be deployed in Londonderry and

then Belfast the next day to keep the peace.

Although welcomed initially by the Roman Catholics and nationalists, the British

Army is soon seen as siding with the Unionists.

Early in 1971, the first British soldier is killed in Northern Ireland.

And a year later, on Bloody Sunday, January 30th, 1972, 14 men are shot dead

Londonderry when troops of the Parachute Regiment come under sniper fire.

In revenge, the IRA strikes back by planting a bomb at the Parachute

barracks at Aldershot, which killed seven people.

In March 1972,

The British government imposes direct rule in Northern Ireland.

But the violence increases rapidly, and by July, three people are being killed

each day.

Inevitably, the violence soon spreads to the British homeland.

March 3, 1973, London.

Car bombings begin.

One explodes outside the old Bailey Law Court, and one in Whitehall. One person

is killed, and 250 injured.

Two further bombs in the West End are located after a tip -off.

For the next few years, London and other British cities suffer regular hoaxes or

actual bombs.

And the worst atrocity in mainland Britain comes on November 21, 1974, when

people are killed in bombs in two Birmingham pubs.

Despite these atrocities and continuing bombings and violence, by 1979 it is

clear that the British will not pull out, and the IRA has been fought to a

stalemate.

Many people think that the troubles are tailing off, but British intelligence

does not underestimate the IRA's determination and ability to keep on

sophisticated guerrilla campaign.

As these IRA publicity videos show, the Republican cause never lacks for

volunteers to learn the skills of irregular warfare.

And despite occasional interceptions, it also has ample access to weapons and

training from rogue states such as Colonel Gaddafi's Libya.

By 1979, both the Provisional IRA and its main Republican rival, the Irish

National Liberation Army, have accepted that the struggle will last for many

more years.

With a British general election due within months, both are looking for high

-profile ways of showing that they are still in business and trying to pressure

the next British government into withdrawal.

What better way?

than the assassination of some highly placed figures.

A serving politician is one obvious target.

And on March 30, 1979, Airy Neve, Conservative Shadow Secretary of State

Northern Ireland, is blown up in the House of Commons car park by the INLA.

In May, Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister.

Now it is the provisional IRA that needs to upstage its rival and put pressure

on the new Conservative government.

Ever since his retirement, Mountbatten has used Classybourne Castle, which he

had inherited from Edwina, as the place for an annual family holiday in August.

When the troubles began...

As part of the British royal family and a former member of the British

establishment, he is given a close escort by the Irish police, the Garda.

But as he gets older and any threat seems to recede, he asks for this to be

relaxed.

A two -man team now stays near Classeybourne and escorts him on any

August 1979.

As usual, Mountbatten and some of his family have been holidaying at

Classybourne Castle.

The locals in the nearby village of Mulloch Moor know that this holiday will

soon be ended.

Also, that one of the family's favourite pastimes is going out in the 29 -foot

fishing launch Shadow 5 to fish or lay lobster pots.

August 29th.

Mountbatten and his son -in -law, Lord John Braebourne, go out to lay pots off

the Mullochmoor headland.

That night, one or more IRA men creep down to the harbour and out to the right

-hand end of the seawall where shadow is moored.

They plant an 18 -inch tube of gelignite, which can be detonated by

control.

At about eight in the morning, the guarder at a routine checkpoint near the

Irish border stop a car with two men in it.

The driver is unsure of the car's number, so they are detained on

driving a stolen vehicle.

Eleven in the morning.

It is beautifully sunny, and Mountbatten decides to lead a party to pick up the

lobster pots which had been laid the previous day.

11 .10am.

Lord Mountbatten, his elder daughter Pamela, and her husband, Lord John

Braybourne, Braybourne's mother, the Dowager Lady Doreen, and the

identical 14 -year -old twins, Timothy and Nicholas, pile into a car and set

off.

They are escorted by the two Garda officers in a separate car.

Lord Braybourne drives out onto the harbour wall and stops near Shadow Five.

The boat has been got ready by 15 -year -old Paul Maxwell, who is acting as

boatman.

Once everyone is on board, Mountbatten takes the helm and steers the boat out

into the bay.

The garter officers are watching as the boat turns towards the headland off

which the pots had been laid and then stops.

to pick them up.

Then suddenly, an explosion rips it apart.

Nearby boats race to the rescue.

Lord and Lady Braybourne and their son Nicholas are pulled from the water,

but seriously wounded.

But the Dowager Lady Braybourne, her grandson Timothy, the young boatman Paul

Maxwell, and Lord Mountbatten are dead.

Just as this tragedy is occurring, at the police station near the border

checkpoint, one of the men arrested has been identified as Thomas McMahon, a

known member of the Provisional IRA.

Police decide to search his vehicle thoroughly.

Three in the afternoon.

As the news of the Mountbatten killings is flashed around the world, a roadside

bomb explodes near Warren Point in Northern Ireland just as a three -truck

convoy of the parachute regiment is passing.

Six soldiers in the last truck are killed instantly.

The surviving troops cordon off the area and radio for help.

Within minutes, the platoon of the Queen's Own Highlanders is flown in by

helicopter.

3 .20 in the afternoon.

As the helicopters are taking off again with the wounded, a second explosion

destroys a nearby gatehouse.

Two Highlanders, one of them the battalion's commanding officer, Colonel

Blair, and ten more paratroops are killed.

Meanwhile, the police in County Longford have discovered traces of explosive in

the car.

They have also received intelligence that Thomas McMahon is not only a member

the Provisional IRA, but known as one of their leading explosives experts.

He's believed to have learnt his deadly trade in Libya.

and probably to have been involved in other ambushes conducted in the

bandit country of South Armagh.

McMahon and his driver, Francis McGurl, who has no known previous links with the

IRA, are arrested on suspicion of involvement in one or other of the

Before the end of the day, the Provisional IRA has claimed

both outrages.

The assassination of Lord Mountbatten is described as an execution, which will

strike at the sentimental, imperialist heart of the British people.

Quite what the other victims had done to deserve to be executed was never

explained.

September 5th, 1979.

Mountbatten's funeral is held with full military honours in London.

Then his coffin is taken to Broadlands in Hampshire for burial in Rumsey Abbey.

Dublin, November 23, 1979.

Thomas MacMahon is sentenced to life imprisonment for planting the explosives

Mountbatten's boat.

Francis McGill is found not guilty of murder, but imprisoned for five years.

as an accessory.

No one is ever arrested for actually setting off the device.

The troubles drag on for another fifteen years.

It was a very tragic and unnecessary end for one of Britain's best -loved public

figures.