Attack on Ballygawley barracks

Mortars and machine guns tore through Ballygawley on a winter night, killing two officers and reducing the barracks to rubble before soldiers arrived to find only powder smoke and ruined brick. Patrick Kelly led the assault as part of a wider campaign to destroy isolated bases across Tyrone, treating each building as a temporary obstacle rather than a permanent fact. The violence was not spontaneous; it followed a deliberate plan to overwhelm small garrisons with speed and fire, leaving behind cratered ground and scattered documents.