Shortly after 2pm on 17 September 1972, a bright Sunday afternoon, six soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute regiment were patrolling near the Ballymurphy estate in west Belfast. If you were a British soldier stationed in Northern Ireland at that time, the area around Ballymurphy was not a place to stand still for too long. Even when pausing briefly in a doorway, the young soldiers would sway from side to side, performing a life-or-death street ballet.
There were three soldiers on either side of the road. The last man on the left-hand side was an 18-year-old private, Frank Bell. When the patrol reached an exposed and potentially dangerous spot by a side street, the section commander, a corporal, quickly crossed before pausing to watch his men follow one at a time. As private Bell crossed the road, the soldiers heard the crack and fizz of an incoming high-velocity round.
