On This Day In 1979

The Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, has been killed by a bomb blast on his boat in Ireland.
One of the earl's twin grandsons Nicholas aged 14, and Paul Maxwell aged 15, a local lad employed as a boat boy, also died in the explosion.

A few hours later 18 soldiers were killed in two booby-trap bomb explosions near Warrenpoint close to the border with the Irish Republic, the IRA admitted carrying out both the attacks .

A statement from the organisation said: "This operation is one of the discriminate ways we can bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country."

Lord Mountbatten, aged 79, and his family had traditionally spent their summer holiday at their castle in County Sligo, north west of Ireland. They were aboard his boat, Shadow V which had just set off from the fishing village of Mullaghmore, when the bomb detonated around 1130 am.

A witness said the blast blew the boat "to smithereens" and hurled all seven occupants into the water.

Nearby fishermen raced to the rescue and pulled Lord Mountbatten out of the water, but his legs had been almost severed by the explosion and he died shortly afterwards. Other survivors were pulled out of the water and rushed to hospital.

Lord Mountbatten never had a bodyguard but the local police kept watch on Classiebawn castle for the one month a year Lord Mountbatten spent there.
His boat was left unguarded in the public dock in Mullaghmore where it was moored.

Mountbatten was given a state funeral. Six of the soldiers who died at Warrenpoint were buried the same day in local churches.

Thomas McMahon, 31, was convicted of the three murders, he had been detained on suspicion of driving a stolen car two hours before the bomb went off.

He was set free in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. In my opinion they should have hung the terrorists not let them all go.

Prince Charles has never been able to get over the death of his favourite uncle. Mountbatten was in charge of the Burma campaign in World War II and seemed like a stubborn old git.