Glasgow soldiers mark anniversary of parachute jump disaster

“We were in a small wood, just outside the drop zone, and suddenly the heavy drop – all the vehicles, ammunition and military equipment – came crashing through the trees just two metres from where we were sitting.”

He pauses.

“The heavy drop zone was supposed to be much further up,” he says. “Instantly there were men running, shouting ‘get the hell out of there’....it was chaos. It was terrifying.”

A photo of Hugh and colleagues taken on the morning of the tragedy (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest)

It was September 11, 1974, and a huge NATO night exercise over the Kiel Canal in western Germany should have been routine for the experienced Parachute Regiment reservists taking part in Operation Bold Guard.

Instead, six men – including five from the 15th Scottish Parachute Battalion and one from Liverpool-based 4th Battalion - died in what was then Scotland’s worst peace-time military tragedy.

The men drowned when they came down too far north of the landing zone and plunged instead into the vast canal.

This Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the disaster, and dozens of friends, family members and former colleagues of Captain Gerald Muir, from Milngavie; Officer Cadet James Cooper, from Fife; Sgt Richard Tomkins, from Aberdeen; Sgt Eliot Leask, from Dennistoun in Glasgow; Lt Cpl Brian Bett, also from Glasgow, and Pte Edward Beach, from Liverpool are travelling to the village of Sehestedt for a special commemoration.

Members of the battalion and friends and family members at Edinburgh Airport (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

“It will be quite an event,” says Hugh, whose brother Daniel was also preparing for the mission that night, but an equipment malfunction meant he could not jump.

“Remember, these were guys who worked Monday to Friday in their day jobs  who came home on a Friday night, put on their uniform and headed off to train and jump wherever they were sent.”

Hugh McGarvey (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest)

He adds: “They were training to prepare for anything. They worked damn hard, they were killed in action – and they deserve not to be forgotten.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy, residents of Sehestedt planted six oak trees to commemorate the men who died.

“The people in the village have become our friends, the accident is part of their history too,” says Hugh. “Those who are left don’t want to forget those who did not come home.”

Hugh, left, inside a Hercules aircraft on a training exercise (Image: Hugh McGarvey)

Hugh and his friend Jim Carey, who took part in the mission, have been making the trip to Sehestedt together for more than 25 years.

“Jim and I joined the Paras at the same time,” says Hugh, who grew up in Barlanark in Glasgow’s East End.

“I loved it. It was about 1965 - I was 18, and I took to it like a duck to water.

“We went to Italy, Germany, all over the place, and I made a lot of good friends.”

Hugh, front third from left, at Kiel Canal on the morning of the tragedy (Image: Hugh McGarvey)

Hugh, who was a steel erector on the oil rigs, joined the Special Air Service after his time in 15 Para came to an end, and he finally retired from the military in 1980.

The grandfather-of-two now lives in Mount Vernon. He is critical of the military for taking 40 years to release official reports of what happened.

"They blamed 'bad parachuting' at first, which was a load of nonsense," he shakes his head. "15 Para were some of the best parachutists around."

Inquiries concluded nobody involved carried any culpability for the deaths, but three unnamed men had been negligent in causing hardware to be dropped in the wrong place by misplacing ground markers.

A heavily redacted document also revealed that ageing life jackets the soldiers were given were in a “poor state of serviceability.”

Graham Muir, left, and his brother Chris (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

Captain Gerry Muir attempted to inflate his life jacket but damage to the gas cylinder meant it failed.

Gerry was 26, a teacher, married to Hazel, with two young children – Graham and Chris.

His sons, now 51 and 53 respectively, will be attending the ceremony on Wednesday (September 11).

“My brother was three, I was not yet two, when our dad died,” says Graham. “Perhaps, there’s a sense of having missed out on something, but we were too young to recall much.

“My mum remarried four or five years later, so we have our stepdad Malcolm, and our stepbrother Roger, who we wouldn’t have had. Sometimes, out of tragedy, good things happen.”

Graham, who lives in Clarkston, has visited Sehestedt before, and it is “emotional”, he says, to be in the place where his father and his colleagues died.

“The guys from 15 Para have been absolutely brilliant in organising this, they and the villagers have been exceptional," he says.

“It is touching to see how it still affects the people of Sehestedt. And it’s comforting to know all the soldiers who died that night are remembered.”