Anarchy in the UK

Abstract

In 1967 a machine-gun attack on the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square gave notice of future troubles, which continued into 1968 with the bombing of the Spanish Embassy and the American Officers’ Club, located at Lancaster Gate. Five further bombs targeted Spanish diplomats and an Iberian jet at Heathrow. These attacks, by the Basque separatist group ETA, were supplemented by the planting of devices in 1970, outside the Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s house in Putney in August and the Attorney General’s in October. These bombs were planted by the First of May Group with connections to Spanish and Italian revolutionaries. On 18 September 1972, the Middle Eastern group Black September also began a bombing campaign, against Jewish and Israeli targets in London. In January 1973 they sent out forty-three letter bombs, all capable of killing the recipient; the first killed an Israeli diplomat but most were intercepted. By this time, however, a new police unit, the Anti-Terrorist Branch, had become operational, having been formed from the original Bomb Squad set up in 1971. By 1973 all Bomb Squad officers were armed. The Special Patrol Group (SPG) was also armed when necessary. There was also new and powerful weaponry.