Killing for Britain

This new 2018 edition of John Black's dark memoir of his time in the UVF in early 1970s Belfast benefits from the identification elsewhere of the shadowy British Army contact known only as , "Mike" in the text. This corroborates much of the author's testimony. Collusion between the British forces and the Loyalist paramilitaries is the last untold story of the Troubles. Loyalist terrorists were effectively used by the British Army as auxiliaries, a proxy army. Killing for Britain - UVF operative John Black's story - confirms both Republican claims that the British ran Loyalist Death Squads, as well as Loyalist claims that their activities were fully supported by the British state. Directed by the notorious British army counter-insurgency unit, the MRF in 1972, Black s testimony graphically confirms security policy was to use the killing of civilians as a means of forcing them to give up support for the I.R.A. This remarkable document is written by an eye-witness to murderous events and relates the author s personal, harrowing journey from human to monster, and back to human again, showing how such events from the past torture even the toughest people.