THE BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY/Day 316: The officer commanding paratroopers on Bloody Sunday admitted yesterday it was surprising that two of his soldiers did not inform him they shot two men before he ordered other troops into the Bogside area.
But Col Derek Wilford told the Saville Inquiry his communications were "perfectly adequate" on the day 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead. A 14th man died later.
Questioned by Mr Arthur Harvey, counsel for many of the families, Col Wilford insisted his men could have done nothing better on Bloody Sunday.
Mr Harvey put it to Col Wilford that two of the soldiers he ordered forward to an observation post had shot two innocent people 15-20 minutes before he sent paratroopers through a crowd control barrier.
Mr Harvey asked the colonel whether it was surprising that his soldiers had not informed him of the shootings.
Col Wilford replied: "Yes, it is surprising, I would have expected to have been told had that happened."
Mr Harvey asked him whether brigade headquarters were entitled to know that someone was shot dead before they ordered an arrest operation.
"Yes," he replied.
Mr Harvey asked: "If things could have been done better, and you believe they could not, could not the simple reporting of this incident to brigade have enabled things to be done better?"
Col Wilford replied: "But I could not report it because I did not know of it." Mr Harvey asked:
" Surely just by improving your communications within your own battalion, things could have been done better, could they not?"
Col Wilford replied: "I think my communications were adequate. Where there was a breakdown, this is something, I am afraid, that happens and you can not really then say 'it could have been done better'."
Mr Harvey asked: "If that platoon had not been deployed there, two innocent people would not have been shot, that would have been doing things better?
Col Wilford replied: "The reason, I take it, those soldiers fired is because they were in fact opposed."
Mr Harvey told Col Wilford there was no record in army communication logs from Bloody Sunday that he intended to take his men through crowd control barrier 12. He said notification to brigade headquarters of his intentions may have improved communications.
However, Col Wilford insisted: "The communications were perfectly adequate, brigade knew that I intended to go through barrier 12 and barrier 14."
Col Wilford yesterday said he had never considered over the last 31 years whether the army had done anything wrong on the day 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead.
Mr Harvey asked: "Could you have done anything better?" Col Wilford replied: "I really have no idea."
The retired officer only gives evidence in the mornings.
The hearing continues.