The officer commanding paratroopers on Bloody Sunday admitted today it was surprising his soldiers did not inform him they shot two men before he ordered other troops into the Bogside.
But Colonel Derek Wilford (69) told the Saville Inquiry his communications were "perfectly adequate" on the day 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead in Derry on January 30th, 1972. A 14th man died later.
Under questioning from Mr Arthur Harvey, QC, 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 or 20 minutes before he sent paratroopers through a crowd control barrier. Mr Harvey asked the colonel whether it was surprising 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'".
In his fifth day of testimony at Methodist Central Hall in London, Col Wilford told the inquiry it was always his intention to arrest as many rioters as possible by sending troops through two crowd control barriers.
Col Wilford later defended one of his paratroopers who fired 19 shots at a house in which he claimed to have seen a sniper on Bloody Sunday.
In his inquiry in 1972, Lord Chief Justice Widgery said some of the British army shooting in Glenfada Park bordered on the reckless and was without justification and he criticised Soldier H for firing the 19 shots.
Today Mr Harvey asked Col Wilford: "Thirty years later your view of this, as a professional soldier, that a person armed with an SLR rifle is entitled to fire 19 rounds into a house if he thinks there is a sniper there, in order to keep his head down, is that right?"
Col Wilford: "Yes."
Mr Harvey: "Is that still your view?"
Col Wilford: "Relating it to the circumstances, which I thought were correct at the time, yes, it would still be my view."
Col Wilford, who is retired, will continue his testimony tomorrow morning.