The British army's most senior officer present on Bloody Sunday has said "there was certainly nothing to be proud of" on that day.
Major Gen Robert Ford, commander of land forces in Northern Ireland, said he was "extremely sad" about the 13 unarmed men that paratroopers killed on the Derry civil rights march but he was not responsible for and did not accept any blame for what happened.
His comment yesterday came under cross-examination at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry from Mr Gerard Elias QC, representing several soldiers who allege that planning mistakes, loss of military discipline and misconduct may have contributed to the bloodshed.
It was Sir Robert's decision to deploy 1 Para into the Bogside no-go area for a mass arrest operation at the January 30th, 1972 march - but the detail of the plan was the responsibility of lower-ranking commanders, he said.
Mr Elias said there were "substantial and significant flaws" in the military plan. Separation of the expected trouble-makers from the crowd, vital to cutting the risk of injuring innocent civilians who were caught in the crossfire, was unclear.
The soldiers were not given specific orders about how they were to go in for a pincer movement to arrest the rioters.
"When they hit the ground they did not have detailed orders about how they were to go in behind the rioters, to stop and pick them up, the inquiry was told.
Sir Robert, who was in charge of day-to-day army operations in Northern Ireland, told the inquiry: "It certainly looks as if some aspects of the detailed planning, which presumably went on, were not covered. I accept full responsibility, of course, for using 1 Para, full responsibility," he added.
"As regards down the line, whether there were detailed orders given out or not. . .then that was really a matter for commanders below my level."
A statement from Company Sgt Major Lewis, an experienced Northern Ireland Para, showed that lack of planning for the execution of the plan "totally failed", Mr Elias said.
Company Sgt Major Lewis said "there was nothing to be proud of in soldiering terms" about what happened on Bloody Sunday.
His statement read: "I do not feel now there was a proper controllable plan to contain the march or a clear indication before we were deployed of what was expected or how the arrest operation was to take place.
"We were shown maps of the area where we were to deploy but did not know the city and did not know precisely where other soldiers were deployed or how they intended to seal off the areas in which arrest would be carried out.
"In the event, there was no sealing off of the area and this lack of containment meant that the rioters were not prevented from running away, so soldiers ended up chasing them," Company Sgt Major Lewis said.
"The result on the day was that people were all over the place and there was a situation of confusion."
The army's cinema footage stopped at the crucial point as paratroopers began to fire, the inquiry was told.
A sergeant in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps was asked to take the footage from the army helicopter as violence was expected.
He told the inquiry that he was using a clockwork Bell & Howell camera, complete with a 100ft spool of film and four lenses, which may have needed rewinding at the time.
Mr Barry MacDonald QC, representing many of the bereaved families, pointed out that the soldier took no footage of rioting at Barriers 12 and 14 and so could not say whether there was separation between the crowd and the rioters.
The hearing was adjourned until today. - (PA)