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aliases category tags start end location created updated summary relations
C18
Combat Eighteen
National Socialist Alliance
Extremism & Violent Networks
Organization
NeoNazi
UK
TerroristOrganization
BannedInGermany
ListedInCanada
CombatEighteen
BloodAndHonour
UDA
SpecialBranch
1992 1998 United Kingdom 2026-05-22 2026-10-15 British neo-Nazi paramilitary group founded in 1992 as a British National Party stewarding squad, banned in Germany in 2020 and not proscribed in the United Kingdom.
type with reverse role start fn
founded Charlie Sargent true co-founder 1992 1
type with reverse role start fn
founded Wilf Browning true co-founder 1992 1
type with reverse role start fn
head_of Wilf Browning true leader of Combat 18 in Europe, per the German government 2020 11
type with reverse role start fn
funded Blood and Honour true music business revenue, contested from 1996 1993 1
type with role start fn
subject_of Federal Ministry of the Interior association ban under the Vereinsgesetz, citing section 3(1) 2020-01-23 1
type with reverse role fn
participant_in Steve Irwin true joined a C18 demonstration in London 25
type with reverse role fn
participant_in David Myatt true ideological figure in C18 circles 8

Combat 18 (C18) was a British neo-Nazi paramilitary network founded in 1992 by Charlie Sargent and Wilf Browning as a stewarding squad for the British National Party. Its name stands for the initials of Adolf Hitler, the first and eighth letters of the alphabet. The group broke from the BNP, took control of the music business of Blood and Honour, and fell apart after a feud between its two leaders ended in the stabbing death of Christopher Castle in 1997 and the life sentences of Sargent and Martin Cross in January 1998. Canada listed the group as a terrorist entity in 2019, and Germany banned its German section in January 2020. The group is not on the Home Office list of proscribed organisations.1

Origins and the BNP

C18's own account, given in interviews printed in 1993 and 1994, dated its origins to a clash at a League of St George meeting in Kensington in May 1991 and its first admitted action to an incendiary attack on Communist Party premises in March 1992.2 Searchlight Magazine's written evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee in 1993 dated the group's arrival to autumn 1991 and called Harold Covington, a US neo-Nazi, an "outside influence to bring together several disparate factions and groupings into C18."3 The Searchlight publisher Gerry Gable tied the group's creation to a November 1991 meeting in London involving Fred Leuchter that ended in disruption, and wrote that "An effective group of bodyguards and stewards had to be formed."4

Searchlight later called Covington "a long time asset of the FBI," in April 1995.5 John Tyndall, the BNP leader, wrote in 1995 that an unnamed US leader had told him Covington was a long-time FBI employee, while declining to endorse that as necessarily true.6 Tyndall himself had been photographed with men later described as prominent in C18, acting as stewards at BNP events.2 Nick Lowles wrote that Gary Hitchcock came up with the name Combat 18, and that Tyndall called for C18 to be proscribed in a special bulletin distributed to BNP members in December 1993.7

Sargent, who had earlier been a flatmate of Ian Stuart Donaldson, rejected the BNP's electoral strategy and broke with the party in 1993, turning the group into an autonomous paramilitary body.8

Blood and Honour

Blood and Honour was founded in July 1987 by Donaldson, frontman of the band Skrewdriver, and Nicky Crane, as a neo-Nazi music network that emerged from a dispute with the National Front's White Noise Club.8 Donaldson had co-operated with the White Noise Club until 1987, when disputes over revenue allocation led to a break, and Blood and Honour launched with its first magazine issue in July 1987.9 Donaldson died in a road accident in September 1993, and Crane died of an AIDS-related illness in December 1993. Following Donaldson's death, C18 took control of Blood and Honour, along with its associated label ISD Records, and the music business generated revenue that funded C18's activities.8 Blood and Honour subsequently served as economic infrastructure for C18's activities and as a transnational distribution channel linking British neo-Nazis to continental European counterparts.9 The network's revenue then became the object of the Sargent and Browning dispute. A Statewatch item of January 1997 reported that it was understood Browning had seized control of the organisation and expelled Sargent.10 Blood and Honour's German branch was banned in 2000.11

Letter bombs sent from Denmark in 1997 were linked to NS 88, which the Danish anti-fascist organisation DEMOS described as linked to Blood and Honour, "which is controlled by Combat 18."12

The Feud and the Castle Killing

Statewatch wrote in January 1998 that the feud began in autumn 1996 and centred on money and control of the CD music business, with Sargent alleging that a former partner had stolen up to £100,000.13 In February 1997 Castle agreed to act as an intermediary between the factions. He was to deliver Sargent's work tools to the home of his girlfriend, and in return would receive the C18 mailing list and £1,000 from Sargent.13

The court was told that Sargent and Cross then plotted an ambush, and that Cross stabbed Castle in the back "at the instigation of Sargent," in what was described as "a violent and cowardly attack." Castle had been accompanied by the rival faction's leader, whom he dropped off outside the rendezvous, before meeting Sargent at a house. He staggered out shouting for help. The rival leader then hailed a taxi and took Castle to hospital, where he later died.13 Lowles wrote that the killing took place on Monday, February 10, 1997, when Browning drove Castle to Harlow with Sargent's plastering tools to exchange them for subscription lists and £1,000, that Castle went into a mobile home while Browning stayed in the car, that Castle died of a single stab wound to the back, and that Cross disposed of the knife. Lowles named Detective Superintendent Steve Reynolds as the officer who led the investigation.14 Cross was reported to have used a nine-inch knife.8

Sargent and Cross were tried at Chelmsford Crown Court, where a jury convicted them, and in January 1998 both were sentenced to life imprisonment.13 Steve Sargent and David Myatt founded the National Socialist Movement (UK, 1997) in June 1997.8 Statewatch described the same organisation as the Sargent-led NSM, formed after his expulsion from C18.15

World in Action and the Informant Allegation

In April 1998 the ITV documentary World in Action presented allegations that Sargent had been a police informant.16 The programme alleged that Sargent passed ecstasy and at least two consignments of weapons from C18 to the UDA commander in east Belfast.16 It also presented an undercover police officer who had infiltrated C18 and attended high-level planning meetings. He confirmed that the names on an outdated target list, which appeared in the press after the letter bombs arrived, "could only have come from Sargent," and he claimed that police appeared to have known of events before he informed them.16

The programme also said that C18's core leadership had kept an updated target list from Sargent because they suspected him of leaking, and Statewatch recorded that claim.16 In January 1995 police raided the homes of several senior organisers, including Sargent's former right-hand man, Will Browning, and recovered bomb-making manuals, sniper instruction books and documents showing that the group was surveilling targets, among them a World in Action journalist. A former C18 organiser, Darren Wells (alias McKenzie), confirmed that the journalist was under observation and that the group had decided to "up the stakes" by targeting him. The plans were abandoned after the police raid on Browning.16

The Danish Letter Bombs

Five members of a Danish neo-Nazi group with links to C18 were arrested on January 19, 1997. During the raid on an apartment, a police officer was shot and wounded by its occupant, Thomas Nakaba. Letter bombs had been sent to targets in the United Kingdom, and Statewatch's January 1997 item gave at least three, while its later items gave four.17 The campaign linked C18 to continental neo-Nazi networks including elements connected to Blood and Honour Scandinavia.16

The devices were disguised as video cassettes and held dummy explosives, though the detonators were genuine. The targets included a former swimmer and television commentator, the Anti-Fascist Action organisation, the C18 post office box, and a Scottish neo-Nazi who had left Blood and Honour to set up his own music outfit.18 The Danish High Court jailed Nakaba for eight years and his two co-defendants for three years each, in September 1997.19 Nakaba claimed that Browning had given him the dummy explosives in autumn 1995, and Statewatch wrote that Browning had bought them in eastern Europe.19 Statewatch wrote in January 1998 that the campaign was carried out under the orders of the C18 faction.13

Allegations of State Involvement

In April 1995 Searchlight wrote that MI5 "had in fact set up C18," to "know the extent of such joint operations" between the UDA, the UVF and British fascists.5 Searchlight wrote in October 1995 that C18 "is controlled by the security services and has become a no-go area for decent police officers who wish to halt its activities."5 Tyndall argued that the C18 leadership had operated under some kind of implicit state licence, which made them immune from prosecution for distributing inflammatory literature.6

In his 2010 introduction to a 1995 article, Larry O'Hara of Notes From The Borderland wrote that he had never thought either Browning or Sargent were state assets. He wrote that while Sargent may have been, the lack of substantiated evidence called for a Scottish verdict of "not proven."2 The same introduction says that Wells "came out" as a Searchlight and Special Branch informant in 2002, and that Wells's presence helped create a situation in which Browning and Sargent each believed the other was the informant. O'Hara called this "classic disruption from the FBI's COINTELPRO playbook."2 Wells, who co-authored the C18 booklet with Browning, was described by Lowles as "one of the most important moles Searchlight has ever run," and was handled through Lowles.20 The C18 booklet, which Browning wrote with significant input from Wells, was distributed through BNP branches under a deal O'Hara described Browning as having made with Nick Griffin in 1995.2

Statewatch wrote that the programme's evidence "confirmed suspicions that the fascist organisation had been deeply infiltrated by the police."16 The informant allegation against Sargent is the programme's claim, supported as the programme presented it by the undercover officer's evidence.16

Lowles wrote that Searchlight mooted in the summer of 1995 that C18 was either a creation of the state or had been allowed to develop unhindered, whether as a vehicle through which MI5 could spy on other organisations or to destabilise the right wing generally. He also wrote that the British Security Services had funded and directed Column 88 as a state-sponsored honey trap, formed by Ian Souter Clarence as the British section of the stay-behind operation Gladio, and that in the early 1990s the BNP was the only Nazi organisation systematically monitored by MI5, which had fifteen informants within it. He reported that an anonymous document circulated within the BNP concluded that Hitchcock was a state agent who had more or less blown his cover in January 1994, and that Tyndall suspected Harold Covington, whom Lowles concluded could not have run the operation Tyndall alleged.21 According to Lowles, World in Action named the leak as the deposed leader Sargent and alleged that he had been recruited some time after the inception of C18 primarily to provide information to the Security Services on the loyalist paramilitaries. An Essex detective told Browning's lawyer that there was intelligence and Special Branch involvement, a tape of which was broadcast, and an Essex officer told the programme that Special Branch officers had seen Sargent after his arrest on the day of the killing, which the Metropolitan Police would neither confirm nor deny. Lowles wrote that Sargent always denied being an informer, and told a Blood and Honour figure that he had once been offered £500 a week by the police to inform on C18 and had refused.22 Lowles wrote that in 1998 MI5 took over responsibility for monitoring C18, that raids on fourteen supporters' homes were co-ordinated by MI5, and that Browning was not raided but was followed to Vienna and told the authorities knew of his plans to send more bombs.23

David Myatt

David Myatt, who would later found the National Socialist Movement (UK, 1997) and is attributed by most scholars as the founder of the Order of Nine Angles under the pseudonym Anton Long, was active in C18's ideological circles in the early 1990s. The Observer newspaper described him as the "ideological heavyweight" behind Combat 18, Searchlight Magazine described his return to the neo-Nazi scene in the early 1990s as that of a "harder and more determined man," and Lowles characterises him in White Riot as "one of Britain's foremost post-war national socialist thinkers."20 His formal place in the group is ambiguous in the published record, and he is more often associated with its ideology than with its violence.8 One account states that Myatt took over the leadership after Sargent's conviction, though by then the group had fractured. Lowles placed Myatt at the head of the National Socialist Movement and dated its launch to the summer of 1998, while Statewatch had reported the NSM in January 1998 as the movement of the expelled Sargent.24 Myatt resigned as NSM leader in March 1998 and converted to Islam in September 1998.8

Johnny Adair and the Loyalist Links

Statewatch wrote of "increasingly close links between nazis in London and a faction of the Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters" in 2000.25 Johnny Adair, commander of the UFF's lower Shankill C Company, had joined Blood and Honour as a young skin in the 1980s and marched in National Front demonstrations.25 Statewatch described Adair's unit as having adopted aspects of a neo-fascist philosophy acquired over a decade of collaboration with organisations such as the National Front or Combat 18.25

Steve Irwin, a UDA member convicted of a 1993 gun attack on a bar in Derry that killed eight people, joined a C18 demonstration in London after his release, and Adair greeted him outside the prison.25 Statewatch described C18 and the London UDA as very close at one point, with C18 supplying the manpower to counter demonstrations by Irish republican supporters.26 Adair attended C18 events in England.26

Statewatch reported in 1993 that Eddie Whicker, a National Front member exposed as a C18 leader, was charged with possessing firearms with intent to endanger life after a police raid on a public house in Perry Barr, Birmingham, at which two men were found with seven semi-automatic handguns and two hundred rounds of ammunition, one of them from Belfast with loyalist connections. The same item recorded that a Granada World in Action programme in May 1993 had alleged extensive C18 contacts with the UDA.27 Statewatch later listed Frank Portinari as jailed in 1993 and Terry Blackham in 1994 for supplying weapons to loyalists, and quoted Sargent as claiming to have co-ordinated the violence at the England v. Ireland match at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, on February 15, 1995, as C18's response to the Northern Ireland peace talks.28 Lowles wrote that Portinari was the new London commander of the UDA and that Sargent, Gary Hitchcock and others had links to the UDA or other loyalist groups, and that fifty C18 supporters stewarded the Apprentice Boys march in London in March 1995.29 Statewatch reported C18 members at the loyalist and fascist marches of April 1996 in Bolton and London, with about thirty C18 supporters from outside London accompanying the London march.30

David Copeland and the 1999 Nail Bombings

Three nail bombs exploded in April 1999, two in Brixton and Brick Lane and one inside a pub in central London. Statewatch reported that the bombings left three people dead and over 100 injured.31 Combat 18 and the White Wolves were among several groups that claimed responsibility, but police stated that David Copeland was not involved with either group.31 Statewatch wrote that the bombings "would appear to be the logical outcome" of C18's strategy of "leaderless resistance," in which autonomous cells attack without a larger organisation.31

The Remnants After 1998

Statewatch wrote in March 1998 that the remnants of C18 led by Browning had "become increasingly bellicose in their propaganda," and that they too had been deeply penetrated by the police.16 Accounts of the late 1990s describe the remaining C18 elements under Browning as diminished, with no significant public presence after that.8 The German government, in May 2020, identified William Browning as the leader of Combat 18 in Europe, and said that members of the German section had contacts with people in neighbouring German-speaking countries who belonged to Blood and Honour or Combat 18.11

On March 5, 1999, raids by police, military police and Special Branch on fourteen addresses in London, south Wales, Lancashire and Humberside arrested three C18 members, among them two soldiers, in an inquiry into neo-Nazi links with the army and with loyalist paramilitary gangs; Statewatch reported that the operation followed a press leak that Scotland Yard and MI5 were mounting covert operations against violent racist organisations.32 Browning and two others pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on October 12, 2001 to using threatening words and behaviour towards a Bloody Sunday commemoration march in January 1999, after a television documentary filmed them, and were fined £750 each and given 80 hours of community service.33

Germany

The Federal Ministry of the Interior banned the association Combat 18 Deutschland under the Associations Act (Vereinsgesetz), citing section 3(1), and dissolved it. The ministry's order is dated December 6, 2019, and was made immediately enforceable.34 The notice published in the Bundesanzeiger is dated January 13, 2020, and the ministry announced the ban and the raids on January 23, 2020.35 The ministry described the group as a neo-Nazi, racist and xenophobic association whose purpose and activity conflicted with criminal law and were directed against the constitutional order.36

The ban prohibited the group's activities, dissolved it and banned replacement organisations. It also banned the public use of its symbols, including the dragon emblem and the slogan "whatever it takes," and it seized the association's assets.37 Police searched premises in six states. Some 210 officers took part, in Thuringia, eastern Hesse, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. Officers recovered laptops, mobile phones, data storage, weapons-related items and clothing bearing the group's name.38

The government counted seven people served with the ban order, and estimated that the association had about 20 members before the ban, with an unknown number of sympathisers.11 The government's answers record shooting training attended by people who were served: in May 2014 in Baexen, Netherlands, with one person served taking part, and in September 2017 in Cheb, Czech Republic, with three.11 A separate group, Combat 18 Pinneberg, appeared in Germany in 2001 with a billiard-ball symbol bearing the number 28, which the government links to the banned German division of Blood and Honour.11

In 2021 the Green parliamentary group wrote that the 2020 ban had reached only a fraction of the group, and that more than 50 members had organised in three regional sections. It named a Saxon group, Brigade 8, which the ban did not affect, and a Thuringian group, Turonen/Garde 20, which it described as closely bound to C18. The inquiry also described the Dortmund band Oidoxie as tied into the German network since 2000, and suggested that Brothers of Honour, a successor group, served as a replacement organisation.39

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig refused on September 21, 2020 to restore the suspensive effect of the group's action against the ban, so the ban remained enforceable. The court press release recorded that the group identified with the National Socialist orientation of its British model.34

The Lübcke Case

Walter Lübcke, a CDU politician and Kassel regional president, was shot dead on his terrace in the night to June 2, 2019.40 The Federal Prosecutor took over the investigation on June 17, 2019, after the arrest of Stephan Ernst on June 15.41 Legal Tribune Online reported that Ernst was known to the authorities because of his neo-Nazi past, and that Combat 18 afterwards distanced itself from him in a video that the security authorities classed as genuine.42 NPR reported in July 2019 that investigators said Ernst had ties to neo-Nazi groups including Combat 18, and quoted Daniel Koehler of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies as saying that Ernst "was closely associated with leading figures of Combat 18," that "He was friends with them on Facebook," and that after the arrest Combat 18 "for the first time ever in Germany, released a propaganda video in support of the suspect."43

The Left Party's parliamentary group put the question to the government in a Kleine Anfrage of December 2019, citing press reports that Ernst apparently had connections to Combat 18, and asked about the relationship of the accused to Combat 18 and Blood & Honour. The government answered on December 20, 2019 that it had no reliable indications of a connection of the accused to Combat 18 or Blood & Honour, and that Ernst, Markus H. and Elmar J. were not among the twelve people checked by the federal police at Schirnding on September 24, 2017 on return from the Cheb shooting training.41 The killing gave new urgency to calls for a ban on the group and other far-right organisations, and in late June 2019 Horst Seehofer publicly announced an intention to ban Combat 18 and other groups.42

The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court sentenced Ernst to life imprisonment on January 28, 2021, and found his guilt particularly grave, which makes release after 15 years practically impossible.40 The Federal Court of Justice rejected all appeals on August 25, 2022, so the verdict stands.44

Redwatch

Lowles wrote that the Redwatch publication first appeared in March 1992, produced by Steve Sargent and modelled on a Texas publication, and that its lists of anti-racist activists were drawn partly from burglaries and thefts, including a 1992 theft from the home of the Anti-Racist Alliance leader Marc Wadsworth and a 1993 theft of the contact book of The Northern Star in Leeds.45 In the House of Lords on January 7, 2004, Lord Greaves told the Home Office minister Baroness Scotland that the Red Watch website had been set up about two years earlier by Combat 18, was registered by the National Front and the White Nationalist Party, and carried more than 1,000 photographs of anti-Nazi and anti-racist activists with addresses, telephone numbers and vehicle registrations. Baroness Scotland replied that the police, the Information Commissioner and the Internet Watch Foundation were aware of the sites and pointed to the Public Order Act 1986 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.46 In a Commons adjournment debate on June 21, 2006, Angela Eagle said the site appeared to be registered to the Nazi group Combat 18, that Searchlight had investigated it in 2003 and found a discussion group called the "mole intelligence bureau" whose members were urged to "start a proper campaign of violence and intimidation," and that much of the material appeared to be sent in by BNP activists. The Home Office minister Vernon Coaker replied that Redwatch was a far-right website with roots in the Combat 18 organisation that published names, addresses and pictures of people it believed to be anti-racist activists or demonstrators.47

Canada

Canada listed Blood & Honour and Combat 18 as terrorist entities. The regulations were registered on June 18, 2019 (SOR/2019-231) under a cabinet order of June 21, 2019, and published in the Canada Gazette on June 26, 2019. They added "Blood & Honour (B&H)" and "Combat 18 (C18)" to the list of terrorist entities under the Criminal Code. The Gazette records that no public consultation was undertaken, and that an exemption from prepublication was sought so that the entities could not disperse their finances before their assets were frozen.48

Proscription in the United Kingdom

The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, made on February 27, 2020, made three changes to Schedule 2 of the Act. It removed a separate entry for an alias of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, amended that party's entry to include two aliases, and added Sonnenkrieg Division.49 The Home Office list of proscribed terrorist groups, last updated on July 7, 2026, contains 84 organisations, including National Action (proscribed December 2016) and Sonnenkrieg Division (proscribed February 2020). It has no entry for Combat 18 or Blood and Honour.50

Parliament and the Question of Proscription

On May 18, 1995 the Home Secretary Michael Howard told the Commons, in answer to a question from Greville Janner, that Combat 18 was the name adopted by a loose collection of violent activists with extreme right-wing views, a small number of whom had been convicted of public order offences and crimes involving violence. Janner had asked about attacks on a newly opened immigration advice office in Cardiff. On March 30, 1995 the Prime Minister John Major called Combat 18 a repellent organisation.51 On February 21, 2000 the Home Office minister Charles Clarke, answering Kevin McNamara, said the name was used by a very small number of individuals with neo-Nazi views who associated in loose groupings mainly in South-East England, and that it was not possible to provide authoritative information on criminal proceedings because links to the groupings were seldom clear cut.52

On April 26, 1999 Jack Straw told the Commons, after the Brixton and Brick Lane bombings, that wherever groups such as Combat 18 came to the notice of the authorities they were the subject of study. In the Lords, Lord Williams of Mostyn said that a caller who claimed to belong to Combat 18 had claimed responsibility for the Brick Lane bombing, a call traced to a telephone box in south-west London, on the evening of the explosion.53 On March 13, 2001, in the debate on the first Terrorism Act 2000 proscription order, Ann Widdecombe asked Straw to put on the record why Combat 18 and the Animal Liberation Front were not proscribed, and John Bercow repeated the point. Straw replied that the list was the list for the time being, open to addition or subtraction, that he had applied the criteria in section 3 of the 2000 Act, and that the matters were kept under review.54 On July 15, 2020, in the debate on the order that added Sonnenkrieg Division, Stephen Doughty listed Combat 18 among the organisations through which the founder of the Order of Nine Angles was said to have passed, and said that the London nail bomber was a member of the National Socialist Movement.55 HM Prison Service told the Commons in December 2007 that staff could not be members of the BNP, the National Front, Combat 18 or any other group promoting racism.56

Footnotes

  1. "UK: C18 leaders get 'life' for murder," Statewatch database, item dated January 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20250216154953/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-c18-leaders-get-life-for-murder/ ; Canada Gazette, Part II, Vol. 153, No. 13, June 26, 2019, "Regulations Amending the Regulations Establishing a List of Entities," SOR/2019-231 (registered June 18, 2019; P.C. 2019-886, June 21, 2019). https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2019/2019-06-26/html/sor-dors231-eng.html ; Bundesanzeiger, Bekanntmachung of the Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat, dissolving the association "Combat 18 Deutschland," dated January 13, 2020, published January 23, 2020 (BAnz AT 23.01.2020 B1). https://www.bundesanzeiger.de/pub/publication/X2hfxbed1MFkxQrcMhr/content/X2hfxbed1MFkxQrcMhr/BAnz%20AT%2023.01.2020%20B1.pdf ; Home Office, "Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations," last updated July 7, 2026 (accessible list of 84 organisations). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version ↩︎

  2. O'Hara, Larry. "Combat 18 & MI5: Some Background Notes." Notes From The Borderland, article first published in Lobster 30 (December 1995), with 2010 introduction and 2024 update. https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/ . The C18 interviews in The Order (April 1993) and Terreur d'Elite (Autumn 1994), and the Searchlight and Spearhead issues cited below, are quoted as O'Hara quotes them. ↩︎

  3. Searchlight, written evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, Third Report on Racial Attacks and Harassment (1993), as quoted in O'Hara, "Combat 18 & MI5: Some Background Notes," Notes From The Borderland. https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/ ↩︎

  4. Gable, Gerry, in L. Cheles (ed.), The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe (Longman, 2nd ed., 1995), p. 262, as quoted in O'Hara, "Combat 18 & MI5: Some Background Notes," Notes From The Borderland. https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/ ↩︎

  5. Searchlight, April 1995 and October 1995 issues, as quoted in O'Hara, "Combat 18 & MI5: Some Background Notes," Notes From The Borderland. https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/ ↩︎

  6. Tyndall, John, Spearhead, September 1995, p. 10, as quoted in O'Hara, "Combat 18 & MI5: Some Background Notes," Notes From The Borderland. https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/ ↩︎

  7. Lowles, White Riot, pp. 18, 56. ↩︎

  8. Lowles, Nick. White Riot: The Violent Rise and Fall of Combat 18. Bury: Milo Books, 2001. ↩︎

  9. Counter Extremism Project. "Blood and Honour." https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/blood-honour-bh; Channel 4 News. "Ian Stuart Donaldson and a legacy of hate." https://www.channel4.com/news/ian-stuart-donaldson-a-legacy-of-hate ↩︎

  10. "Denmark/UK: Danish nazis send letter bombs to UK," Statewatch database, item dated January 1997 (arrests of January 19, 1997). https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/denmark-uk-danish-nazis-send-letter-bombs-to-uk/ ↩︎

  11. Deutscher Bundestag, Drucksache 19/19261, Antwort der Bundesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage, "Combat 18 und Blood & Honour in Deutschland," May 15, 2020. https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/19/192/1919261.pdf ↩︎

  12. "Denmark: Combat 18 letterbombs letterbombs reveal nazi network," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1997, summarising a DEMOS special issue. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/denmark-combat-18-letterbombs-letterbombs-reveal-nazi-network/ ↩︎

  13. "UK: C18 leaders get 'life' for murder," Statewatch database, item dated January 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20250216154953/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-c18-leaders-get-life-for-murder/ ↩︎

  14. Lowles, Nick. White Riot: The Violent Rise and Fall of Combat 18. Bury: Milo Books, 2001, pp. 234-235. ↩︎

  15. "UK: C18 leaders get 'life' for murder," Statewatch database, item dated January 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20250216154953/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-c18-leaders-get-life-for-murder/ ; "UK: C18 leader was police informer," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1998, reporting the World in Action programme scheduled for April 6, 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20251110144635/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-c18-leader-was-police-informer/ ↩︎

  16. "UK: C18 leader was police informer," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1998, reporting the World in Action programme scheduled for April 6, 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20251110144635/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-c18-leader-was-police-informer/ ↩︎

  17. "Denmark/UK: Danish nazis send letter bombs to UK," Statewatch database, item dated January 1997 (arrests of January 19, 1997). https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/denmark-uk-danish-nazis-send-letter-bombs-to-uk/ ; "Denmark: Combat 18 letterbombs letterbombs reveal nazi network," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1997, summarising a DEMOS special issue. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/denmark-combat-18-letterbombs-letterbombs-reveal-nazi-network/ ↩︎

  18. "Denmark: Combat 18 letterbombs letterbombs reveal nazi network," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1997, summarising a DEMOS special issue. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/denmark-combat-18-letterbombs-letterbombs-reveal-nazi-network/ ; "Denmark: Nazi letterbombers jailed," Statewatch database, item dated July 1, 1997, reporting the Danish High Court sentences; the item gives the sentencing month (September) without a year. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/denmark-nazi-letterbombers-jailed/ ↩︎

  19. "Denmark: Nazi letterbombers jailed," Statewatch database, item dated July 1, 1997, reporting the Danish High Court sentences; the item gives the sentencing month (September) without a year. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/denmark-nazi-letterbombers-jailed/ ↩︎

  20. Notes From The Borderland (Larry O'Hara). "Combat 18 and MI5: Some Background Notes." https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/; Lowles, White Riot. ↩︎

  21. Lowles, White Riot, pp. 255-260. ↩︎

  22. Lowles, White Riot, pp. 262-265. ↩︎

  23. Lowles, White Riot, pp. 296-297. ↩︎

  24. Lowles, White Riot, p. 240; "UK: C18 leaders get 'life' for murder," Statewatch database, item dated January 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20250216154953/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-c18-leaders-get-life-for-murder/ ↩︎

  25. "UK: Far right-loyalist links strengthened," Statewatch database, item dated November 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-far-right-loyalist-links-strengthened/ ↩︎

  26. "UK: Far right-loyalist links strengthened," Statewatch database, item dated November 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-far-right-loyalist-links-strengthened/ ; Lowles, Nick. White Riot: The Violent Rise and Fall of Combat 18. Bury: Milo Books, 2001. ↩︎

  27. "Senior Nazi arrested," Statewatch database, item dated May 1993. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/senior-nazi-arrested ↩︎

  28. "Combat 18 behind Dublin violence," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1995. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/combat-18-behind-dublin-violence ↩︎

  29. Lowles, White Riot, pp. 60-62, 78. ↩︎

  30. "Loyalists and fascists march," Statewatch bulletin vol. 6 no. 3 (May-June 1996). https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/bulletin/sw6n3.pdf ↩︎

  31. "UK: Nail bomb campaign arrest," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1999, reporting the charge of May 2, 1999. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-nail-bomb-campaign-arrest/ ↩︎

  32. "UK: Police/MI5 operation nets 'neo-nazi' soldiers," Statewatch database, item dated March 1, 1999. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-police-mi5-operation-nets-neo-nazi-soldiers ↩︎

  33. "UK: C18 leaders guilty," Statewatch database, item dated August 2001 (citing Independent, October 22, 2001). https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.statewatch.org/statewatch-database/uk-c18-leaders-guilty ↩︎

  34. Bundesverwaltungsgericht, Pressemitteilung Nr. 54/2020, September 25, 2020, reporting the decision of September 21, 2020 (6 VR 1.20) and the ministry order of December 6, 2019. https://www.bverwg.de/pm/2020/54 ↩︎

  35. Bundesanzeiger, Bekanntmachung of the Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat, dissolving the association "Combat 18 Deutschland," dated January 13, 2020, published January 23, 2020 (BAnz AT 23.01.2020 B1). https://www.bundesanzeiger.de/pub/publication/X2hfxbed1MFkxQrcMhr/content/X2hfxbed1MFkxQrcMhr/BAnz%20AT%2023.01.2020%20B1.pdf ; Sehl, Markus. "Vereinsverbot gegen Neonazi-Gruppe 'Combat 18': Von langer Hand geplant," Legal Tribune Online, January 23, 2020. https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/bmi-seehofer-vereinsverbot-combat-18-rechtsextremismus-bverwg-verfassungsschutz ↩︎

  36. Sehl, Markus. "Vereinsverbot gegen Neonazi-Gruppe 'Combat 18': Von langer Hand geplant," Legal Tribune Online, January 23, 2020. https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/bmi-seehofer-vereinsverbot-combat-18-rechtsextremismus-bverwg-verfassungsschutz ; Bundesverwaltungsgericht, Pressemitteilung Nr. 54/2020, September 25, 2020, reporting the decision of September 21, 2020 (6 VR 1.20) and the ministry order of December 6, 2019. https://www.bverwg.de/pm/2020/54 ↩︎

  37. Bundesanzeiger, Bekanntmachung of the Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat, dissolving the association "Combat 18 Deutschland," dated January 13, 2020, published January 23, 2020 (BAnz AT 23.01.2020 B1). https://www.bundesanzeiger.de/pub/publication/X2hfxbed1MFkxQrcMhr/content/X2hfxbed1MFkxQrcMhr/BAnz%20AT%2023.01.2020%20B1.pdf ↩︎

  38. Sehl, Markus. "Vereinsverbot gegen Neonazi-Gruppe 'Combat 18': Von langer Hand geplant," Legal Tribune Online, January 23, 2020. https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/bmi-seehofer-vereinsverbot-combat-18-rechtsextremismus-bverwg-verfassungsschutz ; Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Pressemitteilung, "Minister Reul begrüßt Verbot von 'Combat 18'," January 23, 2020. https://www.land.nrw/pressemitteilung/minister-reul-begruesst-verbot-von-combat-18 ↩︎

  39. Deutscher Bundestag, Drucksache 19/31520, Kleine Anfrage der Fraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, "Rechtsextreme Vernetzung nach dem Vereinsverbot von 'Combat 18 Deutschland'," July 13, 2021. Allegations by the questioners, not government findings. https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/19/315/1931520.pdf ↩︎

  40. "OLG Frankfurt verkündet Urteil: Lebenslange Haft für Lübcke-Mörder," Legal Tribune Online, January 28, 2021 (Urt. v. 28.01.2021, Az. 5-2 StE 1/20 - 5a). https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/olg-frankfurt5-2ste1-20-5a-lebenslange-haft-mord-walter-luebcke ↩︎

  41. Deutscher Bundestag, Drucksache 19/16249, Antwort der Bundesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage der Fraktion DIE LINKE, "Neue Erkenntnisse zum Mord an Walter Lübcke," December 30, 2019 (answers dated December 20, 2019), preface and answers 11 and 12. https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/19/162/1916249.pdf ↩︎

  42. Sehl, Markus. "Vereinsverbot gegen Neonazi-Gruppe 'Combat 18': Von langer Hand geplant," Legal Tribune Online, January 23, 2020. https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/bmi-seehofer-vereinsverbot-combat-18-rechtsextremismus-bverwg-verfassungsschutz ↩︎

  43. NPR, "A German Politician's Assassination Prompts New Fears About Far-Right Violence," July 1, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/01/737561640/a-german-politicians-assassination-prompts-new-fears-about-far-right-violence ↩︎

  44. "BGH verwirft Revisionen: Mordverurteilung und Freisprüche im Lübcke-Prozess bestätigt," Legal Tribune Online, August 25, 2022 (Urt. v. 25.08.2022, Az. 3 StR 359/21). https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/bgh-3str35921-revision-mord-an-walter-luebcke-stephan-e-markus-h-beihilfe ↩︎

  45. Lowles, White Riot, pp. 2-3, 23. ↩︎

  46. House of Lords, "Websites: Personal Details," Hansard, January 7, 2004. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2004-01-07/debates/261e1bc4-4035-4606-b141-4bd6a924b0b6/WebsitesPersonalDetails ↩︎

  47. House of Commons, "Redwatch Website," Hansard, June 21, 2006. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2006-06-21/debates/06062174000004/RedwatchWebsite ↩︎

  48. Canada Gazette, Part II, Vol. 153, No. 13, June 26, 2019, "Regulations Amending the Regulations Establishing a List of Entities," SOR/2019-231 (registered June 18, 2019; P.C. 2019-886, June 21, 2019). https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2019/2019-06-26/html/sor-dors231-eng.html ↩︎

  49. The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, S.I. 2020/200, made February 27, 2020, art. 2(2) to (4). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/200/made ↩︎

  50. Home Office, "Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations," last updated July 7, 2026 (accessible list of 84 organisations). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version ↩︎

  51. House of Commons, "Combat 18," Hansard, May 18, 1995. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1995/may/18/combat-18 ; House of Commons, "Engagements," Hansard, March 30, 1995. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1995-03-30/debates/19a5e7a4-1164-4343-a569-ee8c479e2739/Engagements ↩︎

  52. House of Commons, "Combat 18," written answers, Hansard, February 21, 2000. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2000-02-21/debates/4bc1b47a-70da-4044-92c5-ed91ffc803fe/Combat18 ↩︎

  53. House of Commons and House of Lords, "London Bombings," Hansard, April 26, 1999. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1999-04-26/debates/edc37efc-8c4a-437e-9bfe-a033dac84ea4/LondonBombings ; https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1999-04-26/debates/4d8c4d29-a8b7-452b-9f68-4c1be008ae10/LondonBombings ↩︎

  54. House of Commons, "Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism," Hansard, March 13, 2001. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2001-03-13/debates/22cbb6f7-661a-49ad-84a4-36e17238c304/PreventionAndSuppressionOfTerrorism ↩︎

  55. House of Commons, "Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism," Hansard, July 15, 2020. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-07-15/debates/0469211F-5E9C-40FE-998E-CDB0B7FB1945/PreventionAndSuppressionOfTerrorism ↩︎

  56. House of Commons, "Prison Service: Racism," written answers, Hansard, December 4, 2007. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2007-12-04/debates/07120525000079/PrisonServiceRacism ↩︎