Operation Banner, 38 years of military intervention in Northern Ireland, ended at midnight last night with no ceremony or anything that gave an impression of withdrawal.
Army headquarters at Thiepval Barracks near Lisburn confirmed yesterday there would be nothing to mark the end of the longest single British military operation in its history.
Instead a symbolic handover is planned at the barracks for Friday involving 39 Brigade, which is being disbanded, and the arrival of a re-formed 38th (Irish) Brigade. This brigade was formed at the height of the second World War on the instructions of Winston Churchill, who had called for an Irish unit to be created.
It was disbanded in April 1947 and is being re-formed now to be stationed in Northern Ireland and to prepare for deployment anywhere in the world.
The army is stressing no soldiers will be sent to Northern Ireland to support the PSNI. Its head in Northern Ireland, Gen Nick Parker, said Operation Banner had helped create the necessary conditions for a political solution.
"What I believe the military have done is make a significant contribution to security in Northern Ireland that has allowed other people to make the difference through politics, social programmes and economics," he said.
The British army's role was praised by unionists, including Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson. "If they had not been here to hold the line against terrorism, I don't think we would have made the progress that we have made," he said.
Mr Donaldson, a former member of the locally-recruited Ulster Defence Regiment, added: "I think that we owe them a great debt of gratitude for a huge sacrifice that they have paid to help make this possible."
He accused republicans of trying to rewrite the history of the Troubles by blaming conflict on British troops. He claimed that the army arrived in Northern Ireland because Catholics and Protestants had shown they could not live together in peace.
Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly, a former IRA member and Maze prison escaper, said attitudes in west Belfast and Derry changed from their initial welcome of troops because the army was used by the British government to suppress nationalists.
"If they had dealt with this as a political problem, if they had understood the underlying reasons for conflict, then we would have been out of this much earlier," he said.
Speaking at Whiterock in Belfast yesterday after taking part in a BBC radio discussion programme involving former British soldiers and unionists, Mr Kelly said British forces "had a great deal to do with recreating" the IRA in the early 1970s.
He claimed the IRA "sued for peace in 1972" but the British government instead treated the problem as a security issue.
"They talked all the time about this being an intractable problem. We knew it was not. Eventually we got down to talk about the political issues. We are in a very good place today."
He said the ending of Operation Banner was "hugely significant for the peace process".
"I don't think we will return to the dark days again."