The Omagh bomb inquiry has heard how bomb disposal experts were not deployed to the town before the explosion.
This was despite an "accredited" codeword warning, linked to other attacks, being received 35 minutes before the bomb blast, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
British Army Colonel Peter MacMullan gave evidence to the inquiry about the army's response to the warnings received ahead of the blast.
For a bomb squad to be sent, MacMullan said the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) would have had to request them, and that the response of the army was "exactly in line with policies and procedures" of the time.
MacMullan, the assistant head of operational legacy for the British Army, told the inquiry that its role in 1998 was to support the RUC and that soldiers did not routinely patrol Omagh town centre at that time.
"Omagh was not a place where patrols would regularly take place in town."
'Overheard bomb warning on RUC transmission'
The inquiry heard how the army's first mention of a bomb warning came at 14:40 BST, when it overheard it mentioned on an RUC radio transmission.
At that time, the army placed its Ammunition Technical Officers (ATO) on 'notice to move'.
They were located only 1km away from Omagh town centre, at Lisnelly Barracks.
A 'notice to move' meant ATOs were to prepare equipment, get dressed in the correct gear and start their engines.
But the explosive experts never moved - because the RUC never requested them.
"Had there been a request the ATO would have deployed to Omagh," MacMullan told the inquiry.
'Extra manpower may have been hinderance'
MacMullan then told the inquiry he was unsure the bomb squad could have helped, even if they had been on the scene.
"Looking at this with hindsight... I don't see how extra military manpower at that time would have helped, quite possibly it would have hindered."
Paul Greaney KC, counsel for the inquiry, said question marks around the difference explosive experts could perhaps have made was an area of "concern" for some of families of the victims.
"Families are keen to know what the ATO could have brought to bear if they'd been deployed."
But MacMullan replied, in his view, the ATO would not have had sufficient information to be able to assist - namely, the whereabouts of the car containing the device, which was not given in the warning calls.
"Being able to defuse the bomb was dependent on the location being identified."
'No attempt to rewrite history'
A series of logbook entries from the day of the bombing were also highlighted on Wednesday, which prompted MacMullan to say there was no attempt by the army to "re-write history".
The inquiry was shown passages, timed and dated, from the army's daily occurrence log, as well the watch keeper's logbook.
One entry timestamped at 14:40 BST outlined the army's first recorded knowledge of the bomb threat.
"Overheard on RUC Net RUC HQ Belfast have received warnings over bombs in several towns province-wide including Omagh.
"The Omagh bomb is believed to be in the area of the courthouse.
"It's in the region of 500lbs, it was a Banbridge-type code word."
Mr Greaney KC took issue with some timings, noting that "the expectation is that the document should be contemporaneous and chronological".
MacMullan acknowledged there could have been inaccuracies, but said any errors were likely a a consequence of "human friction at a point of high tension".
"I think this is just ordering a set of sequences and making it follow naturally, I don't think there is anything suspicious at all."
The inquiry also heard about a missing tape, which should have contained a recording of army communications from the moments after the bomb exploded.
"It was missing, Tape One, throughout. We....have checked everywhere else, we do not have sight of that and nobody knows where that tape went," MacMullan said.
What was the Omagh bomb and who did it?
The Omagh bomb exploded on 15 August 1998, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
More than 200 people were injured in the blast.
Three days after the attack, the Real IRA released a statement claiming responsibility for the explosion.
It apologised to "civilian" victims and said its targets had been commercial.
No-one has been convicted of carrying out the murders by a criminal court.
In 2009, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all ordered to pay a total of £1.6m in damages to the relatives, but appeals against the ruling delayed the compensation process.