84 Gun Salute

41 ARTY gun salute for Merdeka Parade 2013

Many Gunners would not have fired gun salutes since the forming up of 41 ARTY, our Ceremonial Bty. Veteran Gunners from field Btys would have fired gun salutes as we took turns to be deployed for the task.

I had my fair share of gun salutes whilst in 2 ARTY. And of course the most famous mother of all gun salutes is 3ARTY firing life round from Kem Kumunting Taiping. Perhaps somebody from the regiment would remember that episode and pen it.

I never enjoyed firing gun salutes as, simple as it seems, it is quite a stressful task. I prefer operational duty any day.  We would feel anxiety and feel the heat (Pun intended) during gun salutes. Exception to this is perhaps gun salutes for the Birthday of the Sultan of Kelantan every year held in Kota Baru. This is of course the attraction to sneak across to vibrant Golok in Southern Thailand. How we crossed the border without our passports and activities in Golok shall not be described herein this blog.

Gun salutes need lots of rehearsals. Crucial to gun salutes is of course timmings and the number of rounds to be fired, usually 21 or sometimes 17 blanks.  Problems may arise from gun misfire, no comms, and the actual counting of the blanks fired. Of course we devised backup procedures to ensure precision and clockwork drills.

The downside to gun salutes is that the fire unit never gets into the lime light of the ceremony. We would almost be deployed a distant away from the parade ground/ ceremony place. We were only to be heard not seen, inspite that we would be in our NO.1 uniform.

Anybody heard of 84 gun salute?

Yes you guessed right, yours truly had the honour.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Malaysia in 1972, her majesty's first visit since her coronation in 1952. It was a grand affair. Her majesty was accompanied by Prince Phillip and Princess Anne.

The royal entourage came by ship HMS Britannia, escorted by a RN frigate. They arrived early in the morning and the ships had anchored off Port Klang. The RN frigate fired the first salvo of 21 gun salute and we replied gun for gun (21 gun salute).

When her majesty actually stepped ashore, the band played God Save the Queen and we fired 21 gun salute to which the RN Frigate replied gun for gun. Hence the total rounds fired was 84 gun salutes. 42 salutes from each nation. What an honour. After the ceremony, the Frigate’s quartermaster and I exchanged our shells. I still have the 40 mm shell polished as a souvenir.

I googled Wikipedia for the RN tradition in gun salutes and paste an extract per below:

The custom stems from naval tradition, where a warship would fire its cannons harmlessly out to sea, until all ammunition was spent, to show that it was disarmed, signifying the lack of hostile intent. As naval customs evolved, 21 guns came to be fired for heads of state, with the number decreasing with the rank of the recipient of the honor.

Salute by gunfire is an ancient ceremony. For years, the British compelled weaker nations to render the first salute; but in time, international practice compelled "gun for gun" on the principle of equality of nations

There you are, another experienced chalked up.

Allen Lai