A tribute to Gunners

This is a tribute to Gunners. Every Gunner whether Officers or Orther Ranks. Ubique. Everywhere. I feel that this tribute, small as it were from me, brings me great joy being a Gunner myself and I had come a long way associated with Gunners, guns and firepower. The RA shall be celebrating Ubique 300 in 2016, a mere 300 years compared to the thousand of years since the invention of the gun powder in the 9th century and the begining of the field artillery in the 15th century. Down the time scale, I note to being half a century as a Gunner. New Gunners, Old Gunners, Retired Gunners, feel the same all over the world. Proud, confident and assured always that we Gunners are real force multiplyers in any confilcts. We had always played the critical role in any given combat situation. We provide the covering fire, defensive fire, harassing fire and illuminations and smoke screens when needed. We have light, medium and heavy fire support roles covering the whole width and depth of the battlefield. Artillery is King of the battlefield. A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand muskets.

It does not matter whether we are at priority calls, in direct support or in support, we had always delivered. Guns come in all sizes and calibres. Gunners are all high calibres. High achievers in most armies in the world. The best West Pointers were generally commisioned into the Enginers or Artillery corps. In Malaysia, selected and short listed cadets in the FMC/RMC were commisioned to the Federation/Malaysian Artillery. General Chiang Kai Shek, Kuomintang Army had said "war is not only a matter of equipment, artillery, group troops or air force; it is largely a matter of spirit and morale. He was an artillery officer. Napoleon Bonaparte was perhaps the most famous of all Gunners. And of course many Gunners had became Chiefs of Defence Forces / Chief of Armies of their countries.

The RA had 62 Victoria Cross medals awardees.This speaks volumes for British Gunners. We all had learnt at the Staff and Defence Colleges the values of rapprochment and deterrence, but don't we all swear by the barrels of the guns?

Gunners are genuinely ubiquitous, Gunners had fought in all the world wars; in Conventional warfares, Jungle warfares, Urban warfares and had manned UN peace keeping/peace enforcing forces all over the world. No tribute is more satisfying than a simple "Well done Gunners"

On personal level I had come along way. 

I was particularly proud to have worn the iconic cannon cap badge in my songkok, the cross barrels insignia on my chest, the red landyard on my right shoulder and of course the red, blue and yellow stablebelt. I was a respected participant in all our local and international exercises and also during my various visits to neighbouring countries as a representive of our Malaysian Army.

Truth be told, I had passed all my army promotion examinations without much fuss. The rather wide stablebelt stood up for me during map reading and tactics practical exams. The BC course that I had attended in the school of Artliiery, Manly Australia focused more of the combat arms battle picture than of gunnery. Hence I was good in tactics as I was good in gunnery.

A big thank you and tribute is also given to the owner of this blog for allowing us to keep part of our Malaysian Artillery's history and experiences alive.

I share his toast here:

A Toast to the Guns. 

By them we live, For them we would die.
Whatever the Mission,We'll give it a try.
We'll serve them with Honor For they are the ones;
That make us 'Gunners',

So here's to the Guns: TO THE GUNS!! 

Gunners are truly Ubique. Everywhere.

Once a Gunner always a Gunner.

Allen Lai

An amazing experience of firing a 84 Gun salute

Actual Photo curtesy of AP's video archive

I had the honour to fire the gun salute for our Captain General Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to Malaysia on 23 February 1972 at Port Klang. AND hence was the first ever Malaysian Gunner to fire the rare traditional 84 gun salute for her majesty's visit. a rare honour indeed.

I did some research for the visit, as come next year, we will be celebrating Ubique 300. The RA will be 300 years old and I was part of its history. I was delighted to find a video of the Captain General's visit archived by the Associated Press (AP)

Do note that our Agong that year (1972) is also the present Agong (2015) and click on your sound to hear our guns fire at perfectly timed intervals.

Click here to view:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdbiOzc5wNw&feature=youtu.be



Read also my earlier post on the gun salute here:

http://sheldrake-gunnersclub.blogspot.com/2013/09/84-gun-salute.html



Take care

Allen Lai

HARI ULANG TAHUN RAD 2015

SPEECH BY GUNNERS CLUB ADVISOR

PROUD GUNNERS

MULTI SKILLED GUNNERS

ONE BIG GROUPIE

SHOWING OUR UNITY

GOLFING ON SUNDAY

Corps Day Celebration 2015

HEAR YE HEAR YE 

 ALL GUNNERS

THE ARTILLERY CORPS DAY CELEBRATIONS SHALL BE ON 15TH AUGUST 2015. IT SHALL BE A PARADE AT 0800 HOURS AT 51 ARTY KEM SIRAJUDDIN GEMAS, FOLLOWED BY A HARI RAYA OPEN DAY AT 1100 HOURS AT 21 ARTY, ALSO IN KEM SIRAJUDDIN GEMAS.

COME JOIN SERVING AND PAST GUNNERS FOR A DAY OF CAMARADERIE.

SEE YOU THERE

ONCE A GUNNER, ALWAYS A GUNNER.

Boxing

Boxing was a compulsory sport when I joined the army. There were many competitions at units, Armed Forces to national levels. Sadly boxing is no longer seen as an essential sport to encourage the fighting spirit if not anything else.

Boxing is a gentlemen's sport. No hitting below the belt. Sadly I was not a gentlemen in my younger days, as I never had somebody to tell me that I should be one. I was not a boxer. I was a street fighter. Kung Foo style and all, arms and legs included. Yes accessories too like, sticks, knuckle dusters and knifes were not exempted. I used to carry a pocket switch knife which I got from the Philippines when I attended the Boy Scouts World Jamboree in 1957. This switch knife was the three parts type which comprised the blade and two handles. It has a 6 inches pointed blade .The balde opened with a quick twist of the palm. This need skills, speed and style. It was a great deterent in street fighting. I did not have to learn boxing. But I digress.

Boxing was fought in a proper boxing ring with three judges and a timer sitting on the four sides of the ring. You have to fight, run? for three minutes each round. Many boxers were saved by the bell which stops the round. We were trained to box, to judge and administer in boxing. As it was a gentlemen's sport and all officers wore mess kit, and the ORS wore uniforms to attend boxing nights. Referees, judges and organisers wore whites with black bowties. Major Gen (R) Johan Hew Deng On, Lt Col (R) Mustapha Saad, Lt Kol (R) Maskan Katan, Major (R) Thomas Oh and Major (R) S Maniam were great Gunner officers associated with boxing. All Gunner regiments excelled in Armed Forces boxing. I remember 4 ARTY in Paroi camp in Seremban was chosen as our corps boxing centre of excellence.

Regiment Boxing nights were a great event. Each Bty had to produce boxers in all the weights. Elimination rounds were fought in the day time leading to the finals on boxing night. The evening started with pre drinks with our wives in the officers mess and we had supper  in the officers mess after the matches. Of course a bar point was set up in the hanger/ gun prk used for boxing. The environment should be graceful amid blood shed in the boxing ring. It had all the grace and charms of lending finese to what would be a bloodly battle.

We do not have many boxing activities nowadays. But we should revive the sport in the corps as boxing is one sport that actually develops character building, courage and lending  finese to fighting. I became an officer and gentlemen after graduating from th FMC. Thanks in part to boxing training.

Happy boxing.

Allen Lai

The Bowen Bunker

A Bowen Bunker on top of a knoll

It is very interesting that we would not find anything about the Bowen Bunker in the internet anymore. Nor anything describing it in the Gunners or Sappers websites. I tried many times to google for the Bowen Bunker but no results. I wondered why. Is it delberately removed? I do remember there were available information about it in the Internet many years ago.

Bowen Bunkers were used extensively in the single gun positions in Sabah and Sarawak  during Confrontasi. All command posts and several main bunkers in the gun positions were Bowen Bunkers. I recalled living in my Bowen Bunker next to the Command Posts in Bogosong and Sungei Limau on Sabatik Island. The Bowen Bunker was a 5 star bunker accomodation. Solid, safe and well designed by the Royal Engineers.

I would like to pay tribute to the Bunker Bunker for providing us with the required protection levels and basic comforts. Since there are no more information about the Bowen Bunker in the Internet, I shall try to decribe it here for others to have fond memories of it and for those who did not have the chance to enjoy it, to let them know some of the properties of the Bowen Bunker.

The Bowen Bunker had a modular designed wooden cum sand bagged framework, prefabricated and built for secured accomodation. It was elongated and fitted into a dug out trench. It measured approximately 10 feet long X 6 feet wide and 7 feet in height. The framework comprised of 4 X 2 inches sawn timber, logged roof with sand bags. It is airy and cool inside the Bowen Bunker. The Bowen Bunker was usually camourflaged with netting and leaves.

The Bowen Bunker was dug at chest deep level into the ground and it had sandbagged windows that serves for looking out and firing our personal weapons. The Bowen Bunker had a roof of double decked sanbags as OHP. We entered our Bowen Bunkers from either sides of the bunkers. We slept on issued foldable campbeds and put our gears on tables and shelves made of wooden frames.

We can see our single gun pit from the command post Bowen Bunker. My bunker which was adjacent to the command post had a very good view arc and field of fire.

As Bowen Bunkers were dug into the ground we had wooden panelled floors, sometimes just above the water level inside the trench as in Sungei Limau. Bogosong position was on a small knoll, hence the trenches were dry. It was bright during the day inside the Bowen Bunker and we used low battery powered lights at nights. I had the previledge of a reading light beside my bed.

Whilst it was a comfortable accomodation for us, it was also very comfortable for snakes and small rodents to seek shelter. One night, a GPO had the frieght of his life when he scratched his legs when he felt it ichy, only to realise that he was scratching a python snake instead.

Anybody got old pictures of the Bowen Bunker?

Take care

Allen Lai


After note:
The picture of the Bowen Bunker CP below is contributed by WO Yasin's son Encik Zamri.

Thank you Encik Zamri. Love this photo.

Merging histories and Gunner stories - Firepower Royal Artillery Museum

With Project Ubique 300 underway, I feel that it is the best time now for us to share our artillery histories and stories. I had looked into the Australian War Memorial in Canberra Australia for links and I had found some material of 102 Bty RAA's operations in our confrontasi in the 1960s.

I am still browsing into the RA websites for their operations in Malaysia. Yes we can actually find very accurate artillery ORBATs and deployments in Mayalsia and Singapore during WW2 and the Confrontasi, but I have not found any writeups in what they did whilst they were deployed here.

 I googled and came to THE FIREPOWER ROYAL ARTILLERY MUSEUM website. This musuem had several very interesting interviews with RA officers who had served in Malaya and in the Confrontasi. 

I wish to link to three very candid discussions in the Musuem's interview with RA Gunners who had served here.

 Lance Bombardier Richard Paul Stephan's interview here

http://firepower.org.uk/fighting-talk/richard-paul-stephens/

Major Leslie Bond's interview here:

http://firepower.org.uk/fighting-talk/leslie-bond/

Captain Peter  Head's interview here :

http://firepower.org.uk/fighting-talk/peter-head/

Although the interviews were quite lenghty, the part when they had served in Malaya and the Confrontasi is very nostalgic.

There are also many Gunners and their impressive careers herein. Do read them if you have the time.

Enjoy the links.

Allen Lai