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

Bombs away

High level bombings

Hi all,

Look what I captured one morning. The bird was on a bombing raid and I did not have my UN helmet on. Perhaps I should have joined the Air Defence Regiment. I actually had thought about joining S BTY in the mid 1960s, but decided that Field Regiments were more macho.

A field Gunner always.

Allen Lai

Gunners in Confrontasi

Arty Plotter Mk 1

I am always frustrated to research for materials of our Gunners in action. Sadly, there were none. Unless some of us start to collect and collate old photos, we can actually make videos and slide shows to record our history. There are plenty of softwares in our computers to do that now. I wonder when will we ever be independent of foreign support. We should not be pathetic anymore. We have the knowledge and uptodate equipment. All we need is effort and self reliance. Lets start to be proud to be Malaysian Gunners.

For starters I actually visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. There are excellent records of all their wars, campaigns and deployments. I am am particularly pleased that the Australian War memorial has gone online with most of their materials.

Of great interest to us would be Australian Gunners in Borneo. I get high with nostalgia each time I watch the video below. We were there after the Commonwealth Forces left the Confrontasi for us to close up the campaign.

See the video and description below. I am not sure why the Gun crew No 2 and No 3 had to hold on to the handlebar on the shield when the gun fired. Is it gun drill? To stabilise the gun or stabilise themselves so that they do not fall off the seats ? IG please explain and make a convention soon.

 I also like the Gun crew No 4 loading and ramming in the round. So macho. Arm muscles to die for.

We were there and did exactly the same things, been there and done that. The only exception was perhaps underslung deployment by their twin rotor helicopters. We deployed by stripping our guns and loaded them into the Alouette helicopter or assault boats.

We did our part and contributed and we are proud.

Enjoy

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/F03672/

Thank you Australia War Memorial.

Allen Lai

Photo lama

Hi all,

Since I am into photography, I wish and I might as well propose that we start a Gunner's photo gallery in this blog. I am sure all of us have some old photos to share in our personal albums. 

Rama and I can organise the gallery herein. 

All you have to do is just snap your old Gunner photos with your smart phones. E-mail the photos to me at laikimhinn@Gmail.com or to Rama. (Email address later). No need for any captions or write up if you don't want to. All I need is your name and the Regiment. Send as many photos as you want. The more the better for sharing your history and moments as a Gunner. No problems.

Thats it, we will archive your photos for proserity. Do share with us some old gems. 

What say you all? You have lost nothing as you still have your originals. Serving officers may want to send the latest photos.

What say you Rama?

Drop me or Major (R) Rama an email if you are interested.

Take care

Allen Lai

Size does matter

Yes size does matter. I know. Don't you?

As a Gunner I had experienced with 9mm, 5.56mm, 7.62mm, 20mm,105mm. All are calibre measurements in barrels in the guns and weapons issued in the MAF. Each calibre had its range and carried a certain shell weight. Size does matter.

Today I am still struggling with size and calibres. I use 24mm, 50 mm, 70 mm and 300mm to shoot my targets. I have shot with 300mm but could do with 600 mm.

I used to smell of cordite and sweat from my celerong fatiques, now I smell of baked mud and sweat soaked T shirts. I traded my combat boots for walkabout/running shoes. On ops I would always look out for the enemy and likely ambush areas. My M16 rifle always cocked and ready. Today I walk about always on the lookout for birds and anything that catches my attention. My SLR camera switched on, set and zoomed and ready to shoot; almost always with reflect. My SLR camera can shoot bursts of 5 frames per second.

I am now into photography.

Photography has many things common to gunnery. Calibration, sights, speed, line of sight, and most importantly aim/focus. It all started with me trying my level best to update all the Gunners photographs in this blog as I meet them. And hey presto, I am hooked into photography. I am now better equipped with better cameras and lenses to shoot more than Gunner faces. And Yes, size does matter.

I try to shoot all genres of photography. Birds, animals and of course anything that are photo worthy. Photography is a good hobby for retirees. There is so much to learn and experience. The end results are often very satifying. Below are some of my photos. Let the picture says its thousand words.

Come join me in photography, let's catch the early birds.

Enjoy

Allen Lai