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and one sailor. The reason for the Army casualties was that while on board, all attached personnel were given action station posts, and as it was considered that the soldiers should be able to man light anti-aircraft guns, thus freeing the sailors to take on the tasks of those they had left behind in Hong Kong. The 267 Battery team had already transferred to Hart for retasking, but the remainder were appointed to man the starboard after pom-pom guns, which were, unfortunately for them, close to the starboard mainmast leg. It is interesting to note that Captain McQueen had already landed with the Fleet Gunnery Officer, to liaise with the US infantry, and was therefore probably the first British soldier to land in the war, while, but for a stroke of luck, 267 Battery men might have been amongst the first casualties.
Captain K J McQueen RA Keith McQueen joined 333 Combined Operations Bombardment Battery in Fremington, North Devon, in April 1947, and a couple of months later was posted to A Troop in Malta. Here he spent the next two years in bombardment training of the Mediterranean Fleet, using the naval ranges of Filfla Island, Malta, Zuara in Tripolitania, Aqaba on the Red Sea, and Cape Arnauti, Cyprus. They also worked up ships on passage for the Far East, and with the US 6th Fleet. He recalls that at Zuara, Mountbatten’s flagship, HMS Liverpool, put a 6 inch shell into the main square, where it hit the brothel, but by evening business was as usual. The same ship later confused the target and OP grid references, and straddled the latter. The Gunnery Officer was promoted to commander on the next half- year list! Another interesting event was covering the last phase of the British withdrawal from Palestine in April 1948. The FOB set up an OP in Haifa lighthouse, and on the successful embarkation of the rear guard, embarked in a sloop, which sailed parallel to the coast road, ready to give fire support to the road convoy from Palestine to Egypt. It all went successfully. Then in September 1949 McQueen took a bombardier and a signaller to Hong Kong, disembarking as B Troop, 267 COB Battery. They were later joined by Capt J H M Stephenson MC RA, who took command of the Troop, and after initially being stationed at Fan Ling, moved down to Gun Club, Kowloon. The next few months were spent acquiring men and equipment with which to train, and become operational, and at the same time working up a number of ships, including three cruisers and ten or so destroyer, frigates and sloops. They fired on Port Shelter and the Castle Peak Ranges. In April, McQueen’s FOB party embarked in HMS Jamaica for a cruise to Borneo and Japan, and were on their way to Kure when the Korean War started. Jamaica, with Cossack and Hart sailed into the Sea of Japan, where they joined up with Black Swan, Triumph, Belfast and a number of other allied ships. Between 1 and 8 July, bombardments were conducted along the coast road South of the 38th
Parallel, and at a 75 mm field battery which followed the ships, engaging them when opportunity arose.
On 2 Jul 50, six fast patrol boats came out from Wan San. Two were destroyed, two were run aground, severely damaged, and the remaining two withdrew. On 5 Jul 50, McQueen and the Fleet Gunnery Officer (FGO) went ashore at Sam Choc and made contact with US ground forces. They were the first British servicemen to land in Korea since hostilities had begun. As the Americans were ignorant of NGS procedures, McQueen suggested that the FOB Party should be landed, but FGO demurred. 7 Jul 50. The embargo on operations North of the 38th Parallel was lifted, and all ships bombarded Wan San, firing hundreds of shells. The same night McQueen was instructed to proceed to Okinawa to brief the 7th US Fleet, bound for Korea. This he did, by Hart to Sasebo, Sunderland flying boat to Tokyo, and MATS to Okinawa. After much briefing and on the spot training in Okinawa, a return to Sasebo was affected in the same way as the outward journey, and the same training continued at the British advanced base, to which a training commitment for Triumph’s pilots was added. It seemed that B Troop’s FOB Party was the only trained NGS forward control element in the two fleets! At the end of July McQueen was told to organise the bombardment of the Mokpo port facilities. A collection of frigates and destroyers, including Black Swan, was assembled, and he was flown to the US airbase in Honshu, where a B26 bomber was to take him airspotting. After a discussion on airspotting procedures, he was allotted the co-pilot’s seat, which was both comfortable and gave excellent observation. Once over the target area, communications with the ships were established and each was fired in turn, in most cases target rounds being achieved with opening salvoes. The bombardment lasted two hours, and all the targets appeared to be severely damaged. For some time CCRA Hong Kong has been demanding McQueen’s return to the Colony, and in August Captain Tommy Thompson MC RA (later killed in Korea), arrived as a relief. On return to Hong Kong, McQueen was brought before the CCRA, charged with four month’s absence without leave, but after FO2IC Far East had explained to Commander British Forces the essential operational work that the FOB Party has been doing in Korea, CBF congratulated McQueen, and CCRA had to climb down. Captain Keith McQueen has completed his three years with 267, and never returned to the bombardment world, nor was his contribution to the Korean conflict suitably recognised. He retired as a Major General, and died on 2 Jun 2000, exactly 50 years after the events described. He never kept personal records, and these reminiscences were extracted from memory shortly before his death, and only after considerable persuasion.
18 | Amphibious Bombardment Association