General’s book sparks row

Press, 23 November 1983, Page 10

General’s book sparks row

NZPA-AAP London A storm has erupted in Whitehall over the publication of a book by a retired general which details incidents during the Falklands war. Major-General John Frost, aged 71, a former Paratroop Commander, asserts in his book that a British Army officer pulled a gun on his own comrades. He said that Major Chris Keeble, second-in-command of the 2nd Batallion, The Parchute Regiment, had hijacked Royal Marines’ boats in a heated argument at gun-point at the height of the push for victory. Major Keeble had commandeered several landing craft at Bluff Cove and

“persuaded” a Marine rating to ferry the paratroopers to another part of the island. The book asserts that Major Keeble had chased after the landing craft in a helicopter, and with “bluff and rhetoric, matched by the occasional wave of his pistol in the coxwain’s direction, left no doubt as to the urgency of the need.”

The Defence Ministry has denounced General Frost, saying that description of Major Keeble’s action had been “over-dramatised but substantially correct.” General Frost, a veteran of Arnhem in World War 11, said: “I wrote the book in good faith. I’m sorry if it causes distress.”