TEST OF BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1943, Page 4

TEST OF BATTLE

REALISTIC TRAINING

SOLDIERS UNDER FIRE

Known technically as battle inoculation, but in effect a hardening-off process for otherwise trained troops, a demonstration of infantry attack1 under fire yesterday afternoon gave those taking: part in jt a pretty lively experience of active service conditions. It was an exercise in. which the margin of safety did not allow for errors. While 25-pounders, anti-tank guns, and mortars pounded away at the objective, the soldiers moved forward to attack under fire from hidden ma-chine-guns. It was near enough to being the real thing without being the real thing, and it was a pretty fair test of battle nerves. The objective was a rocky cape, and the advance was made over about a mile of rocky beach, sown with land mines. As the signal for the advance was given, the batteries opened up and started pounding the objective with deadly accuracy. The bark of the 25-pounders mingled with the more vicious explosion of the antitank gun, while on the right r. mortar coughed its deadly bomb into the air. Seconds later back came the reports of the bursting shells and mortar bombs, while the huge rock slowly disintegrated in clouds of stone fragments and dust. In the meantime the troops were making their way round the beach. Here and there a mine went up with a resounding boom, and from an unseen machine-gun nest in the hill bursts of fire sprayed the shore line. The troops consisted of a mixed platoon of infantrymen, medical personnel, and members of the A.S.C. At one stage fighter-bombers joined in the attack, and, swooping down on the objective, raked it with machinegun fire and dropped a bomb or two. The noise of the bombardment was in itself a test of nerves. . STAFF OFFICERS PRESENT. The demonstration was watched by a large number of staff officers, including Brigadier W. G. Gentry, deputy Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-. Colonel J. P. Joyce, Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Page, Lieutenant-Colonel C. N. Devery, Major J. S. King, Major A. Holms, Major J. Downs, Major S. Hardie, Major S. C. V. W. Sugden,. and Major Nicholls. The gun position officer was Captain J. Loper. _ An interested observer was the u.b. Military Attache, Colonel J. H. Nankivell, who joined the troops in their advance under fire. Other officers from various branches of the service, together with a number of W.A.A.C.s from the artillery wing, also watched proceedings. The whole thing was highly spectacular, and it gSve some indication of the extent to which training for modern warfare has advanced. From the psychological point of view this phase of a man's experience is" very important, because it gives him that added self-confidence that is so valuable in active service conditions. As was pointed out by Major King, acting Commandant of the Army School of Instruction, who gave a brief preliminary talk on the value of this form of training, once a man went to cover under enemy fire, it was not always the easiest thing to get him up again, but if he were used to the noise of battle and the proximity of danger, then he-made a much more effective soldier. He explained that these men had already been subject to similar tests with small arms and mortar fire, and were ready to undergo the major trial, conducted under full service conditions consistent with safety. rmlßasmm