NEW TACTICS TRIED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 49, 7 December 1940, Page 5

NEW TACTICS TRIED.

BRITISH ARMY MANOEUVRES.

CO-OPERATION WITH AIRCRAFT.

LONDON, December 5. An armoured division participated in corps-scale manoeuvres this week. Forty thousand troops covered 300 miles in 72 hours trying out new tactics in close co-operation with aircraft.

A manoeuvre at which General Sir Alan Brooke, ICommander-in-Chicf of the Homo Forces, was the chief observer, was a rapid offensive movement based on the assumption that the corps had made a successful new landing as part of tlio British Expeditionary Force two days before moving into action.

The infantry division trudged 40 miles in 36 hours, armoured forces, including light, medium and cruiser tanks and 100 other fighting vehicles and transports, ploughed continuously through mud, and two squadrons of aeroplanes closely supported the infantry which, with the latest 25 pounders, assailed the “thickest crust” of the enemy resistance.

Another squadron co-operated with armoured units which, employed as the Army’s “anti-Panzer” motor battalion, swept on to where the opposition was thinnest and seized a town. It awaited infantry and then swept on to ' the limit of the advance.

All types of aeroplanes roared over on a dozen sorties, giving assistance which was faster than the Luftwaffe’s either in Poland or the Low Countries, and also employing a new “hush-hush” form of co-operation with the land forces with outstanding success.

A special correspondent of “The Times” says: “The new British Army largely created after Dunkirk carried out a very ambitious exercise over this country. 'Nothing like it has been seen in war-time conditions. “I wish I could tell the whole story. It gives vital meaning to the future offensive of the new English-trained British Expeditionary Force and the best assurance of the failure of any attempt the enemy might make to invade this country. • “The exercise was carried out in rigorous conditions and completely satisfied the corps commander, and the lessons will be studied at a week-end conference of senior officers.

“The supple mobility acquired in a few mourns by the new British Army is a magnificent achievement, and the new methods of air co-operation are in advance of any the Germans used.”