Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1941. THE TANK BRIGADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 280, 8 September 1941, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1941. THE TANK BRIGADE.

The arrival of an Imperial Army officer who is to command the armoured fighting vehicle school at Waiouru bears upon an important advance in New Zealand’s participation in the war effort. The first function of the school will be to train officers and noncommissioned officers necessary for the Army Tank Brigade. It will then train* officers and non-commissioned officers of the Territorial Force for certain Territorial Force units, which are to be reorganised into , light, , armoured fighting vehicle regiments. But it is not in relation to the Dominion’s activities alone that the position is reassuring. In announcing the decision to form the corps the Minister of Defence said that the equipment would shortly be available. If tanks can be sent to New Zealand for such a purpose, it means that urgent needs in the British Isles and the Middle East must have been filled. It is true that at the same time there was published a statement by Lord Beaverbrook to the effect that tanks and anti-tank equipment were the principal charges on the Ministry of Supply at present, and that more and more of both were needed. The two things are not necessarily contradictory. '‘Lord Beaverbrook has to take into account such calls as the supply of equipment to New Zealand. It may be that elsewhere similar movements are taking place, increasing the demands on output and making it imperative that more and more should be provided. One of the most importa it lessons the German war machine has taught the world is that a decisive superiority in machines, on land and *n the air, not only wins battles; it also reduces enormously the cost m lives required to win ’them. Thus the indication conveyed by the decision to form a New Zealand corps and Lord Beaverbrook’s declaration, that machines, fully manned, will be suoplied without stint, gives the assurance that the provision of one of the essentials to victory is being adequately undertaken.