ENGLAND'S NEW ARMIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 89, 14 April 1917, Page 15

ENGLAND'S NEW ARMIES.

HOW THEY AKB RAISED AND < EQUIPPED. PRAISE FROM AMERICA. Grent Britain's new armies are now so perfectly organised and equipped that one is likely to lose sight of the greatness of their rreation and the unexampled difficulties tiiat had to be surmounted. The system employed finds unstinted praise trom an American correspondent, who says, in a recent Wan Kranciseo paj>er: — The tiny army that went out to Mons in August, 1914, was probably the best trained body of troops in Europe for Its size. The high standard was that which those tralnrnp the new armies had before them as an ideal. The first seventeen months of the war—to the end of 11)17 — was the difficult period. Nearly all the efficient instructors had cone abroad with the men. who added another laurel to England's military record in the great retreat from Mons. At the outbreak of the war the accommodation available for single men in barracks In the British Isles was hardly 175,000 units. Hosts of recruits poured in. At first it was proposed to build huts for 500,000; later that was increased to huts for 1.000.000 besides large remount establishments, store sheds, aeroplane sheds, hospital huts and rifle ranges. It was difficult to get timber, labour, inspectors; to all the camps water and gas or electric light had to lie laid on; old road.s were repaired, new ones made and special lines of railroad laid to nil the largest camps. CIVILIAN CLOTHING USED. In tho clothing dilemma, while the dozen makers of khaki cloth were being expanded to two hundred, civilian overcoats were boughr up and served out to soldiers. Recruits who could produce a good snlt of their own were told to wear it; a cooperative society was found able to provide 400,000 emergency bine suits, and large orders for suits and underclothing were placed in America. The early enthnsinsm of many recruits was dampened by t>t»ing obliged to march and drill in public attired When war started the country had fewer than 800.000 rides. of which only the authorised reserve of 150,000 remained after the original force, mobilised on August 4, had been armed. And at that time the weekly output of rifles in the United Klngat the outbreak of war only enough for eight divisions, with the authorised reserve for wastage. Even in May. 191T). when full complement of guns had arrived for the first new army divisions, the equipment of dial sights, etc., for indirect laying was still deficient. CONSTRUCT OWN SUPPLIES, the new armies did not sit down belpjessly. They set to work improvising, ■"fta'rness and saddlery would he lent by 'owners of stables in the neighbourhood of 'a Camp, dummy sights were manufactured %y ingenious subalterns, flags for semaphore work were made by the men tbemsVflves. The officers clubbed together to buy a telephone set. or fleld .classes, or compasses, or any rifies they could Hud oriT the market, for their own and their .crcri's instruction. "The greatest difficulty arose from lack of; officers to train the new armies. On the eve of starting an order came to the Expeditionary Force from the War Office that every battalion should leave behind v one captain and one subaltern to assist in (training. That helped greatly. But the I dearth may be Imagined from tne fact I that at least one officer is required for j forty men, that before the war barely J 30U.UM1 men ware fully officered, and that j the itrmy was Increased by that amount 'within little more than a month from j August 4. 1914. Some two hundred of the Indian Army home on leave were retained for training purposes; retired officers ("dngouts'i were appointed In large numbers; j many civilians over the age of twentylive received their llrst commissions as lieutenants or captains. The wisdom of providing ii method of rapidly expanding the commissioned ranks by means of the officers' Training Corps became apparent. Within the first year of the war Oxford University O.T.C. provided more than 2500 officers for the army: Cambridge University O.T.C. more thiiu 2300; three northern universities more than 1000, und Inns of Court 0.T.0. more than 2.T00.