AUCKLAND MILITARY DISTRICT

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 22, 26 January 1921, Page 7

AUCKLAND MILITARY DISTRICT

EXTENSIVE REORGANISATION. TWO HOWITZER 'BATTERIES FORMED. The officer commanding the Auckland Military District, Colonel H. R. Totter. C.M.G., has ieeued an order which will effect very radical alterations in the dieposition and organisation of the Territorial units of the province. The following changes come into operation Immediately:— No. 1 and Xo. 7 Companies of tihe Xew Zealand Garrison Artillery will be amatga/mated into one company. This company will be known as No. 1 Company, New Zealand* Garrison Artillery, and will man the fixed defences. No. fi Company, New Zealand (larrison Artillery, will ibe reorganised into a t>iu ■Howitzer Battery. The armament for i this company will arrive ftiie montih. AH ordnance stores on charge to No. G and No. 7 Companies, New Zealcand Harrison Artillery,, not required under ; this reorganisation will i>e handed back to ordnance. "0" Battery of the AiTckliimi l'"ieltl Artillery Brigade, with ibead'qua.rtere at I Hamilton, will be converted into a 4.-> ; Howitzer 'Battery. All stores not re- ■ quired by this unit as a Howitzer BatI terv will be returned to ordnance. I Tlie Auckland Divisional Signal Company will be converted into a Field Artillery Battery (18-poiinder). The Coast Defence Infantry DetachI iiient w!JI be with the 3rd j Regiment (CVR.O.) The ».er*onnel of j pie C.D.1..D. will l>e a!»sor;hcd by tiio :srd j i'cgiinent, and the nivwsary transfer.- - lin and out will Ik> completed by the '■ units concerned. All ordnance stores on i eharjre to Coast Defence Infantry De- ' ta.liment will lie [landevl batk to ; or!nance.

No. ."> Mounted Field Ambulance, with li.'a-dijiiartor* at Hamilton, will (>o disbanded, and the personnel transferred to the 16th (Waikftto) Reg'ment. The A.D.M.S. will make necessary arransoments for all medical stores not required t:> "be taken over by ordnance. The detachment of the Post and Telegraph Corps of the Auckland Military District will he formed into a Wgnal Depot. Special instruet'ons will he issued regarding maintenance accofnts and other matters afTectin™ units to be amalgamated. IMPORTANT CHANGES. The changes contained in and underlying these oVders are of considerable importance, and mark a new pra in the work of the Defence Department throughout the dominion. Howitzer batteries have hitherto been unknown here, although the armament to be used by the new artillery companies was actually used by the New Zealand Division in France. Hitherto the Defence authorities have concentrated upon stationary artillery. In future there will, of course, be both stationary and movable batteries, that in the event of threatened invasion a battery could be transferred to any part of the coast. The howitzers are the very latest yune, and they will be used by three batteries, one at Wellington, one at Christehurch, and one at Auckland. Hirgp, ponderous weapons they are, and motor tractors will b* required to move them from place to place. The course of training through which the men in the batteries will have to go promises to be highly interesting. Equally important from a local point of view are the changes to be made at the forte. No less than two-thirds of the fixed guns there have t>een discarded as out-of-date. The remainder, however, are good, and on these the. new No. 1 Company will concentrate. The old ('oast Defence as an independent unit is a thing of the past: it has been absorbed into the infantry battalion, which, of

course, has taken over its dutien. The whole scheme has been directed towards adopting the system of defence now existing in Great Britain. Tf war is ever declared it is intended that the whole division should be capable of being doubled, so that one division could become the home unit end the other the fighting unit.