MOCK WARFARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 22 March 1934, Page 8

MOCK WARFARE.

INFANTRY TRAINING.

OPERATIONS AT TAKAPUNA

«ATTACK ON NAVAL BASE." The sound of marching feet was heard at the Xorth Shore this morning, when the men of the Xortli .Auckland Rciiment, Ist Xew Zealand Infantry Brigade, who have been in camp at Xarrow Xeck since last, Saturday, swung out, througli the camp gates bound for Clown Hill, Takapnna. which gives a commanding view of the Hauraki (lull'. The- dispatch of the. infantry from Xarrow Xeck shortly after S o'clock litis morning followed the receipt of information last evening "that an enemy force of an estimated strength of two brigades, with attendant troopers, had landed at Red Beach, on the East Coast, with the determined intention of striking a blow at the naval base at Devon port." In making their long march from the camp to the neighbourhood of Crown Hill, which is situated near the Pupuke golf links; at the back of Takapnna, the regiment acted as part of a supposed -brigade entrusted with the task of protecting the naval base and Auckland city from attack by an enemy force. This afternoon the regiment took up. a defensive position oil the high ground looking out across the gulf, the mock defence of Auckland being staged chiefly on the area between C'rown Hill and Cut Ilill. Actually the men had to combat a flesh and blood "enemy," comprising a skeleton company provided by the Takapnna Grammar School cadet corps. The operations this afternoon were watched by Major-General Sir William Sinclair-Burgess, General Oflicer Commanding tlic Xew Zealand Forces, who was accompanied by Colonel J. E. Duigan, ollicer commanding the Northern Command. To-night the regiment will bivouac under shelters built from ground sheets, and to-morrow morning they will return to Xarrow X'cck by bus. The field manoeuvres to-day were a wind-up to six days' training. Much valuable work has been got through, while the lighter side of camp light has not been forgotten. Last evening the men held a ball at the naval base. Gamp will be struck on Saturday morning.