Route Marching

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

Route Marching

And Parade Ground Drill (By C. SCOTT) 11 hi-n the cliililien run to the dnnr and nry, "Oh. mother, the trotpn are come!" Anil rrrrn hrnrt in the toirn leapt kiyh at the /lent Ia ml thud nf the drum, They'll knnir, apart from Iti my tic charm, what mimic <» nt la»t. W hen prowl tin a boy with a broken arm, the ref/liitrnt marche* pant. Ami thr. i ericat icreek <n the. ilrink flend'n clutch, no matter how low or mean. Will feet when he heart that mlireh, a touch of the man that he might have been. THE average colonial soldier did not take to parade ground training, and it is therefore not surprising that youth* in this country are not particularly anxious to join up with a territorial unit. Our objective, aa I see It, Is to have an adequate, trained forea to repel an attack by a foreign Power, and, personally. T think this parade ground soldiering is overdone. We can go back to the days of Von Tempsky. for instance, iiikl his scout*, although hardly proficient as parade ground soldiers, were second to none a* fighting troops. In the Great War New Zealand troops n<?ver took kindly to parade ground atunts, and I am fully convinced that * surfeit of platoon, company and battalion drill does not make a man any mora efficient whan he gets to the firing lina.

The ordinary footslogger should be physically fit, able to shoot, use a Laynnot, form fours and march decently.

A# regards physical jerks they, too, «»n he overdone, and. anyhow, what is wrong with route marching aa an alternative to physical jerk«! I <lo not mean with full packs. but say in battle order, as we usually went "over the top." \\ hat is n?cer than a route march of four or five miles, with rifles slung, everyone in step, and the chance of an adventure at*every corner. Think of all those glad eyes (I except myself, of course) that all you other chaps put when route marching. -And remember, when the band struck up, old son. how your shoulders would be thrown back, your chest expanded, and the whole world seemed grand. Damn parad< ground soldiering! A man can be disciplined. efficient, and infinitely happier without it. Of course he can!

" RINGING THE CHANGES " Necessity Knows No Law There is an old saying that "All's fair ill love and war.'' Perhaps it is. and that i* why nobody thought it wrong to take what you were in need of. In September. lftWi. the battalion to which I belonged was at the Somnie, and mud was everywhere. Consequently harness and gear was in a very dirty condition. The day before we left that area, a British battalion arrived with brand new sets of harness. Some one told our traneport officer* about it and suggested he «hould have a look at it. This he did, and that night the harness was "swopped," and next morning we left with a first-class outfit. I have often wondered what the other chaps thought of the change.—Digger.