TRAINING SOLDIERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 127, 1 June 1939, Page 10

TRAINING SOLDIERS.

LONGER TIME REQUIRED.

Extensive preparations are being made in the Territorial Army for the great influx of recruits expected to result from the countrywide appeal that "hae been launched (reports the military correspondent of the London "Sunday Times"). The appointment, of thirty-eeven Public Relations Officers, and the large poster campaign that has started, indicates confidence that,the scheme will bring ia 250.000 men. Sitch- 7 a total ■will.-provide many problems for the -authorities, and the Territorial Associations are making plans for training secondline troops without impairing the efficiency "of the first expeditionary force we may have to send abroad. Regular Army Instructors. Instructors and administrative officers obtained from the Regular Army are of a high standard, but the Territorial Army i« prepared to find that it can no longer draw on the Regulars fur permanent staff*. One scheme for appointing territorial non-eommis-sioned officers as full-time instructors has already had good results. It has l>een found in practice that, although preliminary instruction in drill and the handling of rifles, light machine guns, mortars and anti-tank rifles can easily be, accomplished by instructors who adhere strictly to the "patter" of the manual*, the more len«rthy training in the tactical handling of these weapons, in \rhieh they have to be used in circumstances differing greatly fro.n those of the parade ground, demands a special aptitude for teaching. Commanding officers consider that the minimum period of training required to make the modern soldier moderately efficient in oi>e particular job is four months, as opposed to the five or six weeks with which many soldiers in the late war had to I>e content. "Specialist" Soldiers.

The difference is due to the more mechanical nature of the apparatus and the number of different weapons the eoldier is now expected to handle. The expert use of instruments unknown to those who fought in the Great War ir» another coin plication -which lengthen* the period of training.

Tt is doubtful, of course, whether such advanced training will be required for the rank and file in a future war. Under territorial training , conditions the period of trainimr is naturally much longer, and it is doubtful whether the year's training, culminating in a practice i>ll tnp. will be sufficient to provide •sufficient of the ''socialist' , soldiers who will he required for an effi-ient expeditionary force.

There* ~u> no doubt that, tiikimr into account the voluntary nature of service in the Territorial Army, the major part of any expeditionary force will consist of the enthusiast* who have devoted so much time and energy to the cause of national defence and will be the equals of the regular .soldiers alongside whom they will have to fight.