N.Z.E.F. IN BRITAIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 200, 23 August 1940, Page 3

N.Z.E.F. IN BRITAIN

INTENSIVE TRAINING. ARTILLERY'S BIG WEEK. (From the official correspondent attached to the New Zealand Forces In Britain, Mr. J. H. Hall.) ENGLAND, August 21. The strength of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Britain was increased this week by the arrival in camp of about 40 recruits. Attested in London they were all New Zealanders. Some were volunteers and others, called up under the British military training scheme, elected to serve with their fel-low-countrymen. The newcomers are not treated as a separate recruit squad, but are distributed among units where, in return for the privilege of joining the New Zealand Force, they will be expected to work especially hard in making up leeway in training. The first batch of candidates for first commissions, shortly being selected from privates and non-commissioned officers in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Britain, will begin a four months' course with British officercadet training units, and those successful will be passed out as second-lieu-tenants and re-posted for service in the New Zealand Force. Unit commanders have been aeked to recommend suitable men, after which a selection board will examine the recommendations and choose the candidates. The number chosen will depend mainly on the number of vacancies in the training establishments. The high quality of New Zealand noncommissioned officers has been repeatedly remarked upon by competent British observers, who expect our cadets to give a particularly good account of themselves in the training courses in which they will be associated with men of the United Kingdom and other Dominions' forces. Several New Zealanders who enlisted in the United Kingdom and subsequently were selected for training as officers, have recently been posted to the N.Z.E.F. as second-lieutenants. They They include the Rhodes Scholar, D. M. Davin, and Keith West-Watson, son of Archbishop West-Watson. This is the biggest week in the military experience of the Second Echelon Artillery, the full strength of which-has been engaged in firing practice on a famous English range, using not only types of gun with which they were familiar in New Zealand, but also new issues. Although the gunners while waiting for full equipment in the early weeks of their training drilled manfully as an infantry order, ready for any emergency, they are uneoncealedly glad to be back in their own branch of the service. ' Accordingly this week has, with guns in the field bringing to a climax 9 period of intensive training in most modern artillery practice, brought the units' keenness to a new peak. A military cricket match between Australia and New Zealand is being played on Saturday. E. W. Tindill will captain the New Zealand team.—(Press Assn.)