BATTLE ACTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 83, 9 April 1942, Page 7

BATTLE ACTION

BRITISH ARMY DRILL Most Vigorous Assault Course For Training United Press Association.—Copyright. (Special Correspondent.) LONDON, April 8. Every infantry division in the British Army is to have its own Dattle school as soon as instructors leave the new G.H.Q. Training Centre at which realistic methods of battle drill are taught based on tactical notes which General Sir Harold Alexander drew up after Dunkirk. It was men from the first divisional school formed who provided the covering infantry in the recent Bruneval raid. They were toughened at this school, where they underwent a most vigorous assault course, containing every conceivable obstacle which might be met in action. As students in fighting order toil in relays, they are subjected to a tumult of noise from unexpected explosions, goaded by yells of "hate" from instructors, for example: "Remember Hongkong," "We want leaders not weaklings," "You are suffering now because Hitler raped Europe." No man who is unfit could complete the course and those who do not complete it for physical reasons are sent back to their units. The course is a mile and a half long and for most of the distance the men are knee deep in water. They have to crawl through a tunnel with water nearly up to the roof, cross a stream by hanging on to two high strands of wire, negotiate a smoke-filled pit, enmeshed with barbed wire and a 12ft barrier between two trees, without footholds and negotiate a maze of hazards in a thick shrubbery resembling the jungle and finally fire rounds at figure targets. The course record is 16 minutes and is held by an Olympic runner, who is now a sergeant-major instructor. There are no complaints of boredom at this school.