MOUNTAIN FORCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 106, 7 May 1942, Page 8

MOUNTAIN FORCE

PICKED N.Z. TROOPS

TRAINING IN SYRIA

(Official War Correspondent. N.Z.E.F.)

BEIRUT, April 25

Having been given intensive training in ski-running, picked officers and men of the New Zealand Division have been formed into the nucleus of a mountain force. They carried out their training at the Ninth Army Ski School, formerly the Australian Ski School, somewhere in Syria. It was the hardest training any soldiers of the Division have had and included many hours of long-distance ski-ing with packs and rifles. One day after they are introduced to skis, the students make an eightmile traverse of mountains by ski to accustom them to altitude and alpine conditions. The rest of the course is of the same standard. Early in March the first New Zealand students, arriving at the school nearly 7000 ft high in the Lebanon Mountains, found the whole area deep in snow, and further falls came later in March. There is now more rock than snow, but ski-ing is still possible for several weeks yet.

The small instructing staff was soon increased by the best New Zealand pupils from Taranaki, Ruapehu and South Island ski and alpine clubs. The majority soon passed the recruits' test, equivalent to the New Zealand Ski Club Q.-3 certificate, but the advanced test is the most difficult. It includes a time-limited climb of 3000 ft, firing five rapid shots on foot at a target from 100 yards, skiing down 3000 ft, and again firing. Out of 67, only 10 passed. The shooting after the gruelling climb disqualified many.

The chief instructor, a former captain of the British Olympic ski team, emphasised that it was no holiday, and was the first to prove it. At the end of a few weeks the skiers are expected to coyer long distances at high altitudes without fatigue, to lead patrols and fight the enemy wherever he is encountered. The equipment and instructors are firstclass; the soldiers provide the energy and enthusiasm. Only 18 New Zealanders up to date have failed to finish the course. The assistant instructors include Captain Pat Koorey, Lieutenants Keith Cross, John Carryer, Sergeant Max Ritter and Corporal J. H. L. Curran, from Taranaki; Lieutenant John Rolleston, Sergeant-Major Mick Bowie, and Staff-Sergeant C. N. Johnson, from the South Island; and Corporal L. H. Frost and Private Harold Tilbury, from Ruapehu.