COMMANDO RAIDS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 134, 9 June 1942, Page 6

COMMANDO RAIDS

BOER WAR RECALLED

REVIVAL OF OLD RUSES

South African War veterans are noting with interest that the tactics employed by them and their adversaries forty years ago have parallels in modern warfare.

Commenting on this, a 2nd New Zealand Contingent veteran. Mr. ,T. H. Naylor, of Auckland, recalled to an interviewer this week that the commando raids featured in the last year in Britain and elsewhere were adaptations of Boer tactics employed with considerable success in harassing British supply lines and transports. He had very lively recollections of experiences with De Wett's commandos in 1900.

Stricken by the African climate and pests, imported horses had a very brief life, and the New Zealand mounted infantry who landed with an equipment of eight to ten remounts per man often found themselves in a few weeks left without mounts. Then they had some real foot-slogging to do. Mr. Naylor recounts the harsh experience his unit had of trekking afoot through the Kroo Desert. Few had shirts or socks left at the end of the trek. The wear and tear of the trip had even deprived one trooper of his pants. He arrived at his destination with a sack tied round his waist, with fringed edges at the knees. But he had plenty of spirit left. "What unit do you come from?" sternly inquired the inspecting British officer. "New Zealand Islanders Brigade, sir," was the prompt response. Commandos and Q Trains At this stage of the campaign Mr. Naylor was transferred from his unit to the engine yards at Elandsfontein, where he was engaged for a year in locomotive driving before he was invalided home. The transport of supplies (medical, rations and munitions) depended largely on ox and mule wagons, and sometimes traction engines. These were subject to constant raiding by De Wett's splendidly mounted commandos, and there were desperate difficulties in the supplv service. Wherever possible the railway lines were used. These, too, were attacked by De Wett, and often, when caught on an up-grade, the engine driver had no choice but to cut and run—cut off the train and drive off in the engine, leaving the munitions and supplies in the hands of the enemy.

Not always, however, was the enemy fortunate in such captures. There were times when the panicstrickeh train crew made haste to escape in the engine, and the raiders, having dismounted and approached the train to'select their booty, encountered the sudden opening of truck shutters £nd a deadly hail of lead from rifles and machine-guns. The innocent-looking freight train was a cleverly-disguised "armoured train lying in wait for the attackers. This ruse, said Mr. Navlor, had been thought out by a Lieutenant Newcomb, a very capable officer. It was successfully brought off several times after Lieutenant Newcomb had effected the train disguise, and had thoroughly drilled the train crew in their panic roles.

It was, the narrator pointed out. the same ruse that was so effectively employed at sea against submarine attacks in the Great War years later, with "mystery ships" in place of the disguised armoured trains, and the submarines replaying the part of De Wett's commandos.

Mr. Naylor's fireman on the engine in the many runs he made out of Elandsfontein was Mr. R. W. (Bill) Kidd. now of Timaru. The latter stayed on with the South African railways after the war, and the pandid not see each other again until Mr. Kidd retired and came back to New Zealand last vear. What a reunion they had in April, 1941, after 40 years of separation! "So you were a loco driver when you went away with the New Zealand Contingent?" inquired the interviewer of Mr. Naylor. "Of sorts," was the reply. "My father used to be engine driver, guard and stationmaster at different times on the little line from Lower Hutt to Petone. and as a kid I used to play around with the engine, pull the levers and blow the whistle."

"In fact," he concluded with a smile, "I think I can safely say that in the course of my adventures I have achieved two of the average small boy's chief ambitions. I have been an engine driver, and now I am manager of an ice cream factory."

PRODUCTION OF COAL

ADVISORY COUNCIL

(P.A.) INVERCARGILL, this day.

Complete understanding on the coal position in Southland was reached to-day at Nightcaps after a conference between the Minister of Mines, Mr. Webb, and representatives of the owners and miners. The conference adopted a proposal to set up an advisory body to be known as the Southland Coal Production Council,-the object being to obtain and maintain a maximum output of coal. Concessions were made by the companies, and the miners agreed to fill all trucks provided, and work the full hours of the agreement.