ATTACK AT DAWN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 54, 5 March 1943, Page 4

ATTACK AT DAWN

ARMY MANOEUVRES

ACTION IN HEAVY FOG SOMEWHERE IN THE NORTH, this day. Steel-helmeted figures, with rifles at the ready, advancing under cover of a low-hanging thick white fog, provided an eerie scene before dawn this morning as brigade manoeuvres were continued north of Kaitaia. Occasionally, muffled bursts of fire from invisible marksmen and the deep-throated roar of scout Bren carriers, negotiating tricky slopes, added a reality that was almost unnecessary.

The action took place on consolidated sand dunes, skirting loose sand-drifts, which stretch inland from he coast. Huge kauri forests once stood here, as gum diggers operating in -the swampy valleys have found to their advantage.

The exercises consisted of an attack by brigade troops on an enemy composed of local units who were holding high land to the north. Zero hour was set for dawn, which meant that the attackers, not for the first time this week, had to arouse themselves by 4 o'clock and embus for the - "front line" shortly after.

Two infantry battalions, one composed of Maoris, took the initiative in the attack, and, by the time the watery sun was making its first attempt to pierce the mist, they had succeeded in taking their first objective. Supported by artillery fire from the rear, the infantry then began a leap-frogging advance over undulating country. Further back, armoured units waited hopefully to follow up and exploit forward successes. With loose shifting sand to their left and low-lying swamp on their right, tank commanders looked thoughtful and resigned themselves to a sticky day. Later in the morning, the fog cleared away- and umpires and directing staff, who expressed themselves as highly pleased with the early attack, could gain a good view of the action from nearby promontories. The brigade is to move still further north in the course of further exercises which are to last until next Tuesday.