“CONTINENTAL” TINGE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13773, 16 October 1942, Page 7

“CONTINENTAL” TINGE

BRITISH ARMY London, Sept. 3. British Army training and “other preparations” all are directed toward operations on a continental scale in the West, a review of the land forces’ part in the third year of war said to-night. The assurance that the whole resources of the United States in manpower and material will he thrown into the struggle against the Axis, and the mobilisation of equipment and training of American Army formations, enabled the Allies to concentrate a greater striking power in the United Kingdom than at any other period of the war, the review added.

The Army was careful not to use the phase “second front,” but said operations on a continental scale had been brought within the range of practical possibilities. The third year of war was marked by a “steady transition from defensive to offensive preparations” for the home forces, the review declared. “The organisation, equipment and training of Britain’s land forces have been conditioned throughout by concentration on a new objective the conversion of the British Isles into a base for joint Anglo-American operations against the Axis in the West,” the statement said. The Field Army which would healths brunt of the invasion of the continent has increased its mobility and hitting power by the addition of “growing supplies of armoured fighting vehicles, guns, of all patterns and mechanical transport.” The organisational trend has been to increase the self-sufficiency of the brigade and divisional formations, the review said, Battle schools have prepared the Army as a whole for “offensive action over sustained peiiods by providing vital atmosphere realism” in training.

' “The successful large-scale raid on Dieppe” proved that normal infantry units have reached the level of training in shock tactics which previously was attained only by Commando units,” the Army said.