VOLUNTEER TRAINING.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20215, 18 April 1931, Page 21

VOLUNTEER TRAINING.

FIELD DAY AT SOCKBURN TO-DAY. Although compulsory military training is suspended, a number of officers and N.C.O.'a are carrying on voluntarily. Since there are no recruits to instruct, there is plenty of time for more advanced work which could not so easily be studied under the crowded syllabus of the old system. Since last June, when the regiments were roduced to cadres, there have been held regular patades on Tuesday evenings in the Barracks for the First Canterbury Regiment's officers, N.C.O.'s, and band, while other units,' such as the Artillery and the A.8.C., have also been holding their own specialised instruction parades. Recently the'artillery gave a demonstration of the handling and use of howitzers to the infantry. Such subjects as revolver practice, machine-gun training and shooting, topography, ■ and tactics have all received considerable attention. Last November a number of officers went to Springffeld at their own expense for a week-end tactical courses A Day at Wigram. To-day there is to be held a field day for the officers and N.C.O.'s of. th§ First Canterbury Regiment at Wigram Aerodrome, Sockburn, in conjunction with the Air Force. Squadron-Leader J. L Findlay will speak on the co-opera-tion essential between land forces and the Air Force. Later the machines and the equipment of the aerodrome will be shown and explained. As part of the tactical training in the handling of an infantry battalion, co-operation with other arms and' general service conditions, a scheme has been prepared for next Tuesday, night. A mock engagement will be carried out on a sand-table, which is in all respects a miniature area of country. There mu be represented the infantry battalion with its machine-gun company, the intelligence, signal, and anti-tank sections, and transport. The whole problem will be thoroughly discussed.

'Anzac Bay. On Anzac Day, N.0.0.'s of the First Canterbury Regiment are to provide the firing party whicb will accompany the gun-carriage bearing the wreaths, and then, on arjival at King Edward Barracks, will form two lines and rest on their arms reversed while the :returned soldiers' parade passes in to the service. The band of the regiment, in full dress Bcarlet uniform, will lead off the naval and military party of the parade. This year the parade will be similar to that held -in previous years, but it will be/ much smaller, as the territorial and night-parading/ units wm be absent. There will be the returned soldiers, Eoyal Naval Volunteer Be* serve, firing party, and secondary school cadet units,