ARMY EXERCISES IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23366, 27 June 1941, Page 11

ARMY EXERCISES IN BRITAIN

ASSAULT ON “CAPITAL CITY” PARACHUTISTS TAKE PART (8.0. W.) RUGBY, June 23. One hundred and fifty thousand men, including two entire armoured divisions. took part in exercises over 2000 square miles which have just been concluded by the Eastern Command. The manoeuvres, in which 2000 Home Guards and many thousands of civil defence workers took part, were followed fay General Sir Alan Brooke. Commander-in-Chief of the • Home Forces. Lieutenant-Generai I. Carr, General Ofiicer Commanding the Eastern Command, the Commander-in-Cluef of the Norwegian forces, and a number of United States Army officers. During the exercises, which were described by agency war correspondents, parachutists landed at an airfield, rushed through the capital city of “England." and seized an ancient castle, which was its citadel. Within two hours of the first parachutists dropping the ancient castle, which had been lightlv defended, was in enemy hands. These first parachutists seized a lorry and drove into the city. The second batch was captured in a Black Maria (a police prison van) which they had seized. _ , Taken by surprise, the Home Guards defending the castle were overwhelmed. The attacking troops obtained a builder's ladder > and scaled the battlement walls of tlr castle in medieval style, but armed with “Tommy" guns. "Confusion” spread through the city with the report of the capture of the castle, but the Home Guards then came into the picture. Two hours after the fall of the castle, the few parachutists who had secured it—most of their comrades were rounded up on the way—had been overwhelmed by a big force of Home Guards who recaptured the citadel. The Home Guards at one point held up an advance for three hours against a crack regiment. . After the exercises, a senior staff officer stated that the delaying actions of the Home Guards had forced the attacking columns to close up. and thus form excellent bomb targets. An attempt to surprise the city by landing from boats failed. Hundreds of tanks arrived near the scene of the battle by rail and were detrained with remarkable speed. The exercises, it was stated, were designed to provide exactly the type of operation which might develop if the Germans established a foothold.