MOUNTAIN RANGE CROSSED

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23802, 23 November 1942, Page 4

MOUNTAIN RANGE CROSSED

ARMY’S MOCK ATTACK ON REEFTON TEST OF TROOPS’ STAMINA Crossing the Victoria range at a height of about 5000 feet, troops who had completed their initial bush and mountain training in the Lewis Pass area made an "attack” on Reefton yesterday. The men, most of whom had had no previous experience in such rugged country, were very fit after their three weeks in the busn, and thfe two days’ march over the mountains was a thorough test of their stamina. The streets and approaches to the town were defended by the Home Guard. The exercise was of value in giving the territorials an opportunity of testing, against a real “enemy,’ the theory they had learned in the bush and it proved equally valuable to the Home Guard, which was able to test for the first time the efficacy of the defensive scheme. Although, because blank ammunition was used only by the attackers, the Home Guard simulating fire with rattles, it was difficult to decide the tactical result of the exercise the troops penetrated to the heart of the town and claimed the “capture of several vital points. It is m °st probable, however, that, had the battle not been a mock one, the Home Guard would have caused them heavy losses and upset the attackers’ plans. The Home Guard commander had a difficult task with the force at his disposal, but, although the attack came from one of the least likely of several possible directions, his plans made provision for it, and in the ensuing fighting the Home Guardsmen acquitted themselves well. , . Discarding the obvious approach to Reefton, the territorials made their' thrust from the north and the exercise developed into a hectic struggle for possession of the railway station. Soon after 11.30 contact was made with the forward elements of the attacking force and 10 minutes later the officer entrusted with the defence of that sector signalled that an attack in force was imminent. Reserves, which had been held in the town, were rushed by motor transport to the area. By this time, the attackers were making this main thrust with great speed down the railway from the direction of Burke’s creek. They overwhelmed the little band of Home Guardsmen holding the station, but when they moved over to a nearby dairy factory they came under machine-gun fire, which, had it been real, must have played havoc with the attackers. Assuming that their progress was unimpeded, the territorials showed initiative in commandeering trucks, bicycles, and even horses, with which to speed their entry to the town itself. They were given a warm reception in Reefton and there were several skirmishes in the streets before the exercise was finished.