HEAVY GUNS IN THE ALPS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23882, 26 February 1943, Page 4

HEAVY GUNS IN THE ALPS

Field Shoot at 3000 ft

CONVOY IN MOUNTAINS

A‘field firing shoot with big guns was carried out this week 3000 feet above sga level, high in the foothills of the Southern Alps. The shoot, carried out by a South Island divisional artillery unit, was the climax of a two-day manoeuvre that took a big convoy miles off the beaten track into mountain country inhabited usually only by high-country sheep and wild ducks and black swans from the mountain lakes. . . .. .. To reach the firing point high in the hills overlooking a deserted alpine valley, the convoy had .to travel across miles of back-country roads and finally climb a half-formed road, boulder strewn and with sharp turns, far into the hills. Quads towing the big guns, Bren-gun carriers, motorcycles, all had to go through fords and up steep grades for hours befoie the guns were in their allotted posiConditions for the men were made more difficult by a gale which swept up the valley while the shoot was going on. At times it was difficult to stand against the wind, which was so strong that, against it, it was next to impossible to hear the whine of the big shells tearing through the-valley. The wind, too, carried the roar of the big guns, firing in order by numbers, miles back towards the nearest homesteads. , . . j It was the first time big guns had ever been fired in that alpine valley, and the noise of tlffem sent hundreds of Paradise ducks into startled flight from the lakes around. n , The manoeuvre was an excellent practical exercise in alpine country for the troops, and it was a proof ot the speed with which big guns can be rushed to position and into action in the most difficult of country. In places the big artillery vehicles had to take to the tussocks up the mountain sides. . , , The manoeuvre in all took too days, the troops bivouacking one night in a sheltered riverbed, m the shadow of the hills, and in bad weather By early' morning, when the move to the actual firing point in the back country -was made, the weather had cleared, except for the ™ ind ' tv ,® e ,!°r nightfall on the second day the convoy was back in its base camp with many of the men going back to the harvesting v'hich is a big part of the r duties this autumn.