Half-Hour Battle Ends Army Exercise

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30601, 18 November 1964, Page 5

Half-Hour Battle Ends Army Exercise

(From Our Own Reporter)

GREYMOUTH, Nov. 17. It took the invading force of “Whitelanders”

from Canterbury much less than an hour to defeat the “Blacklanders” (West Coast) in the bush battle at Haupiri this morning. This was the culmination to the Army’s exercise, “Te Rauparaha,” preparations for which had been in progress for several days. The weather for the exercise was ideal and about 7 a.m. jet fighters screamed across the area and ground detonators of plastic explosives were released by the invading force on the “Blacklanders” camp. Columns of smoke rose from these explosions. Flares were ignited and then small arms fire was heard on the outskirts of the defenders’ positions. There was also an increasing rain of sub-machine-gun fire. Simulated Strike The jet aircraft made a simulated racket strike on the positions and the “Blackland-

ers,” who were in possession of only non-automatic weapons. with the assistance of a tiny air force of three Austers, lost their original positions. In less than half an hour the invaders forced their way through the bush, and leaped over logs and penji pits of sharpened sticks. They appeared to be in excellent physical shape after their long trek through the mountains in almost continuous wet weather. The exercise was w’atched by a crowd of V.I.P.s, both military and civil, who were up before dawn to take their vantage posts.

The Chief of the New Zealand General Staff (MajorGeneral L. W. Thornton) said he was very pleased with the result of the operations. He thought the form of the troops, after a most arduous march across the Alps, was excellent

An observer for the United States Army, Major L. Hargreen, said he had been most impressed with the exercise, which, he thought, had been very well executed. He considered the West Coast an ideal spot for such operations.