RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32219, 11 February 1970, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

THE ARMY GAME

One of the highlights of a territorial • camp at Tekapo is, apparently, a sort of genteel punch-up with a force of regular army men kept their for the purpose. This is known as a tactical exercise, and consists of one force attacking the other, trying to penetrate its enemies’ lines. The regulars attacked one night at a recent camp and did none too well, and lost several prisoners. So the territorials, the following evening were on what used to be known as the qui vive. The fate of the campaign was held, to a considerable extent, in the unwilling

hands of two territorial sentries. Sentry duty at Tekapo can be a lonely business, but they rather hoped it would stay that way. The flitting of the moon in and out of the clouds, the swift scurrying shadows, the waving tussock; no wonder they thought they saw enemy movement and reported, about 11 p.m., that an attack was about, to begin. Out turned the brave defending force, almost to a man. dispersing with practised efficiency. in several instances, to slit trenches. The red alert lasted about an hour, as the territorials . sat there, eyes straining into the

darkness, thoughts far away to more pleasant places and pursuits. They were then told they could go back to their tents. The most memorable of the complaints from the territorials came from the young man who said, with some bitterness, that they seemed to be getting the troops up earlier and earlier. It was, not, he said, even sunrise. They must work them hard in the army. The unfortunate youth had retired to his well-earned rest early in the evening, and took some convincing that it was midnight, and not just part of the usual reveille business.