DEFENCE SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 302, 16 September 1933, Page 21

DEFENCE SERVICES

News of Rank and File ON PARADE AND OFF Map of Training Area

(By ‘

“Liaison.”)

IW z During the camping season earlier in the present year the opportunity was taken of carrying out the field work in preparation of a map of the Waipukurau training area. This work was carried out by Captains W. G. Gentry and S. C. V. Sugden and Lieutenants Queree, Heal and Wicksteed. Plane table sketches were produced as a result of this work and these were then re-drawn by the Lands and Survey Department in readiness for the printing of the map by the Government Printing Office. The finished map has now been issued to all units in the Central Command and should be of the greatest value for the tactical training of officers and N.C.O. s during the forthcoming camping season.

Inspection. During the present week the O.C. Command has inspected the 2nd Field Company and the 2nd Field Ambulance in Wellington, the. 17th Battery at letone and the machine gunners of the W.W.C. Regiment at Marton. Next week a further pprtion of the W.W.C. Regiment will be inspected at Wanganui and the Bth Battery at Palmerston North. Courses. !

During the first fortnight in December the annual course for officers and other ranks of the permanent forces in the Central Command will be held at Trentham Camp. The chief portion of the instruction of the officers will comprise a continuous exercise in the duties that they would be called upon to carry out in war. The exercise will be based chiefly on the defence and will consist of both indoor and outdoor problems. The other ranks will be instructed in section leading and platoon training in camp, using the battle range for field practices. During the last week more advanced work will be carried out based on company and battalion tactical exercises in the field. During this portion of the syllabus, officers and other ranks will work in conjunction. Opportunity will be taken to show all ranks the new training films which arrived from England During this week officers and other ranks of the Royal New Zealand Artillery are assembling from all parts of New Zealand at Trentham Camp, where they will carry out their annual course. Personnel attending will be organised as an 18-pdr. battery of headquarters and two sections. One of the two sub-sec-tions will be mounted, the other of one sub-section dismounted. The object of the course will be individual training and during the second week battery training, incorporating footdrill, skeleton mounted drill and manoeuvre, both mounted and dismounted. During the afternoons officers will carry out gunnery and survey duties. Senior N.C.O.’s will be instructed in director work and topography and drivers in equitation, horsemanship, and driving. The camp staff consists of: — Major A. B. Williams, D. 5.0., instructor in mounted battery staff; Major G. B. Parkinson, instructor in gunnery; Captain R. 8. Park, instructor in survey and adjutant; Captain W. Pollard, instructor in gun drill; Lieutenant J. P. Joyce, instructor in equitation and driving; Lieutenant Weir, instructor in battery staff. Promotions.

The Wellington Regiment: Captain A. E. Gorton, M.M., Ist Battalion, is transferred to the Reserve, of Officers, Class I (b), R.D.5. Dated August 24, 1933. Lieutenant J. B. Hep worth ceases to be posted to the Ist Battalion and is posted to the 3rd Cadet Battalion. Dated August 11, 1933. . The Wellington West Coast Regiment: James Prichard Wilson to be 2nd Lieutenant (on probation) aid is posted to the Ist Cadet Battalion. Dated August 1033 - , , a . . Regiment of New Zealand Artillery. Captain H. W. D. Blake ceases to be posted to the 10th Field Battery and is posted to the 16th Light Battery. Dated July-8, 1933. Lieutenant R. C. Page, 7h Field Battery, resigns his commission. Dated August 24, 1933. 2nd Lieutenant C. S. Dickson, Regimental Supernumerary List, is posted to the 10th Field Battery. Dated August 17, 1933. 2nd Lieutenant J. W. Moodie, Regimental Supernumerary List, is posted to the li-th Field Battery. Dated August 17, 1933. The undermentioned to be 2nd Lieutenants and are posted to the batteries as stated against their names. Dated August 17, 1933:—Frank Trevor Scofield, 14th Medium Battery; George Maurice Beaumont, 16th Light Battery; John Gray Warrington, 10th Field Battery.

Ceremonial. There was a time when ceremonial drill was almost part of the daily routine in the Army, says “’The Fighting Forces.” Generals loved it. “Steady drill!” they said, “that’s the stuff to give the troops. There's nothing like it.” And they were not altogether wrong. It was good for esprit de corps. A regiment that could drill well was always pleased with itself. But now commanders seem to have gone to the opposite extreme. It is forbidden to take the men for a drill parade. Ceremonial has gone by the board or, when practised. has to be done by stealth. We have heard of cases of distinguished regiments who, when they wanted to troop the colour, in memory of some notable occasion, have positively had to prepare for the ceremony on the sly, or else officers have had to practise with lines and pegs in lieu of men. In the Army, of course, there have always been cases of the ultra-serious commander or staff officer who constantly utters, with grave face, that pious admonition, “Nothing must interfere with training.” But we thought those ultraearnest training enthusiasts, actuated, perhaps, as much by fear of higher authority as by inward conviction, were dying out. Apparently it is not so, and it seems a pity, for an occasional touch of the picturesque in’ regimental life does much to brighten the somewhat drab business of home soldiering.