DEFENCE NOTES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 172, 17 April 1937, Page 10 (Supplement)

DEFENCE NOTES

News of Rank and rile ON PARADE AND OFF Napier N.C.O.’s Club ( By Liaison.) The N.C.O.’s club at Napier is still very much alive and has held three monthly meetings since New car - April 7 exorcises iu connection with tlie section and platoon in defence were carried out on the sand table. The mam lessons brought out were the necessity for concealment and the danger to concealment of opening fire on unimportant targets at long ranges, and the necessity for sections to hold ou even if tlie sections oil their flanks appear to be overrun. . It was especially ..pleasing to see tne younger N.C.O.’s present and taking an active part iu the discussions. Second Lieutenant Dugleby, recently appointed to a commission, directed the eexrcises in a most capable manner. Napier and Hastings have combined to hold a coronation ball at Napier on May 12. An energetic committee is at work an<] a successful ball is assured. Indian North-West Frontier. Seven British officers killed and five wounded; some forty other casualties. A brief Press message last Monday gave this as the “bag”' when tribesmen ambushed a lorry column escorted by armoured cars iu a narrow defile on the

Indian North-West Frontier. Seven British officers killed and five wounded; some forty other casualties. A brief Press message last Monday gave this as the “bag”' when tribesmen ambushed a lorry column escorted by armoured cars iu a narrow defile on the north-west frontier of India, says a contributor. This adds another “regrettable incident” to the long tally which is the price of Imperial policing in that turbulent border area, where service is always active. The barren, rocky hills and broken valleys of Waziristan breed tough, hard inhabitants, to whom murder is a pastime. Every male who reaches manhood is a first-class marksman and physically perfect—any defect on either count is fatal. The tribesman has that fighting efficiency which every infantryman strives to attain by combining amazing, crosscountry mobility with accurate rifle fire. The Pax Britannica is spread under modern conditions by motor road and enforced by a judicious bomb. But roads are expensive and few, while aircraft operate under difficult conditions and. of course, cannot discriminate between the innocent friendlj’ and the bush-whacker. Early in 1920 the writer spent five hectic months on active service—physically very 'active—in Waziristan, when some 30,000 troops, plus a few Bristol lighters, brought that particularly unruly area to heel. Roads there were none. A few nondescript tracks winding among the rocks of the riverbed formed the only means of communication. As- in Alexander’s day, camel and mule provided transport. In winter, the hills were snowclad, the mountain streams edged with ice and a gale howled down from the Hindu Kush. In summer, after 10 a.m., the heat radiated off the rocks in the river valley was almost unbearable.

The Shahur Tangi is a gorge only 20ft. wide in places and hundreds of feet deep. When the stream “spates” the rise is as much as 50 feet —sudden death to anything trapped by the flood. The motor road has been b z uilt with extreme difficulty, often cut out of the towering rock face. Movement off it is often impossible, and riflemen on the opposite side of the gorge can shoot it up in almost complete immunity from the ambushed. That is what evidently happened to the convoy in this case—probably containing officers going on leave. The tribesmen have become experts at taking on aircraft with rifle fire, and have scored so often that our machines keep high unless, as in this case, the emergency demands low-flying action.