TRAINING FOR HOME DEFENCE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 281, 22 August 1940, Page 12

TRAINING FOR HOME DEFENCE

Racecourse Camp

IDEAL FACILITIES AT

WANGANUI

The laiest racecourse to be taken over temiporai'ily by the Army authorities for use as a traiuiuig camp is at. Wanganui, where preparations are in hand for the reception of the Ist. Battalion. Wellington Regiment. (City of Wellington's' Own) on Saturday week, when they will go into camp there to complete the final month of their three months’, course of continuous training tor home defence.

Meanwhile approximately 250 officers ami n.c.o.'s of tliree mounted regiments in the Central Miliiary District —'the Ist Battalion Queen Alexandra Mounted Rifles, the Ist Battalion Mauawatu Mounted Rifles (Motorized), and the Ist Battalion Wellington East Coast Aiounted Rifles'—have begun at 'Wanganui an intensive course to prepare them for training their pints when they are called up for three months on January 1. The total camp strength is at present about 300, including various infantry details, one of which is an advance party of one officer and 30 other ranks from the Wellington .Regime tri.

The oflicers and n.c.o.’s of the mounted ■units will remain at 'Wanganui till August 31, and on that, day those of the Q.A.M.R. and the W.E.C.M.R. will move to the Central District School of Instruction, Tauherenikau, and those of the M.M.R. (Motorized) to the Wellington wing of the school shortly before the Wellington Battalion occupies the. 'Wanganui camp. Meanwhile the camp is known as the Wanganui Wing of the Central District. School of instruction. Tlie camp commandant is Colonel H. B. Mannsell, 0.8. E.. E.D., officer commanding the 2nd New Zealand Mounted Rille Brigade, of which the mounted units referred to are part. The advantage of using a racecourse as a camp is that expenditure on buildings is reduced to a minimum through .making the greatest possible use of existing structures. One mess for officers and another for n.c.o.’s, anterooms, an'd a large cookhouse have been established under the main stand. Tlie camp commandant's office and quarters, and an orderly room are accommodated in the stewards’ stand, one corner of which has been adapted for use as the camp hospital. A. branch of the AVanganui Chief Post Office, with all usual facilities an'd a multiple-coin slot telephone, has been set up in a room below the new stand near the main entrance. This building also contains the. canteen. The quartermaster’s store has been placed in another large building, and the main supply store is housed in the bar at the eastern end of the main stand. The Y.AI.C.A. and the Salvation Army have been allotted sites for marquees near the main entrance. Preparing For 800 Men. When the ’Wellington Battalion is in ca,mp the total strength will be nearly 800, and a gang of carpenters, plumbers. an'd other workmen are by the Public Works Department erecting buildings to house other services required for the large number of troops who will iu a few days be, living in,the camp. Two cookhouses, ' each equipped with a stove capable of catering for 500 men, are being built, close behind tlie main stand, and, further tback on the grassed area behind the stands, ablution blocks, hot and cold showers, an'd other amenities are being provided. At Wanganui the mounted oflicers and n.c.o.’s are carrying out the elementary stages of their training—squad drill, rifle exercises, • light machine-gun instruction, physical, and recreational training, and so on. AVhen they transfer to Tauherenikau, they will have the use for training purposes of a. certain number of horses. At the conclusion of the two months’ course the officers and n.c.o.’s will return to their homes and will be called up again with their jnen on January 1. This arrangement has been made in order to cause the least possible interruption to seasonal work on farms.