THE BRITISH ARMY

Evening Post, Issue 67, 17 September 1934, Page 7

THE BRITISH ARMY

SUPPORT BATTALIONS

EQUIPPED WITH GUNS

A scheme' for the reorganisation of Infantry Brigades, designed to bring them more or less into harmony /with the latest developments, and. to make them more self-reliant in war, has been considered by the War Office. Important details have still to b& settled, but it is believed that at no distant date agreement "will be reached, says the military correspondent of the "Morning Post."

A feature o£ this reorganisation will, in all probability, be the formation of a "support" battalion to each brigade. There are normally four battalions to a brigade. The proposal is to equip one battalion in each brigade with machineguns, Stokes mortars, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. This appears to be a further advance on the chango made in the organisation of battalions in 1928. In that year the Toot Guards and each of the battalions of the -infantry of tho line were reorganised. Each battalion now comprises a headquarters wing, one machine-gun company,^ and three rifle companies. The equipment of the headquarters wing is four anti-tank guns and two Lewis machine-guns for anti-aircraft defence. Bach rifle company has eight light automatics. The organisation of the machine-gun company is three platoons with four machine-guns to eaoh. _ The possession by a comparatively small unit of several type of weapons, tactically considered, is held by some to be a mistake. It gives the battalion too .many duties .to perform, and that makes for confusion. IN ONE GROUP. The military authorities have given anxious consideration to this problem, and it is not unlikely.that the situation will bo improved by transferring the machine-gun companies to the proposed "support" battalion and filling tho other three battalions with riflemen, and possibly a proportion, of Lewis guns, until a substitute for the light automatic has been approved. It was in 1927 that the War Office opened, seriously, tlicir inquiry into the question of "support" battalions. 1 refer to the temporary conversion, as an experiment, of the 2nd Battalion Somerset Light Infantry into _ a mechanised machine-gun battalion. The unit was no.t wholly turned mto machine-gunners. A rifle cadre was aetained. This' was necessary under the Cardwell system of linked battalions in order to provide and tram 1 drafts for the foreign service battalion of the regiment. When the Somerset Battalion returned to its normal organisation, the 7th. Infantry Brigade (to which the Somersets belonged) was used for further experiments with mechanised machine-gun carriers and the 6th Brigade at Aldershot was similarly equipped.

It v/as shortly befovo the termination of Brigadier (now Major-General) Wavell's command of the brigade that the experimental machines were withdrawn. . The official reason for the withdrawal was that experiments had been completed. "Fire is the dominant factor in. war. The bedrock of infantry tactics is a combination of fire and movement. Both are essential to victory." It is in relation to these factors that the War Office hope to modernise the infantry brigades. liocansc T'l'iiii-o Henry is roming t<> Australia and New Zealand instead el Prince George, millions of medallions, i-igarcttc cards, rhoi-olsite buses, i-lr.. liearing the poi'tiait, of the latin- liavc had ta be destroyed.