THE NEW A.I.F.

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 150, 21 December 1940, Page 6

THE NEW A.I.F.

TWO FORCES COMPARED

A CORE OF "OLD SOLDIERS"

It has often been said since the Commonwealth Government'raised the present A.I.F. that there is no difference between the Australian soldier of 1914-18. and the Australian soldier of 1940, remarks a writer in "The Times." This was my own opinion after travelling to Palestine with the first con-1 tingent of the A.I.F. which left Australia in January, and I hold it still— but with modifications. If the old A.I.F. were compared man for man with, the new A.I.F. no substantial differences of temperament, outlook, or physique would be noticed. There is in the present force'just as much sober and wild blood, just as great a capa-j city for remaining cheerful in adversity and grouching when times are easy, as there was in the force of twenty-five years ago. But as a potential army the A.I.F. of today started, with an advantage which has not .been sufficiently recognised, and the benefit it lias derived from this advantage may be seen when it goes into action against an enemy for the first time.

Let nobody suspect an attempt to minimise the exploits of the 1914-18 A.I.F. What words could dim, the glory of the force which won so. heroic a name at Pozieres, Bullecourt, Passchendaele, Gallipoli, in Palestine, and on other bloody fields? On the contrary, it. is to the original. A.I.F. that the present A.I.F. owes its flying start. •If the first force had not existed, that of today would have fallen far short of what it is. THE "OLD SOLDIERS." I Jest about "old solfiiers" as some may—especially when, their efforts have won victory -and peace for their country and their services are no longer needed —I have seen enough in Palestine to know, that the old soldier is one of the most vital elements in the creation of an army. It does not matter if his joints are a little stiffer, his muscles a shade quicker to weary, his eye a trifle less clear than in his first campaign. His great value is that he knows -tricks of soldiering learned in the front line, and by his example passes on something of his knowledge to his unfledged comrades. That is where the present A.I.F. j scores. The -1914-18 A.I.F. was not enI tirely without ■ old • soldiers,- but they constituted only a handful of- the whole, while the A.I.F. of today is rich in them.

Moreover; even the veterans of the old force knew nothing of the coldly brutal technique, of warfare made possible by misuse of twentieth-century science. The veterans of today'do.. It might, of course, be argued that the technique of warfare has advanced as much in the last twenty ye.ars as it did. say, between the end of the South African campaign and 1914. A careful analysis contradicts- this view. ■ Your modern army is able, through-greater mechanisation, to strike infinitely harder blows than ■ the ' armies which fought iii France twenty-odd years ago could strike, but the technique has not fundamentally altered. That is why the veteran of the last war is so useful today. The lessons he learned on the old battlefields still hold good. ;.. "''• 'a talk Ift a' club." .1 .was .sitting., in \ the .-.Australian. Soldiers' Club in Jerusalem with two sergeants, a corporal, and three privates. Both the sergeants and the corporal served with the Australian forces •in the last war, while one of the privates,- an Irishman with a brogue John McCormack would envy, was a British regular in 1914-18 and three years ago a member of General Q'Dufty's. Irish Brigade in Spain. The. two. other privates,- both in the early twenties, were the old members of the group, besides myself, who had never been, under shellfire. We sat for more. than two hours, talking "shop" the whole time. Soldiers, like actors, never seem to talk much else. The two young privates argued stoutly against some of the lore expounded by the older men;| but I could see they were deeply Im-1 pressed. Anyway, they- went to bed knowing more of soldiering than when they woke that morning.- iTor,.-as they stayed for a nightcap after the veterans', had left, one oi them, thoughtfully sipping his drink, remarked: "I get tired of hearing these old beggars skiting, but they talk a lot of sense."

That is not an isolated instance of the influence the veterans are exerting— : quite unconsciously, often enough—on the development of the A.I.F. Discussions between old soldiers and new are always worth listening to. Tha young soldier might pretend contempt for the opinion of the old hand, bi;l within himself he has a wholesome respect for it. And, naturally, the preponderance of A.I.F. veterans among the higher ranking officers is the most important factor in this' communication of practical experience by one generation of soldiers to the next.

Each of the infantry brigades in I Palestine is commanded by a man who j served with distinction in the front line in the last war. One brigadier left Australia in 1914 as a private, lived to command the infantry battalion withj which he first went into the. trenches, i and rose to his present rank as a militiaman in peacetime. His battalion commanders are all old A.I.F. men. In fact, I cannot think of one battalion j commander in Palestine who did not | see service in the last war. These men learned their soldiering "the hard way," and. they know all the tricks of the dangerous trade: the art of teaching the I young idea not only how to shoot butj how not to get shot. I . LESSONS IN-THE FIELD. j After visits to nearly all the infantry battalions in Palestine while they were engaged in field manoeuvres one realises the meaning of practical, experience. An officer who took his .degree in the front line can teach his men more in ten minutes in the field than they could learn in a classroom in six months. Probably nine-tenths ; of the men without experience of soldiering who joined the present A.I.F. cherished that erroneous but prevalent belief that the Australian is a natural soldier, a man who can fight well enough for any purposes without undergoing the tiresome preliminary training. It is pretty certain that not one-tenth believes such nonsense now. Since the Australians came to Palestine, most of the battalions have been wiped out —in theory —while practising field manoeuvres, nfuch to ; their own consternation and the satisfaction of their commanders, who can teach. them the lessons that must be taught in no more effective way than by showing them what might have been. ; • .

War has no more bitter accompaniment than the toll on the youth of the 'belligerent nations, the gross waste of young men whose lives might be employed in laying the foundations of a better civilisation than the world has yet known. It' seems that this process, decreed by the German rulers for the second time in a generation, cannot be wholly averted until Nazi Germany is broken on the wheel of defeat. But at least the core of seasoned soldiers round which the A.I.F. is built will give young Australians a better chance of survival when they go into action.