TIELDCRAFT" IN THE ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 100, 24 October 1942, Page 6

TIELDCRAFT" IN THE ARMY

Experience in the present war, particularly in countries where natural conditions present difficult campaigning problems, " has shown that a great deal depends on the physical fitness and the resource and initiative of the individual. This makes specialised training essential. If men are sent into mountainous or jungle country they must be able to adapt themselves to these conditions or they will be at a decided disadvantage as compared with their adversaries. The several campaigns in the Pacific area have shown that the Japanese have specialised in producing fighting men who are able not only to master natural difficulties but to turn them to their advantage. The only counter to this is to produce men. trained to act in a similar way. In New Guinea there is evidence that the Australians are now meeting the Japanese on equal terms and the result is that in the fighting on the Owen Stanley Range they are more than holding their own. The military authorities in New Zealand have not been slow to realise the necessity for specialised training, which comes under the general heading of "fieldcraft," and, according to the Minister of Defence, this phase of training is now being intensified. The Minister says that practical training in bush and mountain warfare is now being given to Grade I personnel of the Territorial Forces and that in the last few days composite companies from certain brigade groups have set out into nearby back country where they are combining tactical exercises with deer extermination. Armed with rifles and light machine-guns, the men are treating the deer as if they were enemy troops. The experiment will be watched with interest. Not only are the men being given a special incentive to take up their work with enthusiasm, but they are receiving excellent experience of manoeuvring in difficult country and of living under conditions which approximate closely to those they would meet with in actual warfare. They are, as the Minister says, being fitted to take their place in any theatre of war in which they may be called upon to serve.