ARMY OF THE FUTURE

Evening Star, Issue 19892, 14 June 1928, Page 4

ARMY OF THE FUTURE

ERA OF THE MECHANICAL UNIT A highly interesting lecture on the mechanisation of the army was given in the Otago Officers’ Club last night by Major \V. -I. K. Jennings, of the New Zealand Staff Corps. Major J. W. Smeaton presided, ami introduced the speaker, whom he said laid but recently returned from England, where he had been studying the latest developments in warfare for tho last four years. The lecture was profusely illustrated by lantern slides ami cinematograph films depicting the development of the tank and tests to which motor transport vehicles were put. Major Jennings first referred to. an army division as it was known in the latter stages of the Great War, with its three brigades each of artillery and infantry, its three companies of sappers, and its ambulance corps, and reminded his hearers that at that timo all transport was carried out by horses, which, even under the'best of conditions, had a radius of action of about only ten miles per day. Since 1920, however, a complete revolution had come about in transport methods, and machinery bad almost completely displaced tho horse in modem warfare. The speaker then went on to show slides of the various tanks used by the British Army, from the original one built to the* latest and most modem land battleship, explaining the most important features of each. hirst was shown the first tank, cumbersome and slow, weighing twentyseven tons, with a speed ot approximately two miles per hour, and a radius action of a little over twenty miles. Further slides showed tho gradual evolution of the machine until there was flashed on tho screen the latest product of military skill and design—a lingo l formidable monster, heavily armed, with a speed of twentyfive nuies per hour, and with a cruising radius of 135 miles. Various transport vehicles, including the light and mobile little Morris-Marlel and CardenLloyd tractors, were then shown, and it was explained that both these types of tractor were valuable - inasmuch as both wore fitted to standard truck chassis—a tremendous advantage if any number of them had to be built in a, short space of time. Several slides of the latest type of armoured car were also shown. Six-wheeled vehicles were described as being the coming method for army transport, and the speaker dealt with them in a section by- themselves. Several reels of cinematograph film showed almost impossible feats performed by these vehicles, which were a revelation to those present. Such feats as a loaded motor lorry going across country, taking in its stride ditches, creeks, bogs, and wet grassy slopes with a grade of 1 in 2 were things dreamed of during tho war, but were now concrete realities. At the conclusion of the address a vote of thanks was proposed by Colonel E. R. Smith, and carried by acclamation.