NAVY AND ARMY GOSSIP

Evening Star, Issue 20254, 15 August 1929, Page 13

NAVY AND ARMY GOSSIP

FROM RANGE TO PARADE GROUND "[Notes by Sco.ux.] HAVAI RESERVES ANNUAL MUSKETRY COURSE. The annual musketry course ot the R.N.V-.R., Otago Division, will bo commenced at tlie Pelichet Bay range on Saturday, August 17, weather permitting. Ratings unabio to shoot on tin’s date will bo given, the opportunity to do so on August 24 or 31. ROBERTS’ GUP COMPETITION. A handsome cup for competition rn rifle shooting among R.N.V.R. ratings has been presented by Mr Henry Robots, a member of the Advisory Committee, R.N.V.R The competition will be fired under conditions laid down, and those eligible to fire must have had a given percentage in their annual musketry. The cup, on which the winners’ names will be engraved, will bo hold for one year, and thou handed back for further competition. The winner each year will bo presented with a replica of the cup. FIRST BATTALION. O.R, REGIMENTAL REFRESHER. Officers intending to attend the regimental refresher course are reminded that their names must be handed to the adjutant by to-night. The names of n.c.o.s are due by August 19. The estimated attendance at the course is twenty-fire officers and fifty n.c.o.s. MACHINE GUNNERS AND SIGNALLERS. Theofficers commanding tho machine gun and signal sections report that recruits are shaping well, and excellent progress is being made. CADETS A COMPANY BARRACKS. Tho barracks held by A Company during last week-end proved successful from every aspect. Nine retained n.c.o.s and fifteen members of the Noncommissioned Officers’ Training Platoon attended, while the following officers were the instructors:— Captain G. R. Stoneham (officer commanding), Second Lieutenants U. Paterson, R M’Kinlay, and U., Morrow, and Corporal W. K. M‘Donald, N.Z.P.S. The boys were formed into three squads—one composed of retained n.c.o.s and two of newly-appointed n.c.o.s—and the O.C. was pleased with the showing by Ibo new hoys, as well as with tho work as a whole. His idea was to teach the n.c.o.s tbo way in which to handle a squad with confidence, and in that the instructors succeeded beyond expectations. Major IV G. Massiogham, M.C. (officer command ing tho battalion), inspected tho barracks, and expressed satisfaction with tho general scheme and tho progress made. PARADES. The four Cadet companies and the signal section have been parading on their respective nights during the past week, and it is slated that Cadets arc beginning to get into their stride with the training, and the- work ouctj evening is being carried out well. OFFICERS' CLUE LECTURES. * Combined Operations ’ will be the subject of an illustrated lecture by Lieutenant-colonel Thoms, of the staff of tho Southern Command, to fie delivered at the Otago Officers’ Club on Thursday-, August 29. A number of lecturers have offered their services to the club during the nest few months, am! some good and instructive evenings may bo looked forward to. PERSONAL S.S.M. (W. 0.1) A. W. Johnson, N.Z.P.S., and S.S.M. A. T. S. MTvenzfc, N.Z.P.S., have returned from Trentham. where they attended an advance machine gun course. Corporal W. K. M’Donald. N.Z.P.S. left for Burnham on Tuesday for tho puj-po.se of sitting for his promotion examination. EARLY HISTORY OF ENGINEERS

Captain J. W. Dow, who commands the .southern depot- of the Corps of Engineers, recently made some most interesting remarks on the early history of tho Engineers in the course of an address to tlie Canterbury College Engineering Society.

Captain Dow said: “In quite early times the fighting troops themselves were their own Engineers, but a* armies became organised am! walled cities more numerous it was found necessary to train a, special body of men to work catapults, battering rams, and other siege engines. ' They did not construct defended camps or dig trenches, for these duties were performed by the fighting troops; they were essentially constructors, maintainors, and workers of engines. In the French army at a very early date we find Tngemeurs, and in our own army no find that William the Conqueror had an officer called the Ingeniator. Later on when cannon came into use we find that it is the engineer who is placed in charge of this new engine, the Ingeniator becoming tluT'Artillator. from whom is descended the present Master General of Ordnance. The general adoption of artillery led to a rapid development of fortification, and the result was that .the Engineer concentrated more and more on the building of fortresses, and in the carrying out of- siege operations, and the' artillery became a separate arm. The Engineers’ badge ot to-day is a grenade with fen flames, while the artillerv badge lias only seven, showing that the Engineers are the parent unit. " In France under Marsha! Vauban the Tngenienrs changed their name and became Genie, and in this change there is more than moots the eye. (Genie means to' procreate—a word allied to the Latin genius. f From the simple workers of machines they had grown in their own estimation into a vastly superior class of soldier. Guibert, writing in 177.Vsays'-of them: The Engineers do not know how troops manranvre, nor how they are commanded ; they do not want to know these things, for .they look upon their art ns the first of all' - arts* ■_ ■ln tact, they had in own eyes become a military mystery—a guardian spirit which presided over the birth ana destiny of the common soldier. “The foregoing.” he ; continued, “does not apply to the Engineers of to-day as the first thing they have to learn is Urmanceuvro as fighting troops,

and to co-operate with all other amis of tho service. To-day the other troops can reconnoitre, but they cannot make maps;'they can dig trenches, but they cannot make elaborate fortifications; they can assault a position, but they cannot mine it; they can swim a river, but they cannot bridge it. These are a few examples of how the Engineers must co-operate with the other arms of the service. The method _of warfare is always changing, and the latest development's of mechanisation arc bringing along new problems.'’-