LIGHT TANKS’ JOB

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 November 1939, Page 8

LIGHT TANKS’ JOB

SCREENING THE INFANTRY.

Over the open country, across which tanks lumbered in the last war, I watched a divisional cavalry regiment, now equipped with light tanks and machine-gun carriers, give a picture of how an advancing infantry division would be screened by fast-moving mechanised squadrons, stated the war correspondent of the Sydney “MorningHerald,” in a despatch from France, dated October 22. It was fine weather, and the tanks and carriers made a brave show as they swept into view over the ridges, flinging clouds behind them as they tore across sticky fields from which potatoes and sugar-beet have been harvested, and bumped across sunken roads.

If the British Army advances, it will be the job of this modern armoured cavalry to thrust forward, moving at never less than 12 miles an hour, and. on firm roads, must faster, to cover that advance. When they meet the main enemy forces, it will be their job to form a protective screen, while the infantry divisions, advancing more slowly behind, dig in. This motor-driv-en cavalry can hit hard, but is hard to hit.

I watched a troop of carriers disperse as they would do if attacked by low-lying aircraft. One carrier remained in the open while a Bren gunner fired at imaginary attacking pianos from a gun mounted on a. carrier. The gun crews jumped from other carrier, and quickly mounted anti-aircraft ma-chine-guns, while their carriers dashed at top-speed to a nearby copse, when, in a few seconds, they were completely camouflaged with nets and branches. Then the remaining carrier made off to shelter.

In a few seconds, the attacking aircraft’s only visible target would have been a few Bren gunners with guns pointing skyward.

Tanks such as these are fast and mobile, and their combined tire-pow-er is most impressive. However, they would not be used to break through a. well prepared defence line. The exercises demonstrated the great, defensive power of the screen which the army will throw out in front of an advance or behind retirement. They showed also that the countryside is still firm enough to en-

able light armoured vehicles to move fairly fast, but, at the same time, it is already softer than tank commanders like. If rains recur, as is probable, it will lie very difficult to carry out largo scale movements of mechanised forces in this part of France. It is the business of the modern army, when it gets near the front lines, to disappear from the view of inquisitive -aircraft. With bewildering speed to-day, all the tanks disappeared, leaving the field and hillsides suddenly empty. Casual piles of hay hid airraid shelters (while digging them, cavalrymen found many corroded bullets and shill fragments, mementoes of their fathers’ war).