TANK TRAINING

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1942, Page 6

TANK TRAINING

GUNNERY EQUIPMENT

One of the most interesting pieces of equipment at the New Zealand Armoured Fighting Vehicle School is a pellet range, an expensive item which is 01. great assistance in gunnery training. It is set up witn a turret as in a tank, and fitted to move as a vehicle would over various types of country, so that the gunner is subjected when firing to an almost complete representation of conditions facing him in action, (says the "New Zealand Herald”). The turret is arranged in front of a sand table and this table is fitted witxt miniature hilis, valleys and other features about which are placed different targets likely to be encountered on a battlefield. Some arc stationary, some are made to move in all directions. The gunner tires at the targets designated to him, using a lead pellet which registers a hit if the aiming is correct. One obvious difficulty is that a tank gunner firing at a moving hostile tank has to allow for the period during which his projectile is in flight, whereas on the pellet range the slug reaches its target almost simultaneously. There is, therefore, a deflection plate attached to the pellet ■gun., which compels the gunner to aim to the necessary extent in front of the target. ’ After he has reached proficiency on the pellet range and in other types of gunnery training, the student is put into a tank and taken cn to the open range. Here he is given practices in firing live, ammunition under realistic battle conditions. A.s in all the other wings of the school, the gunnery training is complete and thorough. How thorough it is can be shown from the attention which is paid to eye training. When a soldier works from the confined space of a tank turret, with visibility reduced to a minimum, it is absolutely essential that he be given a high standard of eye training. The instruction he receives at the New Zealand school covers judging of distances, speeds of his own and enemy vehicles, a study of ground, and how and where to look for enemy weapons and vehicles. HIGHLY SPECIALISED.

In all cases elementary stages arc taught in class-rooms and more advanced training is carried out in the open. Before going on a real tank the students progress from the classroom to specially-constructed vehicles representing tank turrets. This is the same for instruction in crew control and fire orders, subjects which are necessary to produce co-ordination between the various members of the tank crew. For this work a specially-prepared crew control room is set "up for the elementary stages, and then vehicles giving a tank turret atmosphere are used when a desired standard is reached. Tank training is highly specialised _ and cannot be rushed. War' conditions have caused peacetime courses to be very considerably compressed, but even now it takes a much longer time than is commonly realised to build up tank formation. The school is meeting wartime conditions without relin quishin g thoroughness.