WEATHER DEFIED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20627, 1 December 1941, Page 6

WEATHER DEFIED

COUNTY HOME GUARD FIELD DAY SUCCESS FIRST BATTALION “OPS” Home Guardsmen of the Cook County Battalion held their first field clay as a battalion yesterday, and 350 men defied inclement weather to take ■ part in operations which proved an unqualified success. Throughout the morning heavy rain fell almost continuously, but every sub-unit and unit carried out the tasks allotted to it, and the final muster of the battalion at Matavvhero was marked by expressions of satisfaction with the organisation and conduct of the operations. •From all parts of the county, stretching across Whangara to the country beyond Tiniroto, platoons and sections began to concentrate at 9 a.m., and to work on their initial instructions. The operations were based on the assumption that an enemy force had landed at Muriwai early in the day, and sub-units of the home guard were called out to cake up preliminary positions in accordance with orders telephoned from battalion headquarters. Each platoon or section was given a definite post, reasonably close to its assembly-point, and each member of the sub-unit was required to perform some simple but constructive task: while sub-unit commanders were called to make field sketches of their positions. At 11 a.m., orders were issued for the movement of sub-units to company concentration areas, all of which were within signals range of Stevens’ Hill, Patutahi, where battalion headquarters were established. From their company positions the units moved to take up defensive posts allotted by the battalion commander, Major Roland Graham, and in short order each unit reported that it had carried out instructions. At these defensive posts, tasks were allotted to individual guardsmen and officers according to the duties which would fall to them in active service, and these tasks likewise were carried out promptly and efficiently. Signal Section Efficiency

Three of the companies were given village defence tasks, another company was based on the bridge at Matawhero, and a mounted squadron held the power station at Patutahl. Signals exchanged with each unit by jattalion headquarters were handled with promptness and accuracy by the battalion signals unit, comprising 20 specialists. After a lunch-hour halt in operations, the units received instructions to move by different routes to the battalion mustering ground in a field on the Opou property, adjacent to the Matawhero bridge. This movement was carried out without a hitch, and punctually on time the concentration was completed.

The battalion was addressed later by Lieutenant-Colonel R. F. Gambrill, group director, who complimented Major Graham and his officers and men on the manner in which the operations had been conducted.

The group director expressed appreciation of the keenness shown by all ranks, despite the inclement weather, -and assured them that their keenness was not wasted, nor passed unrecognised. The ! handicaps of lack of equipment, which all deplored, would be removed as speedily as possible, and he looked forward to the day when the Home Guard would be armed and equipped up to Territorial standard. He took occasion to refer to the fact that the Pacific crisis seemed to be approaching its climax, evidence of this fact being given by the recall of all Singapore troops to their barracks as a precautionary measure. That precaution was not being taken without some good cause, lie felt, and there was a close link between the defence of Singapore and the defence of New Zealand.