BRITAIN’S NEW ARMY

Grey River Argus, 7 December 1940, Page 5

BRITAIN’S NEW ARMY

OUTSPEEDS ENEMY’S In Manoeuvres [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Jkssn.J (Received December 6, 7.30 p.m.i. LONDON, Decembex o. An armoured division participated in Army corps scaie manoeuxres tnu week. Forty thousand troops covered three hundred mfieq m i2 nuuis, trying out new 'tactics in ciuse an co-operation. 'lhe manoeuvre, at which Sir Allan Brooke was me cniei observer, was a rapid orfensi. e movement, based on an assumption .hat tn e corps had made a successful n.w B.E.F. landing two days before, moving into action. An infantry envision trudged forty mi.es in 36 notirs. Armoured forces, including nght, medium, and cruiser tanks, and one hundred other lighting vehicles and transports, ploughed continuously through mud. Two squadrons or planes closely supported tn e infantry, which, with the .atest 25 pounders, assailed the “thxckesjt crust’ of enemy resistance. Another squadron co-operated with armoured units which employed the army’s "antipanzer” motor battalion. It swept on to where the opposition was thinnest, seized a town, awaited inlanmy, and then swept on to the limit of the advance. All types of p.anes roared over on a dozen sorties, giving assistance, which was demonstratedly faster than was the Luftwaffe a, either in Poland or in the Low Countries, also employing a new ‘‘Hush-Hush’ form of co-operation with land forces with outstanding success.

' A “Times” correspondent says: “The new British Army, largely created after Dunkirk, carried out a most ambitious exercise over tins country. Nothing ■ like it has oven seen in war-time conditions, I wish I could tell the whole story, it gives a vital meaning to the future offensive of the new English-trained 8.E.F., and the best assurance of tne. failure of any attempt, the enomy might make at invasion. Th e exercise was carried out under rigorous conditions, and completely satisiieu the corps commander, and the lessons will be studied at a week-end conference of senior officers. Supple mobility acquired in a few: months by a new British Army is a magnificent achievement, and new methods of air co-operation are sn advance of any that the Germans used.-