N.Z. ARMY TRAINING

Grey River Argus, 29 April 1942, Page 4

N.Z. ARMY TRAINING

Faster Progress ' AUCKLAND, April 27. ■A test of. the Army’s‘new syllabus for the training of recruits has been given over the past few weeks at the Northern Military District School of Instruction. The purpose of the experiment was to satisfy experienced officers that in four weeks a raw recruit can be transformed into a soldier able immediately to take ni» place in a field unit. So far as the men taking the course are concerned the result has been eminently satisfactory; it has still to be seen whether the new syllabus can be used with equal success for large bodies of recruits. One platoon has taken the course, and it has had the benefit not only of constant close personal interest from its officer and sergeant, bu. also of the extraordinary training facilities and opportunities offered by the school and its instructional and command staff. The men who were marched into the district school just'over four we--'ks ago were all untrained recruits. They had not been specially selected. They were an average group of men from lhe Territorial Force recruit roll. They faced a much harder four weeks than normally ebnfronts the Army recruit. How well their physique stood the test was shown by the fact that while their average weight at the start of Ihe course was lOst. 51b., it was lOst. 101 b. at its conclusion.

The course also made greater mental demands than the former and longer recruit course. For instance, the syllabus provided only six periods for parade ground drill. ’ They were also trained in the use of the Bren gun, ■ the 2in. and 3in.. mortar, the anti-tank rifle, the Thompson sub-machine-gun, the hand grenade, and the bayonet. Ln spite of the intensive nature of lhe training, experienced officers . were satisfied that the men had obtained a satisfactory degree of confidence and efficiency at the end of t'he course.

Particular emphasis was given to fieldcraft, including map-reading and minor tactics. They did very well at both and again in spite of the highly-compressed nature of ; the course finished qualified to take a section commander’s job at short notice.

Gas training, street and village fighting, night exercis'es, and instruction and practice in unarmed combat were also included in the course. For purely physical training they depended to a large extent on crosscountry runs and route marches.

Because of the very great reduction in parade ground drill, the officers were particularly interested to see whether discipline ,and morale would suffer. The former is described as havinp- been perfect, and the state of morale was described as being perfectly satisfactory. The officers of the school are satisfied that the men of this platoon are amply capable of fighting efficiently tomorrow.