ARMY GUERILLAS

Grey River Argus, 23 May 1942, Page 4

ARMY GUERILLAS

SPECIAL COURSES TERRITORIALS AND GUARDSMEN AUCKLAND, May 22. Concentrated training in guerilla warfare is at present being given selected officers and other ranks of Northern Military District Territorial Force units at an Army school of instruction. The same school has just completed two sources of the same type of training for Horne Guard personnel from many parts of the district.

Such courses as these, together with the numerous field exercises continually being arranged jin the district for guerilla bands, represent toughening graining of /the best type. It does not necessarily follow that attention being paid guerilla training means an intention on the part of the Army to employ large sections of its forces on commando operations, nor that men trained in this type of warfare will automatically cease in emergency to function with their normal, formations. One of the most important things the New Zealand guerilla must learn is bushcraft, and there is general admiration in the Army for the manner in which townsmen who have been included in guerilla bands have adapted themselves to the demands of the country over which they have had to travel. The courses given in guerilla warfare rightly place emphasis on the need for competency in this aspect of the training. Stalking, camouflage, unarmed combat, ambushing, night operations, the use of explosives and the organisation of raids are but a few of the subjects included in the guerilla warfare syllabus being given New Zealand soldiers. Every bit of what they learn is practical and practicable. It is all the result of firsthand experience, and it is helping to make first-class soldiers out of large numbers of New Zealanders. The syllabus for the course now, being held appears to include instruction in everything which a guerilla soldier would need. It is also clear that the Army is all the time app'.jing to courses and exercises in guerilla warfare lessons which have been learned by other parties which have been in the field on this type of work. There is no lack of imagination or adaptability in those responsible for directing and executing 'this training.