THE SURVEY BATTERY

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1942, Page 8

THE SURVEY BATTERY

■ / f. (Official War Correspondent, f N.Z.E.F.). / BEIRUT,, April 20. I It takes all sorts to make an army. [/Unknown among other units of the w N£w> Zealand Division, unsung save • for thcße at Middle East Headquar- ■ ters who) know their true worth, the < N.Z. the New Zpjj- ■ land Artillery through ■ the Middle East, iiJni-Aden to Cyp- ’ rus, from Cairo to the Syrian-Turk-ish frontier. Their job is to draw maps and when they have finished—draw more maps. i The real role of the battery is that of artillery survey, but since its ar-' rival in the Middle East over 12 months ago, it has not been attach- | ed to any artillery unit and it has never been part of the New Zealand I Division. They are non-divisionai k troops. L Early in the war the New Zealand ■Government was asked to supply an ■artillery survey battery, just as it asked to supply a ■ forestry unit ■jpw in England), a mechanical company, railway conand a railway mem bers of the batskilled surveyors many of whom all d Survey Deworked on. ! the 011 the defences Sea area, at of Cyprus in the the Trans-J'or-d in Syria. They the Navy and work. es have been covof maps have been not a combatant unit sense of the word, but are armc 'd for se-lf-ar no<: 011 e meml3sr has fired a shot in anday may come, for the now working in a country marauding Arabs and American instruments and Methods are used by the battery in ■Producing highly accurate maps Krom air photographs, the only batFterv of its kind in the Middle- East which is using these delicate modern instruments. Members of the unit have taught themselves -the use N'N'- .

of up-to-the-minute methods, and they can now turn out maps faster than any other unit in the Middle Tslctst Officer commanding the battery is Major J. Stevens-Jordan formerly of Wellington. ! All his officers are registered surveyors, and one' young* officer is regarded in New Zealand, as a genius on higher ip.jthenhat.ics. “There are some peopl'd wtoyTegard survey and as i witchcraft,” said.-VKe O.C. as he showed _n?<e ’aiTefird his desert headquarters. [ When we had finished the tour and I had tried in vain to follow his, explanations, I- was almost' convinced that the work of the battery ~ fvvas witchcraft. I. left with my- headcm a whirl. . ■ . ’ Amidst the- I'uins of another world the battery worked- for weeks in the Trans-Jordan. It; carried out a ground control survey for aerial photo mapping. Their work took them to ancient Petra, famous Nabatean city, cut out of solid rock; to Kerak, a, fine Crusader castle ruin. Detachments from the batter” worked 7 at the Ain Musaor, or Moses Spring/ produced by Moses striking the /ock when the Host was wandering/for forty years in the wilderness. Many famous points quoted in ambient history have been turned to -''modern use as control points for air photos, and as water points for the Army, with modern power pumps, installed. Many 'of the, control points used are ruins of Lawrence’s demolitions on the Hejaz railway. Almost every bridge along the railway bears witness to Lawrence's raids So New Zealand’s survey battery, under the ccntrffi of Middle East Headquarters, igoes about fits job with its £50,000 worth of instruments and equipment. In the course of their job in the Trans-Jordan members of the battery scaled rocky heights where no man had ever been before. They proved their versatility and enterprise bv completing survey undertakings that -had beep abandoned by other units as impossible.