Shooting Gallery

Hutt News, Volume 16, Issue 14, 2 September 1942, Page 2

Shooting Gallery

ARMY TRAINING AREA In the advanced training ot troops plenty of open country, whe±c the men can manoeuvre unhampered by civic restrictions, is oi' prime importance, particularly for weapon exerciser with live ammunition. There is a limit to what a man can learn on the range. To become expert with his arms the soldier must use them under conditions jwhich stimulate active service as lar as possible. Around New Zealand's biggest inland camp lie many thousands oi acres of tussock land, rolling downy ancl hills of varied contour, scarred ami piUed by nature, and merging finally; with the mountains. In this v . .xy t.ieic. 10 ci.ayni room /or an kinds of simultaneous exercises, from squadron shoots to brigade manoeuvres. ! A day spent on a small anus ;ihoot m this;, area is a .stimulating experience. The butts are hidden at unmarked ranges amid the v&Mte of tussock and scrub. A white flag goes up to indicate where the target will appear, and the n.c.o in charge of each squad firing has to estimate the ran'ge, windage, etc, aaid instruct his men. It is shoot, no individual scores being taken. hit on the ;>«target counts. The squads move at the double from point to point to take up firihg positions, keeping hidden as'Amuch as possible, and lire progressively from behind a sod wall, from a slit trench » and from natural ground cover. Gelignite is exloded near them as they fire, and at least one shoot is a snap one at a target which appears anil disappears, out of the at irregular intervals. Such shoots develop the sense of field-craft, the judging of distance under varying weather conditions, and the confident handling of arms to a degree not possible on the ordinary range or the parade ground.

Over the vast expanse of country surrounding this big camp all arms of the Army are continually exercising — tanks, armoured flghtiiig vehicles, signals and infantry. Squadron and company exercises develop into battalion and brigade manoeuvres in which all cooperate, and there is still plenty of room for full manoeuvres. Trained I on this type of country a soldier should be able to put up a firstclass scrap on any sort of terrain.