BATTLE PRACTICE

Hokitika Guardian, 16 September 1940, Page 8

BATTLE PRACTICE

LOCALE IN BRITAIN

TESTS FOR SECOND ECHELON

ALDERSHOT, August 4

The forenoon sun was hot on the uplands of the moor. As our boots kicked pollen from the bell-heather blossoms, and roused swarms of flies, we were thankful for the relative comfort of battle-dress, thick woollen cloth though it was. From the narrow and unfenced although tar-sealed road, on. our. right to the dip on our left where the land fell away was perhaps 500 yards; from the lip of the dip to the creek at the bottom of the fern-filled gully another 300-odd, say half a mile in all of front across which the battalion was presently to advance.

PROUD OF THEIR MEN Our brigadiers are tremendously proud of the men in the Second N.Z.E.F, When confidence has been justified and doubts dissipated, they say quietly, “These are grand fellows.” ' Successful, training of soldiers consists of something more than teaching men to do what they are told. They must know what they are doing, and it is .desirable they should know also why they are told to do it. Given an officer whose ability and intelligence he respects, the New Zealander is equal to the world’s best at carrying out instructions. A New Zealand brigadier, guest of one of the landowners over whose properties we were exercising, was awakened in the early hours of the morning by the arrival of a despatch rider from the forward troops. He was questioned in detail about the night operations to which the message referred, and explained it at length.

COMPETANT DESPATCH RIDER Tt was still early wlmn the brigadier came down to the bivouac area for He knew all about what ' had been happening forward. “I got the full storv from so-and-so’s despatch rider,” he explained. “That man had been up all night, and tvas dead tired yet he described" the en,t.ife movement step bv step, uist as ..if he were a. highly-trained intelligence officer. One must not,make comparison but I cannot think: there is another army ahvwhere with such fine fellows as ours.” Rack on. the moor. Orders are to take that In’ll and- the road running along its summit, and. t,o send forward -outposts to hold the approach roads on the f°r side. Umpires • are. posted all the /way up to lchofck out as casualties v?m who do'hot. take adequate cover or I precautions. Looking back 30ft I yards' to where the heather melts (into young, green Fri rn, there is little tp he seen, but the whole battalion is there! • ' Time'and again tlie mn«?res noted 'pemmeri'dMde initiative. Senior officers with wide- exnerienco last time ' Snv that those f rent's are fust. as yendv for battle as it, will he noss’ldn le make them without actual experience of'battle.