FUTURE OFFENSIVE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 7 December 1940, Page 5

FUTURE OFFENSIVE

BRITISH WAR TECHNIQUE LARGE-SCALE EXERCISES CARRIED OUT SECRET CO-ORDINATION [U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Received 7th December, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, 6th December. An armoured division participated in large-scale manoeuvres which have been held this week. Forty thousand troops covered 300 miles in 72 hours, trying out new tactics in close co-oper-ation with aircraft. The manoeuvre, at which the Chief of Britain’s Home Forces, LieutenantGeneral Sir Alan Brooke, was chief observer, was a rapid offensive movement based on the assumption that tho corps had made a successful new B.E.F. landing two days before moving into action.

An infantry division trudged 40 miles in 36 hours, and the armoured forces, including light, medium and cruiser tanks and hundreds of other fighting vehicles and transports, ploughed continuously through the mud. Two squadrons of planes closely supported the infantry, which with the latest 25-pounders assailed the “thickest crust” of the enemy resistance. Another squadron co-operated with armoured units which employed the Army’s “anti-Panzer” technique. A motor battalion swept on where the opposition was thinnest, seized a town and awaited the infantry, and then swept on to the limit of the advance.

All types of planes roared over on a dozen sorties, giving assistance which was demonstratedly faster than that of the Luftwaffe either in Poland or in tho Low Countries and also employing a new “hush-hush” form of co-opera-tion with the land forces with outstanding success.

A special correspondent of “The Times” says: “The new British army which lai'gely has been created after Dunkirk, carried out the most ambitious exercise ever known in this country. Nothing like it has been seen in wartime conditions.

“I wish I could tell the whole story; it gives vital meaning to the future offensive of the new Eng-lish-trained 8.E.F., and the best assurance of failure of any attempt the enemy might make at an invasion.

“The exercise was carried out in rigorous conditions. It has completely satisfied the coi*ps commander, and the lessons will be studied at a weekend conference of senior officers.

“The supple mobility acquired in a few months by the new British Army is a magnificent achievement, and its new methods of air co-operation are in advance of any the Germans have used.”