ARMY ENGINEERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 11 November 1942, Page 2

ARMY ENGINEERS

TRAINING SCHOOL IN AUSTRALIA Sydney, Nov. 10. Australia has established the biggest training school for Army engineers in the British Empire- It trains sappers thousands at a time by what is described as the “production belt system.” So far the cost of building and equipping the school has been £250,000. The key instructors have had battle experience since the outbreak of war. In 13 weeks they mould tradesmen and labourers selected by aptitude tests into high-ly-trained sappers. This has reduced the previous training time to half, and is said to be producing infinitely better Army engineers. Aptitude tests, which are being increasingly employed throughout Australia’s fighting services, are so good that less than 5 per cent, of the trainees are subsequently found unsuitable. The course includes instruction in explosives, demolitions, mines, booby traps, bomb disposal, field defences, field machines, camouflage, water supply, bridging and road-making. Culminating the fighting section of the sappers’ training is an assault course. This is 800 yards long and has been covered in the record time of four and a half minutes. The average is 10 minutes. It includes leaping trenches, negotiating trip wires, bayoneting explosive-filled dummies, crossing a “hell” pit on narrow planks before climbing a 12-foot stockade, scaling swinging boat slings, passing through a smoke screen and finally assaulting a hill-top position.—P.A. Special Australian Correspondent.