TRAINING AT SLING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16538, 14 May 1917, Page 6

TRAINING AT SLING.

: ■ » ARTS OF TRENCH WARFARE. EXACTING SERIES OF TESTS. A description of. the course of training through which recruits for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force are passed has been given by an officer in a letter recently received. Referring to Sling camp, he writes: "The New Zealand camp is probably larger thai: Featherslon and Trentham combined. It is situated about two miles from Bulford station and about 14 from the historic town of Salisbury. In structure the camp very much resembles Treutham, but- is probably more up to date. The huts are lined and have fires in winter—a system New Zealand would do well to adopt. The drop in the sick parades would more than compensate for the cost. The officers' cubicles are the next best thing to home.

" There is a bar in the officers' mess, and a wet canteen for the men, I have watched the latter closely, but drunkenness is almost an impossibility, as there is always a picket oil duty who hustles off to his hut any man who begins to feel too happy. After immorality, intoxicating liquor is the soldier's worst enemy, but I am firmlv convinced that, since certain men will drink, the wet canteen under strict military control is less harmful than giving the men the run of a city full of hotels two or three times a week.

Small Drafts • for the Front.

" Immediately a reinforcement arrives i here it loses its identity." the writer continue?. " The officers join one class, the non-commissioned officers another, and the men are changed round into companies, strictly according to districts. The men are sent over to Franco as the officer commanding in France requisitions for them At the end of 10 days a draft of 50 may go over, a little later another 200, and so On, They do not go over as a reinforcement. In no case is an officer or non-com-missioned officer allowed to proceed to the front until ho has completed a very severe course of training and passed all tests The course is practical in the extreme, and it would be mere suicide to proceed to Prance without it, as the New Zealand training is more for open fighting, not much attention being eiven to trench war. fare. Before proceeding to France we must be proficient in trench fighting in all its forms, bombing, wiring, the use of poison gas, revolver shooting, and bayonet fighting with a general revision of our New Zealand training o far as it affects the style of fighting to be experienced. in trance. .< .

Bombs and Revolvers.

In bombing we use tho Mills grenade, which is superior to anything possessed by the Huns, although they were the first to realise the value of bombs in trench warfare. They explode five seconds after leaving tho hand and ore very simple to manipulate although at first you have not, enough confidence to throw them well. Wo have learned all they can teach us about barbwire entanglements, and have daily practice in revolver, shooting with the Woblcy pistol, tho only filiation weapon. It i 8 a mistake to make men presents of automatics, as thev will not take service ammunition, and" are consequenfly usflloss. Tho use of. the bayonet is emphasised enormously here. A rifle Mid bayonet gives a man wonderful confidence—it is a (splendid , weapon; and indeed most officers prefer to take a bayonet into action instead of the revolver.

Anti-gas Training.

"We ."ve taught how to use the various gas-belmots, and oven do route marches in them so as to feel quite at home. We have lectures on .the chemical .composition of the various German gases, and officers are also taught a certain amount about «i'ur own. In conclusion we each have to spend liv 0 minutes in a chamber containing gas in twico'.the concentration possible fn action. A fow mouthfuls would mean instant death, and yet, with our helmets on, we breathe as freely as in the open-air. On coming out you find every bit of brass! work on your tunic turned quite black, so that you realise what you . have missod. Finally we aro sent. into: a chamber of lachrymatory gas, but without goggles, in order that we shall know the gas again. On entering you, are immediately bunded by water from the eyes, and your.nose and throat suffer from irritation! It has no worse effect than to render you temporarily hors do,combat,, ..:■ r ,",..,,.7~,. "..- '/ Tim identification disc issued to us in New Zealand' i.« not now used. We are being issued here with two— rod, the other ye110w,... The red one is buried with the soldier, 'while the other ; is', taken as evidence of.'-doalh. The men can ' obtain whatever they'want in the line of clothing ', and . equipment without any -awkward questions being asked. • Th* food j, pood, all hough v the daily ration of meat has bfen cut down in : accordant with the spirit of the age. ; Still, ,;I.': think ' : it. •is a pitv the soldier should be tho first-+o suffer from . tho new J rationing sehime, particularly ■ when; civilians can Vati.l) i obtain in any London hotel a meal fit for a lord," §-«'S & v- :?'■■:■■:■