SIX-INCH GUNS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23274, 17 February 1939, Page 13

SIX-INCH GUNS

NORTH HEAD PRACTICE DEFENCE OF THE PORli EX-SERVICEMEN ENGAGED 13TH HEAVY BATTERY When two six-inch guns manned by the 13th Heavy Battery thundered from North Head in a practice shoot yesterday, it was far from being baptismal fire for most of the 16 ex-servicemen who are attached to the unit during its annual camp at Devonport. Veterans of the Great War, they are among the returned soldiers who have volunteered for service with coastal defence batteries, performing valuable work in manning the searchlight, operating the Diesel engines and assisting at the direction stations.

Of the 116 officers and men in camp, perhaps the greatest interest" has centred in the reappearance in the territorial service of men who were demobilised in 1918. Enthusiastic and painstaking in their work, they were said by one battery officer yesterday to have set an example to the younger men. Carrying the burden of years too lightly to be regarded as veterans; they have mixed happily with their more youthful fellow territorials, and their keenness has resulted in many of the \ camp tasks becoming efficiency competitions between the representatives of the two generations. Use of Half-charges

For the first time since the commencement of the camp, lire-shell practice was carried out across the Ilangitoto Channel yesterday. However, only half-charges were used to propel the shells, from which the charge had been substituted by non-explosive materials as a safety measure to protect traffic in the gulf and on the neighbouring coastline. The line between two buoys, towed by a tender some 5000 yards out to sea, represented the target. The exercises yesterday were regarded as close defence work against hostile ships which, under cover of darkness or fog, might attempt an entrance into tho port. To-day, however, it is proposed to carry out a counter-bombard-ment series of 40 rounds, against vessels standing further out to sea and presumed to be firing on the city from a distance. The ratfge on this occasion will be between 8000 and 9000 yards and full charges will be used in the heavy guns. . Scene at Emplacements

The smoking breeches, the fierce bursts of flame fj.om the muzzles and a concussion from each round that seemed to rock the hill, furnished a striking spectacle for those who were posted above the gun emplacements as observers. While these men carefully noted the range and line of each projectile, the gun crews, all "wearing the regulation "tin hats," worked feverishly to maintain a fire of five rounds a minute. On the crest of the hill, a party of signallers was in continual contact with the target tender some three miles out to sea, thus adding to the precautions necessarily arranged when firing takes place over a busy waterway. Tho rare experience of watching tho progress of a projectile in flight. was afforded the few observers who stood immediately in line with the barrel of either of the guns. The shell could be seen rising gradually to tho height of its trajectory before disappearing from sight as it commenced to drop. Seconds after the gun had' been fired, a burst of water'on or close to the target be-spoke-the acguracy of the guniayers' work.' ■. . •- . An Augmented Unit A wide variety of artillery exercises, illustrative of the scope and method of coastal defence, has been practised since the battery entered camp at North Head on February 8. In addition to the searchlight section of returned soldiers, the unit is augmented by a considerable number of men of the special military reserve. After completing their three months of consolidated training, they are required to attend three annual camps. The camp commandant is Major F. N. Nurse, Australian Staff Corps, who is director of firing practices, and the adjutant is Lieutenant H. E. Gilbert, R.N.Z.A. The battery commander is Captain E. C. Schnackenberg. Captain J. P. Joyce, R-N.Z.A., staff officer, artillery, is also visiting the camp for the purpose of judging the battery for the Hudson Cup, a trophy which is annually competed for by the coastal defence units of Auckland and Wellington. It is awarded on the basis of efficiency in all branches of the work, and is at present, held by Wellington.