ARMY OPERATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24268, 8 May 1942, Page 6

ARMY OPERATION

INFANTRY AND TANKS MANY ARMOURED UNITS TEST IN CO-OPERATION In fine autumn weather, a large military formation spent much of yesterday carrying out an operation of the utmost importance to the security of New Zealand. It was arranged, by Major-General H. E. Barrowclough, D.5.0., M.C., commanding the Northern Division, to practise co-operation between infantry and support tanks m a brigade attack against an organised defensive position. As General Barrowclough emphasised in a preliminary description, it is absolutely necessary in modern war for infantry, support tanks and artillery to know how to work together. He mentioned one occasion in the Middle East when 16 of 18 tanks were knocked out because there had been no opportunity for co-operative exercises. The many tanks used in yesterday's operation are not goliaths designed to stage tremendous battles of their own. They are built to be used with infantry. It is not their job to hurl them- | selves forward with no cover but that which they can give themselves with their own guns; they do not run baldheaded into attack; they, the infantry and artillery, together with engineers and all the other operational arms, are interdependent. This lesson is one of those which General Barrowclough is insisting should be learned by his Procedure of Tanks Taking advantage of every piece of cover, and trying to avoid being anything more than hull-down to the enemy at any time, the tanks proceed with the attack from step to step. If they are in danger of being knocked out by their greatest enemy, the antitank gun, they have to learn to get themselves into cover until the infantry can sweep the danger point with machine-gun fire and clean it up with mortar bombs of artillery shells. This general principle, as General Barrowclough observed, still left tank squadron commanders liberty, if they felt it could be done with no great loss to make an attempt of their own to wipe out an anti-ta;nk position if the need arose. Although this was only one of many lessons placed before _ the troops in yesterday's operation, it indicates that even a tank exercise with many tanks, Bren gun carriers, armoured cars, "Tommy" guns, Bren guns and all the other weapons of a modern force is not automatically spectacular. Twenty or 30 or 40 or more tanks do not roll forward together in one inexorable mass. Beginning o! Operation What happened yesterday at zero hour was that the artillery opened the operation over a fairly wide front in broad and rolling farmlands, patched with stands of trees, thick scrub, houses, barns, cow-hails and fences. The guns simulated intense fire by the explosion of quarter plugs of gelignite at the various points being shelled. Within a few minutes the first of the tanks appeared, coming down at spaced intervals against a fence-line at the edge of thick trees. They were sighted and came under fire from antitank guns. Thereafter the operation widened over the whole front. Tanks, carriers and infantry, seemingly in a state of confusion, were to be seen everywhere. Numerous tasks and problems confronted the armoured vehicles, the infantry and the artillery. As the attack developed the first impression of confusion was proved to be false, infantry's Task While the air was filled with the whine and rumble of the tanks, the sharper scream of the Bren gun carriers, the explosions of gelignite and the smack of blank rounds of rifle ammunition, the forces went forward from point to point in obviously good control. The plan became increasingly obvious and as the hours went by even the layman was able to appreciate the general pattern, although possibly not the immense detail, of the operation. The exacting nature of the operation also became clear. For instance, the infantry, most of whom were wet through to the thighs, charged and crawled over more than a mile and ahalf of difficult country. As it was with the infantry, so it was with all the other arms. Each had its special test. The technicality of warfare has never been more plain in New Zealand operations, and for every detail which could be seen and appreciated there were dozens which could not. Behind the vehicles and men in open view were hundreds of others with work of equal importance. Supply lines stretched for miles; there were first-aid detachments, repair detachments, engineers—a host of men and vehicles with jobs to do. Move in Darkness The fighting troops started off from positions which had been occupied at night. The move was made in complete darkness without lights, and it was a tribute to the skill of every driver and provost detail that only a few accidents occurred. In addition to this, many of the officers and men taking part had next to no sleep before they started. They could be found sleeping everywhere, in all attitudes, under trees, beside hedges, in vehicles, even under a shop verandah, hunched up on piles of sacks left there by the storekeeper. Although there were necessarily many points for criticism during the operation, the general result was more than satisfactory. It taught everybody taking part or observing it something which will help them the next, time such an exercise ie arranged and further advanced the soldiers toward the standard of efficiency necessary if New Zealand is to protect herself. It was lan operation in which it is impossible to describe everything; it had to be seen to be fully appreciated.