TRAINING AMERICANS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9869, 15 January 1918, Page 8

TRAINING AMERICANS

VISIT TO CAMP IN FRANCE KEENNESS AND INITIATIVE. The Americans, as a nation of baso-ball-pla.yers, were expected to develop into the highest type- of bomb-throwers in the trenches, but the experience of the Allied armies is that the baseball throwing arm is not'suited to grenade attack, and the explanation recorded by a correspondent of the London “Morning Post” is that the baseball is thrown with a- bent arm, which, if used in throwing grenades, soon tires a man out. The consequence is' that American soldiers must relearn how to throw. Writing of an American training camp in France, this writer says:— A considerable amount of practice is done with live grenades, but at the time of our visit the squad were practising with dummy grenades and making excellent shooting at their objectives. Much of the work throughout tho valley is interchangeable, and the general theory on which' training is proceeding is that, so far as possible, each man should do a little of the whole of the work daily, because it has been found that otherwise work, when it has been done, is apt to he forgotten. MISSION TO KILL GERMANS.

In the squad next to that throwing grenades we saw our first evidence ot the effort that is being made to instil into the mind of the individual soldier that his mission in Europe is to kill Germans. The machine-gun practice and the grenade-throwing gave me in many ways the impression of the old volunteer system in England in days when trained for the possible contingency of war, but in the special trench exercises one realised, and the men realised, that the training was a rehearsal of the work they are shortly to be called upon to perform. A portion of, the valley is lined with trenches, and as we came up a squad of men were .preparing to carry these trenches with the bayonet. At the word of commind they leapt from their own trench and charged across at their objective, jumping in and out of the trenches on the way, bayoneting savagely dummy figures of Gormans that lay in the . trenches, and shouting as each bayonet-thrust was _ driven homo. Our morning’s visit finished at the range, where, men were practising individual fire. The shooting was good and accurate, and in this work, as throughout, one could not but be struck by the keenness and intensity of purpose that was apparent. Another notable point, again, _ was the amount of individual initiative left to the men. When a man. knows what to do, orders for the most part are not given, and the men carry out their work silently, in mu l ch i the same way as work is done silently in such a highlyorganised unit as a salvage v essei. British drill sergeants lent to the American force are immensely popular with cmr troops, and the instructors in their turn speak with warm admiration of the splendid material they have the privilege of handling. Considering the short period their training has lasted, one is amaied at. the physical fitness of the men. The to (Beers are learning lessons which they will impart to their men, and the correspondent was impressed with the fact that the training is aimed to promote individuality and to emphasise in the case of each man that his primary object is to kill Germans without being killed by themPLAYING ORGANISED GAMES.

Much of the drill consists of playing organised. games to promote physical fitness on tho one hand and on the other hand to reduce the reaction period to the minimum. In each brigade tho individual is penalised for the slightest inattention and for any slackness. and all the time the British sergeants were there speeding the squad up in every, possible way. The most realistic of the games, perhaps, was when the men stood round in a ring with a sergeant in the middle, with their back to him. Each man had rifle and fixed bayonet,, and unexpectedly the sergeant would touch one of them, and it was for him to show immediately how he would attack a supposed enemy —in this case the sergeant—whatever the defensive adopted. Precision of bayoneting is being taught by making the men Stab through a small ring held for them, and as the sergeant touches one or other of the men he further complicates the problem by telling them: “You have no rifle” or “You have no bayonet,” and it was then for the man to attack as best he could. It is in teaching the men bow to capture a. trench that the lesson m German killing is most thoroughly emphasised. As we saw the work there was a squad of men assembled at the head of a trench, and in every recess of it were dummies representing Germans- They crept quieMy, one by one, down tho trench, for the theory was that it was a surprise attack, and every detail of their movements was controlled and criticised. They were shown how to avoid letting their bayonets bo seen, and each man was enouraged to simulate a battle hate as ho stuck his German dummy. And the sergeant kept up a running fire ot comment, thus: “Make a good Boohe, and there’s no good Boohe but a dead Boche.” “’There are two of them there; ’one has got some rum and the other a sandwich. . You take the sandwich,'iand I’ll have tho .rum.” “Don't make a mistake about it; Fritz is no fool; he’ll stick you if you don’t stick him.” “What you’ve got to do is to kill Fritz, as many Fritzes as you can.” ‘‘That’s it," as a bayonet thrust went home; “pull it out and make a good bayonet of it again,” and so bn. CARRYING A POSITION. ■ At the .officers’ training-ground the trenches were rather more elaborate than those wo saw in the ranks, and the method of attack was also rather more elaborate. ■ The grounds were covered by some 200yds or more with trenches, barbed-wire, inevitable dummies representing Germans, and so forth. At the word of command the men leapt from their trench and charged, yelling a war-cry, and bayoneting each dummy they came across. Toward the end of the ground there were a number of sticks on tins, and as the men got near the sticks they halted for independent fire and blazed away at the tins, bringing dozens of them down, and eventually carrying the final position with a rush. The accuracy of their fire showed how well the lesson had been driven homo that not a shot munt be wasted, but that each must find its home in the body of an enemy.