PRESENT-DAY WARFARE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19947, 15 November 1926, Page 9

PRESENT-DAY WARFARE

MODERN MYSTERY MONSTERS BRITAIN'S REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT. A HUSH-HUSH WONDER. (Freu Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, November 13. (Received Nov. 14, at 5.5 p.m.) A sea of Flanders mud for realism, and 1916 types of war-scarred tanks as anachronisms, with a bewildering array of modern mystery monsters, was the scene which the dominion prime Ministers witnessed on the bracken-covered hill of Camberley in a demonstration of presentday mechanised warfare. Three marquees sheltered the guests from the driving rain —the year’s worst day—yet the discomfort was forgotten in wonderment at the glimpse of what future war will be like. “Prime Minister” contraptions crawled like tortoises, and while they spat destruction they were passed by the 20-mile-an-hour tanks with, five-gun turrets which swished and slithered over the practice ground with hideous agility. This is Britain’s hush-hush wonder, and journalists were not permitted a close approach than 20 yards. In striking contrast were the one-man tanks. One minute they were doing 30 miles per hour on tiny scooter wheels, then, with a movement of the lever, dropping on to a caterpillar belt they were able to turn in their own length, while the driver, with his other hand, cut a swathe with machinegun bullets This new idea has been adapted to a fearsome-looking light tank whose four-wheel truck drops like a flash into the sockets of a four-caterpillar drive to whisk it where wheeled vehicles would merely court disaster. The degree of mobility of this type in reaching threatened points made old soldiers remark; “If we had only had a few of these, Passchenaele woul not have happened.” A parade of progressive types of war machines was impressive enough, but when the whole make-up of mischief was let loose to gambol over a 25-acre plot, crossing and recrossing, and all the while blurting shells from the ground level to an anti-aircraft angle, it was veritably dumbfounding. Afterwards came caterpillar howitzers, long “Lizzies,” and ordinary field guns, vieing with tanks in mobility and with the men scarcely visible till the firing point was reached. Then, in less than a minute, the guns were unlimbered and were roaring salvos over the marquees.— A. and N.Z. Cable. THE NEXT WAR. “UNSPEAKABLY TERRIBLE THING. LONDON, November 13. Finally, at 10 miles an hour, a tank sped by exhaling a white smoke screen which hid the countryside, while all the mechanical monsters disappeared like magic. It was little wonder that everybody seemed constrained to remark: “What an unspeakably terrible thing the next war will be.” As the piece de resistance the spectators overlooked a Y-shaped rift in the hills wherein the tanks almost joyously hopped over great log obstructions and playfully pushed over brick walls and majestic pine trees, while behind came tractor-hauled batteries to drive home the thrust. A fleet of Mark 1 light tanks flashed down the hillside and toppled over growing pine trees as if they were toys out of Noah’s Ark. Four of this type are being shipped shortly to Australia, where they will be used for field training. One visitor suggested that such tanks would pay for themselves in a month clearing bush for new settlers. Accompanying Mr Coates was Major Jennings, who shortly will be commissioned partly to mechanise New Zealand artillery on the knowledge gained from to-day’s lessons.—A. and N.Z. Cable.