THE MILITARY MACHINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21642, 12 May 1932, Page 14

THE MILITARY MACHINE

AN EMPIRE ORGANISATION ADDRESS BY LIEUTENANTCOLONEL FALCONER; . The organisation of the army and the principles of command were outlined in a lecture delivered by Lieutenant-colonel Falconer, officer commanding the Otago Regiment, in the Y.M.C.A. assembly hall last evening. The address was one of the special educational series which is being held every fortnight. Colonel J. M'Ara presided and briefly introduced the speaker. # , , . Colonel, Falconer said that the general policy and the higher organisation of the army were determined by Cabinet, which received recommendations from the Committee of Imperial Defence—one of the most important committees of defence in the British Empire. Its recommendations dealt mainly with the Empire defence policy and the co-ordination ot efforts by land, sea and air through the chiefs of staff of each of these services. The policy governing the organisation was: ; — . (a) The maintenance in peace of a small force to relieve overseas garrisons and form a framework for an expeditionary force. •(b) The maintenance of overseas garrisons, sufficient for the safety of ports and the maintenance of order. . (c) The maintenance of a reserve to convert < regular units at Home to five divisions, including one cavalry division —an expeditionary force to use as required. . (d) The maintenance of a territorial army of 14 divisions, one cavalry division and two air defence brigades—a means of expansion in a national emergency—using full 'man-power if necessary. The constitution of the army of the Empire was: (a) Regular army and reserve; (b) territorial array and reserve; (c) colonial units of regular army, controlled by the War Office; (c) local forces raised in the colonies and administered by the Colonial Office; (c) Dominion forces. * The government of the array. Colonel Fr Iconer continued, was vested in the Crown, and the command was in the hands of the Army Council. A liaison was established between all the units through the Imperial General Staff at the War Office. The Army Council consisted of eight members —fhtee parliamentary, four military, and one civil, presided over by the Secretary of State for War, with the Under-secretary of State for War as vice-chairman. The system of command in the army was one of the soundest that could be evolved, and, m England in peace time the whoje of the United Kingdom was split up into commands—Aldershot, Eastern, Southern, Northern, Western, and Scottish, and m some cases these were sub-divided. In addition to these commands there were certain districts independent of them, and within these districts were the regular army reserves. The lecturer then described the system of command in India, where the command of the army was vested in the Governor-General in Council, subject to the direction of the Secretary; of Stgte for India in Council. Immediately belqw the Governor-General, who was, of course, the Viceroy, was an officer termed the commander-in-chief, to whom the Governor-General delegated his powers. The present commander-in-chief was General Birdwood. ' The word command had .three, interpretations —namely, an area in which the troops were under the control of one officer, a unit or formation, ,or thirdly, a station where a senior combatant officer was responsible for the maintenance. or discipline and order. The, organisation in war had always been earned out on a divisional basis, more or less. A division consisted of approximately 20,000 men. That sounded a large number, but in the event of a war of such magnitude as the last it would not be a question of one division but of many. . If there were a war of sufficient magnitude two to, five divisions would go to form a corps and three or four corps an army. The two catch-words used in the array were decentralisation and co-ordination. It was absolutely impossible for one man to exercise adequate supervision over all those troops, so decentralisation became necessary. The duties in peace were, training and administration, and in war the duties were fighting, training, and administration. • Definite duties were allotted to definite individuals. Commanders had staffs detailed to assist, and these were divided into three branches (a) G. Branch:. Operations, intelligence, and training; (b) A. Branch: Questions affecting personnel; (c) Q. Branch: Questions of supply of material needs, food, ammunition, and horses. , In addition, there were technical and departmental officers to assist in their particular branches, and right through, divisions, brigades, battalions, etc., they had their branches represented. Commanders of formations exercised command through subordinate commanders of formations or units, divisional commanders through the three infantry brigade commanders, the C.R.A. and the C.R.E., and they through their infantry battalion commanders, artillery brigade commanders, and field company commanders, and so on down the scale to the n.c.o. in charge of a gun detachment or a section of infantry. Speaking of the system as applied to a battalion, Colonel Falconer said that it was recognised as a general principle that one man could not, sufficiently command more than from four to six units, ihe battalion to-day was a different unit altogether from w.hat it was even at the close of the war, and certainly a great deal different from what it was in 1914. In 1914 it had four companies armed with rifles —.obsolete ones at that—and . a machine gun section with two Maxim guns. To-day the battalion organisation was on different lines altogether. “We have now,” Colonel Falconer continued, “ a battalion with 16 Vickers guns of good pattern, 24 Lewis guns, as well as two at headquarters, and the best part of 50 horses in the machine gun company alone, so that to-day an infantry battalion is a much more formidable unit than it was in 1914. The number of rifles has decreased, but fire power has increased. I maintain that the rifle is an obsolete weapon, useful as a handle for a bavonet. I don’t think 1 it will ever be used again. With all these Vickers guns, rifles are not required to do so much "Speaking of the qualifications for leadership, Colonel I alconer said that whether a man was a leader or a £>oy Scout troop or of an army, he must have strong moral character, personality, and driving force. General Russell had impressed him as a man of this type. I act was also a necessary attribute, and, ot course, the man had to know hia job thoroughly. . . XT ■_ Describing the organisation in New Zealand, the lecturer said that the troy-ernor-General, as representative of the King, was commander-in-chief of the whole of the forces in New Zealand. Cabinet came next, and then-the Minister of Defence and general officer commanding, who was a soldier, and finally the general staff. There were three commands —Northern, with headquarters at Auckland; Central, with headquarters in Wellington; and Southern, with headquarters in Christchurch; and these were subdivided into regimental districts. The troops were organised into units of various arms on a divisional basis—roughly, one regiment of mounted rifles, one artillery group, and one brigade of infantry, with auxiliary troops in each command. There was a big organisation in New Zealand, sparsely populated as the country was, and it would not take very long to mobilise a division. The speaker concluded with a tribute to the wonderful army organisation during the war. There was a continuous double stream of traffic on the roads France, and through all that fighting nobody went really hungry. It was indeed marvellous, and reflected great credit, on those responsible. . After answering a number of questions, Colonel Falconer was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address.