A MOCK BATTLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24733, 9 October 1941, Page 7

A MOCK BATTLE

BRITISH MANCEUVRES VAST NUMBERS ENGAGED RUGBY, Oct. 7. In a clash between mechanised forces extending over more than half England, the " Imperial Armies " (British and Canadian) forced an almost equally powerful "invading" army back towards the North Sea after a week's intensive fighting. Designed to give highly-placed officers the opportunity of handling the vast numbers engaged in modern war, this exercise, the greatest ever staged in Britain, has ranged from the Wash to the Channel, from the industrial heart of Northants and Leicester to the meadows of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

The King of Greece,-who is a keen military student, Captain Margesson (War Secretary), and Sir Alan Brooks watched the exercises. Scores of thousands of troops, mechanical vehicles in tens of thousands, and tanks in hundreds marched, moved, and fought day and night in all the confusion of a battle of movement ranging over hundreds of square miles. On a front of many miles and of great depth scores of minor battles were fought continuously. "In Bedfordshire," states an agency correspondent, "I saw Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry repelling Matildas and Valentines. On the last day, in an epic battle at St. Neots, both sides threw in all their remaining tank strength, so that the ground shook as they roared through the streets, and the air was full of fumes."

The R.A.F. was in full strength on both sides. " German " forces dropped gas from the air. not theoretically.' but in sufficient strength to make respirators essential. Parachute troops took their part in the manoeuvres, and behind the troops " fifth columnists " not only s'ant back useful messages, but carried out sabotage to great effect.