JUNGLE WARFARE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25101, 17 December 1942, Page 5

JUNGLE WARFARE

AUSTRALIANS IN TRAINING SPECIAL “AUSTERITY ” MENU (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 16. Grilled python steaks and broiled roanas are regular items on the menu of the Australian soldiers who are receiving special jungle warfare training at a new army school. The men know that the day may come when they will be cut off from supplies and their lives will depend on finding edible reptiles, insects, and plants in the jungles. Their instructor in what he describes as “back to the Stone Age diet” is Mr Mel Ward, the well-known Australian naturalist. A war correspondent who braved the grilled snake declared that it “tasted like fish with a dash of chicken tossed in.”

In this Australian Army austerity school the troops in combat training learn the arts of concealment, silent movement, and trail blazing and how to find their direction without a compass. But the most unusual and most oopular training is that given by Mr Ward, who teaches the men how to “ live off the land ” in the inhospitable Australian bush and jungles of the northern islands.