SKELETON DEFENCE PLAN

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 7

SKELETON DEFENCE PLAN

JUSTIFICATION FOR SCHEME

EXCELLENT RESULTS OBTAINED.

TARANARI REGIMENT’S STANDARD.

Justification of the present system of voluntary military training, skeleton though it be, is given by the results obtained by No. 1 (machine-gun) platoon of the Ist Battalion Taranaki Regiment. The annual Vickers gun course is in progress, and so keen has been the interest and so high the standard of shooting that though only two of the three practices have been fired practically all of the 50 officers and men who are taking part have qualified, and. several have already won their marksman gunner’s badges. The course, which is divided into two parts, has all been carried out on the Rewa Rewa rifle range. Part one was fired at 25 yards and was more in the nature of practice. No points were counted towards Qualification, but that part of the course had to be fired as part of the machine-gun training.. The second part was fired at 400 yards range and was the qualification course proper. Different types of target were used in the qualification course, which consisted of four practices. In the first 30 rounds were fired at a ,6ft. by 6ft. target for the purpose of ranging the sights of the guns and no points were counted towards qualification. Twenty rounds application at a 6ft. by 6ft. target comprised the second practice, in which each hit counted two points. The next was 30 rounds at a target in the shape of an equilateral triangle with 3ft. sides. Thirty points were scored for the first hit and five for each succeeding hit.

The high standard of the performance put up is shown by the fact that one gunner recorded 25 hits with 30 rounds and another 22. There were many other good scores. The. target is really very difficult. Mort riflemen, who use aperture sights, find the 4ft. by 4ft. target small enough at 300 yards. Yet the target used for the Vickers gun is only a quarter the area and the range is 100 yards more. It is on these two practices, one of them difficult enough, that most of the platoon have already made scores sufficient to qualify them in the complete course. The third practice consists of traversing: Thirty rounds are fired at a 20 ft. by 2ft. 6in. screen, divided into twelve sections, the object being to record at least one hit in each section. Two points are awarded for each hit, with an additional 25 points if no spaces are. missed, 20 points if one space is missed and so forth.

It is hoped to complete the Course before the battalion goes. into camp at Waverley in February. The annual rifle course has been fired in conjunction with the competition for the Captain Morrison Cup for the best shot. in the regiment. The cup competition has been completed but results iVill not be available for some time.