WEEK-END BIVOUAC

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 2

WEEK-END BIVOUAC

SPLENDID RESULTS OBTAINED. NIGHT FIRING DEMONSTRATION. The week-end bivouac of several units of the Taranaki Regiment, held on the New Plymouth showgrounds, which concluded yesterday, proved most successful. All the exercises were put through in good style and the results were described by the staff officers as being more than satisfactory. The units, the Waitara and Inglewood platoons together with the signal and intelligence sections and some troops from Stratford assembled on Saturday, shortly after mid-day. The total strength was nine officers and 50 other ranks. Major L. M. Fairbrother, V.D., was in command with Captain H. J. Keys as camp quartermaster.

Saturday afternoon was spent in taking up a defensive position on the rifle range near the seacoast. At night there was a demonstration of night firing with Verey lights and tracer bullets. Yesterday was a busy day. Reveille was sounded at 6 a.m. and the troops were on parade at 8 o’clock. Work commenced with a demonstration. of the new three-inch mortar. The rest of the day was taken up with the attack, starting with the section, then to the platoon and finally the company. At 10.15 a.m. church parade was held, Archdeacon G. H. Gavin, chaplain to the forces, conducting the service. The twominute silence was observed at 11 o'clock.

Lieutenant-Colonel G. F. Bertrand, the officer commanding the Taranaki Regiment, and Major F. S. Varnham, M.C., the second in command, visited the bivouac yesterday, while Major A. E. Conway, N.Z.S.C., brigade major to the Second Infantry Brigade, was present for the night firing on Saturday. The regimental authorities were indebted to the Taranaki A. and P. Association for the use of the buildings and grounds for the bivouac.