RIFLE IN WAR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16590, 12 November 1919, Page 9

RIFLE IN WAR.

I 1 ! STILL THE GREATEST WEAPON. | ( !’ r CRACK SHOT’S VIEWS. | i i S —— I j “It is hard to realise the stupidity i that insists that the bomb and the ! bayonet have superseded tho riflo. But } I had tiio satisfaction of provitfg this j fallacy to Captain Betts, champion of i the British Army with the bayonet, and j to .some of the stall of General PJnmer’s j Second British Army.” In these terms I (.says tho Sydney Daily Telegraph) j Liootonant-Coionol Blncklow, D. 5.0., j himself famous as a riiloman, summed j up his arguments in favour of an in- ' struct tonal scheme to ensure the Better j. knowledge, of the rifle and the arts of j war, such as observation, that in his opinion should accouipauv Unit know- i i ledge. i t Colonel Blacklow was addressing an i : audience of riflemen and military men ) at. Handwiek Rifle Range recently. > > ; Though he did not say it, tho fact re- : 1 mains that the colonel, who, by the ■ J way, was a machine-gun nllieer, was ! sent for by Sir John Hon ash, the A us- : tralian Commandcr-iii-Chief, to give, 5 ; special instruction to our troops along | the lines which he now suggests should i he made 1 generally applicable to Ans- | tralia through the media of the rule ! dubs. i Tho lecturer declared that his experi- | enco, of the war showed that, as a mati ter of fact, the rifle was a greater i ' 1 death-dealing agency in some actions , ; than any other weapon. The bugbear | . ; and dread of all Iron!-hue troops was ; the highly-trained and ellieicnt sniper. ; 1 The musketry of the British -Army was ■ I the one thing that has .stood the test ; of the. war above others. And it ; showed that our inuning was absolutely : .’on the right lines, and the X.R.A. of.' [ Groat Britain and the sister associations ; . of Australia, and particularly of New i I South Wales. ha:l proved to he hit king! i nothing in encouraging t lie inquire- , menf. of that knowledge which should; j he the possession of the eliieient sol-; 1 dice armed with the riflo. 'J he man . i who obtained instruction in the use ; .lot the telescope and the- rifle _in (Ids ■ ! club was a more eliieient medium of j I training for military purposes; than j . ; was the man dependent on the general i 1 musketry course. The only dtawbaev . I ho hart' found was that the training ; 1 of riflemen in observation work had j I not gone tar enough. As a matter ot | tact, the honours of sniping were itnj measurably with the Borhe until our ; j men were especially iu-lrueted in the ; j arts of camouflage ami of observation. >1 In attack, too, it had been found i 1 that no troops would, or could, assail ; ; against undisturbed rifle fire and ma’i iTtine-gtm fire. Resort bad always In ■ lip had to artillery barrage to keep I this class of Sire flown. Again, when i troops got to their objective it was i the snipers who wi re pn.-ned to the i front to rover consol-dation operations, I bv keeping tlowu enemy observers. | 'To-day in Australia, he said, wo have I a splendid lot. ot young efii'vrs who, d i organise'!, would be ,et ur.utilise value i in 1.-elping rilieiiren in aetjiiiivmellt ot | the principles of observat tun and map- ! reading. Telescopic sights should be ! issued to clubs for nraetue. ami men I should bo taught to me them. A 'short musketry course and the rest j could safely be left to tin- X.R.A,, 1 which had stood the It-1. ot the past. ! Nothing should be done by the autlion--1 ties to kill the. snorting side and indivt- ! final skill of Die nil, man. Rvery rifle- : man shtmld be allotted a company in ' his locality, and should he among the I lirst. to be mobllis, d in time of war. i It, was the faulty work of the man ; who ha;! undergone only a general mu- | ketry training that, in the early stages 1 of the war, was responsible lor tho be- | lief 4hat, the rifle was doomed. Jixcel- | lent opportunity to demonstrate the i value of the rifle in rovering an attack ! was lost when the Australians had In i go to the rebel ol the Americans when ! Tlmy broke through the Hiinletibnig 1 lino'. Artillery lire was out of Ihe | question, but oliicors did not co-ordt-

1 nate as to rifle fire, and the attackers I relied on overhead machine-gun fire to cover their advance. . , . Instructors in rifle .shooting should (bo appointed in every district or the ! Commonwealth, whoso special _ duty j would be to train the clubmen in obj serration work and to instill know- ! ledge of mapping; and map-reading as 1 well as of the compass. The recordting of the result of searching with a [■telescope should also be made a ieav ture. . . i. Giving illustrations of his contention ; that the rifle is the most deadly and mobile of weapons, lie declared that a trench could be mopped up by it by firing unexposed down traversers much quicker than with bomb or bayonet, thwigb ho admitted the efficiency of the fcorab in clearing dugouts. Again, on the night of April fil, when two brigades at Villers-Bretonncux pinched out some 1500 of the enemy with bullet and bayonet, ho was surprised to note when going over the ground later the extent of the slaughter and the number of pie -cd helmets that told of the accurate .snooting of the Australians. Three, out of every four had been hit m the head. And that action was m complete darkness. , , , On those premises Colonel BlacKlow summed up as stated.