WAR MOBILISATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14005, 14 September 1909, Page 3

WAR MOBILISATION.

. TROOPS AT ALDERSHOT. The most interesting and at the same time the most extensive scheme of mobilisation ever - attempted by the military, authorities in times of peace was completed at Aldershot, on July 28th a division complete with the exception ot transport and supply park turning out.with their full baggage, stores, rations, and ammunition at 'twenty-four hours notice, and after .being inspected by < the.Duke;of •'Coatn. laht;rjiarhcd away to fight a hostile fwrcs acvanc:r.ofrom the coast. . a \

Ihe Long Valley-was"the point sheeted for the • concentration of . this lingo gathering of troops and. war material, and its great stretch of level sand a mile and a half-long liv nearly a mile wide, was fclod-wi:; bib's-ruar-t,a'^gathering, whose sombre uniforms of drab hard-to distinguish from the colour of the ground. With the exception of the' Red Cross on thj . ambulance waggons in tho rear of the line,, not a. note of colour of an v" kind broke tho dull greyness of the".mass. The only difficulty has' been to get horses, and this has caused the-aban-donment of a part of the scheme, the divisional transport and supply parii - an important factor in such a 'bod- «,f troops—being left iut of the -mc Kliso-' tion. To have put them on paradewould have needed quite 500 horses more thaiv could be obtained The division turned out in service, marching ordpr, under the command of Major-General J. M. Grierson, his -full strength being 19,093 troops, horses, twenty-four machine gn<i£, seventy field guns, IS6 ammunition waggons tilled with live shell, T6O waggons, the majority with - six horses, carrying millions of rounds of ball ammunition and rations for men and torses for three days, together with tons of field stores, and four motor-cars. . Tho Duke of Connaught, in the-uniform of a field marshal, reached the valley al 11 a.m?, and, attended by General Staff officers, and a number of foreign mill tary attaches, rode round each of the brigades of artillery and infantry, in a k ing a close inspection. Among ' the visitors were Mr John Burns and Mr' Acland, the Under Secretary of-State' for War. As each unit was inspeece-1 it moved off under instructions to take up allotted positions for the Held operations which-followed. The general idea was that the division was part pt. an army moving south to./attack an invader, whose advanced troops were reported at \Frenshani. The division broke into three columns/ each being allotted a parallel 'route, tho main route-lying through fc'arnham, each column occupying iotir.miles of roadway. Mr John.' Burns marched "with , the troops for part of the way chatting freely with the men, to most of whom, he is well known, greetings of "Good old Burns!", and "How, are you, John?" being heard from tho'ranks as he passed, to all of which he' returned a cheery answer. All the afternoon. the columns moved slowly, the Engjneers keeping each intouch with the general. by means of field telegraphs- laid and: taken up with marvellous celerity as the columns moved. The cavalry mov-. : cd ahead and located the enemy's advanced . troops along the ; line of the River Wey, about Frensham and Tlmrsley, and as evening closed General ; Grierson was : - preparing a reconnaissance in force to obtain exact informa-;' tion of the enemy's position and strength to enable an attack to be made at dawn next* day. A feature of the mobilisation was the. inclusion of the R.A.M.C. Territorials in the three field ambulances, .some 600 of these troops being included in the medical units. ] .■'•'• ..'•.' "'-.-.".