NEW BATTLE TRAINING

Timaru Herald, Volume CLII, Issue 22371, 8 September 1942, Page 5

NEW BATTLE TRAINING

Intensive and Realistic

(7.19 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 6. A description of training in the British Army, correcting several mistaken impressions, has been issued by the War Office. Both those who place all emphasis on the training given in the special service corps—men who form the commandos—and those who insist that "commando training” is now general throughout the Army are said to be wrong. The first view is mistaken because there is as much to be said about training any Infantry as about that of the commandos. The second view is wrong because commando training is specially designed for men with a particular job to do, and therefore is not general. „ What is sure is that every unit of the field army to-day has intensive, ruthless training in the most realistic warlike conditions. In its ruggedness, in its call on a man’s powers of endurance, the training of the average infantryman is comparable to that of the commando. This grim searching training is conducted on a very large scale. All field units, infantry privates and senior officers alike, are passed through new battle training schools now established on the basis of one to every infantry division. Two particular advantages come from this system: (1) The Initiative of all troops is developed to the uttermost, and (2) the large scale exercises in which whole army corps co-operate—-every man is taught the part he will be called on to play during a battle. Exercises are full length affairs. They last several days and reproduce accurately conditions in which modern war is waged, and tanks support infantry divisions. Parachute ana glider troops come into play. Bombers, Army cooperation squadrons, and units of the Royal Navy take part, an aggressive spirit is fostered and troops are toughened by invasion practices such as cliff scaling, rock climbing, swimming rivers in full kit, and marching set distances at top speed. Infantrymen show themselves to be at home with British and foreign maps. They have to destroy anti-tank mines and barbed wire, master the arts of assault, street fighting, aircraft recognition and camouflage detection. They double round a Course bayonetting and firing at dummies hidden behind trees and bushes. Such displays of aggressiveness are often staged under realistic conditions with live shells, grenades and ammunition. The rigorous training of the infantry differs from that undergone by the men of the special service units, but the way these men stood up to the ordeal at Dieppe shoulder to shoulder with the commando troops shows that the severity of training is equal. Both seek to turn out men who will not falter or quail, however perilous their task.