NEW ZEALAND COLLEGE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22478, 13 January 1943, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND COLLEGE

Army Staff Training

Work At Palmerston North

In the opinion of officers who have served overseas in this war and the last and who have attended tactical and staff colleges in England and the Middle East, the New Zealand Staff College at Palmerston North will hold its own with any of them. This happy achievement is the result of 14 months of very hard work put into the courses by the directing staff since the college was opened in November last year. The staff was told then by the Chief of the General Staff, Lieut.-General E. Puttick, C. 8., D. 5.0., that the work would make heavy demands on their energy and enthusiasm, application, knowledge and judgment and would involve endless study and research. That has been proved true and the break which some of the staff are having this Christmas is the first of more than two or three days since then.

When Colonel V. F. S. Hawkins, M.C., of the Lancashire Fusiliers, was brought to New Zealand he was given the twin objective of training senior officers to command units and staff officers for brigades and higher formations. However good New Zealand’s home defence army may have been in actual and potential commanding officers, there was a great lack of staff officers, the effects of which were felt in the general mobilisation last December. That lack has now largely been overcome. So far there have been two senior officers courses each of seven weeks, two courses for staff officers of three and half months each and one short course for junior staff officers. This last course will be repeated with a sec-' ond group of junior officers and the best of the two courses will go back to the college to go a further nine weeks study. System of Study The system of study pursued at the college is new to the New Zealand services. Students are divided into syndicates, each of which is under a member of the directing staff. After individual study of a problem or phase of war, administrative or tactical, the discussion is by syndicates. Here each member contributes to the pool of knowledge all he has acquired on the subject, questions are asked and the problem is thoroughly surveyed. Since each syndicate has a quota of officers from every branch of the service, it can be taken that the solutions are those which will stand the test of war. Most of the students who have passed through the college agree that it is in these syndicate or tutorial discussions that most is learned. On the larger problems there are often central discussions in which the syndicates come together to throw into this further pool the opinions which they have formed. After sound theory lias been formed, all go into the field to test in practice what has been learned in the discussions. War as it could occur in New Zealand is the basis of all study. It is recognised at the college that in some respects this Dominion presents unique problems. The sparsity of parallel roads is one and the roughness of the country is another. Both affect the use of motor transport and of armoured fighting vehicles. But the problems are also studied in the light of actual experience in war as it is now being conducted in Europe, North Africa and the East Indies and the Pacific. Graduates thus should take back to their units and formations up-to-the-minute knowledge of modern war plus a sound military background. Study is not confined solely to armv problems. On the original staff, Wing Commander J. G. Fraser, R.A.F., set a standard for co-operation between the Army and the Air Force. Staff courses have been attended by Air Force officers who have contributed to the knowledge of army officers and in turn have learned the army approach to the air. Tile college is now commanded by Colonel H. E. Fernyhough, Royal Artillery. who succeeded Colonel Hawkins on the latter’s appointment to a brigade in India.