SHOOT! SHOOT!

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 48, 7 August 1915, Page 3

SHOOT! SHOOT!

And Shoot Again!

THE only man of the New Zealand forces who lias bothered to mention that a rifle is not merely a thing to hang; a bayonet on -or to break a skull with is Captain J. A. 'Walmgford, the world-famed small arms expert, andl the advice he gives, "Teach the boys to shoot and to shoot and to shoot again," is more valuable than anything _ that has been said in connection with the de.eperate game the flower of our manhood iis playing in Gallipoli. Every phase of the training given to re•cruits at mobilisation camps in New .Zealand! has been done and overdone. Dozens of special articles expressing admiration of the physique of the soldiers, of their "soldierlike" appearance, of "steadiness on parade," .and all the rest of the dear old drivel has been covered innumerable times, to which the rifle expert retorts, -without knowing it is a retort, "There is no drill in the actual killing." It was not necessary for the Turks who sniped so many of our best officers to have known the first -thing about 'forming fours," or even the combination of jui-jitsu and bayonet drill which forms so admirable a spectacle. A colonel is just as dead -when he's shot by a cross-eyed Turkish boy as if the slayer was a magnificent "member of the Sultan's 'corps <Telite.' "

The vast majority of the New Zealand troops who are flocking to the colours lhave ihad no experience of rifle-shooting. An infantryman is sent to fight because he has a rifle. Daeh and 1 heroism are all very well, but a live marksman is of more service than a battalion of dead heroes. The authorities who teach recruits xc to cs!hoot and to shoot and to shoot again" are saving lives . The soldier is- mot looking, for the reward! of a tombstone for his services. His utility is gauged by the length of time Tie can remain uninjured. Soldiers ■on sick leave from Trentham have been rather surprised to be asked if they hiad been made marksmen as part of the "gruelling." "Have you bad plenty of shooting?" "Oh, yes —on the miniature range with Morris tubes." It's like trying to take a telerfioto view with, a cigar box -camera, or running a long distance liandicap in a dinimgroom. "The Turk's head" has a new significance, for it is a real Turk's 'head. It is perhaps sticking up at 500 yards. Therefore learn to hit it by firing along a 25 yards funnel.

The point to be made is that the 'Country is full of rifle ranges, and that every bind of country that can be met with on the long, long road to Constantinople can be met witih in New Zealand. Centralisation. _ of troops is abominably wrong. It is a presiumption thai all the operations they are to be engaged' in in real -warfare will take place in known surroundings with fixed physical features. The man who is a black and

white (or even khaki) target shot on ground familiar to him is not necessarily a good shot with a rifle in Gallipoli, the vital difference being that no one is trying to snipe him. Mothers of boys who are to form targets for expert snipers are perhaps entitled to know exactly what proSortion of passed' marksmen the rafts of recruits being sent forward contain. If it is true that civilian recruits who have never fired a rifle have actually returned to their homes on leave without having fired a shot it is perhaps time General Robin or Colonel Allen, or any other politician who helps control the army should make drastic alterations. If it is necessary to instruct recruits daily in spectacular field movements of which their lethal airms are not a part, it seems vitally necessary to assiduously teach them the use or the rifle on which their lives absolutely depend.

The lack of adequate training in shooting is the best argument for decentralisation of training camps. Auckland has rifle ranges, Dunedm has rifle ranges, and Christ church has rifle ranges. After all, this soldiering is not a. political game or a plaything for ministers 1 . It is a business which is killing thousand's! of mothers' sons. It is immaterial to shout about the "race of giants" or become soggy with sentiment about ' 'steadiness on parade.'' There is no parade in the trenches of GaUipoh, but there is shooting and shooting and still more shooting,, and the reason of the shooting is to kill Turks. They are shooting in Gallipoli most of the time, and not on an odd fine afternoon to amuse themselves. When you next drop across 1 a soldier on leave from the training camp ask him 'how many rounds he has fired out of his rifle, ask him where he fired tlhem, and if he has been passed as an effective rifle shot or "marksmani." Also ask him who dent him the rifle. This is not the time for carping, but it is the time for shooting, and the people should be told whether every soldier now in training is bound to use (his rifle (for shooting) every day during his probation in the camps. Every officer, every non-com., every man, every mother and father and sister should echo Wallingford's advice until at last it gets" to the ears .of the authorities— "Teach the boys to shoot and to siboot and to shoot again."