MECHANISED ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 June 1942, Page 4

MECHANISED ARMY

TRAINED IN NEW ZEALAND FORCE TO BE RECKONED WIITH. IN BATTLE FOR DEMOCRACY. In the modern march of mechanisation in the army the young New Zealand soldier is of necessity becoming more and more mechanically minded. As modern armoured fighting vehicles pour in from Britain and America andm ever growing numbers from local factories, mechanical knowledge is becoming increasingly essential. A superficial knowledge of engines such as an average private motorist possesses would not go far in an armoured fighting unit which not only has to know how to run the various vehicles under its control but know how to maintain them in the field, to keep them always at the highest pitch of efficiency. Since many New Zealand regiments swung over to light armoured fighting vehicle units practically over night, the march of mechanisation has been rapid. Focal point of much of this newly acquired knowledge has been the New Zealand Armoured Fighting Vehicle School where during the past few months thousands of young Territorials have been receiving thorough instruction in general mechanics, driving and maintenance, gunnery and wireless. In selecting students to attend the short courses at the School, preference is given men with some civilian background in mechanical work, but many of the students, raw recruits from city offices or farms, have an entirely new and absorbing subject to study. Although it is only a comparatively short time since mechanised units were established throughout, the Dominion, progress has been little short of phenomenal. Commanding officers of the various L.A.F.V. Regiments in the Dominion recently visited the N.Z.A.F.V. School for a conference and inspection. Although they had set aside only half a day for an inspection of the school, they spent just on two days in visiting the different instructional wings, studying training methods and examining the School’s valuable equipment. All expressed the keenest gratification for the work being done at the school, for the excellence of the instructional methods and for the general enthusiasm of both instructors and students, During their inspection they saw men from their own regiments, representative of every district in the Dominion, studying in class-rooms or doing practical work in the field, The visiting commanding officers left the school impressed with the fact that their men were receiving a thorough grounding in theory and practice. The students, usually after a sixweeks’ course at the school, return to their units with a background of specialised knowledge which they are able to pass on to others who have been unable to attend the courses. With more and more equipment coming to hand, such men are invaluable to their units many of which were cavalry and infantry regiments before the trend of modern warfare and the Japanese threat made the change to mechanisation inevitable. With the speed-up of production programmes and the removal of the handicap of inadequate equipment, students who have recently returned to their home units have had ample opportunity to make the most of their newly acquired knowledge. With the information they now possess, Territorial units are in a position to put their mechanical equipment to the greatest possible use, to add their strength more effectively to the Dominion’s defences. New Zealand’s mechanised army is young, but with the fully trained Ist New Zealand Army Tank Brigade and its powerful British tanks as its nucleus, it has become a force to be reckoned with in the battle for democracy. The New Zealand Armoured Fighting Vehicle School, whose Middle East instructors trained the men of the Tank Brigade and which has the distinction of being the first unit in the Dominion, to be equipped with modern tanks,_ is doing a great job of work in equipping New Zealand armoured vehicle units with that knowledge that well spell the difference between defeat and victory when the testing time comes.