YOUNG OFFICERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 308, 31 December 1942, Page 3

YOUNG OFFICERS

THE ARTILLERY SCHOOL COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING. Wellington, Dec. 30. Since il first started full-scale operations, in the early months of this year, the New Zealand Artillery School of Instruction has produced just on a thousand officers. In view of the' comprehensive nature of the training, and the stiff practical and academic, standard set for young officers, this re-' cord is a groat tribute to the school’s: instructors. At present the school has reverted to its function of providing refresher courses for officers and noncommissioned officers in all its branches of instruction the field artillery wing, the coastal defence wing, (he anti-aircraft wing, and the radio-location wing. Officer training is still going on, but not with the same degree of intensity now that the early shortage of officers has ben overtaken. Candidates for the school are carefully chosen before they are allowed to start on the course The Standard Set. 'Tlie standard set at the school is that for a young officer going out to his first appointment. There are some who do not make the grade. Any candidate who is found lacking in the qualities required in an officer is relegated to the ranks, while others who are backward may be given a further short special course, or carried forward to the next course, and if they still fail to measure up they come before a selection board and return to their units with various recommendations as to their special aptitudes. The percentage of failures is very small. The commandant of the school is Lt.-Col E. R. Winkler, who has a staff of 50 instructors and more than a hundred other ranks, including some men who have recently returned from active service overseas. The instructors include a sprinkling of Royal Artillery personnel on loan from the British' War Office. Employment of Women. A feature of the staff is the large number of women employed. The School of Artillery was the first unit to make use of the W.A.A.C.’s in anything like substantial numbers, and there are now 120. They are doing a great job in whalever capacity they might be used—clerical work, accounting, shorthand-typing, stores, librarians, cooks, waitresses, pay office, and car and truck driving. They are keen, alert, and capable, and they seem very contented with the work and condilions. Women are also used very considerably in the field of radio location, for wffiich highlyspecialised training is needed. At one time shortage of equipment was a serious handicap to the training of officers, but this has been remedied and the school now has at its disposal all types of modern equipment. There are also many current types of foreign equipment in the use of which the men are I rained. A new r departure in the training schedule has been a special course for instructing infantrv officers to act as "unners and as anti-tank battery commanders. An Intelligence Section. The school will shortly have attached to it an intelligence and information section, which promises to fulfil an extremely useful purpose in keeping trainees abreast of current affairs and developments. It will be narl of the intelligence officers’ function to prepare for the information of students a helpful summary of pertinent and up-to-date information on outside doings as a supplementary feature of their training. He will also cull official intelligence, training manuals. administrative instructions, and so on, for submission to the various wings. As the scheme is developed, it is hoped to extend it individually to each of the four wings of the school.