MILITARY DISPLAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 161, 13 July 1946, Page 5

MILITARY DISPLAY

ARGENTINA’S ARMY. New York, July 9. For more than three hours the President ol Argentina (Colonel Peron; showed foreign Military Attaches, Diplomats, ana the Argentine people a display by units ol the Argentine army, on which 45 per cent, ot the country’s Euuget is expended, says the Buenos Aires correspondent oi the “New York Times.” It was an amazing of well-disciplined me»i, who in helmets and uniforms like the Wehrmacht’s — the result of 20 years’ training by German military missions—goosestepped and rolled past Colonel Perun, who was in the full dress uniform of an Argentine general. Tanks, jeeps, mechanised artillery, field radars, and searchlights testified to the efforts of Argentine industry to create a modern army. Attaches noted the empasis which the army, as a whole, placed upon mountain and river crossing equipment, However, it was also noted that the ii re-power of the marching units was obviously far below those on the Allied side in the recent war. The automatic arms and field pieces were too heavy, and the medium tanks had exposed tracks and other ‘defects. The rifles were out-dated and the army was under-mechanised. The display indicated that even the most advanced Latin American country was unable to attain military power by itself.