The Rome Guard

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21533, 23 September 1941, Page 2

The Rome Guard

Conducted by Ajax.

PARADE TIMES

The usual weekly parade will be held at Rugby Park on Sunday next at 8.55 a.m. sharp. There will be no map reading class this week.

N.C.O’s. will parade as usual on Thursday evening next.

Home Guard Play The three-act play "The Home Guard” is to be staged in the Theatre Royal on September 29 and 30 and October 1. All Home Guardsmen who have not already done so are respectfully requested to hand in their proceeds and all unsold tickets to their platoon commanders on Sunday next.

Judging Distance and Indication of Target A few minutes’ wait before going on to the range for shooting on Sunday last was taken advantage of by Lieutenant Clouston and his men of No. 15 platoon to try their skill at judging distance and indicating the target. Although some wide discrepances occurred in the estimation of distance it was good to see a few minutes’ intermission taken advantage of in such a sensible and profitable way. (See pages 43 to 48 in your instruction book.) Further Practical Work

| Taking full advantage of the perfect weather conditions, all comj panies of the Hamilton Battalion .were allotted useful practical exerI cises on Sunday morning. Transport • was available for all companies, and , they were taken to various farms j handy to Hamilton, where they un- ' dertook “ stunts ” arranged by the j company commanders. Included in j ! the syllabus were trench-digging, 1 laying land-mines, attempts to pre- * vent tanks—represented by the transport lorries—from reaching certain objectives, scouting and many other phases of guerilla warfare. Pressing the Trigger Even when the command “ rapid fire” is given, the trigger should not be pressed until the sights are in alignment on the target and the rifle is held steady. One accurate shot is worth any number blazed I away in mere enthusiasm. Firing is j done by advancing the fore-finger of the right hand round the lower part i of the trigger, so that the first joint presses it back and slightly upward, j On most rifles it will be found that ! the trigger has a double pull; the first | pressure has no apparent effect. After j that, a lesser resistance will be met i with, and when that is overcome the 1 striker is released, the cartridge exj ploded, and the bullet leaves the j barrel. The correct method of press- ' ing the trigger is described as j “ squeezing it should be a firm, ! decisive movement but without any | jerking which might upset the aim. i It can be thought of as closing the ' forefinger in to join the rest of the fist. The first pull should be applied while the sight are being aligned on the target, and the second as soon as the rifleman is sure he has obtained a steady aim on the object he desires to hit. The breath should be held during the act of pressing the trigger, , but after breathing out, not in. ! Distance Judging and Fire Orders j It will be found that most untrained ■ men are unable to judge distances 1 with accuracy or consistency. Practice and the checking of estimates is the only way to reduce the margin of error. Probably the best way is to teach every man what a hundred yards stretch straight in front of him looks like in different landscapes, and how a further hundred yards, and then another, is foreshortened by perspective. He should also learn the apparent size of a man, standing, kneeling or lying prone, at different range up to a mile. With this as a basis he can use one of two methods of estimating any given distance. He can put a maximum and a minimum estimate on it (and if possible take other men’s opinion) and then stsike a balance between them. Or he can fix his eye on what he takes to be the half-way point "and then estimate the distance between that point and himself, not forgetting afterwards to double the result. Objects are likely to seem nearer than they actually are in very clear weather with high clouds or none at all, when snow is lying, and when the observer has the sun behind him or is looking over a lake or a plain or a deep valley. Objects are likely to seem farther away than they really are in misty or heathazy weather, when they stand in shade on a sunny day or are difficult to pick out of the background, and when the observer is himself placed below normal eye level from a standing position.