Third Echelon Parades

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 38, 30 August 1940, Page 7

Third Echelon Parades

Auckland’s Impressive Tribute lof • ' ■ — _ ah! ; ■ ’ | SPLENDID BODY OF MEN M I M ——— iJ® With the swift passage of the months New Zealand’s Second S’ .ftpeditionary Force is taking shape. On Saturday, August 17th Jerblue skies and in bright sunshine Auckland saw a parade 3 Third Echelon troops who as recently as May 15th, marched .' illt o Papakura and Ngaruawahia camps .as untrained men.

"S Businesslike in Battle Dress it 111 Since all batteries and battalions ff ere uniformed in battle dress the parade was strikingly different from ’'Me of the First and Second Echelons, when all save the Forestry BatWjlion were attired in old-time service it. Battle dress gives an entirely lew appearance to a large body of ' f roops. It somehow makes them aplar more businesslike and purpose- - '■'ill. They look like fighting men. ' Most middle-aged people who saw ■to .Me parade must have regrett ed that _Mhe famous peaked hat of the New I Zealand Division is not a proper part £j] if battle dress. The jaunty service ' apis smart, but for New Zealanders . Hacks the distinctive appearance of which oiir troops were so proud in the last war. What a wealth of trafei is bound up with the old peaked • hat! Old Diggers especially must re-' mits virtual passing. Nowadays, j 'it w, the famous hat, still part I I of the general “issue,”- is worn only I I with training denims. A sad degradation for a hat which everywhere advertised the presence of this DominCl/j ons tough fighting forces in 1914-18. • Artillery, Engineers, Infantry The parade was under the command -of Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. nOtl e ' r ’ k.N.Z.A., . officer-commanding e Sixth Field Regiment, and he was "7 tended by Captain H. E. Gilbert,

R.N.Z.A. Units assembled were the Sixth Field Regiment, New Zealand Artillery, the 33rd Battery of the Seventh Anti-Tank Regiment, the Artillery Training Regiment, the 13th Railway Construction Company of the New Zealand Engineers, the 16th and 17th Railway Operating Companies of the New Zealand Engineers, the 24th (Auckland) Rifle Battalion, and the Frst Infantry Training Regiment. Prior to the addresses by military, civic and State dignitaries, all units were paraded . in mass formation, stretching the full length of the Domain oval. Bayonets were fixed by the engineer and infantry units, and officers, almost indistinguishable in battle dress, took post in review order. As the official party moved to the dais, in front of the grandstand, all ranks came to attention. The officer commanding the district Colonel N. W. McD. Weir, was received with a general salute.

To the crowds of people massed on the banks about the oval the drill movements of the troops were impressively smart. Applause marked each movement. As the engineer and infantry units came to “the present,” and afterwards sloped arms, the simultaneous smacking of many hands on buts and stocks sounded like the splashing of water in a mechanicallyoperated fountain. The precision was

admirable. Following the speeches there was a final general salute before the troops marched off. Especially striking on the march out of the Domain were the reinforcement units for the Maori Battalion now in England. Lieutenant-Colonel C. Shuttleworth’s 24th Auckland Battalion also won much admiration by their marching, bearing evidence of much skilful training and hard practice. It is a most efficient unit, of which Auckland can be proud. On the line of march most 'civilians were puzzled by the unit designation tags, but to those who could read them they were as revealing as the pugaree colours of old.