A NEW SCHEME

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 150, 27 November 1942, Page 2

A NEW SCHEME

Pass this 3-day course, and you’ll make an officer

(From the “Daily Mirror.”)

A new War Office scheme is designed to ensure that no incompetent will ever wear “pips” on the shoulders of his tunic. . ; Under the . scheme, specially appointed officers will travel from unit to unit searching for likely material. Any man selected by .this “mobile board” will be sent on a three days’ course, during which he will do everything he has dreamed of doing since joining the Army. He will eat at the same table as his colonel; he will find himself in sole command of a party attacking “enemy headquarters”; and he will undergo the toughest test of brain and muscle power ‘ the Army could devise. It is all part of the new O.C.T.U. selection system. In the old days, a soldier recommended for a commission went before a Board. For fifteen minutes they questioned him, probed into his . capabilities, weighed up his mental ability. Now the fifteen minutes has spread into three days. And it doesn’t stop at questions.. : Instead of. being asked to explain something jn theory, a bank clerk—without any experience of scaffolding workmay be asked to bridge a deep ravine. All the materials are there, just as they would be in the field. And if he is the new “right type,” he’ll do. it. Recently I visited the headquarters of . one of nine new selection boards in this country. It is here the men live for the three days. From written and verbal tests . set by psychiatrists, to an obstacle run —which would make a Commando wince — the candidates experience every form of trial. If you pass the obstacle test, you would lead men

- anywhere And the bridging test is 1 just as tough. : As it is impossible to use the . last war system of nominating a man for - training because of good conduct un- ; der fire, the selection board do the . next best thing. > And it is proving a success. The ’ system was based originally on the ■ German system of Tests, but this > proved too involved, and took far too much time. • " ; So they switched to the American ; system which came into use in the • last World War. i Any man may find himself nomin- ; atad for the course. Listen to the President of the Selection Board: , “The boy who leaves school at fourteen, and; who— sheer ability — is • selected as a potential officer, may be i! far more useful to us than the man ■ who was born with a silver spoon in • his mouth.” To prove it ... A number of men . were selected from a unit, and detailed to put on a special show for newspapermen visiting the board. One . of the “guinea-pigs” was so smart, that he may be put forward as candidate for O.C.T.U. training. While they are at the board’s headquarters, the men are told to forget rank. They wear a yellow armlet bearing a number. They are known by that number, irrespective of rank. They mix freely with the officers, living in the same mess. ; I met some of them. Most of them ( are. just boys caught up in the war • and anxious to: do a good job. But • one or two have stories to tell. , When the Army’s queerest three 1 days are over, those who have passed ( E still have to go through an Officers’ i Cadet Training Unit. x L