BOYS IN HOME GUARD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 179, 12 November 1941, Page 3

BOYS IN HOME GUARD

BRITISH YOUTHS TO BE TRAINED IN USE OF TOMMY GUNS

TREMENDOUS ASSET

Thousands of boys from 15% to 18 years of age—members of the Air Training Corps—are to be trained to handle tommy guns, Browning utomatic rifles, Lewis guns, rifles, revolvers and hand grenades as the result of a new War Office order. The boys are to> be trained by expert marksmen of the Home Guard. One officer told a Sunday Express reporter: "We are training them so that they will be sufficiently skilled to kill Germans if invasion comes." Training of the first batch has already begun at Chelsea, where Squad non 291, consisting of 140 cadets, are to be affiliated toi B Zone Home Guard under General Sir Hubert Gough. Major A. Christie, a Canadian, began showing the boys how to use a tommy gun and Browning automatic. Taught Tactics Under present instructions cadets would remove their uniforms in the event of invasion and make for their homes. "Now," one Heme Guard officer said, "I hope tliey will be drafted under my company should things Ilare up. "They will be a tremendous asset to us, for apart from the fact that we arc losing men owing to the callup, these youngsters learn quicker than my own men. "When they have finished training we shall let them use all the weapons at Bislcy. "We are not going in for blackboard lectures, but allowing the boys to handle the weapons themselves. For every three or four pupils there is one instructor. "They are also to "be taught tactics —how to cover up and save thei* lives in open land." Incidentally, after the film "Target for To-night" was shown in Chelsea 40 recruits —a record number — joined the A.T.C. that week.