TRAINING TANK MEN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 7, 23 January 1942, Page 5

TRAINING TANK MEN

SOLDIER STUDENTS AT WAIOURU

VARIED INSTRUCTION

Soldier students marching into class-rooms, sitting at desks and following intricate diagrams on blackboards is daily routine at the New Zealand Armoured Fighting Vehicle School, Waiouru military camp, but to the average citizen of New Zealand such a sight would provide a very real indication of the increasingly important part being played by scientific teaching in the training of the country's fighting forces. The Armoured Fighting Vehicle School is fulfilling a major role in the training of New Zealand's Ist Army Tank Brigade. The lessons provided for the officers and n.c.o.'s of'the brigade are not merely theoretical but are based for the main part on information derived from the fighting in the Western Desert and in Greece. The instructors are mainly sergeants who returned from the Middle East last year for the particular jiurpose of training men in tank warfare.

The school is splendidly equipped and. in this respect equali to the older established schools of the same type in other parts, of the Empire. Much of the equipment has been made at the school itself, but workshops and factories throughout the Dominion have responded magnificently to provide and lend various models. One of the highly prized possessions of the school, for instance, is an exhibition model of a tank diesel engine. The school itself is divided into four wings technical, wireless, gunnery, and driving and maintenance wings.

Numiber of Bren Gun Carriers The- New Zealand Ist Army Tank Brigade, which is representative ot the three military districts, is rapidly being forged into an efficient fighting unit. The recent arrival of more Valentine tanks has facilitated training, for it has given the men even greater opportunity to obtain practical experience with, these up-to-the-minute infantry tanks. The large number of Bren gun carriers at the- camp lends further emphasis to the claim that the Tank Brigade has at its command the latest and best in modern fighting equipment for training purposes. Although the.' men of the Tank Brigade have had little over two. months' training their efficiency to-day is sufficient indication that the brigade will cover itself with distinction and add lustre to the Dominion's name when the time 1 comes for it to go into action.. Much of the instructional work at the school, of course, centres on the Valentine tanks. While- details of the tanks are necessarily a military secret, it is sufficient to say that they are among the most modern in the world. The A.F.V. students are made thoroughly acquainted with every detail of these deadly weapons of current warfare and can gain almost as much practical experience of tank fighting as they would in the front line of battle. Informative lectures dealing with the lessons learned in Greece and the Western Desert are given with the assistance of loud speaker equipment in the big camp cinema. A modern "talkie" machine with special films is a further means of instructing the students, and a further indication of the completeness of the equipment possessed by the school.

Wireless' Communication

Wireless plays a very important part as a means of inter-communi-cation in tank warfare 1 , antl in -the wireless wing of the school the students receive a very thorough training in this vital branch. In the Western Desert and in Greece efficient radio communication often spelt the difference between success and failure. All members of a tank crew must be conversant with the radio communication system and efficiency in this aspect of tank training is absolutely essential. Even to the layman the valu'e of an expert knowledge of gunnery in tank warfare is obvious. In the A.F.V. School the students are taught gunnery indoors, model gun turrets similar to those used on the tanks being used for the purpose. A pellet range to be installed later will provide further opportunities for gunnery practice. In an armoured vehicle unit the men must have an appreciation of the functions and mechanism of the various vehicles under their control. In the Technical Wing such an appreciation is readily obtained by the students, for there they are carefully instructed (Continued in next column)