THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 91, 14 August 1942, Page 3

THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

NEW ZEALAND ARMY

GLIMPSES OF VARIOUS ARMS AND SERVICES Military activities in a typical brigade group area are dealt with in this and a previous article "written to give the general public some idea of the army at work. The area, which happens to be in the South Island, "was visited by the writer with a party of press photographers. There was an afternoon appointment with the howitzer battery which was out practising the occur pation of and withdrawal from gun positions. The. difficulty experienced in finding the battery, though a specific locality ha«J been named, was an interesting object lesson in the use of camouflage combined with a knowledge of how to take full advantage of natural cover. It was not thought that several howitzers definitely in the "big fellow" class, together with their large and powerful attendant lorries, could be difficult to find, but so it proved. After a fruitless drive up and down the section of road indicated, the battery was at last spotted only about two hundred yards from the highway. Convenient clumps of bircli trees had been made us of to shelter the guns from aerial observation and they had been further hidden by camouflage nets toning in with the surroundings. The motor transport vehicles were also effectively screened by trees. Two gun crews demonstrated how their guns go into action in open positions. They moved with a sneed and precision only attainable through intensive training. Within a matter of seconds the big lorries towed the guns into place and then moved off to take cover while the gun crews made ready to lire. Camouflage nets were erected in a twinkling, trails were heaved into position and embedded, and the crew then formed up at the rear of each gun waiting the command "take post. : ' There is keen and friendly rivalry between the respective crews as each vie with the other to complete a particular j-ob. The units mentioned are only some of the centres of activity in a brigade group. The engineers, with their bridge building and folding boat equipment, explosives and other apparatus for demolitions and various kinds of constructional work, form another biii organisation. There is also a fully equipped brigade signals section attached to Brigade Headquarters, which, in addition to training hard for battle conditions., is responsible for operating and maintaining continuous internal com munications within the brigade and is also a link in the Army signal system throughout the Dominion. The vital task of providing the Arnw with supplies of food, ammunition and petrol is the particular job of the Army Service Corps, and each brigade, therefore, has its composite A.S.C. unit —Ammunition Sec tion, Supply Section, Petrol Section and Workshops Section. In addition there is a Reserve Mechanical Transpart Company. Large scale use of motor vehicles obviously calls for adequate facilities for maintenance and repairs. Most of this, is carried out by Light Aid Detachments, but vehicles are. sent back to Divisional Workshops when major repairs arc required. The busy scene sketched here gives little more than a hint of the complex task involved in building and maintaining an efficient war machine. However, it may serve to showthat New Zealand's military leaders are fully developing the county's powerful lighting resources.

JAPANESE IN CHINA | HIGHEST OFFICERS OF STATE EVERY POSITION FILLED Japanese in China Sill every posiLion , from the highest off ices ot j>iate to those -of mere peddlers of kniek-nacks, taxi drivers. railway clerks and sellers of opium. They do not rule, they occupy; they do not tax, they expropriate; lliev do not compromise, they terrorise: they do not respect native culture, they ram their own mystical rubbish down the throats of people far more civilised than themselves. —From "America in the New Pacific," 1 by G. E. Taylor.