VAST SHOOTING GALLERY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 100, 4 September 1942, Page 3

VAST SHOOTING GALLERY

ARMY TRAINING AREA

In the advanced training of troops plenty of open country, where the men can manoeuvre unhampered by civic restrictions, is of prime importance, particularly for 'weapon exercises with live ammunition. There is a limit to what a man can I earn on the range. To become expert with his arms the soldiers must, use them under conditions which .simulate active service as far as possible. Around New Zealand's biggest inland camp lie "many thousands of acres of tussock land, rolling downs and hills of varied contour, .scarred and pitted by nature, .and merging finally with the mountains. In this ■-•ounlry there is ample room for a'll kinds of simultaneous cxercises, from squadron shoots to brigade manoeuvres. A daj r spent on a smal'l arms shoot in this area is a stimulating experience. The butts are hidden at. unmarked ranges amid the waste of tussock and scrub. A white Hag goes up to indicate where the target will appear, and the n.c.o. in charge of each squad firing has to estimate the range, windage, etc. and instruct his men. Tt is' a team shoot, no individual scores being taken. Each hit on the target counts. The squads move at the double from point to point to take up firing positions, keeping hidden as much as possible, and (ire progressively from behind a sod wall, from a slit French, and. from natural ground cover. Gelignite is exploded near them as they lire, and at least one shoot is a snap one at, a target which appears and disappears out of the scrub at irregular intervals. Such shoots develop the sense of (ie'd-craft, the judging of distance under varying conditions, and the confident, handling of arms to a degree not possible- on the ordinary range or the parade ground.