BAYONET FIGHTERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 51, 23 November 1917, Page 6

BAYONET FIGHTERS

REALISTIC WORK 1 AT TKENTHAM

BAYONETING THE PRUSSIAN GUARD An interesting and instructive display of physical training exercises and bayonet fighting was given at Trentham yesterday afternoon by an n.c.o. class, numbering 52 men, who have beon under training in the new system for about five weeks. The display was witnessed by Sir James Allen, MajorGeneral Sir Alfred Robin', Colonel C. M. Gibbon, 1.G.5., Colonel Tait, and other headciuarters officers, as well as Colonel H.*R. Potter, C.M.G., Camp Commandant, Major F. H. Lampen, D.5.0., Camp Adjutant, Major F. Waite, D.5.0., and other camp officers. The physical training portion of tho work was carried ojit at the racecourse,, and included all the iatest military exercises of this kind, the instruction hi which has been carried out under Captain A. W. Brocks, M.C., Worcester Regiment and Army Gymnastics. These were gone through by the class in a manner which showed that they had profited by the teaching of Captain Brocks and Lieutenant Galloway, Assistant Bayonet Instructor at Tronthain. The second item on the programme was a bayonet fighting display under conditions identical with tboso prevailing on tho Western front. After a few preliminary turns in the way of hand-to-hand encounters, showing how an enemy may bo disabled and disarmed, the performers in tho mimio battle took their places at the new trenches which have beon specially made for this work.

Formerly the bayonet work at Trentham included olass-work and a more or less realistic bout though at swinging sacks suspended from gallows. This has now been extended considerably. The Engineers, under Lieutenant Ross, M.M., have made a realistic and cleverly designed set of communication trenches, leading to a back-lino trench. It was in this combined arrangement of trenches thnt tho really exciting part of the afternoon's work was carried out. Each team of attackers consisted of twelve men: They wore fighting kit, and were to advance from an assembly trench and assault a number of enemy lines, clear communication trenches and dug-outs and shell craters. The work was. carried out in a most realistic fashion. At the signal, the attackers leaped out of the assembly trench and advanced at a steady trot towards a. line of Prussian Guards—really painted sacks suspended from a gallows. They these unresisting foemen, and then rushed in to the communication trenches. In this manoeuvre two men jumped into each trench and two continued on above ground between the trenches, and bayoneted recumbent enemies whom they came upon. The actions of the men in the communication trenches were most interesting. They expected to meet enemy troops in dug-outs and around corners. So they advanced cautiously, and on espying the still forms of Germans in the dug-outs, rushed forward 'and stabbed them vehemently.

All this time tho enemy, represented by another squad of troops, was firing from the back line trenches whenever there was a sign of an attacker above ground. In some cases, even after the shell craters had beon reached, this fusillade continued, and the instructor repoatedly exclaimed: "Someone's head or bayonet is showing above ground. Keep low!" From the shelj-orater, after every enemy had been disposed of, the troops charged on to meet a line of Bavarians, all wearing the Iron Cross. These were quickly dealt with, and then the attaok rushed on to the trench from which the firing was being carried out. "Down! Down!" was the order to those troops, and the attackers leaped over tfiem, and, kneeling in the lire position, took aim at figures in tho distance -which were supposed to represent the enemy. Team after team carried out this attack, whioh was all the more realistic by the fact that the defenders' tranches were modelled exactly upon those of the Gorman Army. So that a soldier who has imbibed thoroughly the traininc; of the instructors at Trentlnra would feel at home in the trenoh fighting in Franco or Flanders.