TERRITORIAL TRAINING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 225, 17 June 1919, Page 5

TERRITORIAL TRAINING

THE SYLLABUS AND THE WAR,

A new syllabus of Territorial training, embodying the lessons of the war, will be required in isw Zealand, but no action will 1m taken in this direction lor eoino time lo come. It is anticipated that when demobilisation of the Expeditionary Force has been completed, and ail senior officers have returned to the Dominion, a conference will be called by Headquarters to discuss training in the light of war experience. The recommendations of this conference may be the basis of the new syllabus, but in any case questions of policy will require to be decided by ! the Government that holds office after the next general election. The application of the lessons of the war will not necessitate radical changes in training methods. The highest military authorities are of opinion that the principles governing the pre-war training in New Zealand and other portions of the British Empire were sound. This point has been emphasised by .Marshal 'Sir Douglas in his final dispatch, covering the closing phases of the campaign. In the early days of trench warfare there was a rapid development of new weapons, including bombs, bombthrowers, trench mortars, clubs, daggers, and gas. The rifle was neglected, and even 1 the machine-gun received less than its proper share of attention. Enthusiastic specialists worked on the assumption that trench fighting was an established condition, and that the older training had become out-of-date. "Then, followed the experience of the Battle of the Somme, which showed that the principles of our pre-war training were as sound as ever," wrote Sir Douglas Haig. "That autumn a. revival of old methods was inaugurated. Musketry shooting was everywhere carried out, and bayonet fighting was taught as thu.really certain way of gaining supremacy in hand-to-hand fighting. At the same time the greatest care was devoted to nrtilleVy shooting, as well as to the training nf' all arms for .open fighting. The events of the next two years fully confirmed the lessons, drawn from the Battle of the Somme. In short, the longer the war has lasted tho more emphatically has it been realised that our original organisation and training were based on correct principles. The danger of altering them too much, to deal with some .temporary phase, has been greater than the risk of adjusting them too little." It is taken for granted in military circles that the bomb and the trench mnrtnr will survive as military weapons. Their use was developed on scientific lines during the war, and their worth against nh entrenched enemy was proved. Bombing and mortar sections are likely to be attached to.units and trained in their own branches as j.art of the peace establishment. Machine-gun training will be more extensive, and also more intensive thnn if was before the war. The infantry will remain the backbone of the defence forces, and effort will be ninde to raise the standard of rifle-shoot-ing. The new bayonet fighting, which is a revelation to old-time soldiers, certainly will remain a part of the training in 'this country as well as in Britain. The bayonet is tho decisive weapon.

The lessons of the war in relation to artillery training are being worked out by experts. The principles governing it remain, unchanged, and speed and accuracy .' are still the factors of success. Hut artillerymen will be required to gain more technical knowledge than was considered necessary before the war. They have learned that only under very favourable conditions can they hone to use open sights and direct aim. The gunnery officer must be a mathematician, and his men must understand his methods. Tho guns have been linked to tlio aeroplane, the observation balloon and the field telephone, and theso factors have to enter into (he new gunnery training. Tho chief question of policy for the Government to decide is that covered bv the'suggestion of the Minister of Defence that instead of n series of evening and daylight parades, with a week annually in camp. Territorials should enter a camp at the age of eighteen years, and receive four months' intensive training. This training, following the Senior Cadet course, would produce, it is claimed, soldiers approximately as efficient and ns fit as the'men who left New Zealand with the reinforcements during tho war. The military view is that Ibis arrangement would' economise staff and equipment, and at the same time produce better results than the present arrangement of many short drills scattered over a series of years can possibly do.