WELL PREPARED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 11, 8 October 1943, Page 5

WELL PREPARED

N,Z. Troops’ Secret Training MEETING JAPANESE (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) SOUTH PACIFIC BASE.

Secretly trained in amphibious warfare a few weeks 'before they went into a combat zone, soldiers of the 3rd (New Zealand) Division met the Japanese as fully prepared for all types of island warfare as any troops the enemy has yet ha'd to meet. Only now that the issue has been joined is it possible to reveal the nature ot the training undertaken by the New landers, for while the division .was officially classified as a Pacific garrison force security dictated that there should bno mention of the fact that all recent preparations had been for offensive, and not defensive, action. Had it been ptnerwise the element of surprise which it was hoped to achieve in the New Zealanders’ first move would have been All previous attacks on Japanese-heid ' islands had been launched by shock troops of the United States forces, and it can be assumed that the Japanese had at no time expected the New Zealanders. to adopt a similar role. To the enemy, just as to the Dominion public, this division was in the Pacific to police strategic outposts and stepping-stones in the long line of Allied communications. In fact, all the divisions early training pointed that way. Camps were widely dispersed in New Caledonia to cover as many danger points as the size ot the force would allow. Unit exercises on a small scale included reconnaissance work by selected parties of intelligence personnel seeking to familiarize themselves with the country and -to map trails through the mountains and bush. Parties of platoon and company strength roughed it for 10 days and more at a time in. preparation for route marches and battalion exercises, lheu the battalions went into the wilderness, with artillery, engineer, signal and A.B.C. personnel, all of whom had done their preliminary and routine training! m scattered areas. Co-operation Tested. To all but the highest divisional officers the training had no bearing on anything but static warfare. River crossings were as applicable to defence as to offence. So was the practice of unarmed combat. Brigade manoeuvres under divisional control tested the co-operation ot all arms without revealing the true object of the training. Yet in reality these were the essential preliminaries to the offensive bias of amphibious exercises on which the Nexv Zealanders started during July. Coincident with an announcement by the divisional commander that “plans were being made to employ the division in an' active role,” selected units underwent a fortnight’s strenuous landing practice which showed an amazing standard of efficiency and an ability to learn that - impressed senior officers who attended as observers.

Life on board the transport was refreshing and interesting, a marked change from what the men had been used to. Those landing craft, that sped between ship and shore carried troops who had found a new interest in their task. Willing at last to believe that their, chance was coming, they stepped out with an energy and drive that were eye-openers. The transport yielded its cargo of guns, ammunition, rations, and motor vehicles to- willing soldiers whose competent handling of their first introduction to amphibious training equalled that of tlie best Allied troops and paved the way for the drive against Tojo's men.