DEER THE ENEMY

Evening Star, Issue 24333, 23 October 1942, Page 4

DEER THE ENEMY

TROOPS IN HIGH COUNTRY USEFUL DUAL PURPOSE (P ; A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 2|J. Practical training iu bush and mountain warfare for grade 1 personnel in the New Zealand Territorial Forces has now begun, said the Minister of Defence to-day. Composite companies from certain brigade groups have set out during the hist few days into nearby hack country, where they are .combining tactical exercises with deer extermination. Armed with rifles and light machine guns, the men will treat the deer in every respect as if tney were enemy troops. Mr Jones said that although the troops were assisting the deer destruction branch of the Internal Affairs Department, the operations were in no sense an uncontrolled sporting venture, and the companies were operating strictly as military units. The type of fighting developed by the Japanese clearly indicated the need for still greater insistence on this phase of training by our forces, said the Minister, and New Zealand, troops must be taught to live, travel, and fight in the hush and among mountains and hills. This was the main object of tbe new train-

nig, Preliminary reports, he said, indicated satisfactory progress and that the troops were thoroughly enjoying their Spartan life in the high country. A number of former Internal Affairs Department officers now in the Army iiad been selected for duty with the composite companies as advisers, instructors, and organisers. One was with each company, and held the appointment of company sergeant-major. . Only physically fit men had been selected for this strenuous training, and all units were put through a special hardening course before being sent out. The new scheme aimed at introducing a<} many troops as possible to this form of training. Mr Jones denied suggestions that Army training hitherto had failed to provide instruction in so-called jungle' warfare, adding that the companies now out in the back country were really,putting into practice the fieldcraft training they had already been taught in the training camps.