“HUSKY” SOLDIERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20130, 27 December 1939, Page 8

“HUSKY” SOLDIERS

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS NOTED AUTHOR’S TRIBUTE KEEN ON FOOTBALL LONDON. Dec. 1. References to New Zealanders are made by Major Francis Yeats-Brown in an article entitled “The British Army in the Making" in the Daily Sketch. “Here in England our preparations for war would make a fascinating story if I could write of the new weapons and new methods employed." he said. "Obviously there is much that cannot be said, but some notes on a visit to a great army training centre will till in a small corner of a big picture. ”1 happened first to meet a group of New Zealanders training as antitank gunners. A tine, husky lot they were (only.five were rejected by the medical board out of the first 200 volunteers), and they made me think of the thousands who will arrive from all parts of the Empire. All Walks of Life “These men have come from all walks of life. One was a doctor of philosophy', another a merchant seaman, another a member of the International Brigade in Spain, and a fourth a bank clerk. Now they are all in battle dress. “As you might expect, they are very keen on Rugby football in their spare time, and are quite prepared to challenge the world. But they don’t have much spare time, for they are kept hard at it from reveille at 6.30 until the black-out.

“As to their gun, which is a secret weapon, all I can say is that it makes a most unpleasant noise, a nasty sort of snort, far more penetrating to the ears than the boom of a howitzer. The shell it fires, I may safely add, is also penetrating and unpleasant. Guns Handled Like Veterans

“After less than three months’ training the New Zealanders handle their guns like veterans. Gone with the wind is the stupid old system of drill beginning, “This ’ere is the Maxim gun. mark four, and is divided in three parts for purposes of instructionwords which dug-outs like myself remember with a certain affection.

“The new army is mechanically minded from birth; it has tinkered with radios or cars all its young life. I watched the drill on a bleak barrack square that has echoed for a generation to the bark of company sergeantmajors. Now there is much less barking and much less drill, yet they spring to attention just as smartly as their predecessors did. See them bring, their guns into action; one moment it is on wheels; the next, it has collapsed like a trick bicycle in a circus and is being loaded, aimed, elevated, fired. Fired in imagination, of course.”