SMALL ARMS SCHOOL

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1929, Page 2

SMALL ARMS SCHOOL

" INSTRIJC7riOISr. AT’iTR^TtiAM/J 1 ;. - interesting:' exhibits:' ; ; ■ SEEING THE INNER, WORDINGS. (By R.G.W. in . “Dominion.”) p... Acting on the. idea that the. (ye is a better.mediiim of ooriveyipg understanding than ,the! ear, the Defence authorities '' have endeavoured' in the exhibition sectipn of the. Small Arms School of Instruction at Trcn» tham military camp modelled tan that existing at Hythe,. England,: to give their trainees a deeper insight into the nature and uses, of war materdais than any' text-book could, adequately convey. ■ ' Entering the hutment in .which the collection is housed/the visitor passes first into that portion devoted p* arily to machine-guns and. light mv tomatics. Here arei Hotchkiss and LeVis guns, sohio folly.-os* sembled, while in others,. used to det monstrate the intricate. , inner W'ot’kj ingS, all the surplua extei'.or. casing has been cut away, .So thet men un-. dergoing instruction are able to understand the mechanism far. better than would, other Vi so be the ! tiasei Npr are the Webley, pistol, !. and the hand' and rifle end the walls ofeWy' atpry diagrams; of 'the s iSmaH; ,4 rl Pi .kept f in sighjt—t^ ; e faaohinjjt-Vof effective use thtf• tpf -< weapon,' THE NEW Gab MASK. Here, too, those who' pass through are instructed 1 in 'the- Use Of. the gas mask, the' latest pattern of ; uhi c %»s designed i to fit 80 per ceift of and equipped .with a chemical cyliilj der which purifiesVall known':, gases. This mask is a striking lniprpyeiijeilt on the war-time; equipment returned soldiers will rpinemtysr.. so well. Van* ished is the .ofiemouth-tube and nose-clip, withi’.ytne; .'.thin, easily penetrable fabric jof the did days. and* instead there is perfect, freedom of breathing. The used- air is exhaled simply and natujrp]ly through a patent slit rubber valve on the shout-, ish-looking lower portion,-;pfthe helmet. Air •inletS'iround the - glass eye-pieces ensure . 1 that ’these-' '.snail' pot become obscured by. moisture. Adjustable elastic bands hold:-the mask tightly in place?, and 'the rubberlined, strongly .made .fabric - of > the mask itself is even capable, of being washed. ■ ? \ 11 *' :•

NIGHT FIRING TRAINING. ' •' ■ ; ‘•-p-iir‘V'w:»*'<.•" 'ri 1 1 Night and indirect-firing equipment for the machine-guns is demonstrated here before actual practices are car. ried out, and trainees arp, shown the uses of aiming clinometers. In operation for night' firing both , the position of the gun!s' tripod and .of the tiny illuminated, bull’s-eye known as the aiming lamp are pegged out during the day,., and the range and, angle of .inclination secured. All the .gunner .haslto do jit the darkness, is to set up his the spot selected, align hii ' -sights with the hapdy , little clinometer on /td the aiming lamp (which; is from the front) and bla?e away! ' In the second section of the school there is much to interest the,'casual visitor, apart from the military man,, although the latter is able ’to see in several carefully arranged collections the progress of. the cartridge and the shell, both of them solid-drawn from discs of brass and carefully .annealed through each of the successive stages. He can see a bullet similarly transformed from a circle of metal into the familiar compact lead-filled nickel cone. A rack on the wall gives at a glance the history of the rifle of today, an Enfield carbine of 1857, a breech-loader Snider of 1866. etc., ancient Bedouin flintlocks with aperture sights to shew ... that... there is nothing new under the sun; iigly little Japanese carbines with hinged triangular bayonets of blued steel to make the visitor think. Revolvers n n|d pistols are there galore, right front the old flintlock apd pepperbox to the deadly German automatic and the solid British service .Wobloy six-chambered weapon. And there is an automatic from Shanghai Arsenal (China) in a wooden holster. One admires the craftsmanship, and then becomes suddenly aware that the tiny slot on the. butt is there for a purpose.’ Snick! Snapped on ,to the end of the holster the pistol has become a rifle! Certainly not a particularly new idea, but not altogether wliat one expects from the gentleman whom Bret Harte was pleased to call “the Heathen Chinee.”

THE POWER TO DRIVE THE BULLET. Farther along one sees.the making of the power which drives the bullet. Little bundles of cordite, heaps of nitrocellulose and gunpowder, rub shoulders with cartridges of every description. In a corner is a novel machine-gunt belt for Vickers’ use in aircraft, which each individual cartridges forms the pin in a linked metal chain, with the result that after extraction links and empties fall into a ready receptacle instead of coming out in/the more unweildly belt form.

TILTING RIFLES AND CARTRIDGES. • Then there are the various gauges

used to test Rifles ; and cartridges, measuring to .'4428 ~in. . One look at these is enough to impress the novice with the disastrous effectsof a little mud. The growth’ of a rifle from a lump of wood ; and., a casting to the fine! machined stock and highly polished barrel of to-day is shown in • another rack. Results of fitting in barrels caused by neglect, and wliat happens when Lee Enfield’s are discharged with a fragment of mud or some other obstruction in the barrel are on View in another case. In-all cases the highly tempered steel has been simply torn asunder as though by the 1 hand of a giant. Something of the marvellously intricate machining that goes into the making of a mach{ne-gun is shown In a collection of rough castings with the finished articles placed in juxtaposition. Wher--1 ever possible in order to give strength the parts have been machined out of the solid steel, . and the drilling out of the breech block is a thing to wonder at.

INTERESTING EXHIBITS. 1 Australian-made exhibits from the Commonwealth Small Arms Factory Lithgow, New South Wales, include gas masks, aircraft components and heavy gur.i parts anid Lee-En-field rifles as well finished to the lay eye as those made in the Mother Country.

Interesting as the more strictly instructional exhibits are, the visitor will soon find himself engrossed in the war souvenirs which have from time to time found a resting place in the Small Arms School.

! Slung between crossed lances facing the entrance of the second half of the • building is the head and shoulders of a. German decoy used by enemy snipers during hostilities. All was far from quiet on the Western Front when the “flammemverfer, ’ or flame-thrower, was in operation. Ihe container was strapped on the hack of the Gennan who wielded the machine, and liquid fire was sprayed from a nozzle in the direction in which it was expected to prove most effective. Other curious weapons are a Bolshevik colt gun, captured by H.M.S. Dunedin at Lebel in 1919, an ‘ antitank” rifle resembling a monster service weapon, an out-of-date Hotchkiss double-barrelled field piece, a Maxim-Norderfeldt early machine gun shining with brass and fitted with a monorail track enabling the piece to be run up, fir.ed over an obstruction and withdrawn. In one of the cases there is a queer gadget about three

or four inches long with aluminium

scales and sliding mirrors. It is a hand range-finder designed by a New Zealander,- and for some reason or other never put to practical use. . -

Another curiosity is the mediaeval breastplate of steel worn by a German sniper.

Last, but far from least, there is a machine-gun constructed in the early years of the war at the Petone Railway Workshops as a proof that (although tho cost was probably very high) in a tight corner the Dominion could manufacture its own “sinews of war.” .

In a glass case above the door hang fragments of the White Ensign presented by the women of the Dominion to the H.M.S. New Zealand -in 1913 and flown at her mast in the engagements off Heligoland on August 28, 1914; off Dogger Bank on January 24, 1915; and in the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916. The remnants and the case (made from the ship’s wood) were presented by the captain, officers and ship's crew of the man-o’-war concerned. Round the walls are hung large photographs of many of the companies of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, presented by the late Mr F. Pirani, of the “Dominion” staff. *>

Every territorial and cadet who visits Trentham Camp and tiiose the general public who have the opportunity should make a point of seeing the ' exhibition section of the school for themselves, for there if much there that will occupy then attention, pique their curiosity, and excite their wonder and admiration.