JUNGLE TRAINING

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3295, 2 August 1943, Page 6

JUNGLE TRAINING

FORCES FROM DOMINION MEN ON NEW CALEDONIA PREPARING FOR EMERGENCIES New Zealand forces had a taste the other night of conditions they may meet, if their turn conies to take a hand in the battles of the Pacific. In all exercise designed to accustom tlm troops to adverse conditions in a night river-crossing and dawn attack they had to plunge through spvamps and jungle, and for all who took part, it was a test of physical and mental calibre. Briefly, here is the story of the exercise: Part of the force was to cross by night a river between GO and 100 feet wide held by enemy troops, establish a bridgehead on the enemy's side and pass through to a dawn attack on a strategic village a mile or two beyond. It was primarily a sappers’ show. They had to provide the means for the force to cross the river, the assumption being that the retreating enemy, had destroyed bridges as he went. Artillery units provided protective concentrations, while anti-air-craft and anti-tank batteries were.tactically disposed from base to frontline.

Under the protection of artillery and advanced infantry elements the sappers brought their equipment to the river bank soon after dark. The infantry moved over in assault boats and established their bridgehead and thus enabled the sappers to construct a bridge over which light trucks, armoured vehicles and guns moved in support of the infantry already on the far side. Even the infantry whose trials and tribulations as they slithered down a 12ft mud bank into the assault boats and clambered up a similar bank on the other side, and on into the marshes, admitted that their task was less wearing than that of the sappers. Seas of ‘ Mud The approaches to the crossing pqints were seas of mud. Trucks were bogged as they came in. Equipment slipped into the slime and was gropeu for in the dark. The flashing of lights was forbidden and visibility was nil in some areas where trees grew close to the banks. By dawn, thanks to the work done by .the engineers, the infantry w’ere in position to storm the village and take up allround defensive positions against the threat of counter-attack. The trorps then had a measure of respite. As they breakfasted they scraped the mud off their uniforms and dried out in a sun that was slowly gaining mastery over the showery weather which had been experienced throughout the night.

These men are now a* stage nearer to that standard of physical fitness that will give them the edge on the Japanese if they ever meet them in combat. The men realise that there is no easy road to success in war and in their training in New Caledonia they are being physically and mentally equipped for any possible conditions they are likely to meet.

The general impression is held: “It is tought all right, but we will take it all, and then some, if it means a quicker end to the war.”