Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1938. MECHANISED CONVOY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 51, 28 January 1938, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1938. MECHANISED CONVOY.

In common with other parts of the Empire the Defence Department is providing the latest types of mechanised equipment for the defence forces of this country. The Great War showed the tremendous importance of mechanisation, and since then remarkable strides have been made in this modern form of army training and transport. Britain has not lagged behind the Continent in this respect and many of her famous regiments have been mechanised. Recent manoeuvres have shown the high degree of efficiency attained by these units under modern conditions, and the ability with which they can manoeuvre and extend their range of operations. The old maxim that “An army marches on its stomach’’ has lost much of its force in these days, for motorvehicles speedily transport troops to the scene of action, and ahead of them are the mechanical units whose purpose it is. to move quickly to their assigned places. Much has been seen here in picture form of the metamorphosis of Continental armies—of their tanks, both small and large, artillery mounted on lorries, troops equipped with motor-cycles and other motor-vehicles, and mechanised convoys for general purposes. Everything is on an impressively large scale, and the same is true in Britain, where experts superintend this modern training with excellent results. The Defence Department in this country is applying the lessons of today’s usage to its forces, and in Palmerston North yesterday considerable interest was taken in the mechanised convoy of eight army trucks and vans that halted here during the afternoon when en route to Auckland by way of the West Coast to complete the quota of defence vehicles for the Northern Command. The progress of mechanisation was revealed at the parade held at Fort Dorset, on Wednesday to Ministers of the Crown, military, officers, and the, public generally, and again to residents of this city yesterday afternoon. The trucks and vans have been acquired for general military purposes and were eagerly inspected. The vehicles also served to illustrate what a self-contained unit the modern mechanised convoy is. Its general utility van, primarily intended for wireless purposes, has a short-wave radio set for transmitting both speech and Morse signals, but to avoid confusion the range is restricted to five miles for speech and to seven miles for signals. In actual warfare it will be found operating towards the front line and re-

placing the field telephone known to soldiers who took part in the Great War. The lorries are adaptable to the conveyance of troops, equipment or supplies, and both types of vehicles mount machineguns. The value of mechanisation was stressed by Major Clifton who is in command of the convoy at the Fort Dorset parade. An army with horse-drawn artillery and supplies, he said, could move at the rate of from five to seven miles an hour with a day’s journey of 30 miles; with modern transport an army could move at least 30 miles an hour covering 100 miles , a day comfortably.