USE OF LIVE AMMUNITION

Southland Times, Issue 24882, 23 October 1942, Page 4

USE OF LIVE AMMUNITION

SOUTH ISLAND ARMY TRAINING (Special) DUNEDIN, October 22. Territorials stationed in the South Island and members of the Home Guard will receive their first taste of the conditions of actual warfare this week in a tactical exercise in which every effort will be made to produce battle conditions. The infantry will have artillery and mortar support, and throughout the exercise live rounds will be used. This will be the first occasion on which live rounds have been used so extensively in the South Island.

In Britain and Australia great emphasis is being placed on the accustoming of troops to the noise of battle. Much has been written of the realism which has been introduced into advanced training in those countries, but New Zealand is not lagging. New Zealand soldiers are now receiving the benefit of training experiments, which have been carried out in Britain, and this .week’s exercise will be a form of advanced training not previously attempted on such comprehensive lines in the South Island. ARTILLERY BARRAGE

Instead of the blank rounds hitherto used in manoeuvres, riflemen will carry ball ammunition; there will be live ammunition in the belts and magazines of the machine-guns. There will be a preliminary bombardment, and a barrage laid down by 18-pound-ers and by the guns which have inflicted such heavy losses on the Germans in the desert and the Japanese in the Pacific Islands—the 25-pounders. Mortar fire will be brought to bear, and, to complete the picture, selected personnel will throw grenades. The tactical use of smoke bombs and shells will be demonstrated as part of the exercise. When the troops have spent an hour under whistling lead and bursting high explosive they will have gathered some idea of the din of battle and what lies ahead of them should they be sent into action, either in New Zealand or in other theatres of war. The only thing lacking in the exercise will be a real, live enemy. Of necessity, the opposition must be theoretical. It will be assumed that a Japanese force has made landings at various points on the east coast of the South Island. Having driven, off a feint attack in South Canterbury, a mobile New Zealand force is rushed north to deal with a fresh landing on another coastal sector, where the enemy is being held by Home Guard units. They will attack the enemy positions, the engagement culminating in . a withering fire from all arms as the invaders are swept back to the sea.