GRIM SCHOOLING FOR TROOPS

Southland Times, Issue 24884, 26 October 1942, Page 4

GRIM SCHOOLING FOR TROOPS

Live Shells Fired In Exercises

Called on to match their wits and skill against an imaginary landing of Japanese forces at a point on the east coast, Territorials and Home Guardsmen of South Island units turned a peaceful part of the countryside into a battlefield as amidst the din of bursting shells, and the whistle of flying lead and splinters, they went through the grimmest schooling troops in the Southern Military District have yet been asked to undergo. To those detached from the manoeuvres who were vouchsafed a close-up view of what was going on, the operation was highly spectacular, but to the troops it was deadly earnest. Most or them had “played” at war some time during their training, but these exercises were not play. It was> hard work with an element of danger they had not before faced. Under their control were the. latest instruments of science for dealing out wholesale death. On how they handled these instruments depended the lives of other soldiers taking part. On how much they learned during the operations might some day depend national victory or defeat. EARLY MORNING LANDING

It was presumed that at 4.30 in the morning Japanese had landed on the beach and worked inland for a short distance to occupy the eastern portion of an escarpment. Efforts to take heights in the vicinity had failed in the face of Home Guard opposition. On the cliffs south of the scene of the landing the Home Guard had been forced to give ground and the enemy was in possession of a corner of the cliffs. A mobile force brought up from the south, developed its attack in three phases. First a battalion of infantry with artillery in support, captured the escarpment. Another battalion with artillery support, captured the area occupied by the enemy on the cliffs. The battalion which had captured the escarpment then advanced on to the coastline, driving the enemy back into the sea. 18-POUNDERS OPEN UP

The exercise began with small arms fire by the Home Guard. A few minutes later 18-pounders, located two miles back, began to pound the escarpment occupied by the enemy. There was a sharp whistling overhead as a salvo of shells fired on a low trajectory, came over and almost instantaneously exploded in the centre of a marked target, sending up a dense cloud of black smoke and dust.

Shortly afterwards machine-guns began to rake the prominence, . and for 10 minutes machine-guns eighteen pounders and mortars, plastered the escarpment until the whole surface in the target area was deeply scarred.

Troops then began to move cautiously across the gully to the opposite height from the south, covered by machine-gun fire. BIGGER GUNS TAKE PART

Meanwhile, from d few miles back in the country, came a dull crump, as 25-pounders, now one of the world’s most famous guns after its splendid work against the Germans in the Western Desert, began to concentrate a withering fire on the cliffs to the south. They were loaded with charges that gave the shell a comparatively low speed, so that it was difficult to trace where the artillery was located. The shells whistled leisurely overhead before bursting with terrific impact on the cliffs.

Troops on the escarpment had now pushed the enemy back towards the sea and were awaiting the final phase. The 25-pounders plastered the cliffs, filling the air with dense smoke and acrid fumes. The deep explosion of mortars added to the noise. Presently smoke shells were laid by the 25pounders. They burst a few hundred yards before reaching the target, trailing long lines of smoke behind them and landing with a shower of sparks. Soon the whole area was covered with a drifting cloud, and realism was added to the scene when a gorse hedge in the area was set on fire. The third phase was most impressive. All arms co-operated to drive the enemy into the sea. Eighteen pounders and twenty-five pounders, the latter now loaded with more powerful charges, fired constantly at the retreating enemy and from all sides devastating mortar fire was concentrated on the beach. The troops advanced with rifles and Bren guns blazing and several Bren carriers nosed their way through the scrub to take up forward positions. Smoke covered the area and in the height of the battle the artillery scored a direct hit on a target marked as an enemy gun. REACHED CRESCENDO As the artillery began to fire out to sea at enemy landing craft, the battle reached a crescendo. Shells rained on shore and sea, sending up cascades of water and shingle. The sharp rip of hand grenades joined the chorus. By eleven o’clock the enemy was completely routed and the order was given to cease fire.

Over the battleground there was peace again, but there was plenty of evidence of the intensity of the engagement. The ground was scarred with shell holes; scrub and vegetation was stripped with machine-gun bullets; dense clouds of smoke and fumes drifted along the beach; and several fires were blazing fiercely. Back through the battlefield came the begrimed troops, sweating under the blistering sun, but more than satisfied with their first taste of the din of battle.