WHAT IF ENEMY ARMY LANDED?

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 35, 4 May 1927, Page 11

WHAT IF ENEMY ARMY LANDED?

N.Z. STAFF OFFICERS HAVE PREPARED DATA HIGHLY VALUABLE Suppose a hostile army were to land in one of the many unprotected bays north of Auckland, and at once march on the city, what would be the developments? Few know that plans for such a contingency have been worked out, to the last point in minute detail, by the staff officers engaged in the instructional course at Takapuna. Last night, in the theory of those conducting the course, a hostile army landed at a vulnerable point on the northern coast. At once the enemy marched on Auckland, planning to begin a conquest of New Zealand by a descent upon its largest city. The march of the Invaders alarmed the Silverdale district, and from agitated farmers the startling news filtered through to the city. AN IMAGINARY HOST At once the military authorities gripped the situation, and units for the defence of the city were mobilised. Mounted men assembled at Ellerslie—a singularly appropriate point!—and infantry at the Domain, from which two bases the imaginary host, 6,000 strong, moved across the harbour and along the quiet suburban roads of Devonport and Takapuna, to earn undying glory in the defence of the fairest city of the land. Only those familiar with the vast work military operations involve can picture the thorough organisation and precise timing necessary for the movements to be successfully conducted. Working on the basis of existing circumstances, the staff officers at Takapuna have each day completed different sets of data to deal with an invasion. At their fingers’ ends, after close research, they have the number of buses, ferries, trams, trains and other transport facilities actually available in Auckland, as well as the extent of food stocks, hospital accommodation, and ammunition supplies. While the actual warfare has of neces sity been imaginary, the preparation of plans and data in small campaign tents, or in the open, on a boulder or a benzine case, and by night as well as by day, has added a touch of grim reality to the business. BATTLE OF SILVERDALE With the troops across the harbour—this move was effected with all the craft available, the ferry authorities having furnished valuable data—the units were despatched toward the enemy from the landing at Northcote, Birkenhead, Bayswater and Devonport, and provision was made for the lines of supply to be covered. Going into action, the defending forces took up a strategic position across the path of the enemy, and the battle for Auckland had begun. It is firmly to be hoped that the contingency imagined for the purpose of keeping New Zealand’s staff officers in touch with the latest principles of modern warfare may never come to pass, but, if it does, the data accumulated during the instructional course, which ended to-day, will be an invaluable contribution toward Auckland’s security.