PREPARING FOR ATTACK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 586, 12 February 1929, Page 1

PREPARING FOR ATTACK

ENGINEERS BUILD BRIDGE AT NARROW NECK

OFFICERS VISIT RED BEACH Preparations for the assault on Red Beach on Thursday morning were further advanced yesterday, when a detachment of Engineers from the camp on North Head built a bridge between Narrow Neck Beach and a lighter on which • they journeyed from Devonport. :t was shortly after 3 p.m. wheti two ship's boats in tow of a naval launch arrived off Narrow Neck Beach. Another launch followed closely. A lighter with about 60 Engineers and the bridge-building equipment was towed into position a few minutes later. Ropes were rushed to the beach by .seamen from H.M.S. Veronica in the boats and the lighter pulled broadsideon into shallow water.

Pontoons were soon swung overboard. Engineers leaped waist-deep into the water and hastily formed a secure bridge, over which ColonelCommandant H. R. Potter, Officer Commanding the Northern Command, and Lieutenant-Colonel J. E. Duigan, who had been inspecting the work from the beach, walked dry shod. With them were Commodore G. T. C. P. .Svvabey, commanding the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, Captain L. V. Wells, of H.M.S. Diomede, and Commander H. L. Morgan, of H.M.S. Dunedin.

The work of demolition had scarcely begun when Major L. M. Isitt, who flew up from Christchurch to Hobson - villa last week, circled low overhead in a Bristol fighter airplane. His passenger could be seen distinctly from the beach as he peered over the side. Officers from the camp of the First Battalion, the Auckland Regiment, at Narrow Neck, visited Red Beach today. The beach itself was examined at low tide, as it will be at the time of the assault, and the for sshore studied with an eye to cover and natural obstacles. IN COOLER UNIFORMS

Denims have been issued to all ranks, and all training yesterday was done in this cooler summer wear. Owing to the widely differing shades and colours of this dress the battalion presents a strange spectacle, but drill movements are carried out with even greater military precision. At 12.20 this afternoon all officers and men inarched through Devonport to the Calliope Dock, where landing operations were practised.