MIMIC BATTLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 634, 10 April 1929, Page 6

MIMIC BATTLE

MOUNTED MEN IN CAMP ACTIVITY AT WAIUKU (Special to THE SUN) ** T*" WAIUKU, To-day. The Waiuku racecourse reserve is lire centre of military activity at present. The Auckland Mounted Rifles, numbering about 320 officers find men, are undergoing their annual training there. The camp will last for 10 days and ian interesting period of training will be done by the men. This week the usual routine camp life will be followed and on Saturday the regimental sports will be held. On Monday the real test of military skill will begin, when a mimic battle will be staged on the sandhills of the West Coast, about four miles from the camp. The idea of the manoeuvres is that the inhabitants of the country south of the Waikato River are at war with those of the north. Valuable military supplies are stored at Waiuku, and an officer commanding the Southern troops wishes to destroy these supplies, so he sends a squadron across the river to attack the enemy’s right flank. On Monday night the men will swim the river near the Heads, and will bivouac for the night in the sandhills. The following morning, as they are manoeuvring for position, they will be discovered by an airplane sent out by the Northern troops. This plane will return to Waiuku, inform the defenders of the approach of the enemy, and a battle will follow. A good deal of the battle will be fought on paper, but some of the troops will camp for the night in the sandhills, and an airplane will be loaned by the Auckland Aero Club. It is quite probable that MajorGeneral R. Young. G.O.C. New Zealand Forces, will witness the manoeuvres.