H.Z. ARMY AT HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1918, Page 6

H.Z. ARMY AT HOME.

SEVENTY DAYS' TRAINING A BEAUTIFUL RURAL PARK. MACHINE GUNNERS AT GRANTHAM. (ay ir-s.- B - Drew, 2nd as*.tenant.) Each ffi£iforccment that letves New Zealand for England includes a certain number of machine gunners, who, in addition to the ordinary Reinforcement course, receive special training for this work before they leave. They ran it as specialists with the Reinforcements, but here no such immediate distinction awaits them, for on reaching England they go to the Infantry camps with the rest. But when specialists aTe required for either the machine gun corps or the signallers applications are called for and these previously trained men are usually selected. Thus they receive a full month's infantry training with the infantry at either Sling or Brocton, and are made expert in bombing, gas precautions, wiring, and all trench work. Popularly supposed at one time to be peculiarly dangerous work, the machine gun corps in New Zealand were recruited from tardy volunteers, who were called for when the new men came in; but in reality circumstances are not quite so bad as that nowadays. As a matter of fact, machine gunners have the advantage—it is usually considered an advantage—of a considerably longer period of training in England, and certainly they have in New Zealand, than the infantry; and with so much barrage work at the front these men during active, service have a fair spell out of the advanced posts. For their machine-gun training in England our men are sent to Grantham, a junction town on the Great Northern Railway, 102 miles north of London, and reached' in two hours from the metropolis. This is the centre of the British machine-gun world. Over 50,000 men are camped round here undergoing training. One wonders what the number was in pre-war days when Britain held other views on the machine-gun! There are three Imperial camps —Harrowby, where the G.O.C. and the schools are situated, and Belton Park and Chepstone (the last-named being 30 miles away), where the draft-finding units are camped. At each of these places the officers and men are divided into battalions; and New Zealand, which has its camp at Belton Park, comprises one battalion. In March last we had 400 men there, and on the Ist April last 164 officers and 2,455 men had passed through. There have been js many as 550 of our men there at one time. It is a good system to have the <amp here, for it provides the best facilities for training, the necesstuj ranges are available, and the best qualified instructors. Major R. Hardie, who since has lost a leg in the war, had charge of our first camp. INCESSANT TOCK-TOCK. To Belton Park from Grantham town is four miles. Busses for a small fee, and motor cars for a high one, cam you either way. Belton Park has come into use as a camping ground since the war, being an addition to the Harrowby School. It is the private park of Earl Brown low, and the grounds, which an really magnificent in their tree-clad •weeps, front Belton House, an old roomy, mid-period mansion. High land! stretch away north and south, heavilj wooded; and through the calm air per petually comes the distant tock, tock tock oi the ceaseless machine-gun firs that anyone from the front knows s( well. Our own camp huts occupy i picturesque slope facing Belton House and at the top of the slope stands, ii ancient solitude, a magnificent forest for hereabouts are some of the finesi woods of Britain. Only a few mile! away are the Dukeries and old Sher wood Forest, • with its rheumaticky propped-up oa.ks. Nottingham is 2* miles away, and Leicester and Lincoli about the same distance. Our mei have thus ample to interest them, and indeed, are very fond of this place am its surroundings and wooded panora mas.

The average time New . Zealanders spent here is about seventy days. By that time they are ready to go to France. There is no more to learn in machine gunnery than accuracy of fire and knowledge of the mechanical construction of the weapon. Experts are even heard to declare that we are only in the earlier stages of our knowledge of the effectiveness of the machine gun. Zones of fire, the most advantageous angles, choice of fields of fire, and other things have all to he learned, and since we barrage with this weapon up to 1600 yards, ranging from maps—like the artillery—to stay attacks, or to bespatter enemy concentrations or depots, most intimate knowledge of the things essential to the success of the work is necessary. The deadly machine-gun bullet, with its sighing hiss, comes amongst you suddenly in flights from nowhere, death-dealing an fearsome as the bursting shells. Tlii'i. officers and men must also know how to follow up and keep pace with the earlier waves of an attack, and where to place machine guns effectively and rapidly to hold up counter-attacks. At Messines our splendidly organised guns did magnificent work in this respect. This class ot fighting particularly suits the initiative and courage of our men, RAPID GROWTH. """' New Zealand, when our men ifirst went to Grantham, had only three ma-chine-gun companieajiin the field; we sent another one over with the 4th Brigade "before Messines, and still another went'i to France in December last. Our men- learn quickly; indeed, one could say etremely nice things of them in the place they occupy with the "Tommies" lat the schools, but comparisons are odious.

Our battalion camp adjoins the Imperial huts, and we share a cookhouse with one of the Imperial units. In this caß* one can say that so close contact shows one how well by comparison our men fare in this department. The New Zealand half of the cookhouse is neatnes itself, with its polished stoves andwhitewashed walls, and on the other side—well, it is not so. For this cookhouse cleanliness and similar things in other parts of the camp our unit has been complimented by the Imperial CO. Ingenuity'and care, and supplemented rations, enahle our cooks to turn out meals that aTe the envy of the "Tommy"; and all this can be put down in. the first place to the officersgreater active interest in tie men, and —from the General in charge of the New Zealand Forces in England downwards—to the careful supervision and non-perfunctory inspection of tnfgs.

homes must already lie acquainted with from the letters of the men. themselves, The officers share a mess with an Imperial unit. It is not quite tile mess one sees in our other camps. ASCENDENCY IN SPORT. Sport thrives at all the camps, and a very fine spirit of healthy rivalry exists with the "Tommies." The New Zealanders, who are popular, won all their Rugby contests this year with the exception of one against the Royal Air Service team. They have also held their Mvn at cricket and "soccer." In other amusements —theatres, concerts, pictures —they are well catered for in the tamp, and at Harrow by, where the garrison theatre is (two miles away), and at Grantham. The New Zealand men have their canteens, with their usual billiards, games, and anterooms; and a Y.M.C.A. adjacent offers them other attractions. There are bjath-liouses and all the usual appointments, and agriculture is proceeding in all spare places in our lines, in which the New Zealanders again show; an example of Industry. Viewing this well-appointed and picturesquely situated camp from an old quaint archway structure that some equally quaint old nobleman erected many years ago on the wooded rise at the back of the camp, one thinks of what a delightful day New Zealand parents could spend in this secluded spot inspecting the quarters of their sons! What pleasant strolls they could be taking down the shaded lanes in the park ■woods, who" <!eev flit suddenly by, and where wood-pigeons coo from the tap branches! If our recruits in Trentham could conjure up this scene, how volunteers would rush for a seventy days' training herel