MODERN WARFARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 January 1940, Page 6

MODERN WARFARE

MECHANISATION OF ARMY. TORONTO. This war differs greatly from the last in its needs and strategy, the Hon C. D. Howe, Canadian Minister of Transport, told a gathering of engineering students here recently. He thought that fewer troops would be required from the Dominion than in the last war, but that Canada, “as a highly industrialised. country, with a motor car for every eight persons, will find this war particularly adapted to the type of men that can be furnished from here.” The armies that face each other bear little resemblance to those of the last war, the minister told the students. Then, a division of troops represented 22,000 men, armed with rifles and travelling on foot, with horse-drawn vehicles to move supplies. Today a division of troops represents 16,000 men, and its equipment includes some 2,000 motor vehicles, machine guns instead of rifles, anti-tank guns, artillery, “all on a scale of power unknown in the last war.”

Mr Howe quoted figures of the comparative horse power of the old division against the new. These had been worked out by Major-General A. G. L. McNaughton, who heads Canada’s overseas forces. These figures indicated that the old division had a horse power of 4,000 whereas the present day division has a horse power of 187,400, “representing an increase of attacking power of forty-seven fold. In range of action the old division could advance five miles and be ready to fight the same day. The modern division can advance fifty miles and fight the same day, the increase in range being ten to one.”