BATTLE EXERCISES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 February 1943, Page 4

BATTLE EXERCISES

TANKS AND PLANES COMBINE

VIVID TRAINING. EFFECTIVENESS OF CAMOUFLAGE As part of the realistic training which aims to give vehicles and crews the widest possible simulation of active service conditions, a battalion of the New Zealand Army Tank Brigade recently carried out spectacular battle exercises in co-operation with planes of the New Zealand Air Force. Performed on the rugged country adjacent to the headquarters of the brigade, there was ample room for manoeuvre, and the whole •demonstration was firstclass experience for both tank crews and airmen, as each gained an insight into the tactical methods of the other. The exercises opened with the tanks formed in “open harbour.” —dispersed with some distance between tanks, but close enough to pull into squadron formations in quick time. They were camouflaged and taking advantage of breaks in the terrain to get as much cover as possible from observation. Reconnaissance planes droned overhead, quartering the area to locate the fighting vehicles, and taking photographs in an endeavour to pick up their disposition. Later these aerial pictures were analysed to determine the effectiveness of the camouflage adopted and the use made of natural ground cover. RADIOED ORDERS. Then, on radioed orders from the battalion commander, relayed through the squadron leaders, more than 50 tanks began to appear and form up for an attack. As one squadron swung off to make an approach from the flank, the other two started down the escarpment to advance along the broken flat below. The planes came roaring back into activity again, now in the role, of dive bombing support for the attacking tanks, one having previously gone in low over the battalion commander’s tank to drop a message near the ground signal laid out as a guide. Peeling off from formation one after the other, the planes swooped below the edge of the escarpment to drop smoke bombs, zoiomed out and back to repeat the performance. As the tanks approached nearer to their objective, the planes dived low ahead of them to keep the opposition pinned to the ground with machine-gun fire. Further back they kept the drivers of “enemy” supply trucks occupied (by tearing along above the road at vehicle height. From the escarpment overlooking the scene of operations these moves were followed by tank personnel, officers, and men not actually taking part in the manoeuvres, so that the greatest possible number could get the benefit of the training involved. With the tank radio sets linked up to a loud speaker system on a signals truck, it was possible for the spectators to follow the course of events from the orders given, and the consequent changing of course by the individual tanks engaged. Radio plays an extremely important part in tank warfare, being the only practicable form of communication. DEMONSTRATION OF SPEED. As tanks and planes manoeuvred in these exercises, the spectators were given a vivid demonstration of the speed of modern war, a speed which does not permit of the fumbling of orders, or indecision in executing them. During a minute the whole aspect of an action may be changed, demanding a lightning rearrangement of formation and plan of attack. Later in the manoeuvres the planes took the role of tank attackers. Firstly the tanks took up “hull-down” positions in natural dips and hollows, so that only their gun turrets were showing. Natural camouflage made up from tussock and scrub f was added, and the tanks lay doggo as the planes circled and searched for them. Lying thus, tanks are unobtrusive objects, and it is with some surprise that one sees them break out of the landscape at unexpected places when they get on the move again. “CLOSE LEAGUER.” For the final exercise of the day the tanks formed into “close leaguer.” Under actual combat conditions this formation is only used at night, and is broken before dawn brings enemy planes out on reconnaissance. The close leaguer is a modernised version of the Boar laager, and the defensive ring of wagons which the American pioneers used to fight off Indian attacks. In the tank formation the battalion forms up in a triangle, with the tanks and their guns facing outwards, ready for an instant break in case of alarm. Inside this close barricade of steel are placed the ‘‘soft’ vehicles accompanying the battalion fuel and supply trucks and the like. In the meantime the planes engaged have landed to refuel on an emergency aerodrome some miles away, and came back to the attack in a breath-taking, low-level flight which hid them from the tank crews until they were only a few hundred yards away, and thundering in on the leaguer position over the tops of the sand hummocks. Tank crews slid into their machines, revved up and moved out as fast as they could, scattering over the landscape to present the smallest possible target for the raiding planes. In a few seconds all were clear of the leaguer position, tacking and dodging as the planes banked and swooped over them. Although the tanks head straight out from a standing start in this manoeuvre, and then scatter, they are not a disorganised body, as a re-assembly point is always decided on when the leaguer is formed.