JUNGLE TRAINING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1943, Page 4

JUNGLE TRAINING

MOCK PACIFIC BATTLES NIGHT EXERCISES. OPERATIONS IN NEW CALEDONIA. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NEW CALEDONIA. New Zealand Forces had a taste the ether night of conditions they may meet if their turn comes to take a hand in the battles of the Pacific. In an exercise designed to accustom the troops to adverse conditions in a night rivercrossing and dawn attack they had to plunge through swamps and jungle, and for all who took part it was a test of physical and mental calibre. Briefly, here is the story of the exercise: Part of the force was to cross by night a river between 60 and 100 feet wide, held by enemy troops, establish a bridgehead on the enemy’s side, and pass through to a dawn attack on a strategic village a mile or two beyond. It was primarily a sappers’ show. They had to provide the means for the force to cross the river, the assumption being that the retreating enemy had destroyed bridges as he went. Artillery units provided protective concentrations, while anti-aircraft and anti-tank batteries were tactically disposed from base to front line.

Under the protection of artillery and advanced infantry elements, the sappers brought their equipment to the river bank soon after dark. The infantry moved over in assault boats and established their bridgehead, and thus enabled the sappers to construct a bridge over which light trucks, armoured vehicles and guns moved in support of the infantry already on the far side. Even the infantry, whose trials and tribulations as they slithered down a 12-foot mud bank into the assault boats and clambered up a similar bank on the other side, and on into the marshes, admitted that their task was less wearing than that of the asppers. The approaches to the crossing points were seas of mud. Trucks were bogged as they came in. Equipment slipped into the slime and was groped for in the dark. The flashing of lights was forbidden, and visibility was nil in some areas where trees grew close to the banks. By dawn, thanks to the work done by the engineers, the infantry were in a position to storm the village and take up all-round defensive positions against threat of counter-attack. The troops then had a measure of respite. As they breakfasted they scraped the mud off their uniforms and dried out in a sun that was slowly gaining mastery over the showery weather which had been experienced throughout the night. These men are now a stage nearer to that standard of physical fitness that will give them the edge on the Japanese if they ever meet them in combat. The men realise that there is no easy road to success in war, and in their training in New Caledonia they are being physically and mentally equipped for any possible conditions they are likely to meet. The general impression is held, “It is tough all right, but we will take it all, and then some, if it means a quicker end to the war.”