SECRET TRAINING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1943, Page 3

SECRET TRAINING

OF NEW ZEALAND PACIFIC DIVISION PREPARATION FOR OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS. TROOPS IN SPLENDID FETTLE. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) SOUTH PACIFIC BASE. Secretly trained in amphibious warfare a few weeks before they went into a combat zone, soldiers of the Third New Zealand Division met the Japanese as fully prepared for all types of island warfare Only now that issue has been joined is it possible to reveal the nature of the training undertaken by the New Zealanders, for while the Division was officially classified as a Pacific garrison force, security dictated that there should be no mention of the fact that all recent preparations had been for offensive and not defensive action. Had it been otherwise, the element of surprise which it was hoped to achieve in the New Zealanders’ first move would have been lost. All previous attacks on Japanese-held islands had been launched by shock troops of the United States forces, and it can be assumed that the Japanese had at no time expected the New Zealanders to adopt a similar role. To the enemy, just as to the Dominion public, this Division was in the Pacific to police strategic outposts and stepping-stones in the long line of Allied communications. In fact, all the Division’s early training pointed that way. Camps were widely dispersed in New Caledonia to cover as many danger points as the size of the force would allow. Unit exercises on a small scale included reconnaissance work by selected parties of intelligence personnel, seeking to familiarise themselves with the country and to map trails through the mountains and bush. Parties of platoon and company strength roughed it for ten days and more at a time, in preparation for route marches and battalion exercises. Then battalions went into the wilderness with artillery, engineer, signal and A.S.C. personnel, all of whom had done their preliminary and routine training in scattered areas. To all but the highest divisional officers, the training had no bearing on anything but static warfare River crossings were as applicable to defence as to offence. So was the practice of unarmed combat. Brigade manoeuvres under divisional control tested the cooperation of all arms without revealing the true objective of the training. Yet in reality these were essential preliminaries to the offensive bias of the amphibious exercises on which the New Zealanders started during July. Coincident with the announcement by the Divisional Commander that “Plans were being made to employ the Division in an active role,” selected units underwent a fortnight’s strenuous landing practice, which showed an amazing standard of efficiency and ability to learn that impressed senior officers who attended as observers.

Life on board a transport was refreshing and interesting —a marked change from what the men had been used to. Those landing craft that sped between ship and shore carried troops who had found a new interest in their task. Willing at last to believe that their chance was coming, they stepped themselves out with an energy and drive that were eye-openers. The transport yielded its cargo of guns, ammunition, rations and motor vehicles to willing soldiers, whose competent handling of their first introduction to amphibious training equalled that of the best Allied troops and paved the way for the drive against Tojo’s men.