BACK FROM CAMP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 48, 27 February 1939, Page 6

BACK FROM CAMP

MEMORIES OF WAIOURU FROST AND HEAT EXPERIENCED The Second Composite Battalion which includes units from Wanganui Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki, broke camp at Waiouru on Saturday morning after an enjoyable and instructive week. Wanganui men returned to the city by the Wellington express on Saturday afternoon, some of them showing the effects of severe sunburn. Water Off the Snow. “There was frost in the mornings and the only water we had for showers came straight off the mountair. snow,” said one of the men, when asked for an opinion on the week spent in camp. “In the middle of the day the heat was really Itcat. Waiouru is 2760 feet above sea levei and the extremes of climate seem to affect the rare air. “We spent a good time in camp, though the food was not as good as it might have been. Pernaps the general public will say that that is the usual soldier’s complaint, but this lime I think it was well deserved. The tactical exercises were a revelation. No man went into action on foot. We were called infantry, but, in the strict sense of the word, we were not. It was great to sec the use made of motorised transport. The motor-cycle corps from Hawke’s Bay, for instance, became adept at maintaining communication along the Desert Road. We had night exercises, too, and used ball ammunition. Waiouru is a great place lor that, plenty of wide, open spaces in which the artillery may use rcai shells. Rodeo Each Night. “The men were well catered for as to amusements,” the Wanganui man continued. “The Y.M.C.A. did a wonderful job, made available cricket and baseball gear and there was always supper at night. It is a wonderful institution. Another source of amusement was the breaking in of horses. The owner of Waiouru station had several horses captured wild and he gave us the job of breaking them in. There was ‘rodeo’ every night.” Apparently some of the troops, on the return journey £rom Waiouru on Saturday, had an “unofficial” scouting exercise at Marton Junction. There was a two-hour wait for the connecting train, and guards were placed on the railway subway to check any who might visit the hotel. Some skilfully dodged through trucks «nd a goods shed and proved as adept as old soldiers at dodging the guard. Later, the unit was fallen in and marched to Marton to occupy time. Some officers, thinking the coast was clear, decided to have a “quiet one” to fill in time while the unit was absent. Those privates who had succeeded in qualifying for a pass in scouting ability were thus able to catch their officers out of bounds.

The camp at Waiouru was tht largest since the war. It was inspected by Major-General J. E. Duigan Chief of the General Staff, and by the Minister of Lands, Hon. F. Langstonc.