NZEF: Featherston Military Training Camp, NZ.

FEATHERSTON

Military Training

CAMP

BEING A RECORD OF ITS WONDERFUL GROWTH AND DAILY OPERATION

SOLDIERS IN THE MAKING

THE WORK OF THE CAMP

Described and Illustrated

INTRODUCTORY.

As recently as August, 1915, the site now occupied by Featherston Military Training Camp was nothing but a rock-strewn field, set in the midst of a drowsy, pleasant country district.

The selection of this spot as a fitting place for the establishment of a great train= camp came as a bombshell to the settlers, who viewed this move on the part of the authorities with no little apprehension. The need for a camp, surrounded by vast training fields such as the Wairarapa provides, was, however, urgent, and the work was pushed ahead with all possible speed.

To-day the camp-now a town in itself, pulsating with life and brimful of achievement-stands as a monument to the wonderful resources of our little country and her ability to rise nobly to great occasions.

Thousands of men have passed through the camp, and on no occasion have the settlers seen cause to justify the alarm they at first experienced, so firm and far-reaching has been the discipline enforced.

Many so-called "souvenirs" of the camp have been published, but none have so far attempted to at all adequately describe its growth or the increasing operations and activities of its occupants. This little book has been compiled in the hope that it will serve to show the people of New Zealand the important part played by Featherston Military Training Camp in the preparation of our young manhood for the grim work at the battle front.

FEATHERSTON M.C., March, 1917.

THE CAMP'S ANNIVERSARY. (By WILL LAWSON.)

FEATHERSTON Military Training Camp celebrated its first anniversary on January 26th last. Exactly twelve months prior to that date the troops in training at Tauherenikau were in the throes of moving; the road between the old tent camp and the new camp of modern buildings, paved streets, proper drainage and water supply, and electric light, was busy with A.S.C. waggons and any other waggons that could be pressed into service. Into the new camp everything was carried, and even when all was in and the troops had left the old camp for good-as it seemed then-the new camp still appeared half empty.

Those were days when the Public Works workmen, who were putting finishing touches on old work or engaged on new work, had to watch their hammers, nails, and little bits of odd timber. The officers and men were bent on adding nails, shelves, and other luxuries to the accommodation. But there was no clashing whatever. Big as the camp was then, however, it has grown prodigiously since, and its ramifications extend far over the Wairarapa Plain and the foothills. Tauherenikau has been put into commission again, Papawai is a permanent rifle range camp, and the main camp grows all the time. To-day it contains men of every arm, and it is the artillery, mounted, and specialist camp for New Zealand. For the training of these arms the Wairarapa country is specially well adapted.

The most noticeable feature of Featherston Camp, to the visitor who saw it twelve months ago, is that the mass of buildings that previously were to the north of the main Greytown road only has overflowed across that thoroughfare, while a camp of tents is an established thing further along on the southern side, and there are gateways and guard-rooms at .each end of the camp on the main road.

The move from Tauherenikau-The Last Parade.

The Camp as it is.

FEATHERSTON Camp, which now contains over 8,000 men, is awakened at reveille by the sound of trumpets. The Trumpet Band is one of the camp's regimental touches. The bugle is an infantry instrument, but the trumpets do duty for both mounted and foot soldiers. That reveille, played by twelve trumpeters, awakens the camp in every one of its departments. The mounted men, the artillery, the A.S.C. turn out to stables, while the night pickets, who have kept guard over the horses all night, seek rest and refreshment; the infantry turns out, too, and this is the time when the infantryman thanks his stars that he has no horse to bother with. The Divisional Signallers and the Specialists, and the Artillery Signallers, awaken, too, to another day of dots and dashes and manipulation of machine-guns or wireless, flags or flashes, discs or diagrams.

Signallers at Work

Off to the Training Grounds.

AFTER breakfast the infantry is played out to drill by the Camp Military Band or the Trumpet Band, the artillery sends a battery clattering out to fire live shell across a two mile range, or moves out to its training ground, a paddock from whose emerald sward every stone has been carefully gathered.

There the teams wheel and manoeuvre, with the keen eye of an instructor to make the men look lively. The mounted infantry are the rovers of the camp. They may be met with in any part of the valley or hills, reconnoitering, scouting, map-making, or engaged in other of the many phases of their training.

The Army Service Corps waggon may rumble out, too, on a long trek, which will take them from camp for three days, during which they will go through every feature of their field training, even to recording in their note-books the crops available for fodder, the houses in which the troops might be billeted, and the food supplies available.

The Signallers are always busy on the roads and hills. Their waggon, with its drum of insulated wire that is paid out by the roadside, is a familiar object to travellers in the district. From the waggon to flag-stations, and from the flag-stations to the Helios in the hills, headquarters keep in touch with all that is being done, and when the artillery and machine-guns are at battle practice the signallers of all grades keep the guns and targets in touch with the various signal centres, and with the camp.

The Engineers are trained at Trentham, but the Engineers' Signallers are trained in the trenches at Featherston, near where the wireless rears its aerials on high, and where the dug-outs are many and
named by strange names. The Machine-Gun Specialists are always training. They have much to learn, and pay strict attention to business, and their battle practice is a stirring spectacle.

In the Early Stages.

Coming Home.

AT noon the band will go out and bring the infantry back to camp, playing cheery airs that speed the weary feet. This is another of the fine sights of the camp, to see the infantry, thousands strong, marching in. Perhaps a body of them has been out route-marching. Sun-burned and dusty, wearing shorts that show bare brown knees, they swing into camp and down to their quarters. All meals are
served in the huge dining halls, and after lunch there is time for relaxation ere the Camp Military Band-that has silver instruments-leads the troops out to parade again.

Towards evening the troops begin to drift back to camp from out-lying parts. In a solid body the infantry marches in from the evening dismiss, and at evening the trumpeters halt beneath the flag outside Head-quarters to play the "Retreat." At the first notes of the trumpets the, flag is slowly lowered, while every man in camp stands at attention.

Soon lights begin to twinkle throughout the camp. The main road within the camp bounds, with its row of shops and institutes, is thronged with men. Further on, behind the trees, the hospital shows bright and, ccmfertable-looking and quiet. Sounds of singing, mellowed by distance, come from the ghostly-looking tent camp. The long camp streets, with their remarkable perspectives, are twinkling with lights that are fed from the humming engine-house beside the tall shower-bath building, wherein,some soldiers are enjoying a hot bath.

In twelve months Featherston Camp has come into its own. It has "found itself"; from a collection of buildings it has become a camp in being. From beginning to end the achieving of this has been a matter of congratulation for those concerned-and it still is.