ARMY SIGNALS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9720, 24 July 1917, Page 7

ARMY SIGNALS

NERVES OF THE FORCE MANY METHODS OF CONVEYING MESSAGES. (Issued by War Office.) With the British Army the term “Signals” covers every method of conveying a message, whether by hand, wire, flag, heliograph or any of the countless methods by which a message can be transmitted; and, roughly, every route in the weblike system of communicating with the British Army in tho field is controlled by 1 the Signal Service of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Various arms control their own inter-unit signals, but the Signal Service takes charge when ' the units come to the dimensions of brigades or such formations.

To start from the firing line, where the regimental signallers of the infantry spin a web of fine enamelled wire that conveys the messages back to regimental headquarters hero the work is carried out by men trained with the infantry regiment to which they belong. They have very small portable telephones which can be used' as telegraph instruments. The signallers are trained in the use of flags for visual signalling, but during the long period of trench warfare, visual signals could not be used owing to the proximity of the enemy and the danger to the signallers from snipers. Now that trench war has been broken, the visual methods of sending messages will come into use again. From regimental headquarters to the brigade the lines are laid by ‘ hand from medium size portable drums, and are of wire insulated with rubber and cotton. Theqretioially, the lines should be laid from pack-horses or • mules, but the exigencies of trench and dugout life have modified' the theory. With the open fighting now commencing, no doubt tho text-book will come into its .. 'U. The messages in this section are still sent on the nortable little telephone instruments but by the quick way of the Morse code. The brigade is in communication with the division by lines laid by the Headquarters Section of the Divisional Signal Company. The wires (or cables) are made up of many strands of steel wire mixed with a tew of copper, to reduce the resistance bub preserve the strength and flexibility of the line, in theory, the lines are laid from cabled carts with teams of sfx horses, but again the'conditions on tho fronts have modified, in some cases, the methods of laying the cable. Much of the laying has been by hand from a specially constructed barrow."' WORKMANLIKE DRIED. There is perhaps no more showy yet workmanlike drill to be Seen with the British Army than tho cable-laying drill of the wagon teams of divisional signals. 'The wagons proceed at a smart trot. Two men seated in the stern, armOd with heavy gloves and wearing leathev aprons, pay out the black cable; while behind, a mounted sapper -is leaning .from his horse, placing the line clear of the roadway, by means of a crooked stick. This man places the line on the tops of convenient hedges, or lays it by the roadside clear of traffic, running it through the cleft ring at the end of Lis stick, as he' follows the wagon at a trot. About half a mile behind the wagon, there is a man, also mounted, paying a trifle more attention to the line. He ties it off {it turns in the road to prevent it from creeping across the highway under the feet of men or horses. This man is a highly skilled worker, .who judges conditions carefully, and makes use of every natural object which will preserve his line from harm. Where the line must cross a roadway, it is carried high on trees, or is suspended from poles quickly erected, it no trees are handy. The Wagon is in constant electrical connection with the office, from which it ‘has come, by means of the cable it is laying, and a return by earth through the steel tyres of the wagon. On the front lim°t the wagon an operator sits with the receiver of the instrument strapped to his ear. By the same means it is possible for ;two wagons i.-i connection, -on© laying the cable alongside the advancing brigade and another' picking up th e cable! alongside the staff of. the following Divisional Headquarters. From Division . to Army Corps Headquarters (unless the corps is aotualiy On. the move, when th© work is done by the more mobile division signals) the, communication is maintamed by the Army Corps Signal Company. The! lines become of more permanent nature, being erected on double poles specially set up. The wagon is of a greater size than that of the Division Company, and the wire is of two strands of steel, twisted and not insulated, except by ' the air. The work must necessarily be slower than that of the division signals, since it is more permanent, but it is carried out even in. this case with bewildering rapidity. It i s an axiom with the sappers of the Royal Engineers that each man should know what is required of 1 him and do it with all his might.

As with the divisional signals, the work between the Army Corps and the Army Group is sometimes done by the Corps Company, but, in general, it may be said that the existing lines of the country in which the Army is operating, are used where possible. ‘ Sappers take the place of the postal operators, for secrecy is essential. The sappers do much of the ordinary telegraph work for the inhabitants, and charge for the messages at the .international postal rates. DANGEROUS DISPATCH CARRYING. ,

- It was stated at the opening of this article that all methods of conveying messages were included in the term '“Signals.?’ Bach unit of the Signal Service has at its disposal groups of messengers, on foot, on horseback, on pedal cycle and on motor-cycle. The work of the - dispatch-carriers is often trying and dangerous. At the beginning of the war it was a common enough sight to see the motorcyclists driving their machines over ground pitted with shell-holes and swept by fire. But now. With the experience of the past, the trained dis-patch-riders are not sent into danger, except on very rare occasions, when the need is urgent. The Signallers have not allowed the use of flags and visual signals, generally, to fall into decay with want of. practice. There has always J been in the minds of those responsible, the chance that the time might come whem visual signalling would be the only

means usable under certain conditions. Constant practice in the use of tbe flag, the lamp, the heliograph and the disc has been insisted upon, with the result that the coming of open warfare has found the Signallers ready with the full use of visual signals at their finger-tips. A word might be said of the wireless units of the Signal Service, who hare done good work in the Eastern campagns and in France. The outfits for wireless work are various as regards their degree of portability. There is a quite complete little outfit which generates its own current from a dynamo driven hy an internal combustion engine of the motor-cycle type- This outfit can be carried hy pack animals. The flying services make good use of the wireless system. . The artillery have taken over their own signals to a greater degree than was thought necessary at the beginning of the war. The lines for inter, battery and inter-brigade work are laid by the gunners themselves, and gunners operate the instruments used. But the lines from the generals commanding artillery, are controlled by the Signal Service. ' There are few units of the Army that are as hard worked as the Signal Companies. Their work can be destroyed in a second hy a well-placed barrage, lines and cables can be shattered beyond repair, but the sappers profess to have no such word in their vocabulary as “cannot.” They say that if anything is at all within the grounds of probability of execution, he it ever so arduous or dangerous, it is possible for them. Devotion to duty is their proud; tradition.—Victor MacClure.