THE TELEPHONE IN WARFARE.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 37, 15 May 1917, Page 8

THE TELEPHONE IN WARFARE.

Now that the spring thaw has come, and the season in which great offensives are possible is at hand, one can imagine the scenes of hurrying activity behind the hundreds of miles of western front. Many of the activities that are necessary to the arrangements for an offensive are now well known, from both written description and the film, but not everybody realises the importance of the part played "by the telephone layer and operator. On July 15 last year, a fortnight after the beginning of the Somme offensive, the French arm of the Somme was using a thousand operators, and no less than 12,240 miles of telephone wire, ,of which 500 miles had been laid in the first ten days of the advance. In the first month of the war, if the general staffs of the various armies were connected by wire with their army corps, that was about as far as matters went; nowadays there is not a service but has its telephone connections. By telephone the observers in the kite balloons talk to the batteries whoso fire they are directing, and even in the actual assault the observers, who go forward with the attacking troops, are followed each by his telephonist, unrolling his reel of wire as he goes. Of course, the airmen above use wireless. A general, in his room at headquarters behind the front, can call up Paris or the War Office on the other side of the Channel. Switchboards connect every command along the line. An army commander who is thinking of an attack rings up his weather expert, who receives several times a day telegraphic reports from all over the non-Qerman world. If he decides upon a move, he rings up bis map-makers, and maps, made from photographs got by airmen, are printed for his divisional commanders, who are also, of course, connected with his office by wire. And obviously even the slightest advance means considerable additions to the wires laid down.