B.E.F. “NERVE CENTRE”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21554, 17 January 1940, Page 8

B.E.F. “NERVE CENTRE”

{ In Army Cellar Work Of Signal Corps The switchboard was housed in a | cellar. Three soldiers, the Corps of i Signals badge on their tunics, worked I feverishly without a moment’s pause, their voices murmuring an incessant chant as they pushed in or pulled out plugs completing calls. The multi-pannelled board at which they sat was a maze of cords and switches, but they handled it all with the nimble fingers of busy hotel operators. There was no excitement but quick, efficient co-operation. Through a half-open door leading into another and larger cellar came the clack of teletype machines as the trained fingers of the operators typed out messages in flowing columns of paper. I stood in the nerve centre of the B.E.F. in the headquarters of Signals (writes Douglas Williams, correspondent to the London Daily Telegraph). Through this centre pass daj and night all the myriad communications of an army in the field, from Whitehall to Viscount Gort. from the Command-er-in-Chief in turn to his Corps and Divisional Commanders, from the Quartermaster General to his supply bases, and lines of communication from the British Army to the French Army. A ceaseless flood of telegrams is handled by the Corps of Signals with the same frictionless ease as though they were passing through the post office at home. Nearly 500 calls an hour the switchboard receives, incoming and outgoing, more than 700 telegrams a day pass over the electrical teletype machines. Direct Lincs to London And this in a quiet period of preparation and organisation. It needs little imagination to think to what an extent this traffic would suddenly be swollen in the event of military activity, some sudden move by Hitler or the imminence of actual fighting operations. Yet I was assured there would be no hitch, no overflooding, that all would be taken care of as speedily and as efficiently. Lines, telephone and telegraph, stretch direct to London, to the bases, to the Corps, to the French Army. Three teletypes alone chatter all day long talking direct into the office of the Signal Master at the War Office. Where possible existing French Government lines are utilised, but in connections leading forward of G H.Q. we string all our own wires and thousands of miles of cable have already been used. The fresh supplies of new drums of wire that come out every day from England are absorbed as quickly as they arrive. Several sections of motor-cycle riders, each consisting of 23 men, all carefully selected from experienced amateurs of peace-time, spend their days and nights riding the roads of France. Dangerous Work The dispatch rider’s work is difficult and dangerous. Roads in this part of France, with their high camber and .greasy surfaces, are perilous, and. despite urgent orders demanding the greatest precaution, a number of accidents involving broken limbs and minor concussion have already occurred. Three or four thousand messages a day stream in and out of dispatch rider headquarters, and all are checked, examined for correct address, and delivered within an incredibly short space of time. As a precaution against damage, or perhaps even the complete interruption of lines, even though they may be buried by bomb attacks, a complete substitute wireless service is already available, all built by Army Signals and the Royal Engineers. At suitable locations the latest type of sending and receiving apparatus has been installed, complete with generators, poles and antennae and all the other equipment required for a high-powered station. Tall poles stand in farm middens and barns, and stables are filled with humming dynamos and flashing lights. Tucked away in these carefully concealed spots a technical officer and a handful of skilled wireless operators stand by ready at a moment’s notice to throw in switches that will bring I their powerful plant into immediate I emergency operation and send a vital 1 beam of instantaneous connection I across France, across the Channel, I into the receiving station in England.