APPENDIX II

South African Signal Company (Royal Engineers)

Inception and organisation, August to October 1915

At the start of the war, communications in the Imperial Army were organised by the Signals Branch of the Corps of Royal Engineers. They provided and maintained all communications, which comprised telegraphs, telephones, visual signalling and despatch riders (horse, motorcycle and bicycle). Towards the end of the campaign in German South-West Africa, the Union of South Africa set about raising a Divisional Signal Company to serve overseas.

The raising of this company was entrusted to Major N. Harrison, engineer-in-chief of the Union Post Office, who had acted as director of signals to the Union forces during both the rebellion and the South-West African campaign. The 230 men he assembled in Potchefstroom during August and September 1915 were fully representative of all South Africa: 53.7 per cent were recruited from the Transvaal, 25 per cent from the Cape, 12.7 per cent from Natal, 6.6 per cent from the Orange Free State, and 2 per cent from Rhodesia and various other places.

Skilled telegraphists and linemen from the Union Post Office, the majority of whom had served in South-West Africa, formed the backbone of the company. Drivers were recruited mainly from the farming population, and included many young Afrikaners. Officers were selected from officials of the engineering branch of the post office and electrical engineers from the Witwatersrand.

On 17 October, the company sailed for England on the Kenilworth Castle, with six officers (Major Harrison commanding, and Lieutenants J.A. Dingwall, R.H. Covernton, J. Jack, F.H. Michell and F.M. Ross) and 22 men of other ranks. They arrived at Bordon Camp on 4 November.

Reorganisation and training in England, November 1915 to April 1916

As the South African Infantry Brigade would constitute only one-third of the infantry of an Imperial division, the signal company could not serve with the brigade in the capacity of a divisional signal company as originally planned. The War Office decided to reorganise it into the Corps Signal Company, which would receive the necessary specialised training at the Signal Service Training Centre in Bedfordshire. The company accordingly left for Hitchin on 23 November, and during the next few days was reorganised.

The Corps Signal Company’s task was to provide communications between the headquarters of the army corps and the infantry divisions with their associated divisional field artilleries. In addition, the Corps Signal Company acted as a repair workshop and supply store for the signal material and apparatus required by all units and formations within the corps. It also assisted with signal arrangements and provided electric lighting for corps headquarters. On 17 January 1916, all sections were concentrated in order to continue their training as a company, and were billeted in the small villages of Clifton, Shefford and Broome.

Towards the end of March, the great blizzard of 1916 destroyed much of the post office and railway telegraph systems in the Midlands. All experienced men in the company were called upon to assist with repairs. On 10 April, the company reassembled in Southampton and set sail on the SS Investigator for Le Havre, arriving on the 21st. From there it moved to Vignacourt, a village in the Somme Valley between Abbeville and Amiens, now the headquarters of the newly constituted XV Corps under Lieutenant-General Home. On 23 April, Major Harrison was appointed assistant director of Army Signals and the company became the XV Corps Signal Company. It served with the XV Corps for the remainder of the war.

A few days later, the corps moved into the line between the III and XIII corps, becoming part of the Fourth Army under General Sir H. Rawlinson. It took over the sector fronting Fricourt and Mametz between Bécourt and Carnoy. On 30 April, the XV Corps Signal Company took over from the XIII Corps Signal Company at Heilly, near Corbie. BF and EG sections were sent to join the headquarters in the line of the 7th and 21st divisions, respectively. BF Section later proceeded to Ville-sur-Ancre, where Brigadier-General Napier, commanding the Corps Heavy Artillery, had his headquarters. The section took charge of the heavy artillery’s communications on 27 April.

The Battle of the Somme, July to November 1916

The start of active operations brought the work of the operators and despatch riders at headquarters and with the heavy artillery to a point of extreme pressure, which was maintained with little variation throughout the months that ensued.

Up to 2 000 telegrams, and an even greater number of Despatch Rider Letter Service packets, were received or despatched daily. The telephone exchanges at both corps and heavy-artillery headquarters, with over 60 and 30 connections, respectively, worked hard day and night. The destruction of lines by hostile shelling and traffic was met by the skilful use of alternative routes and by the impressive speed at which the maintenance linemen carried out the repairs.

On 10 July, BG Section, under the command of Lieutenant Covernton, did a notably fine job of laying and maintaining lines through the intense barrages surrounding Mametz Wood. On 14 July, another Allied general assault secured the line along the ridge between Bazentin-le-Petit and Longueval. The memorable struggle of the South African Infantry Brigade for Delville Wood had begun, and over a mile of ground had been gained. The corresponding extension of communications necessarily taxed all sections to their limits. The advanced divisional headquarters moved up to Fricourt Castle, and a 24-wire heavy route was rapidly constructed by the Fourth Army’s signal companies from Méaulte to this point, and thence to Mametz, in readiness for the advance. In addition, the wire light route built by the XV Corps Company was extended by the Air Line Section past Fricourt, up Death Valley, to Mametz Wood. Although the next deep advance was not to occur for another two months, the German artillery had destroyed communication lines back to points thousands of yards from the front, so there were a lot of repairs to be done.

As July wore on, the demand for additional forward communication increased, as did the strength of the hostile fire. It was obvious that no satisfactory communication could be secured beyond Fricourt except by burying cables, and so it was decided to bury 16 pairs of armoured cables from the head of the open route at Mametz to the dug-outs at Pommiers Redoubt, where Brigade Headquarters and divisional report centres were now situated. The work was difficult because of the frequent shelling, but they completed the trench and subsequently extended the cables to Caterpillar Trench. During the comparative lull towards the end of July, the shelling of the Fricourt area became so heavy that, pending the next general attack, the headquarters of the divisions in the line were moved back to Bellevue Farm, between Méaulte and Albert, and the opportunity was at once taken to transfer the Corps Exchange in Fricourt into the dug-outs so vacated.

In anticipation of the great attack on 15 September, the necessary labour was made available for a considerable buried communication system, with the first section of a new cable trench to be constructed from Pommiers Redoubt via the Cosy Corner inn outside Montauban and thence to York Trench, to the left of Longueval. The lines were ready in time for the divisions that had moved headquarters up again to Fricourt and Pommiers Redoubt, with advanced headquarters at York Trench, and also for the heavy artillery, most of whose batteries took positions along the Mametz–Montauban ridge. To cope with the steady forward drift of XV Corps units, and to provide another advance maintenance point, a new Corps Forward Exchange was established at Pommiers.

The attack on 15 September proved highly successful, as over a mile was gained, including the villages of Courcelette, Martinpuich and Flers. The advance rendered urgent a further extension of the cable trench, and a section of trench was dug from York Trench through the corner of Delville Wood to Switch Trench. The digging proved a gruesome task, as Delville Wood and the surrounding area had become one huge graveyard. Liaison lines had grown formidably in numbers. Direct lines were now demanded not only between heavy artillery headquarters and the divisional artillery headquarters in the line, but also between the divisional artilleries and the majority of the heavy artillery groups.

On 25 September, the intermediate German line, including the section in the areas of Morval, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt, succumbed, and the XV Corps once again advanced over a mile. On the following day, the victory was completed by the Fifth Army’s capture of Thiepval. Once again the signal company’s hands were kept full with preparations for moving all headquarters forward. The weather, however, intervened on the Germans’ behalf, and it remained miserably cold and wet. During this period, some heavy batteries of the heavy artillery group headquarters moved up to and in front of Longueval, necessitating the running of many new cable lines. Permanent cable was laid in the second section of the main cable trench up to Longueval, and a third section of trench was dug forward to the sugar works at Factory Corner, near Flers.

At the end of October, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) relieved the XV Corps. As there was then no other Corps Signal Company in France formed from Colonial troops, it looked like the XV Corps Signal Company would be retained in the line with the Anzacs. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when it became known that K Corps Signal Company was to take over. The transition happened gradually, and BE Section, the last to leave the line, did not reach the new headquarters at Long until the middle of November. Orders then came for the XV Corps to take over a portion of the French front in the Péronne sector.

The winter campaign on the Somme, December 1916 to June 1917

The move into the line commenced on 3 December and was completed on the 6th. The cable sections moved with the divisional signal companies: BE and BG at Bray, and BF at Maricourt. Headquarters and the Air Line Section joined XV Corps headquarters at Étinehem, on the right bank of the Somme, a mile or so west of Bray. All sections had a most strenuous time taking over communications as they were released by the French. The corps’s front extended from the XIV Corps boundary on the north at Combles to near Bouchavesnes-Bergen, and ran in front of St Pierre Vaast Wood.

In early January 1917, orders were received for the XV Corps to extend its front to the right, to Cléry, and to hand over a divisional frontage on the left to the XIV Corps. The divisional sectors were taken over successively, and the move was completed by 22 January. Heavy artillery headquarters with BE Section moved to PC Chapeau, and the Corps Forward Exchange at Maricourt was transferred with BF Section to Suzanne. This change of frontage was a nasty blow to the company, as nearly all along the new routes the same work had to be started afresh in the bitter January frosts.

In the meantime, hostile aeroplane activity had caused a rapid increase in the number of anti-aircraft units with batteries and searchlights now dotted over the area, and the installation and maintenance of a separate system of communication for the anti-aircraft defence of the XV Corps area was now added to the company’s duties.

The commencement by the Germans of systematic counter-battery work made it even more difficult to keep the forward lines in continuous operation. A scheme for the forward extension of the buried-communication system was prepared under the greatest transport difficulties. A portion of the material was moved up to Marrières Wood, later the scene of the South African Infantry Brigade’s fine stand in the March retreat, but the frozen ground prevented digging. The 8th Division’s important local attack on Fritz Trench above Bouchavesnes-Bergen on 4 March therefore had to be carried out without the assistance of the new buried communications, and as most of the aboveground cables were cut, the first news of the assaulting troops was brought by pigeon to the corps loft at Étinehem.

The general German withdrawal began on 15 March. The XV Corps Signal Company had to maintain direct contact between the corps staff and the advanced troops. The difficulties were doubled on 25 March by the sudden withdrawal from the line of the XIV Corps on the right and the consequent extension of the already wide XV Corps frontage that now stretched from Péronne to Le Transloy. A lot of heavy material once again had to be relayed forward by teams from the cable sections over tracks impassable to trucks, and finally carried on sappers’ shoulders over shell-shattered ground. Under such handicaps, and in the teeth of continuous blizzards of snow, sleet, and rain, which lasted until the end of April, over 40 miles of poled route was erected, and two successive moves of the corps headquarters completed without any loss of communication.

In early April, the advance reached its limit, held up in front of La Vacquerie and Havrincourt, outlying strong points of the Hindenburg Line. On 17 April, corps headquarters was established near Haute Allaines. During their retreat, the Germans had destroyed all signal communications and the whole of the immense network of communications for stationary warfare had to be reconstituted under continuing supply and transport difficulties. Scarcely was this task underway when orders were received to prepare signal plans for an offensive and to commence the necessary work as early as possible. The position regarding materials was alleviated in May by the organisation of a temporary Corps Signal Salvage Unit, composed of BF Section, a platoon of a labour company, and the necessary horse and motor transport.

Towards the end of May, orders arrived for the XV Corps to hand over operations and proceed to Villers-Bretonneux. The cable sections of the signal company joined various divisions, and at the end of May accompanied them out of the area to unknown destinations. On 3 June, the remainder of the company reached Villers-Bretonneux, where they settled down comfortably. The great and continuing growth in the demands on the signal service had unduly taxed the available personnel, and so a Heavy Artillery Headquarters Signal Section with one officer and 37 other ranks was added to the signal company. At the same time, a signal subsection of one officer and 27 other ranks was formed for each heavy artillery group, and the Signal Section forming part of the headquarters of the South African Infantry Brigade was now affiliated to the company.

In the middle of March, the Corps Signal School was reconstituted at Chipilly, with a separate establishment, and Lieutenant Johnson was seconded as commander with a staff of four sergeant-instructors from the original company. The school continued to function until after the armistice, moving with the corps from point to point.

On 11 June, the XV Corps arrived in Dunkirk and was tasked with taking over the Nieuport sector of the front line, an important stretch running from the sea along the Yser River, which had been held by the French since the First Battle of Ypres. The corps headquarters was established in a casino at Malo-les-Bains, a suburb of Dunkirk.

The Belgian coast and the Battle of the Dunes, June to November 1917

Though for a long period this sector had been quiet, the German artillery concentration on the Yser riverbank opposite was great. The corps headquarters moved to Bray-Dunes on 29 June, but as every approach road was swept by heavy German shell fire, forward communications failed almost at once. It was a most trying day for the signal personnel, as nearly all wire communication was lost in the first two hours and all formations had to fall back on despatch riders and runners. After nightfall, the HA Section staff were forced to move into the sand dunes half a mile to the flank, and temporary cables were run back to the signal office at the Villa Rosarie. Much to their surprise, the German attack did not resume on the following day, and they managed to get the existing lines restored while work on the new communications began. The repairs were difficult and laborious owing to the persistent shelling and the higher water level following August’s wet weather.

Even with sappers from three cable sections – BF, BE and AU Imperial Cable – and two area signal detachments from the Fourth Army, it became impossible to satisfactorily maintain a trench network of 40 miles containing 1 200 miles of cable. The corps headquarters moved to De Panne at the beginning of September and then back to Bray-Dunes.

The Lys area, December 1917 to November 1918

After some frontage readjustments in December, the XV Corps settled down to hold the sector in front of the River Lys, from Houplines to Laventie. In January 1918, the corps headquarters was shifted from Hinges to La Motteau-Bois opposite Nieppe Forest. A decision was made to disband one cable section in each corps, to reduce the strength of the corps Air Line Section to 42 all ranks with one heavy and two light lorries. The surplus personnel would form an additional air line for each corps. BG Section was accordingly converted into the nucleus of the new 91 Air Line Section, to which Lieutenant Dobson was appointed. At the same time, Q Wireless Section became an integral portion of the signal company, and Imperial personnel were rapidly replaced with South Africans.

Russia’s defection made it certain that the Allies would be thrown on the defensive in the spring, and, as the Lys area covered Hazebrouck and the direct route to Calais, it was probable that the sector would become a main front of attack. Ample and secure communications were therefore the first priority, and a complete scheme was prepared on a scale of magnitude and thoroughness that surpassed any previous performance. Work could not commence before 25 January 1918, because the whole of the low-lying Lys Valley was waterlogged due to heavy rains. When work began, often over 1 500 men were employed simultaneously. The corps’s section of the trenches was completed by the beginning of March.

BF Section was employed on another section of the scheme in and around Armentières. It accordingly spent two months securely laying many miles of cable. The new 91 Air Line Section worked on the necessary additions to the open-wire routes extending from the corps headquarters. When the storm finally broke on 9 April 1918, practically all the laid cable had been joined up and was working, and three-quarters of the original scheme had been completed.

By the morning of 10 April, the Germans had forded the river to Estaires. The town was shelled intensely all day, and BE Section’s billet was blown up. Nevertheless, the corps exchange was kept going until late that night by Lieutenant Hill with 51 Air Line and a party of operators from headquarters. In the days that followed, the XV Corps was steadily driven back by the enemy’s push for Hazebrouck. The 29th and 31st divisions, and the 4th Guards Brigade, were successively thrown in, but their desperate fighting only succeeded in slowing the German advance, until the entry into line of the 1st Australian Division on the night of 12 April, when the enemy was finally stopped on the edge of Nieppe Forest. Thereafter, the central battle shifted gradually northwards, to around Kemmel and Messines, while on the XV Corps’s front the battle died down to localised combats. The effort to keep up communications during these days tested everyone to the limit.

When the Germans were finally held up at Kemmel on 28 April, work could commence on the defences at Hazebrouck. During the next few months, successive lines of trenches and belts of wire came into existence, seaming the country as far back as Saint-Omer. In early May, the signal company started work on a buried-cable system. When the advance began, a network of trenches extended across the whole XV Corps’s area for a depth of 13 000 yards and a breadth of 7 000, embodying 30 miles of deep trench and nearly 1 200 miles of pair cable.

The Germans’ decision to evacuate the Lys Salient at the end of August 1918 saw all ranks occupied in the rapid restoration of communications through the devastated area. After the successful attack of the Belgian Army and Second British Army at the end of September, in which the XV Corps cooperated on the right flank, headquarters moved to Saint-Jans-Cappel on 4 October. On 21 October, it moved to Mouvaux, following the rapid retreat of the enemy to the Scheldt River. On this occasion, 91 Air Line and BE Cable sections completed two lines across the Lys to the new headquarters, a distance of nearly 20 miles, in one day.

The signal portion of the preparations to force the passage of the Scheldt occupied the time up to 10 November, but as the enemy retired during the night, and the armistice was proclaimed the following day, they proved unnecessary. The XV Corps was not selected to accompany the advance to the Rhine, and so it fell to BE Section on 12 November to lay the last and farthest forward cable in France – from the Scheldt, crossing at Le Pecq to an observation point on the eastern side.

(All information extracted from John Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1920.)