WORK OF "SIGS"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 167, 13 October 1941, Page 6

WORK OF "SIGS"

COMMUNICATION UNITS

BUSY IN MANOEUVRES

The work of signallers in cstab-

lisliing and maintaining communication between units in the held is highly important during action. Upon the speedy and accurate transmission of a message or an order may depend llie success of a largescale operation.

This was borne out in Ihe recent manoeuvres of a New Zealand infantry brigade, "when signallers were given practical experience of desert conditions in relaLion to their particular job. Signal personnel were kept busy for a few daj T s while infantry and cavalry attacks were carried out with the support of artillery. Wireless telephone communication was used extensive!} 7 , but cables were laid to unils which were likely to be stationary for any length of time.

A hard-worked* dust-covered group of men in Ihe desert are the despatch riders. Roaring over rocky ground or through soft sand in a swirl of dust, these men perform amazing feats of motor-cycling as part of their daily work. The motorcycle slithers and slides and jolts and bounces, but the Don-Ar has no time to consider his personal comfort. Helmeted and goggled, he holds the cycle to its course with steel-like arms, using his feet like a speedway rider to clicck slides in the loose surface.