Corps Headquarters moved to La Panne at the beginning of September; but the location had evidently been given away by a spy, as it was heavily shelled by a long range gun a fortnight later, and consequently retransferred to Bray-Dunes. Though as the autumn drew on activity in the sector died down, all ranks had reason to welcome the relief of the Corps by the XXXVI. French Corps that commenced on the 19th November. On the 20th the Headquarters of the Company, under Captain Dingwall, who had been acting as A.W. Signals since September during Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison’s absence on sick leave, moved to Hinges near Béthune, and commenced to take over from the XI. Corps—then under orders for Italy—a sector between Béthune and Armentières.
After some readjustments of frontage in December, the XV. Corps settled down to hold the sector in front of the Lys, from Houplines to Laventie, with the Portuguese Corps on the right and the Anzac Corps on the left. In January 1918 Corps Headquarters were shifted from Hinges to La Motte-aux-Bois in front of the Forest of Nieppe, and Heavy Artillery, with the H.A. and B.E. sections, to Estaires, where 51 Air Line was already established. A further reorganization of the Company now took place. As cable sections rarely, if ever, performed the mobile work for which their horse transport was provided, the decision was reached to disband one cable section in each Corps, to reduce the strength of the Corps air line section to forty-two all ranks with one heavy and two light lorries, and with the surplus personnel so accruing form an additional air line for each Corps. B.G. 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 was taken over by Lieutenant McArthur, with 2nd Lieutenant FitzGeorge as second officer, the Imperial personnel being rapidly replaced by South Africans. A second officer was also authorized for the Heavy Artillery Section, and Lieutenant M. Cohen, who had been attached to a brigade of the 8th Division since his arrival from England in November 1917, was appointed.
The communications here were such as would serve on a thinly held and lightly shelled front. Buries were few and becoming inefficient with age; the light open-wire routes which formed the bulk of the communication were run close up to the front line. The defection of Russia made it certain that the Allies would be thrown on the defensive in the spring; and as the Lys 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, a first necessity, and a complete scheme was prepared on a scale of magnitude and thoroughness which surpassed any previous performance. All trenches were to be seven feet deep and carry no less than thirty pairs of wires.
Work could not be commenced before the 25th January, owing to the whole Lys Valley, which is very low lying, becoming water-logged by heavy rain. At first the labour available was very limited, owing to the urgent demands for defence works in the battle zone, and for the construction and wiring of a new emergency line of five trenches on the north bank of the river. Early in February the labour position improved, and frequently over one thousand five hundred men were employed simultaneously. The sappers had a strenuous time, and, but for the assistance of a party from the Corps Cyclists, who by long association with Signals had become relatively skilled, could not have kept up the pace. By unremitting effort the Corps Section of the trenches was completed by the beginning of March, and a portion of the work originally assigned to divisions taken over.
While the other sections were so engaged, B.F. was employed on another section of the scheme in and around Armentières itself. In this town a considerable underground sewer system existed, and though not comparable with the underways of Arras, yet these sewers proved extremely valuable as affording ready-made covered ways for cable. B.F. accordingly spent two months in laying securely many miles of cable. The new 91 Air Line Section meanwhile pushed on the necessary additions to the open-wire routes forward from Corps Headquarters. Hostile artillery activity began to increase considerably in March, and about the middle of the month became so marked that from this and other symptoms an immediate attack was expected. This cut off the supply of labour, but the sappers were busier than ever in bringing the cables already laid into use by temporary joints, without waiting for the construction of the test dug-outs.
This alarm proved for the time false, the offensive commencing instead on the Third and Fifth Army fronts on the 21st March. The immediate effect was the withdrawal of all the divisions in the Corps, and their replacement with exhausted divisions from the south—the 34th and 40th—who naturally could provide no labour. The greatest anxiety was now felt lest the communication should not be finished in time, and work was rushed day and night. With the assistance of the Corps Cyclists temporary sandbagged test points were erected where the concrete work was still lacking, and when the storm finally broke on the 9th April practically all cable laid had been joined up and was working, and three-quarters of the original scheme had been completed.
The attack began at 4.30 a.m. with an intense bombardment extending back to and beyond the river, followed by an infantry assault about 7 a.m., which immediately broke through the Portuguese on the Corps right. There were no reserves available to man effectively the new line dug on the northern bank, and during the afternoon the enemy crossed at Bac St. Maur, and by 7 p.m. had forced our firing line back behind the signal test point at Croix de Bac. Communications had held well so far; the 34th Division was still maintaining its ground on the left round Armentières, and there was hope of an immediate restoration of the situation by counter-attack. The lineman at this point—Corporal Shepherd of the H.A. section—was, therefore, instructed not to destroy the lines, but to leave them all through, and fall back on the next test point. He did so, but omitted to put through one of the lines. On ascertaining this when he reached H.A. headquarters, he voluntarily returned and managed to re-enter the dug-out, which was now in No Man’s Land, and put the line through. Though this dug-out passed into the enemy’s hands during the night, and after a temporary reversal of fortune again next morning, direct communication from Corps headquarters to troops in Armentières was maintained over the cables passing through it till afternoon on the following day, when the evacuation of the town began.
By next morning the Germans had forced the river to Estaires. This town had been intensely shelled all day, and B.E. Section billet was blown up early in the morning. Nevertheless, the Corps Exchange was kept going till a late hour that night by Lieutenant Hill with 51 Air Line and a party of operators from the Headquarters section.
During the following days, the 10th, 11th, and 12th, the Corps was steadily driven back by the heavy thrust made by the enemy 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 the 12th, when the enemy was finally brought to a stop on the edge of the Nieppe Forest. Thereafter the storm centre shifted gradually to the northward round Kemmel and Messines, while on the Corps front the battle died down to local combats.
The effort to keep up communications during these days tested every one to the limit. Units were changing location like figures in a kaleidoscope, and nearly the whole of the existing system of lines had passed into the enemy’s hands. However, by the most strenuous efforts, touch was maintained throughout the retreat, and the good work done was recognized by the Corps commander; for in a letter addressed to Colonel Harrison, he conveyed his appreciation of the work carried out by all ranks of the Company during the recent operations. He added that he realized that, owing to the untiring energy and devotion to duty shown by all ranks, a very high standard of communication was maintained, and thanked all for the efforts made and the results achieved. The general commanding the Heavy Artillery also made reference in a special order of the day to the particularly good work done by the H.A. Signal Section, under Lieutenant Collins, in the following words:—
“That the Heavy Artillery was able to cover the whole Corps front with its fire during each day, and to withdraw to fresh positions each night, testifies also to the excellence of the staff work—especially in connection with telephonic communication.”
On the 11th Corps Headquarters fell back to Wardrecques, between St. Omer and Hazebrouck, leaving an advanced Signal Office at La Motte until the evening of the 12th. During the next few days it became evident that the front was established again—at any rate temporarily—and the work of restoring the normal network of communication at once commenced, at first with great shortage of material, as all forward signal dumps had been captured.
Captain Dingwall, whose health had suffered under the continuous strain in France, now left the Company to join L Signal Battalion, and was replaced by Captain Ross, who was relieved of the Heavy Artillery Section by Lieutenant Collins. Lieutenant Hill took up duty at headquarters, and Lieutenant McArthur left the Wireless Section for 51 Air Line.
At this time also Lieutenant-General Sir J. P. Ducane was summoned to replace Sir Henry Rawlinson on the Versailles Council, and the XV. Corps was henceforward commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir B. de Lisle. The departure of General Ducane was much regretted by the Company, as he had always taken a close interest in communications, and showed keen appreciation of the work done, as is shown by the following extract from a letter written by him to Colonel Harrison after the termination of hostilities:—
“In the many bright spots of the XV. Corps, I have always maintained, and always will maintain, that the Signal Service was far away the best Signal Service of any other organization in France. Not only was there a very thorough grasp of the work, but always—what was so pleasant to find—there was a desire to go out of your way to help. It is with the greatest pleasure that I write to say how much I always appreciate having the South African Signal Company in the XV. Corps. They were not only highly efficient in all departments of this work, but I can honestly say they were the most energetic, hard-working, well-disciplined, and courteous body of men that I have come across in my experience of the Army.
“I always felt in dealing with you that nothing was ever too much trouble for you or your men, and that no matter how exacting the demands made upon you—and they were often very heavy indeed—no effort would be spared to carry them through successfully. Never were we let down during the most trying times—on the Somme, on the coast, or on the Lys. During the enemy’s attack on the Lys in April 1918, the truly remarkable way in which all our communications held out for three days, till we were compelled to abandon La Motte, greatly facilitated the exercise of the command of the Corps during those difficult days, and was an eloquent testimony of the thoroughness and skill with which the work of preparation had been carried out.”
The final holding up of the Germans at Kemmel on the 28th April made it possible to commence effective work on the defences at Hazebrouck, and during the next few months successive lines of trenches and belts of wire came into existence, and seamed the country as far back as St. Omer. The Company’s share in these preparations was work on a buried cable scheme which started early in May, and gradually developed as labour and material were obtainable, until, when the advance began, a network of trenches extended across the whole Corps area for 13,000 yards in depth and 7,000 in breadth, embodying thirty miles of seven-foot deep trench and nearly 1,200 miles of pair cable. This work, though never tested by another offensive, was of great value during the prolonged artillery duel which followed the Battle of the Lys. The open-wire routes were continuously shelled or bombed down, for in this sector, as on the coast, aeroplane bombing was a nightly event.
The series of successful minor operations carried out by the Corps in July and August, including the capture of Méteren, and the devastating effect of our superior and incessantly active artillery, no doubt quickened the German decision to evacuate the Lys salient. This evacuation commenced at the end of August, and thenceforward all ranks were occupied in the rapid restoration of communications through the devastated area, now as broad as the old Somme battlefield. An attempt was made to utilize the old buries laid down by the XV. and other Corps before the retreat; but these were too effectively destroyed by the enemy to admit of rapid restoration.
After the successful attack of the Belgian and Second British Armies at the end of September, in which the XV. Corps co-operated on the right flank, headquarters were moved to St. Jans-Cappel on the 4th October, and on the 21st, to Mouvaux, near Tourcoing, following the rapid retreat of the enemy to the Scheldt. On this occasion a fast piece of work was done by 91 Air Line and B.E. Cable Section, two lines being completed across the Lys to the new headquarters—a distance of nearly twenty miles—in one day.
The Signal portion of the preparations for forcing the passage of the Scheldt filled the period up to the 10th November; but as the enemy retired during the night, and the Armistice was proclaimed the following day, they proved unnecessary.
The Corps was not selected to accompany the advance to the Rhine, and so it fell to the lot of B.E. Section on the 12th to lay the last and farthest forward cable in France, from the Scheldt, crossing at Pecq to an observation point on the eastern side.