But the signallers had some advantages that the Staff hadn’t, and one was that they could arrange spells of duty and at least have a certain time off for rest and sleep.
Telephone wires ran into it from all directions, and there were several signallers sitting about cooking over braziers or, if actually on duty, sitting motionless beside their instruments.
The signallers packed up their instruments and prepared to go home.
Trenches, however, crammed with sleeping infantry, over whom one had to step, and under whom the signallers had to pass their line!
The party consisted of two officers and fourteen signallers and linesmen from the Brigade, who, during the past fortnight, had received full instructions as to their duties.
Great pains were taken to carry out everything to the letter, and the signallers also carried out their part with equal spirit.
For instance, the signallers were able to introduce electric light into our abode by tapping a live wire which ran outside, from one fosse to the next, for we were now in the Lens coal district with mines dotted about here and there.
The signallersfollow in his footsteps, staggering along under the weight of a large reel of wire.
The wire was frequently broken in numerous places, and this kept signallers and linesmen working at high pressure to repair the damage.
Our own signallers had been out early, and a wire had already been carefully laid and labelled from our gun position to the O.
In the Tahiti it leaked out before it was officially announced; and the poor signallers were blamed in consequence.
AJP tackline J," the Skipper would roar; and two of the signallers would fall over each other in a hurried attempt to get it all tied together.
Towards four o'clock the heads awoke from their siestas, and the signallers were kept busy.
It took the fleet five days to steam the length of the Red Sea; good days too, with cooling northerly breezes to air the stuffy horse decks, though the chill nights made the signallers shiver on watch.
Between noon and one o'clock the signallers were usually fairly busy while latitudes and longitudes were hoisted and the staff disposed of the last of the morning's work.
The Signallers had a thankless task in trying to keep their lines repaired.
In this miniature moving warfare, the Signallers found their task more entertaining than it had hitherto been.
Hill, Signalling Officer, who had gone on ahead with a few Signallers for that purpose.
Signallers and linesmen had a particularly rough time, and lines were down almost continuously.
So far the scene had been clear in every detail, but now as the day advanced, the dust from advancing batteries, the smoke and mirage, formed a fog of war that telephones and signallers could only in part dispel.
The left company lost two signallers killed, and the next company had four signallers all wounded in the act of calling for more ammunition.
The signallers practised from them, and they were used by the visual training experts.
The pits which had been dug on either side of the road to shelter the signallers had been filled in.
It did not take long to instal the instrument, and, leaving one of the signallers in charge of the new station, the party retraced its steps and got back to Headquarters shortly before midnight to report communication established.
F12 with a couple of his Headquarters signallers to run the line across.
Lewis gunners, cooks, doctor, sanitary men, signallers and all kinds of specialists the problem is far more complicated, and the loading officer has usually made a large number of enemies before the day is over.
In spite, however, of the heaviest shelling the signallersnever allowed a break to go unmended, and they were continually out under heavy fire repairing the damage.
I then reported the matter to the Chief Signalling Officer, who told me that whatever lights I had seen were not made by our people, as none of the signallers were out on duty that night.
His cabin is next the signallers and he could not get to sleep.
Our naval and military signallers were at sixes and sevens.
They had never noticed it in their night watches there; presumably the signallers were at work for the first time, or perhaps the direct rays were masked, and the light was visible only at a higher elevation.
A lot of stuff was coming over, shrapnel and high explosive, but the Gurkhas were so taken up with their little joke of scaring the signallersthat the nearer the burst the better they were pleased.
The signallers wisely lay "doggo" until one of the Gurkhas appeared at the door of the dug-out and gave the whole show away by a too expansive grin.
Dane John was generally tenanted by signallers or other specialists.
By the end of the canal were two deep concrete dug-outs, both small and damp, and in one of these the signallers and in the other the Company Commander were to be found.
An innovation, always adopted in future, was made by the dispatch of signallersinto the line ahead of the battalion, thus ensuring the proper take-over of signal stations throughout the sector in the ample time at their disposal.
Surgham was quite a big one, and the signallers soon took possession of it, flagging and "helioing" back to camp.
Flag-signallers were preparing for work at the place where the day before helios had been busy flashing news from gunboats and cavalry to the headquarters.
The first who jump into the ditch, at half-past ten at night, are volunteers: the two signallers of whom I have spoken, who are going to restore communications.
The fort was no longer isolated: the two signallers who went off the previous evening had succeeded in their task.
But when night has fallen, two signallers leap into the ditch: they are going to restore the communications.
Signallers were at work in all directions, and those who watched the progress of the action found the next two hours full of exciting moments.
A few minutes later, having ascertained the extent of the attack, our signallers opened communication with Higher Irlam, and the information was conveyed on to Barton, whence the heliograph flashed the news down to Stretford.
It is impossible to imagine what we should have done without runners, signallers or batmen, to say nothing of the food.
On one small Field Day the Signallers with their flags turned out as Tanks, and we practised everything as realistically as possible.
Battalion Headquarters lived in a very small cellar--mess and office below, clerks and signallers and runners on the stairs.
The 4th Lincolnshires and Monmouthshires followed, and we moved up towards the front line so as to be ready if required, and at the same time a party of our Signallers went forward to lay a line to the newly captured position.
In three hours afterwards the signallers on the top of the hill waved us word that the road was passable, and we started for a climb of a clear two thousand five hundred feet.
This light can be seen at a very great distance, and two or three parties of signallers placed upon hill-tops could convey an order a distance of fifty miles in a very few minutes.
Anthony of the Battalion Signallers who from an advanced point in the line established visual communication with Brigade Headquarters, his station subsequently proving of great value to the supporting artillery.
Randall and Heyes and a few signallers followed in the attack, communication with Headquarters being maintained by a running wire all the way.
On the 12th August three signallers of the Battalion, the first other ranks to proceed on active service, left for the Dardanelles attached for duty to H.
Bailleul, and the Battalion signallers having run a wire to the guns from Bird Post, the gunners settled down to a little sniping.
The excellent work performed by signallers and runners, all of whom had a hard day's work, were of incalculable value to Battalion Headquarters, and enabled Lieut.
Training was now resumed in the mornings, and the observers practised sending and receiving messages with four signallers of the 7th N.
At first the party consisted of one officer and nine trained observers: but later on it was increased by the inclusion of signallers and one or two additional men.
Odell on several occasions gave me most valuable assistance with his signallers and orderlies.
Eventually the message is received and the flags on the hill top disappear as the signallers hasten to catch up with their party.
Lyte, however, is equal to the occasion, and calls to the reading signallers "Tell the fool to semaphore!
He told me how he was sent up with some signallers to keep touch with his company, who had gone forward in the attack at Monchy in the darkness before daybreak on the morning of May 3.
Many telephone wires were down also just after the gale, and the signallers had a rough windy time in getting them up again.
He was not heard from again for two hours and a half, and in that time he had organized his clerks and batmen and signallers and driven out a party of Germans who had worked out round No Man's Land and thrust a wedge behind him.
The headquarters of the brigade was having a hard time under intense shell-fire, and had lost many signallers and runners.
In the same troop signallers were at work sending and receiving messages.
One of thesignallers was heard plaintively to remark as we waited, 'What 'ave we done to deserve all this?
The Brigade Signallers were busy putting up directions everywhere for the Bucks, who were to take over the left of our line: and new maps were issued to come into use at midnight.
All wires were cut, but were promptly repaired by the Company Signallers in the heat of the bombardment.
Of my runners and signallers I was especially proud, and at Company Headquarters there was, of course, the redoubtable Sergeant-Major Brooks, who besides being a great fighter possessed also high organising powers.
The Company Sergeant-Major, a few signallers and some runners were his familiars, and he lived with and among these faithful men.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "signallers" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
