Divisional Signals Regiment Organisation 1945

Discussion in 'Royal Signals' started by Bluebell Minor, May 7, 2015.

  1. Bluebell Minor

    Bluebell Minor Junior Member

    Help please, i need to clarify my thoughts on the structure of the Divisional Signals Regiments in North West Europe in 1945 (I suspect those operating with the 8th Army in Italy had a similar organisation).

    At this time the Regiment(s) were a stand alone unit with (unlike later years) had no responsibility for the administration of either the Divisional or subordinate Brigade Headquarters.

    Can anyone confirm the size of the Royal Signals presence in support of the Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Artillery please?

    Am I correct in thinking it was a Royal Signals Divisional Signal Regiment responsibility to provide secure communications up to the relevant Corps Headquarters, down to the subordinate Brigade Headquarters (including the separate Divisional Headquarters Artillery) as follows

    a.Radio Links
    Voice
    Morse

    b.Land lines (with a Royal Signals presence in the relevant civilian Telephone Exchanges.)
    Vice
    Teleprinter

    c.Despatch Riders

    Finally who was responsible for manning the Brigade Command link to the subordinate Teeth Arm units?
     
  2. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    None of the usual suspects answered this one yet?

    If you have a search through the Trux section the relevant Div Sigs War Establishment tables are detailed therein, which will answer a fair few of your queries. There were different WE tables for Inf and Armd Divs;

    II219/1 of Nov 1943, superseded by
    II/229/1 of Mar 1945, both for Inf Div Sigs

    II/213/2 of Apr 1944, superseded by
    II/215/1 of Feb 1945

    My understanding is that Divs Sigs were only designated as Sigs Regts post-war, at which time they adopted Troop and Squadron as the standard subunit titles (previously using Company and Section in Inf Divs and Tp and Sqn in Armd Divs).

    Memory test, without looking at my own notes, Div Sigs were organised as -

    Unit HQ

    HQ Coy or Sqn; Quartermaster Tp/Sec (Q) and Technical Maintenance Tp/Sec (M)
    No.1 Coy or Sqn; Advanced Div HQ Tp/Sec (A), Rear HQ Tp/Sec (B), Cable Tp/Sec (C), Despatch Rider Tp/Sec (D) and Operating Tp/Sec (O), which included the Cipher pers.
    No.2 Coy or Sqn; E, F, & G Tp/Secs (one per Fd Regt), H Tp/Sec (for HQ RA) - In Armd Div no G Tp as only two Fd Regts (one towed and one SP). H Tp/Sec also included sub-Secs for the Atk and LAA Regts.
    No.3 Coy or Sqn; J, K & L Tp/Secs (one per Inf Bde HQ), N Tp/Sec (for HQ RE), P Sec (for Inf Div MG Bn, which was a later development) and R Tp/Sec for the Div Recce Regt - In Armd Div no K & L, as only one Inf Bde and R Tp served the Armd Recce Regt.
    No.4 Sqn; W Tp (for Armd Bde HQ), X, Y & Z Tps (one per Armd Regt) and V Tp for the Motor Bn.

    Indep Armd Bdes used the same org as No.4 Sqn of Armd Div Sigs, less V Tp when there was no Motor Bn.

    Gary
     
  3. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    Caught out by the shortcuts, smiley face wearing sunglasses should just be "B" and copyright symbol just be "C", both in brackets!
     
  4. Bluebell Minor

    Bluebell Minor Junior Member

    Gary

    Many thanks , exactly the information I was searching for (being a relative novice on this site had not thought of looking in the Trux Archives available off this site).
     

Share This Page