Evening star., 1942-11-15

e silk" ready for action as soon
Photos By q. .. Army sisnal Corps.
woods. His job Is to handle his unit,
tactically and as individuals. Strategy
can be left to the men with stars on their
shoulders.
Leave the job Of fighting the war to
these men and they'll do all right All
the typewriter strategists" and civilian
comments won't win yard of ground.
But these men getting ready to shove
off "for another post" will. That "other
post" may be Ireland, or Africa, or
Guadalcanal. But wherever it is the
men want to get there and start fighting.
They want to get to grips with the
enemy.
The overall picture, as saw 1t in the
Southwest, is that the Army can be relied
on to do its job. And the scope of that
job, the grand picture would inspire any
American.
1t is vast. so vast any one who sees only
segments fails to grasp the whole pic.
ture. But the segments do hint at thD
final picture of victory.
Coordination of Forces.
Part Of the success of the Germans In
Poland. France, Russia and Greece
stemmed from complete coordination Of
all units: ground and air. and in main
tenance of complete communications
network covering all operational phases.
The Army of the United States has gone
beyond that Of Germany or any other
nation in development of communica-
tions, and in coordination of attack by
ground and air.
Signal Corps, naturally, is the element
handling communications, and the Sig
nal Corps has learned plenty in summer
maneuvers now nearing an end in the
Southwest. 1t has learned lessons in the
field that cannot be taught in classrooms.
You don't, for tactical purposes, I'M
agine that Battalion x is on hilltop or
In swamp 300 yards from River z. You
have to know, for if artillery commences
pumping shells into its own ground
forces some ones head is going to fall
back In, the cP (Army for command
post).
You don't, If you happen to be in an
Air Corps dive bombing mission, or
ground strafing job. drop packages Of
death on your own troops or shoot EN-
up with machine guns. You have to
know where they are, just as patrol units
have to know where the enemy Is and
commanders have to know where the
enemy patrols are, and where their own
advanced lines are.
It's the job Of the Signal Corps to
transmit this. They use every element Of
communication. field telephones. radio,
visual signals and everything that will
tell the command where the fighting is
going on. Considering an Army unit as
the human body, and the attack troops
as the fist, with unit command as the
brain, communications becomes the
nerves, the signal apparatus which trans
mits signals to the brain, which in turn
moves the muscles controlling the fist.
The fist, OF course, may be aviation, in
fantry, tanks or artillery. It may also
be Medical Corps, or service unit trans
porting ammunition to the front lines.
It may be any military unit but first the
nerve center-the communications net
work-must transmit intelligence.
How Signal Corps Works.
The Signal Corps Of the Army Of the
United States is geared to do all this.
Specially equipped trucks, carrying heavy
spools Of wire, have strung a web Of
telephone communications all over West
ern Louisiana. An isolated CP deep in
the woods is in constant communication
with brigade and regimental headquar-
ters through pigeon" posts scattered
through the brush.
pigeon" in Army language, is
message center. Usually they maintain
liaison by wire or radio, but sometimes
they use carrier pigeons, If they happen
to have fixed base. Telephone trucks,
flinging wire from long pole stuck out
on the fender, can lay wire at a speed
of about 20 miles an hour. That is where
your copper is going, and don't grippe
about it. It's necessary to save the life
of that boy you admire.
Paralleling other roads you'll see mile
on mile of multiple wire networks strung
on standardized wooden forms. You
could pick up an Army phone 100 miles
away from the combat zone where $4,000
troops are learning the how of battle