page_title: 1st Lancashire Engineers
section_title: Organisation
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Lancashire Engineers / World War II / Eighth Army Signals / Organisation
caption_attribution_description: English: The British Army in Italy, April 1944 The 'Signal Lineman'. Signalman A Johnson of P Line Section (No 1) Company, 8th Army Signals, with a role of wire at the main headquarters of the Eighth Army in the San Angelo area of Italy. Signalman Johnson, a former bus conductor from Mill Hill, left England for Egypt in February 1942. He served with the Eighth Army in Egypt until Mareth, then went to Sicily, and has been in Italy since October 1943.
context_page_description: The 1st Lancashire Engineer Volunteer Corps was a Volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers, first raised in 1860. It went on to spin off a unit of fortress engineers and provided a signals training centre during World War I. Its successor units provided signal support for West Lancashire Territorial Army formations in the early stages of World War II, and for Eighth Army HQ during the Second Battle of El Alamein, the advance to Tunis, invasion of Sicily and through Italy, ending the war in Austria. Postwar successor units have continued in the TA and Army Reserve to the present day.
context_section_description: In 1939–1945 an Army Signal unit had the following organisation:
  HQ
  1 Company – for construction
  two line-laying sections
  one line maintenance section
  2 Company – operating and maintenance
  teletype section
  wireless section
  messenger section
  technical maintenance section
  3 Company – operating and maintenance
  teletype section
  wireless section
  messenger section
  technical maintenance section
  By 1944 such was the volume of signal traffic that Army Signals had to be divided into two units, one for Main Army HQ and one for Rear Army HQ.
caption: Signalman A. Johnson of P Line Section, No 1 Company, 8th Army Signals in Italy , April 1944.
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