Gold Beach - 60 Years On

Bedford QLR Group

The Royal Corps of Signals

The Royal Corps of Signals was formed in 1920 from the Royal Engineers Signal Service. The corps was responsible for all types of army communications (radio, wire, teleprinter and telegraph) down to the HQs of armoured regiments, infantry battalions, artillery batteries and similar sized units. Below this level radios, telephones etc, are manned by unit's signallers.

At each level (Army, Corps and Division) there were Royal Signals units of battalion size, commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel and comprising a number of companies (later called squadrons).

The size, equipment and duties of these companies (squadrons) depended upon their role. The signal troop is the basic building block from which all signals units are formed. Signal Troops varied in size from a captain's command with over 100 men, to a handful of men commanded by a sergeant.

 

There were special units too - among them the "Y" service, tasked with the interception of enemy radio traffic, and the direction-finding units, enabling the source of enemy transmissions to be quickly pinpointed and attacked. The work of one such unit led to the destruction of 12 SS Panzer divisions' headquarters and the loss of the divisional commander in late June 1944.

 

QLR at Farnham

"Certa Cito" is the motto of the Royal Corps of Signals - Swift and Sure. The corps colours are green, dark blue and light blue - said to signify "overland, by sea and in the air" - a tribute to the ubiquity of the Corps from its formation up to the early 21 st Century.

 

The Bedford QLR group, a re-enactment group based in the south of England but having members all over England, is representing the Royal Corps of Signals at the event. You may expect to see them engaged in radio communication to and from their UK base, and providing line communication to the whole event.

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