43 (Wessex) Signal Regiment was a Territorial Army (TA) unit of the British Army's Royal Corps of Signals from 1920. It had its origins in a Volunteer unit of the Royal Engineers formed in the West Country in 1860 and provided the communications for the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division during World War II. Its successor still serves as a squadron in today's Army Reserve.

Origin

This unit originated as part of the 1st Devonshire and Somersetshire Royal Engineers (Volunteers) formed in 1860. When the Volunteers were subsumed into the Territorial Force as part of the Haldane reforms in 1908, the Devonshire and Somersetshire unit was split up: most of the Devonshire personnel went to form the Devonshire Fortress Royal Engineers at Plymouth, while the Somerset contingent provided the Wessex Divisional Engineers at Bath and Weston-super-Mare. The Wessex Divisional Telegraph Company was part of the Divisional RE but was based separately at Exeter in Devonshire, with the following organisation:Nalder, Appendix 4, p. 597.Lord & Watson, pp. 151–2.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 11.Westlake, p. 13.London Gazette, 20 March 1908Monthly Army List.

Wessex Divisional Telegraph Company HQ and No 1 Section at The Priory, Colleton Crescent, ExeterExeter at the Drill Hall Project. No 2 (Devon and Cornwall) Section attached to the Devon and Cornwall Brigade No 3 (South Western) Section attached to the South Western Brigade No 4 (Hampshire) Section attached to the Hampshire Brigade

Nos 2–4 Sections were largely manned by infantry from the brigades to which they were attached. The divisional telegraph companies were termed signal companies from 1910.

World War I

On 29 July 1914, the Wessex Division was on Salisbury Plain carrying out its annual training camp when 'precautionary orders' were received, and next day the division took up emergency war stations in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The order to mobilise arrived on the evening of 4 August. Between 10 and 13 August, the division concentrated on Salisbury Plain, with divisional HQ moving from Exeter to Tidworth, to begin war training.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 43–8.43rd (1st Wessex) Division at Long, Long Trail. On 24 September, at the special request of the Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, the Wessex Division accepted liability for service in British India to relieve the Regular Army units there to go to the Western Front. The division's infantry and artillery embarked on 8 October and reached India in November. The engineers, transport, and other support units remained in the UK. The Wessex Division never saw service as a whole, though it was formally numbered the 43rd (1st Wessex) Division in 1915.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 34. As soon as the Wessex Division had left for India, the home depots began raising 2nd Line units, distinguished from the 1st Line by a '2/' prefix. Recruitment and training of the 2nd Wessex Division proceeded so well that it was also sent to India in December 1914, and later received the notional title of 45th (2nd Wessex) Division. Once again, the RE and support units were left behind in the UK.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 55–60.45th (2nd Wessex) Division at Long, Long Trail.

On 20 November 1914, the 1st Wessex Divisional RE joined 27th Division, which was being assembled mainly from the Regular Army units returning from Indian garrisons. The signallers became 27th (Wessex) Divisional Signal Company and went to France in December 1914, the first complete TF signal company sent to the Western Front.Becke, Pt 1, pp. 97–103.27th Division at Long, Long Trail.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 31. 27th Division served on the Western Front for almost a year, taking part in the Second Battle of Ypres. On 17 November the division embarked from Marseille for the Macedonian front.

Apart from some raiding, 27th Division's only offensive actions were from 30 September to 4 October 1916 when it attacked across the River Struma to capture some villages, and some failed attacks on Tumbitza Farm in November and December.Wakefield & Moody, pp. 99–118. Little happened on the British part of the Macedonian front. 27th Division spent almost two years in the malarial Struma Valley, the only significant action occurring when the division took part in the capture of Homondos on 14 October. The front became active again in September 1918 when the Allies began the final offensive and 27th Division was engaged in the capture of the Roche Noire Salient, followed by the passage of the Vardar and pursuit to the Strumica, Valley. After the Armistice of Salonica ended hostilities on the Macedonian front, 27th Division embarked for the Black Sea in December 1918, reaching Batum by the end of January. The force was part of the British intervention in the complex situation of independent regimes that had emerged in the Caucasus region following the collapse of the Russian and Ottoman Turkish empires. Detachments of the division were scattered across the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Democratic Republic of Georgia and First Republic of Armenia. British troops began to withdraw in August 1919 and 27th Division was disbanded between 7 and 24 September after handing over to an Inter-Allied force at Batum.

The 2/1st Wessex Divisional RE joined 58th (2/1st London) Division, the signallers becoming 58th (2/1st Wessex) Divisional Signal Company, and went with it to the Western Front in January 1917. It was engaged in the operations during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich) and in the Third Battle of Ypres. The division was heavily engaged in the German spring offensive of 1918 and then the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Battle of Amiens, in which the division was engaged in bitter fighting for the Chipilly spur. During the final advance, the division also distinguished itself at the Battle of Épehy. Demobilisation began after the Armistice with Germany in November 1918, and by March 1919 the various HQs of the diminishing division were merged into a single division group. The last units left France at the end of June 1919.Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 9–15.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 36.Martin.

Interwar In 1920, the RE Signal Service became the independent Royal Corps of Signals (RCS). The 43rd (Wessex) Divisional Signals reformed at The Priory, The Friars, Exeter, in the Territorial Army (TA), which replaced the TF in 1921. The unit was commanded by Major (later Lt-Col) Godwin Michelmore, and recruited from Exeter, Plymouth, Southampton and Salisbury. It also administered a number of other TA signal units in its divisional area:Lord & Watson, p. 244. 223rd Field Artillery Signal Section at 2 Redcliffe Parade, Bedminster, Bristol, later Southampton 224th Field Artillery Signal Section at Hamilton House, Connaught Road, Southampton 228th Field Artillery Signal Section at The Priory, The Friars, Exeter 250th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Signal Section at Exeter, forming 1939

Willey's Cadet Company of the Devonshire (Fortress) RE was also affiliated to the unit.

World War II Mobilisation When the TA was doubled in size in early 1939 after the Munich Crisis, the division once again formed a duplicate, 45th Division, for which the signals split to form 45th (West Country) Divisional Signals under the command of Lt-Col A.F.S. Fane, previously commanding officer (CO) of 43rd Divisional Signals.

Organisation

In 1939, the organisation of an infantry divisional signal unit and the attachments of its subunits were as follows:Lord & Watson, pp. 262, 314. HQ Company Q Section – quartermasters M Section – maintenance No 1 Company – Divisional HQ A & C Sections – wireless B Section – cable D Section – despatch riders and cipher section O Section – operating No 2 Company – divisional artillery E, F & G Sections – individual artillery regiments H Section – HQ divisional artillery No 3 Company – infantry brigades, reconnaissance and RE R Section – reconnaissance battalion J, K & L Sections – individual infantry brigades

When there was an attached army tank brigade: No 4 Company W Section – army tank brigade X, Y & Z Sections – individual tank regiments As the war progressed, divisional signals was enlarged to cover the divisional radio telephony (R/T) and wireless telephony (W/T) nets, divisional administrative services, rear communications for brigade HQs, divisional tactical HQ, and air communications.

43rd (Wessex) Divisional Signals Home Defence

The TA was mobilised on the outbreak of war and 43rd (Wessex) Division began training in its home area. It was intended to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, but the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May ended the 'Phoney War' before the division was ready.Collier, Map 5. When the Battle of France was lost and the BEF was being evacuated from Dunkirk, 43rd (W) Division was one of the few reasonably well-equipped formations left in Home Forces. It formed part of the mobile GHQ Reserve disposed on the line from Northampton through North London to Aldershot, from which brigade groups could be despatched to any threatened area. During the period when invasion was most threatened, the division was stationed just north of London.Collier, Chapter VII.Collier, Map 6.Collier, Map 17.

By the end of 1940, the division was stationed under XII Corps in East Kent, where it remained for the next four years, first in defensive mode, later training intensively. It was later noted that its habitual training area round Stone Street, outside Folkestone, bore a marked resemblance to the Bocage countryside in Normandy where it would later fight.Joslen, pp. 69–70.Collier, Map 20.Collier, Map 27.Essame, 2–3. Signals exercises to practise all HQs and staffs were frequent. The divisional commander, Maj-Gen Ivor Thomas, was often heard over the radio net: 'He had a voice which seemed able to blast its way through interference from wireless programmes, Fighter Command operations, other formations' activities, and even the worst splutterings and explosions of the wireless sets of the period'. The divisional history stresses the high level of efficiency achieved by the divisional signals during this long period of hard training.Essame, pp. 5, 8–9.

In June 1942, the division was reorganised as a 'Mixed' division, first 25th and later 34th Army Tank Brigade replacing one of the infantry brigades, with the consequent reorganisation of the signals units. This organisation was abandoned in September 1943 when the third infantry brigade was reinstated.Essame, p. 4.Joslen, pp. 203, 207.

Operation Overlord XII Corps and 43rd (W) Division was assigned to 21st Army Group for the Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord). They were follow-up formations, with 43rd (W) Division scheduled to complete its landings 14 days after D Day (D +14, 20 June). However, shipping delays and a storm between 19 and 22 June delayed its arrival; the division finally concentrated round Bayeux on 24 June.Essame, pp. 15–7. Its first action, Operation Epsom starting on 26 June, involved following 15th (Scottish) Division's advance and securing the captured objectives, which included some heavy fighting against a Panzer counter-attack at Cheux. The division later captured Mouen, then dug in to defend the bridgehead over the River Odon against counter-attacks.Ellis, Normandy, pp. 279–86.Essame, pp. 20–34.Saunders, Epsom, pp. 87–9, 143–9.

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