A Question About British Field Telephones

[Dave1346]

I have a question about British field telephones. 

If an assaulting unit carried a field telephone, who would the officer who used this phone be speaking to once he picked up the phone to report his unit's progress? Would the phone go to a switchboard or would it go to a brigade or division HQ? 

I recently read part of a memoir about a unit that occupied the first row of German trenches during the Battle of the Somme. After having taken the first row of trenches during the Battle of the Somme, a Canadian regiment met strong resistance from the secondary row of trenches. The regimental commander had a field telephone which was used to call for reinforcements. The reinforcements never arrived because the Germans interdicted the  ability of the Canadians to send reinforcements forward by bombarding no man's land with artillery fire. Having successfully repulsed the assaults of the units on either flank, enfilading fire and repeated assaults from the secondary trenches eventually overwhelmed the Canadians who were forced to surrender. 

Was there a protocol for the use of these phones as there would have been during the 2nd World War. If there was a protocol, what would it have been? Would the unit have had a call sign or would the regimental commander have identified himself by his name or by his regimental number? I would imagine that call signs would not have been needed since the Germans would not have been able to listen in on this conversation since this would have been a direct phone connection. 

I have googled the use of field telephones but have only received information about the phones and handsets. I have not been able to find information as to whether these phones connected to a switchboard or directly to a headquarters unit. I have also not been able to find any information about military protocol for using a field phone. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Chasemuseum]

The fieldphone line would have gone to a signals office at his battalion HQ back behind the start line. It may have been then connected via a switchboard to the switchboard either at Brigade or Divisional HQ. At each point the switches are manned by signallers and copies of the message (date, time, sender, recipient & message) are recoded on an Army Message form. At the recipient end, a copy is taken to the officer designated to receive the messages. 

The process was rigidly defined and had been in use for many decades. It was basically developed around the Crimean War when electric telegraphy was first used for both strategic and tactical communications (and poor communications visibly compromised military actions).

 

 

[Dave1346]

Thank you for your reply. This is precisely what I needed.