What do they do, all those signals people?

     If you have eaten, slept, flown on aircraft or even worked, Signals have had a hand in ordering your food and bed, servicing and controlling your aircraft and passing the orders from the top to the bottom. In short, the Signals service is the nervous system of Grapple - Just how nervous only someone in Signals can say.

     In this isolated spot in the middle of the Pacific we are many days by letter from London. Almost all communication with the outside world is by signal. A signal to London is sent from the Joint Communication Centre over a 3000 mile radio teleprinter line to Melbourne where it is handled by operators detached from Christmas Island, and passed into the Commonwealth Air Force radio teleprinter network. Similarly we are connected with Hickam so that Christmas Island and Hickam can warn each other of the movement of aircraft, mail, bodies and ice-cream.

    Why Joint Communications Centre?   The operation is a joint effort by the three Services and A.W.R.E. The J.C.C. is responsible for signals for all the Task Force. Naval telegraphists form a part of J.C.C., operating the wireless circuit through which the Naval Task Group-Commander controls his ships, and handling messages for H.M.S. "Resolution" and other Naval authorities on the island. Despite this Naval influence, the privileges of tots and beards have not yet been extended to R.A.F. telegraphists.

     In the island itself there is a teleprinter network connecting the J.C.C. with the Airfield and the Port, The Port teleprinter is operated by Naval telegraphists. There is an island-wide telephone system with 5 exchanges, key boards, teletalks and control lines.

     In an operation such as Grapple "Y" everything depends on the weather. The Met. officers, contrary to public opinion, have no crystal ball but base their forecasts on a vast flood of observations from all over the Pacific, from ground stations, ships and aircraft. These reports are received by radio-teleprinter, picture transmission, wireless telegraphy and radio-telephone. On Fanning Island and Malden Island Radio-Sonde  stations send up balloons to observe conditions in the upper air. These observations are passed to Christmas Island over wireless links operated by our Signals detachments on the islands. The Met. office has a vast appetite for information which Signals try to satisfy. There have been rumours at times of indigestion among the Met. forecasters.