The Motor Air-Line Section was a mobile unit of the Corps of Royal Engineers’ Signal Service. Its job was to erect and maintain telephone signal wires strung onto overhead poles.
The following information is from “War Establishments of the New Armies”, a War Office publication of 1915.
The standard Section was arranged into two detachments, each equipped with two large 30-hundredweight lorries and five miles of air-line signal wire to erect.
The Sections were numbered and were normally placed under command of the Signal Company of a Corps Headquarters.
Background
From “Work of the RE in the European War, 1914-19: The Signal Service (France)“. This book is freely available to download from the internet and is recommended reading for greater understanding of signals technology and organisation.
“In the forward areas, where, until December, 1914, poled, ground and trench cable reigned supreme, two factors were soon to exercise a decisive effect. The first—the shortage of cable—already foreshadowed
in the autumn of 1914, and now a very important fact, brought about the erection of the bare wire routes to which the name “Comic Airline” was given. The second—the growing intensity of the enemy’s artillery fire—gave rise to the buried cable system which was to be the main feature of forward line communication in
1916 and 1917.”
“Poles were to be had for the cutting, and it occurred to zealous officers that an ample supply of iron and wire bobbin insulators could be salved from the towns and villages of the evacuated zones. This was no sooner thought of than carried out. Before the end of December, construction was in full swing in several Corps and in
the early months of 1915 this improvised airline had assumed a definite importance in the area between Corps and Brigade headquarters. A certain unprofessional appearance was characteristic of the routes when compared with the neat black and white poles and service insulators of their more official predecessors. The word “comic” was irresistible in its application to the queer erections that appeared as each individual officer worked into his routes his own peculiar idiosyncrasies. “Comic” airline entered the signal vocabulary at any rate for the duration of the war, and probably until airline is replaced entirely in the far future, possibly by wireless, possibly by some means of communication as yet undreamt of.”
The Signal Service would soon be called upon to add to its Comic routes a vast network of semi-permanent air line routes, as well as buried cable and wireless.
Establishment
Personnel:
- 1 Lieutenant or Second-Lieutenant in command
- 2 Sergeants
- 2 Corporals
- 2 2nd-Corporals
- 33 Sappers and Pioneers
- 1 Batman (fully armed and trained as a fighting soldier)
Of the Sappers and Pioneers, two men would be trained on sanitary duties and three would be appointed to Lance-Corporal).
And attached from the Army Service Corps:
- 1 Sergeant
- 11 Drivers (all Privates except for 1 Corporal and 2 Lance-Corporals)
Transport:
- 1 3-ton lorry (2 Drivers allocated)
- 2 30-hundredweight lorries (8 Drivers)
- 1 Motor Car (1 Driver)
Research tips
There are very few war diaries of Motor Air-Line Sections within the WO95 series of documents at the National Archives, but the Museum of the Corps of Royal Engineers has more, some of which are partial, and summary histories of others.