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Posts : 7077 Join date : 2009-04-24 Age : 53 Location : Down South.
Subject: Major A.C. Hamilton. Commander of C-Troop Sun Oct 13, 2013 5:36 pm
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[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] ‘C’ Troop’s mounted equipment, and soldiers from the two Postal Telegraph Companies provided the telegraph for that expedition. ‘C’ Troop’s first operation was the Zulu War of 1879, when they were belatedly sent to South Africa with other reinforcements after early British army setbacks, and in ‘C’ Troop’s case they were specifically requested by the commander, Lord Chelmsford, to rescue something of a signalling debacle. There they ended up improvising greatly. On the voyage, in an unsuitable ship, twenty-seven of their horses (nearly a quarter) were lost as a result of storms; there was of course no telegraph in Zululand into which they might connect; they were unable to take sufficient line for the task because of the distances involved, weight and transportation difficulties, and grass fires damaged much of their cable. Some of the telegraphists quickly had to learn to use the heliograph because of shortage of skilled regimental signallers; and numerous other problems. It might also be added that there they used the telephone, invented in 1876, for the first time in British Army operations."
littlehand
Posts : 7077 Join date : 2009-04-24 Age : 53 Location : Down South.
Subject: Re: Major A.C. Hamilton. Commander of C-Troop Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:03 pm