On January 17, 1916, all sections were concentrated in order to continue their training as a company, and billeted in the small villages of Clifton, Shefford, and Broome, a few miles from Haynes Park. The following months were spent in continuous unit training, interspersed with periods of combined training, known as “Signal Schemes.” In these “schemes” numbers of signal units awaiting their turn for oversea were organized as armies—imaginary in all except their communications—and flung a moving network of lines across the Eastern Counties. It was an extremely valuable and realistic training for mobile warfare. The drawing of the Company’s mobilization equipment and the completion of the motor transport, with the A.S.C. _personnel_ to operate it, followed the news of Verdun, and the day of embarkation for France was eagerly awaited. The men grew restive at the idea that the Infantry Brigade had already been in action in Egypt while they were still training in England. Towards the end of March Major Harrison went to France in order to acquire the atmosphere of the trenches. During his absence the great blizzard of 1916 destroyed much of the post office and railway telegraph systems in the Midlands. All experienced men in the Company were turned out to assist in repairs, and the order to move to Southampton for France arrived when 51 Air Line and portions of all cable sections were scattered on this work up to a radius of forty miles from headquarters. Nevertheless the Company was assembled in a few hours, and was ready to move off at noon next day, with its mass of stores packed complete in all respects. The headquarters and 51 Air Line moving by road in their lorries, and the cable sections by train from Hitchin, reassembled at Southampton on the 10th April, and, sailing in the S.S. _Investigator_ with one of the S.A.H.A. batteries, landed at Havre on the 21st. IN FRANCE: THE FRICOURT SECTOR—APRIL 1916.