In the early part of 1916 the deficiencies of technical equipment, in the supply of materials and of labour, were still great. The Signal Sections were then equipped for mobile warfare only, and found themselves carrying out heavy semi-permanent work with scarcely any of the usual tools and appliances. The work of the Ministry of Munitions had not yet produced its full fruits in supply, and though the Deputy-Director of Army Signals—Colonel R. G. Earle—did everything possible to meet the Company’s requirements, signal material—particularly cable—was scanty, and deliveries of a hand-to-mouth order. The Labour Corps was then a thing of the future, and, therefore, the whole of the massive works required for the offensive—roads, railways, dumps, dug-outs, etc.—had to be performed by the infantry in their turns out of the line. In such circumstances there was never enough labour to go round, and it required all the commanding officer’s tact and persuasiveness to secure the minimum of digging labour required for the cable trenches; all other unskilled work had to be thrown on the skilled sappers of the Company, and to free the outdoor men for construction, the telegraphists, after a long day at their instruments, had often to spend half the night loading and off-loading in the forward area masses of cable, poles, and line material. Labour for the Heavy Artillery cable trenches was not secured till June, when two battalions from each division were placed under the direction of Lieutenant Ross for this work. Digging the trenches and laying cable were then pressed forward continuously night and day. Much of the work was only possible at night, as the ground was under direct observation, and the few skilled sappers available, after working most of the night with infantry digging parties, had to be turned out again at dawn, day after day, to take charge of scratch cable-laying parties made up from the signallers of batteries. The Heavy Artillery allotment for the XV. Corps in the coming battle was twenty-three batteries, organized in five groups, and an independent railway battery. The tactical conditions made the communication problem one of peculiar difficulty, because they enforced the siting of the batteries in two main clusters—one in the valley of the Ancre and the other in Happy Valley—both on the extreme flanks of the Corps’ frontage. Further, owing to the enemy’s tenure of the Fricourt salient, many batteries, to carry out their work, had to establish communication with observation posts sited on the opposite flank of the Corps area to the position of the batteries, and the most favourable O.P. positions lay far outside the Corps boundaries. The fact that many of the batteries only took position and settled on their O.P.’s in the last few days was an additional complication.