Signal Training Documents

This page contains signals training pamphlets and books from the British, Australian, Canadian and US forces. Going back to the early days of signalling, the British army produced a number of books of instruction for Signal Service troops and regimental signallers. The earliest currently known is a set of four books dated 1904 (which we hope will eventually be published on this page), followed by several others in the years up to the end of World War 1. At the moment, we have one example from 1916 which covers telegraph and telephone instruments, and others will be added if they can be found. From around the end of WW1, books gave way to panphlets and these were the means by which both armies provided information on all aspects of signalling onwards to the present date. (In fact, there are training pamphlets for all aspects of army life but this page concentrates upon signalling information.)
Prior to the formation of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during WWII, these pamphlets supported all aspects of operation and maintenance of equipment (Signal Training Volume 3 contains a large number of pamphlets covering the technical aspects of equipment) but these were eventually replaced by the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Regulations (EMERs) which are covered elsewhere on this site.
The numbering and naming of these pamphlets is complicated, particularly for the early pamphlets. However, two broad categories exist from late in World War I until roughlly the Clansman era:

In addition, every officer carried a "Field Service Pocket Book" which contained a great deal of information used by the officer in carrying out his duties in the field. In the later years of World War II, probably around 1943, the Royal Signals produced a pocket book for Signals officers but before that, individual officers appear to have made up their own pocket books from available pamphlets of all sorts, including the infantry FSPB. We have an example of such a pocket book below. We also have examples of a post-war Royal Signals Pocket Book dated 1956 here.

Around 1960, the Royal Signals Pocketbook was replaced by the third volume of "Signal Communication in the Army" and entitled "The Royal Signals Reference Manual". Signal Communication in the Army was a replacement for both the Signal Training and Signal Training (All Arms) series and we know that it consisted of four volumes:

We have a nearly complete set of Signal Communications in the Army here.

There was a set of training pamphlets produced by Combined Operations between 1942 and 1944 presumably in preparation for the landings to be carried out in North Africa, Scicily, Italy and, of course, Normandy. The pamphlets we have in the archive are from a fairly large set (over forty are known), these being on communications.

We also have a number of WW2 training manuals from the US forces here. Watch this area as there are more to come!

British Army Signal Training Pamphlets

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