Keeping the communication lines open within a battalion, during a campaign battle required the highest level of proficiency, expertise and competence in a soldier’s ability. Chalmers Watt’s conduct carrying out this obligation earned him the Military Medal for his bravery, during the Battle of Amiens campaign.
Watt enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the 31 January 1916 in Casula, New South Wales. He had been working as an engineer in the Sydney area for the past two years. This vocation assisted him to be drafted as a Sapper in the 2nd Divisional Signal Company. A Melbourne newspaper had published a farewell notice to their “popular secretary of the Coburg cycling club” when he left for New South Wales in March 1915. Road cycle …show more content…
His father William become an alcoholic, and used funds from a charity he was treasure for, to feed his habit. William and Maggie were granted a divorce following Williams desertion of his wife and children in 1904. Watt was 13 years old. This singular incident left such an impression on him, that he was a teetotaller all his life.
Arriving in Plymouth February 1917, Watt marched into the Engineering Training Depot for the Signal Section in Shefford, 5 March. In September and 18 months after first enlisting, Watt was to enter the Western front. He was taken on strength into the 2nd Divisional Signal Company Engineers 20 October 1917 in Belgium. He was promoted again to 2nd Corporal in France in May 1918.
The unit diaries provide an insight into the average routine of an engineer in a Signal Company Unit. In particular, 18 February to 23 February, was spent engaging squads to check communication lines, update lectures was given on German Signal Services, Message forms and procedures, D 111 Telephones, Line testing and buried cable and jointing. Weekly tests were also carried out on buzzers, lamps, flappers and morse flags. Time spent laying cable lines for both telegraph and telephone communication, visual checking cables for damage or broken lines, testing of lines, wireless communication with amplifiers and antennas. Animals appeared frequently in different capacities throughout the unit histories. Messenger dogs were reported as not very useful, pigeons, horses and the unit mascot was a rooster named