[2][3][4][5] When the old Volunteer Force was subsumed into the Territorial Force (TF) after the Haldane reforms in 1908, the 1st Middlesex Royal Engineers (Volunteers) provided the RE components of the TF's 2nd London Division, including the 2nd London Divisional Telegraph Company, RE, with the following organisation:[4][6][7][8][9] Nos 2–4 Sections were attached to and largely manned by the 4th–6th infantry brigades of the division.

[18][19] To meet the growing threat of air attack, a number of TA units began to be converted to the anti-aircraft (AA) role during the 1930s.

[6][21] When the TA was doubled in size in early 1939 after the Munich Crisis, the unit split to form 1st and 2nd (London) Corps Signals.

It moved to Ludgershall, Wiltshire, on 1 September, from where all soldiers under the age of 19 were returned to Fulham House to join the 2nd Line unit still being formed.

[29][30][31] By 26 May the BEF was cut off and the decision was made to evacuate it through Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo), with II Corps acting as flank guard against the German penetration where the Belgian Army had surrendered.

In early May some subunits were detached for training to South Shields and Portsmouth, and on their return the whole unit (six officers and 250 other ranks) moved to Old Dean Common Camp in Aldershot Command and then to Minley Manor, which it shared with 4th (North Midland) Corps Signals.

V Corps HQ was responsible for operational control and coast defence in Hampshire and Dorset, and had to respond to numerous false invasion alarms during the summer of 1940.

Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery took over as General Officer Commanding (GOC) V Corps on 21 July 1940, and emphasised mobility for all units and HQs in its training exercises.

V Corps HQ (now under Lt-Gen Charles Allfrey as GOC) and signals relocated to Hamilton Park Racecourse in Scotland where a series of embarkation and communication exercises were held.

The ACVs were deemed unsuitable for North West Africa, and the signal equipment was transferred to soft-skin lorry command vehicles (LCVs).

[4][17][43][44] By now the Axis forces had reacted strongly to the invasion and First Army's drive towards Tunis had been halted in the mountains, with V Corps engaged in hard fighting round Longstop Hill.

For the next four months a series of actions was fought along this static line, and an extensive network of signal cables to formation HQs was repaired and laid, despite frequent breaks caused by air raids.

Rapid progress was made after Operation Strike was launched on 6 May, and 78th Division entered Tunis on 8 May; V Corps HQ moved up to Massicault the same day.

Work continued to restore cable links and remove mines, but on 15 June the unit handed over its communication network to 1st Army Signals and moved west to rejoin V Corps HQ at Constantine.

[45][46] V Corps was not involved in the subsequent Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) but was responsible for administering a number of units in North Africa.

5th (L) Corps Signals collected new equipment and undertook training, as well as lending sections to 15th Army Group HQ.

The main signal elements arrived on 20 September without their transport and set up in a grove some 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Taranto.

Although power control circuits along the electricity supply pylons up the valleys could also be used, V Corps was faced with the necessity of greater use of wireless.

While the front was static, the unit received new equipment, including teleprinters, and Jeeps to replace 15 cwt trucks, cars and motorcycles that were frequently stuck in mud.

[51][52][53][54] Under its new GOC, Lt-Gen Charles Keightley, V Corps' next task was to act as a pursuit force after Eighth Army's expected breakthrough of the Gothic Line in Operation Olive.

By the time the attack began, the corps' role had changed to an attempt to rush the Gothic Line by surprise, even though neither the HQ nor its divisions had carried out an offensive operation for many months.

The Marzino was crossed on 24 November and the Lanone the following day, but the rain caused the rivers to rise by several feet and threaten cable links.

Snow brought down all the main signal circuits on 6 January 1945 and V Corps had to rely on wireless for several hours while the line sections worked to restore connections.

Operation Grapeshot began on 9 April, with Eighth Army pushing through the 'Argenta Gap' into the Po Valley, and V Corps HQ following in a series of short bounds.

It had outrun its line communications and its wireless was overworked: additional sets were borrowed from Army, Division and Brigade signal units to control traffic at river crossings and along the roads crammed with formations moving north.

Its role now was to provide communications for the units coping with the complexities of postwar Austria, with its roving bands of partisans, Prisoners of War to secure, and Displaced persons to deal with.

A rearrangement of occupation duties saw V Corps take over the Styria zone from Soviet forces, and a line section was despatched to establish communications with 46th Division at Graz.

[63] [d] When the TA was reconstituted in 1947, the unit was reformed at Fulham House as 23rd (Southern) Corps Signal Regiment, under the command of Lt-Col E.W.G.