1st Australian and New Zealand Wireless Signal Squadron

1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron
'F' Station, 1st Wireless Signal Squadron in Baghdad, 1917.
Active	1915–1919
Country	Australia  New Zealand
Branch	Australian Army New Zealand Army
Type	Signals
Engagements	World War I Mesopotamian Campaign

World War I

The 1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron was a unit of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) which served in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) during World War I. Formed in late 1915, it took part in the Mesopotamian Campaign from 1916 to 1918, providing communications to British forces. Later, elements of the squadron served as part of Dunsterforce in 1918 and 1919, and in Kurdistan in 1919. The unit was also known as the 1st Wireless Signal Squadron and 1st Australian and New Zealand Signal Squadron.

At the outbreak of World War I, the British Indian Army had a severe shortage of wireless equipment and trained operators. On 27 December 1915, the Australian government received a request for a troop of wireless signallers (approximately 50 soldiers) to be sent to Mesopotamia. The operators were raised from the Marconi School of Wireless in Sydney and the Broadmeadows depot in Victoria, while the drivers, who made up half of the unit, were raised from the Army Service Corps at Moore Park in Sydney. The troop, which became known as the 1st Australian Pack Wireless Signal Troop, sailed from Melbourne on 5 February 1916 and after stops at Bombay and Columbo, arrived in Basra on 19 March 1916. The New Zealand government sent an equivalent unit which, together with the Australians, formed "C" Troop of the 1st Wireless Squadron.

On 25 April 1916, the first of the Australian wireless stations set off from Basra on a 140 miles (230 km) march north with the British 15th Indian Division. A month later the second station was sent by boat across Lake Hammar to Nasiriyah. Two New Zealand stations were sent to important locations on the Tigris.

In March 1916, the Indian government requested that a third troop and headquarters unit be sent to reinforce these two Anzac troops to form a squadron. This squadron became known as the 1st (ANZAC) Wireless Signal Squadron and consisted of two Australian troops and one New Zealand troop. Each troop consisted of four stations. About half of these stations were more powerful transmitters carried on six-horse limbered wagons, while the other half remained pack stations. Two of the Australian stations were charged with intercepting all enemy wireless communications, while a cipher expert, Captain Clauson of the Somerset Light Infantry decoded the messages and passed them onto Intelligence Branch.