Who is "Control" at a D-Day Brigade HQ?

[dfuller52]

In my ongoing attempts to track the movements of a particular solider, I have consulted the War Diaries for 8th Bde HQ and, in particular, the transmissions log, since he was part of a contact detachment assigned to handle radio work for the HQ. In the logs, I see numerous signals coming from the forward units and messages going out, all originating from or going to "Control", which I assume was the HQ radio team.

My question is, who would have been logging these transmissions or operating the radio?

My guy (Cameron L. Jones) was an Acting Corporal from the 7th Recce who was part of a six-man radio team. Could I be looking at his handwriting? I realize there is probably no way to confirm this but I am curious to picture who was sitting there logging these transmissions. The candidates are: the Lieutenant in charge of the detachment (unlikely), Jones, or one of the four troopers on the team.

So far, I have seen several notations in the diary and intelligence summaries that locate the HQ at various places, so I may be able to pinpoint their whereabouts leading up to the time Jones was killed near Caen on July 9, 1944.

Thanks as always.

 

[Old Sweat]

I think that as a member of 7 Recce, he would not be control on the brigade command net. The net probably was operated by RC Sigs personnel, perhaps with officers of the brigade headquarters doing the actual sending and receiving of transmissions and recording the log. Control was the term used at the time for the headquarters of the unit/formation that actually commanded it. As per the voice procedure of the time, control did not have a call sign and adopted the call sign of the station to which it was talking. Thus one might hear something like this, "Hello 7, How do you hear me? Over" " 7, Loud and Clear. Over" "7, Loud and Clear. Out" or "Hello 23, Fetch Officer. Over" "23, Officer Speaking. Over" Yes, it was confusing, or could be and it is confusing when reading radio logs if whoever recorded the info used a call sign instead of Control.

 

[George Wallace]

In my ongoing attempts to track the movements of a particular solider, I have consulted the War Diaries for 8th Bde HQ and, in particular, the transmissions log, since he was part of a contact detachment assigned to handle radio work for the HQ. In the logs, I see numerous signals coming from the forward units and messages going out, all originating from or going to "Control", which I assume was the HQ radio team.

My question is, who would have been logging these transmissions or operating the radio?

My guy (Cameron L. Jones) was an Acting Corporal from the 7th Recce who was part of a six-man radio team. Could I be looking at his handwriting? I realize there is probably no way to confirm this but I am curious to picture who was sitting there logging these transmissions. The candidates are: the Lieutenant in charge of the detachment (unlikely), Jones, or one of the four troopers on the team.

So far, I have seen several notations in the diary and intelligence summaries that locate the HQ at various places, so I may be able to pinpoint their whereabouts leading up to the time Jones was killed near Caen on July 9, 1944.

Thanks as always.

I am a little curious.  Did you notice an "Initials" column or "Init" column or something similar in those logs?  Current logs have a column where the person who makes the entry, will initial their entry.  I am sure that logs in those days will have been very similar.

 

[Love793]

Check the War Diaries for the Royal Canadian Hussars or with their Regimental Historian (sorry, haven't the foggiest whom that would be). They where the 7th Recce Regt during this time period.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/junobeach/juno-4-9.htm