'Military Lessons of the Arab Rebellion in Palestine 1936' [‎59r] (122/294)

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SIGNAL LIGHTS
Extensive use was made of signal lights both by day and by night,
and it was found necessary to have one Verey pistol at least to each
platoon. The issue of a special haversack to carry the pistol and
lights, with separate compartments for different coloured lights, would
have been useful. The Verey pistol issued to the Army was inadequate
in several ways, the wider-bore pistol used by the R.A.F. being definite
ly superior. Better still would have been flares - as used in the Great
War - for indicating the position of troops to aircraft; and a form of
parachute flare v/hich could be fired from a rifle or mortar for illumina
tion purposes at night.
SEARCHLIGHTS
There was a definite need of some sort of light mobile searchlights
which could fulfil a number of duties. Night patrols on the roads,
railways, and pipe-lines needed them; they were required for canp defence
and as a deterrent against snipers; were a valuable adjunct to tanks
and armoured cars; and would have been useful in picquets; while even
their use for signal purposes was by no means negligible. Since none
existed in the army a number were improvised in various ways which are
described below. Briefly they consisted of commercial motor-car spot
lights and R.A.F. aerodrome lights on stationary mountings, and of naval
searchlights and R.F. Anti-Aircraft searchlights mounted in lorries.
As a result of these experiments it is possible to evolve some sort of
rough specification on the following lines:-
Mobile Searchlight Unit
(a) A single light of limited range mounted (permanently if
necessary) in a light fast vehicle with a fair cross-country per
formance, such as the Morris 15-cwt. truck or Ford V8 pick-up.
(b) Not necessarily required to work on the move, though this
would have its advantages.
(c) Capable of running for short periods off the engine of the
vehicle. This is an important point especially when used with
patrols, since the delay and noise attending the starting-up oi ohe
generator motor often’ gave the enemy time to take cover.
(d) Some simple form of remote control which will enable the
operator to kneel or lie or at least not have to stand inmedia e y
beside the light. Some light armour protection should be aaded
if possible. " In spite of this it is worthy of note that few if
any casualties occurred to operators when working lights, nor were
lights put out of action by enemy fire. This was probably clue to
the fact that the enemy remained under cover whilst a searchlight
was burning.
The moral effect of the lights upon rebels in Palestine was most
marked, and often the presence of a light alone was sufficien °
interference by saboteurs or snipers, who undoubtedly cr 5J lue * w ^
with far greater powers than the 3 r actually possessed. '' 1 '
aircraft lights the flight of bullets fired down the beam coulr e
followed for some 600 yards, and gave very much the effeco o^ tra
ammunition.
The naval searchlights consisted of 18-inch projectois mounted i
railway trucks, and 10-inch signalling projectors mounted in lorries lor
use with pom-poms. The former were satisfactory, But then genera