"A simple operation like tying a reef knot in the wire inside a telephone wire, an operation which would take 30 seconds in terms of normal temperature, with the taking off of gloves to handle the wire and putting them on every time the hands got too cold to move would take two signallers anything up to 3 to 5 minutes simply because the hands, your hands started to freeze almost as soon as you took your gloves off.

"Everything had to be done with gloves on. The gloves that we wore were big mittens, big leather mittens with trigger fingers in them where you could slip your finger into the special space in the mitten allowing you to pull the trigger of a rifle. It didn't give you much of a grip on the rifle which meant you couldn't shoot as straight as you'd want to. Everything that was metal was dangerous to touch so cold was the weather."

SERGEANT JACK GALLAWAY