Hammer & Jumper Drill

[Jon Skagfeld]

I'd thought that I had already posted this, but perhaps I just had the vision in my mind...ageism you know!

Anyhow; does any MLU member with Signal Corps experience remember the marginally noted reference?

It involved the Line crew doing an overhead crossing.

"Hammers" were 10 lb sledges, "Jumpers" were a piece of cast iron about 8" in diameter, 3' long\, sharpened end.

The "Drill" involved pounding the jumper into the earth to create a hole into which a line pole could be inserted, tamped down and secured, the cable having been successfully strung over the road.

The pounding of the jumper with the hammer was accompanied by the Line crew singing the Anvil Chorus from Verdi's Il Trovatore.

Was this a commonly known thing amongst Canadian Sigs type Linemen, or just a Regimental thing peculiar to the unit I was posted to at the time?