29th (East Anglian) Anti-Aircraft Group was organised in January 1936 at RAF North Weald, Essex, as part of 1st Anti-Aircraft Division. Its first commander was Brig N.M. McLeod, DSO, MC, appointed on 8 January 1936. The formation's original composition was as follows:[1][2][3][4]
29th and the other Anti-Aircraft groups adopted the more normal formation title of 'Brigades' after the Royal Artillery redesignated its Brigades as 'Regiments' in 1938. 29th AA Brigade's peacetime headquarters (HQ) was at 28 Roland Gardens, Kensington.[7] Brigadier Kenneth Gourlay, DSO, MC, of the Royal Engineers, was appointed to command the brigade on 23 January 1939.[3][8]
Second World War
Mobilisation
The TA's AA units were mobilised on 23 September 1938 during the Munich Crisis, with units manning their emergency positions within 24 hours, even though many did not yet have their full complement of men or equipment. The emergency lasted three weeks, and they were stood down on 13 October.[9] In February 1939 the existing AA defences came under the control of a new Anti-Aircraft Command. In June, as the international situation worsened, a partial mobilisation of the TA was begun in a process known as 'couverture', whereby each AA unit did a month's tour of duty in rotation to man selected AA gun and searchlight positions. On 24 August, ahead of the declaration of war, AA Command was fully mobilised at its war stations.[10]
On 7 September 1939, operational control of 29th AA Bde was transferred to 6th AA Division, which was formed in 1939 to take responsibility for air defence of the Thames Estuary, Essex and Kent. At this point the brigade was entirely composed of searchlight units:[7][11][12][13]
33rd (St Pancras) AA Bn, RE: transferred to 41 AA Bde in 2 AA Division during September 1939
73rd (Kent Fortress AA Bn) RE: a new searchlight unit formed in April 1939, incorporating 322 and 347 (Kent) AA Company from 29th (Kent) AA Bn and 331 AA Companies from 32nd (7th City of London) AA Bn. 347 (Kent) AA Company had been formed by personnel drawn from the three Electric Light and Works Companies of the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers. It was based at Bexleyheath.[11][14][15]
74th (Essex Fortress) AA Bn RE: a new searchlight unit formed at Tottenham in April 1939, incorporating 310 AA Company from 28th (Essex) AA Bn, 335 AA Company from 33rd (St Pancras) AA Bn and 469 AA Company from the Essex Fortress Engineers.[11][14]
In the Spring of 1940, 6 AA Division reorganised its growing AA defences. As a result, 29th AA Bn and its S/L sites in Kent were transferred away from 29 AA Bde to 27 (Home Counties) AA Bde, while 32nd and 33rd AA Bns and their sites in Essex and Suffolk returned from 41 AA Bde to 29 AA Bde, together with 119 Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) Bty (of 'P' LAA Rgt) with its Troops based at the RAF fighter and radar stations at Debden, Wattisham and Darsham. 29 AA Brigade then took on responsibility from 37 AA Bde for the HAA guns at Harwich (an important anti-invasion naval base), RAF North Weald and RAF Debden manned by 90th HAA Rgt (272, 284, 285 HAA Btys),[16][17] together with the Gun Operations Room (GOR) at Harwich.[7][18][19]
Afterwards 90th HAA Rgt was replaced by 99th (London Welsh) HAA Rgt (302, 303, 307, 318 HAA Btys) and the whole of 'P' LAA Rgt (49, 95 and 119 LAA Btys) was transferred to 29 AA Bde and its batteries transferred to a newly raised 48th LAA Rgt.[7][20][21]
HAA gun sites were equipped with 3.7-inch or the older 3-inch guns. Although LAA units were receiving Bofors 40 mm guns, many of the sites only had LMGs, though some like the Royal Naval Mining Depot at Wrabness at least had quadruple mountings. The first, very secret, Gun-Laying Radar Mk I sets began to appear in May 1940, with one being stationed at Landguard Fort at Harwich to replace the old sound-locator at the S/L site operated by 469 AA Co, 74th AA Bn.[7][22]
In May 1940 Brigade HQ shifted to Boxted House in Boxted near Colchester in Essex.[7] During August 1940 the AA Battalions were transferred from the Royal Engineers to the Royal Artillery, when they were designated Searchlight Regiments.
Battle of Britain
The Phoney War ended with the German invasion of France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940. Home Forces became concerned about the threat from German paratroopers and AA Command's units were given anti-invasion roles. A plan to attach groups of riflemen from the infantry training centres to 6 AA Division's widely spaced S/L sites foundered on the lack of men. Instead the S/L detachments themselves were given the responsibility for attacking parachutists before they could organise, and spare men at company HQs were formed into mobile columns using requisitioned civilian transport to hunt them down. These arrangements were never tested in practice.[7]
At the end of May the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, and the Germans began preparations to invade South East England. In late June the Luftwaffe began small day and night raids on Ipswich and the Harwich Gun Defence Area (GDA) and during July 1940 there were almost daily attacks on shipping off the East Coast. In August, while the Battle of Britain was progressing by day over Kent and Essex, Luftwaffeseaplanes regularly dropped Parachute mines in the harbours and estuaries by night, which 29 AA Bde's guns and S/Ls attempted to counter.[7]
By now, 29 AA Bde was only responsible for the Harwich GDA (covering Harwich, Ipswich, Felixstowe, Parkeston and Dovercourt) and RAF airfields in Essex and Suffolk, 73rd AA Bn and its sites south of the Thames having been transferred to 56 Light AA Bde command in early July.[lower-alpha 1][23][24]
On 24 August North Weald was badly damaged by a raid, but remained serviceable. Then on 26 August, Luftflotte 2 sent a large raid to attack the fighter bases at Debden, North Weald and Hornchurch; the attackers missed the latter two targets, but Debden was hard hit. Debden was attacked again on 30 August, and North Weald received a raid on 31 August that was engaged by 285 HAA Bty, and a Heinkel He 111 was shot down by the AA light machine gun (LMG) of a S/L site.[7][27]
Brentwood, Essex, in the southern part of 29 AA Bde's area, was bombed on 7 September during the first big daylight air raid on London, which heralded the Luftwaffe 's shift away from RAF airfields to bombing cities.[28]
The Blitz
As the Battle of Britain merged into the night Blitz during September 1940, the brigade's area was regularly crossed by night raids heading for London and the industrial cities of the Midlands, which the S/L sites strove to track for the night-fighters and HAA guns, often causing the raiders to jettison their bombs (frequently near the AA sites) and turn back. Low-flying daylight intruders sometimes exchanged fire with the AA LMGs at S/L sites.[7][29]
Between 25 October 1940 and 2 January 1941, units of the Corpo Aereo Italiano based in Belgium made 11 day and night attacks on the East Coast, all but one of which targeted Harwich and Ipswich.[30]
In November, 29 AA Bde HQ moved from Boxted to Coxtie House, Coxtie Green, near Brentwood.[29]
By December 1940 all S/Ls in the brigade's area, except the coastal sites, had been 'clustered' The cluster system was an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or Night fighters. Eventually, one light in each cluster was to be equipped with searchlight control (SLC) radar and act as 'master light', but the radar equipment was still in short supply.[29]
Summer 1941
The Blitz ended in May 1941. By August 1941 the following changes to 29 AA Bde's order of battle and dispositions had taken place:[29][31]
74th S/L Rgt in clusters, coastal sites and RAF Martlesham[40][41]
310, 335, 469 S/L Btys
During the summer of 1941 the Luftwaffe continued minelaying and intruder raids against airfields in 29 AA Bde's sector at night, against which S/Ls could be effective – on one occasion a Junkers Ju 88 night-fighter attacking British bombers was dazzled and crashed. In August a daylight raid using cloud cover was made against the radar station at Great Bromley.[29]
Winter 1941-42
40 mm Bofors gun, 1941
By October 1941 the availability of SLC radar was sufficient to allow AA Command's S/L sites to be 'declustered' into single-light sites spaced at 10,400-yard intervals in 'Indicator Belts' along the coast and 'Killer Belts' at 6000-yard spacing to cooperate with the RAF's Night-fighters. 29th AA Brigade deployed 90mm S/Ls in the indicator belt and 150mm S/Ls in the killer belt, while a mixture of 90mm and 120mm lights were deployed in the Harwich GDA, spaced at 10,400 yards in the inner zone and 6000 yards in the outer. All these S/L sites were manned by 28 S/L Rgt and by 328 and 330 Btys of 32 S/L Rt, while 74 S/L Rgt was concentrated at Clacton-on-Sea and then moved to Kent, leaving the brigade's area.[29][42]
The number of Bofors gun-equipped LAA units available to AA Command to protect Vital Points such as airfields was growing, albeit slowly. In November the brigade established a 'silent' LAA practice camp for 6 AA Division at Dovercourt, and AA Command's No 16 LAA Practice Camp at Clacton, with live firing ranges out to sea, was also in the brigade's area of responsibility. At the end of the year, 81st S/L Rgt arrived at Clacton to be converted into an LAA regiment.[29][43]
At Christmas, four new 4-gun 3.7-inch HAA sites with GL Mk II gun-laying radar and a sub-GOR were established at Clacton and Mersea to discourage mine-laying, and two batteries of 71st (Forth) HAA Rgt arrived to man them.[29][44]
At the beginning of 1942, 121st HAA and 49th LAA Rgts were deployed at Martlesham and sites round the Harwich GDA, including Landguard, Parkeston Quay, Dovercourt and Wrabness, 199 LAA Bty was deployed at Chelmsford and North Weald, together with its satellite station at Stapleford Tawney, and at nearby Lambourne End Camp.[44]
Spring 1942
The changes in composition of the brigade during the winter of 1941–42 were as follows: [29][44][45]
298 Independent LAA Bty – From 43rd LAA Rgt, 28 AA Bde, January 1942
28 (Essex) S/L Rgt – to 37 AA Bde January 1942
309, 311, 312 S/L/ Btys
438 S/L Bty (joined January 1942)
74 (Essex Fortress) S/L Rgt – to 8 AA Division January 1942
310, 335, 469 S/L Btys
81st S/L Rgt – joined December 1941 while converting into 131st LAA Rgt, later to 6 AA Bde[29][50][52]
482, 509, 545, 555 S/L Btys
Disbandment
6th AA Division was reorganised in the winter of 1941–42. As a result, 29 AA Brigade was disbanded at Brentwood on 14 February 1942 and the bulk of its responsibilities transferred to 37 AA Bde, the remainder north of The Naze by 6 AA Bde.[1][44] Brigadier Gourlay returned to the Royal Engineers and served as Chief Engineer of the beaches and lines of communication during the Normandy Campaign.[53]
Postwar
When the TA was reconstituted on 1 January 1947, the East Anglian AA Brigade was reformed, numbered as 55 (East Anglian) AA Brigade.[lower-alpha 2] It was based at Barking, Essex, and was subordinate to 1 AA Group.[lower-alpha 3] At this time the brigade comprised the following units from Essex:[1][54][55]
However, 55 AA Bde was disbanded the following year, completely disappearing in September 1948.[1][55]
Footnotes
↑ One normally reliable source[21] states that 29 AA Bde was responsible for Kent in Autumn 1940, but this contradicted by the brigade's own War Diary.[7]
↑ The TA AA brigades were now numbered 51 and upwards, rather than 26 and upwards as in the 1930s.
↑ AA Command's corps and divisions had been disbanded in 1942 and a group structure introduced; 1 AA Group controlled the air defences of the London region.
27th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an Air Defence formation of the British Army in the Second World War that served in The Blitz and later converted to infantry.
28th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of the British Territorial Army created in 1925 to command anti-aircraft units in Kent and around the militarily important Medway Towns, which it defended during the Second World War. In 1940 the brigade was responsible for the defences on the south side of the Thames Estuary including the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham and the Port of Dover. The brigade was heavily engaged throughout the Battle of Britain, in the summer of 1940, and The Blitz, from autumn 1940 to spring 1941, operating a total of 70 heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) guns controlled from a gun operations room (GOR) at Chatham. During 1942 many of the brigade's experienced units were transferred to active theatres overseas. Increasingly the brigade included women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).
The 38th Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army formed just before the Second World War, which protected London and Southern England during the Blitz and later converted into an infantry formation for the liberation of Europe.
The 31st Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army from 1936 until 1948. During the Second World War it defended West Yorkshire and later participated in the North West Europe campaign.
The 40th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Anti-Aircraft Command in the British Territorial Army (TA) formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Its initial role was to defend Royal Air Force (RAF) airfields in East Anglia. Later it commanded part of the searchlight belt protecting The Midlands. In 1944 the brigade was moved south to protect the embarkation ports for Operation Overlord and to defend against V-1 flying bombs in Operation Diver. It was briefly reformed in the postwar TA.
The 33rd (Western) Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Anti-Aircraft Command of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army, formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. It defended Merseyside and West Lancashire during The Blitz.
35th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Anti-Aircraft Command in the British Territorial Army (TA) formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. It defended the important naval base of Portsmouth during The Blitz.
The 54th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) formed immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was engaged in defending the West Midlands of England during the war. It comprised a varying number of searchlight (S/L) battalions and later included light anti-aircraft units. It was disbanded at the end of 1943. When the TA was reconstituted in 1947, the former 54th AA Bde was reformed as 80 Anti-Aircraft Brigade but was disbanded on 9 September 1948.
The 41st (London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Anti-Aircraft Command in the British Territorial Army, formed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Its role was to defend East Anglia.
36th (Scottish) Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army, created in the period of tension before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was responsible for defending eastern Scotland.
The 37th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) formed just before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was engaged in defending the Thames Estuary during the war, and continued to form part of Anti-Aircraft Command in the postwar era.
39th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) during the Second World War. It was responsible under Anti-Aircraft Command for protecting industry along the Humber Estuary and airfields in Lincolnshire during The Blitz. Later it defended the coast of East Anglia against Luftwaffe 'hit-and-run' attacks. It was later converted to a field force formation, covered the embarkation ports for Operation Overlord and defended London against V-1 flying bombs. It served in the campaign in North West Europe, defending Antwerp against V-1s and supervising the clean-up of the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
42nd Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA). It was responsible for protecting the City of Glasgow and industry along the Firth of Clyde during the Second World War.
43rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA). Formed in 1938, it was responsible for protecting Teesside in North East England during the early part of the Second World War, and later defended South East England from V-1 flying bombs. It was reformed postwar and survived under different titles until 1961.
50th Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) during the Second World War. It defended the North Midlands of England during The Blitz and later helped to protect Brussels from V-1 flying bombs during the Campaign in North West Europe.
6th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of the British Army formed during the Second World War. It served in the disastrous Norwegian Campaign in 1940 and then defended East Anglia during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz. It was reorganised to take part in the invasion of Normandy, but instead was diverted to defending Southern England against V-1 flying bombs. It was briefly recreated in the postwar Regular Army.
44th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA). Formed in 1938, it was responsible for protecting Manchester and later the Isle of Wight during the Second World War. It was reformed postwar under a new title, and continued until 1955.
3rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade was a Supplementary Reserve air defence formation of the British Army formed in Northern Ireland in 1938. On the outbreak of the Second World War it saw active service with the British Expeditionary Force during the Battle of France and Operation Aerial. It then returned to Northern Ireland and defended the Province for the next two years. Postwar, it was reformed in the Territorial Army and served until the disbandment of Anti-Aircraft Command in 1955.
45th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA). Formed in 1938, it was responsible for protecting South Wales during the Second World War. It was reformed in the postwar TA under a new title, and continued until 1955.
52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) during the Second World War. Formed on the outbreak of war to control static searchlight (S/L) sites in Scotland, it later operated as a headquarters (HQ) for mobile anti-aircraft (AA) gun units in the Allied invasion of North Africa and subsequent Italian Campaign.
Richard Collier, Eagle Day: The Battle of Britain, August 6–September 15, 1940, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1966/Pan Books, 1968, ISBN0-330-02105-2.
Gen Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: The Years of Defeat: Europe and North Africa, 1939–1941, Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1988/London: Brasseys, 1996, ISBN1-85753-080-2.
J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol II, Wakefield, Microform Academic, 1984, ISBN1-85117-009-X.
Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1990]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield, East Sussex: Naval and Military Press. ISBN978-1-84342-474-1.
Norman E. H. Litchfield, The Territorial Artillery 1908–1988 (Their Lineage, Uniforms and Badges), Nottingham: Sherwood Press, 1992, ISBN0-9508205-2-0.
Maj-Gen R.P. Pakenham-Walsh, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol IX, 1938–1948, Chatham: Institution of Royal Engineers, 1958.
C. Digby Planck, History of the 7th (City of London) Battalion London Regiment, London: Old Comrades' Association, 1946/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2002, ISBN1-84342-366-9.
Brig N. W. Routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914–55, London: Royal Artillery Institution/Brassey's, 1994, ISBN978-1-85753-099-5.
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