1st Anti Aircraft Brigade

Origin

The brigade was created on 26 June 1935 at Blackdown, near Aldershot. At first it was designated 1st Air Defence Brigade, then 1st Anti-Aircraft Group before the 1st AA Bde title was settled upon. 1st Anti-Aircraft Brigade formed part of Aldershot Command and on the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 it had the following composition:

Battle of France

The brigade proceeded to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The two AA regiments were each equipped with 16 obsolescent 3-inch guns and eight of the newer 3.7-inch heavy AA (HAA) guns. 54th (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA (a Territorial Army (TA) unit) joined by November 1939 (less one of its batteries). It was equipped with 12 x 40 mm Bofors Guns and 12 x Vickers 2-pounders, but left to become a Corps unit before the end of the Phoney War. In January 1940, 1st AA Battalion was transferred from the Royal Engineers to the Royal Artillery as 1st Searchlight Regiment and joined 5th Searchlight Brigade. Lieutenant-Colonel E.D. Milligan was promoted from 6th AA Regiment to command the brigade.

When the Battle of France opened on 10 May 1940, 1st AA Bde was attached to General Headquarters BEF, with the following composition:

Commander: Brigadier E.D. Milligan

1st AA Brigade's role was to cover corps assembly areas and the routes used by the BEF to advance into Belgium. When the German Army broke through, forcing the BEF to begin withdrawing again, the AA batteries gave cover leap-frog fashion. Soon they were sucked into the ground battle, split into sub-units to join rearguard actions or moved back from one key point to another. The brigade commander and his staff had no radio net and could only keep in touch by motor vehicle, and all the roads were choked with refugees. When the BEF reached Dunkirk and began its evacuation, the Major-General AA, Hugh Martin, set out from De Panne by road on 28 May to make contact with the retreating AA units and organise air defences. By now, 1st AA Brigade was down to 20 out of its original 72 HAA guns. Martin ordered 11 of these to be sent to Bray beach and the remainder to be disabled. 52nd (East Lancashire) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA (TA) (154th, 155th and 156th LAA Batteries) had started the campaign attached to I Corps and had been heavily engaged during the retreat. Now it joined 1st AA Bde on the Dunkirk beaches. The AA units attempted to cover the shrinking Dunkirk 'pocket' against air attack until it was their turn to destroy their equipment and join the queues of men waiting to be taken aboard small boats back to England.

The Blitz

AA units returning from France were rapidly reinforced, re-equipped where possible, and redeployed for integration into Anti-Aircraft Command's existing defence plans for the United Kingdom. AA regiments were now designated either Heavy (HAA) or Light (LAA). 1st AA Brigade HQ and 1st HAA Regiment were sent to Crewe to reform. By November 1940 they had joined a new 11th AA Division, which took over responsibility for the West Midlands; the brigade's specific responsibility was to cover the industrial areas round Crewe and Staffordshire, and to provide LAA air defences for airfields and other Vulnerable Points. The brigade now had the following composition:

1st Anti-Aircraft Brigade was disbanded on 30 April 1945.

At this time The Blitz was in full swing, with frequent night air raids on the industrial cities. The role of the S/L units was to track and illuminate raiders for the HAA guns of the Gun Defence Areas (GDAs) and for the few available Royal Air Force Night fighters. New tactics included grouping the S/Ls in clusters, and later in 'killer belts' for the fighters and 'indicator belts' for the guns as the raiders approached the GDAs. In April and May 1941, Merseyside and the North Midlands were particularly badly bombed (the Liverpool Blitz).

Although operating within AA Command during the Blitz, 1st AA Bde HQ remained part of the War Office Reserve, available for service in the field. By mid-May 1941 it had handed over its units and responsibilities to a new 68th AA Bde and left AA Command.

North Africa

1st AA Brigade HQ left the UK by October 1941, and by the end of the year was in the Middle East. In January 1942 the brigade took over responsibility for the GDAs in Palestine under the command of Ninth Army. It was relieved in August 1942, and moved to Egypt to join Eighth Army.

After Eighth Army broke through the Axis positions at the Second Battle of El Alamein and began its pursuit across Libya, the AA units were leap-frogged forwards to cover the important objectives as they were taken. 1st AA Brigade moved up from Egypt to relieve 2nd AA Bde at Tobruk, then was in turn relieved by 17th AA Bde and moved on to Benghazi. As well as these ports, it was also involved in the defence of airfields for the supporting fighters and bombers of the Desert Air Force.

By January 1943, 1st AA Bde was deployed around Benghazi and Agedabia and at nearby landing grounds, with the following order of battle:

When the North African Campaign ended in May 1943 with the Axis surrender in Tunisia, AA defence in the rear areas was under new headquarters. 1st AA Brigade – still at Benghazi and landing grounds – now came under AA Defence Area Cyrenaica, under No. 212 Group RAF. The brigade had the following composition:

As the war moved further away from North Africa, 1st AA Bde was redeployed back to the eastern end of the Mediterranean, so that by 1 January 1944 it was responsible for the Levant area, including Haifa, Homs and Baalbek, with the following composition:

In June 1944 it was still in the Levant area, and had added Cyprus to its responsibilities, with the following composition:

Postwar

By 1947, 1 AA Bde had been reformed in 1 AA Group, which covered London and South East England. After Anti-Aircraft Command was disbanded on 10 March 1955, HQ 1 AA Bde was converted into a Territorial Army formation based at Edenbridge, Kent, and renumbered 30 AA Bde. That formation in turn was disbanded in 1961.