Active 1938–1967 Branch Territorial Army Role Air Defence | Country United Kingdom Type Anti-Aircraft Brigade | |
Part of 6th AA Division1 AA Group | ||
The 37th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) formed just before the outbreak of World War II. It was engaged in defending the Thames Estuary during the war, and continued to form part of Anti-Aircraft Command in the postwar era.
Contents
Origin
As international tensions rose in the late 1930s, Britain's Anti-Aircraft (AA) defences were strengthened with new Royal Artillery (RA) regiments. 37th AA Brigade was raised on 1 May 1938, with its HQ at Edmonton in North London, to control some of these AA units in the London area. In 1939 it joined the newly formed 6th AA Division based at Uxbridge, which had responsibility for air defence of the Thames Estuary, Essex and North Kent, and the approaches to London.
Order of Battle
On formation, 37th AA Bde had the following composition:
Mobilisation
Anti-Aircraft Command, which had been formed within the Territorial Army earlier in the year, mobilised in late August 1939 and was at its stations before war was declared on 3 September. By then, a further newly formed regiment had been added to 37th AA Bde's order of battle:
In November 1939, 79th (Herts Yeomanry) AA Rgt was detached from the brigade and joined 3rd AA Bde on the lines of communication for the British Expeditionary Force in France. After the Dunkirk Evacuation the regiment was assigned to a different formation in the UK.
In April 1940, 82nd (Essex) AA Rgt was detached from the brigade and served in the Norway Campaign; after evacuation from Norway it was sent to join the garrison of Gibraltar.
In the summer of 1940, all the RA units equipped with the older 3-inch or newer 3.7-inch AA guns were designated as Heavy AA (HAA) regiments to distinguish them from the newer Light AA (LAA) regiments appearing in the order of battle.
Phoney War
37th AA Bde deployed and operated a layout from Dagenham to Thorpe Bay in Essex, along the north side of the Thames Estuary, known as 'Thames North'. Thames North had a planned layout of 20 HAA sites, of which only half were occupied by September 1940. It also contained a number of Vital Points (VPs) where LAA guns were deployed, including Purfleet (ammunition stores, including the entire AA ammunition supply for the London area), Tilbury (docks), Thameshaven and Coryton Refinery (oil refineries), and a major fighter airfield at RAF Hornchurch. All equipment was short, especially 40 mm Bofors guns for the LAA sites: Purfleet started the war with one quadruple Vickers gun, later receiving five Bofors batteries.
Opportunities for action were rare during the Phoney War, but on the night of 22/23 November 1939 the HAA guns of 37 AA Bde ('Thames North') combined with those of 28 AA Bde on the other bank of the river ('Thames South') to engage at least two enemy mine-laying aircraft that had strayed into the mouth of the Estuary. One wrecked aircraft was found on the marshes.
Battle of Britain
During the Battle of Britain and subsequent London Blitz, 37 AA Bde had the following order of battle.
By 11 July 1940, the Thames North AA layout operated by 37 AA Bde had a total of 46 HAA guns (3.7-inch and 4.5-inch).
The brigade was heavily engaged throughout the Battle of Britain. On 22 August, for example, a mass raid flew up the Thames Estuary to attack RAF Hornchurch on the Essex shore: the raid was broken up by 37 and 28 AA Bdes, and then the fighters of No. 11 Group RAF attacked. Follow-up raids were marked for the fighters by 'pointer' rounds of HAA fire. On 2 September another mass raid arrived over the Medway and flew up the Thames towards Hornchurch. They came under heavy fire from the 3.7s and 4.5s of 28 and 37 AA Bdes and 15 were shot down before the fighters took over. On 7 September heavy raids up the estuary attacked oil wharves at Thameshaven, Tilbury Docks and Woolwich Arsenal: a total of 25 aircraft were destroyed by AA guns and fighters.
On 15 September, remembered as the climax of the battle, 220 bombers attacked London in the morning despite heavy casualties inflicted by the RAF fighters. More attacks came in the afternoon and the AA guns around London, particularly 37 AA Bde, were continuously in action. Between the guns and fighters, the Luftwaffe lost 85 aircraft that day, an unsustainable rate of loss.
The Blitz
After 15 September the intensity of Luftwaffe day raids declined rapidly, and it began a prolonged night bombing campaign over London and industrial towns (The Blitz). This meant that 37 AA Bde was in action night after night as the bomber streams approached the London Inner Artillery Zone, but even with the assistance of searchlights, the effectiveness of HAA fire and fighters was greatly diminished in the darkness.
Home Defence
37th AA Brigade remained in the UK on Home Defence for the rest of the war. Its original units were posted overseas on active service in 1942 and the gunsites were operated by other units, many of them 'Mixed' regiments, some of whose personnel were women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In October 1942, the AA divisions were disbanded, and 37th AA Bde came under the command of 1st AA Group covering London.
Defences
As an example of the defences operated under 37 AA Bde, HAA site TN13 (Thames North 13) still survives at Bowaters Farm, about 1200 yards (1100 m) from the coastal defence battery at Coalhouse Fort, East Tilbury. It was begun in August 1939 as a sandbag battery for mobile 3.7-inch guns. By mid-1940 this had been replaced by four permanent emplacements for 4.5-inch guns. Later in the war four further emplacements for radar-controlled 5.25-inch guns were added. The HAA guns were supported by an AA searchlight and sound-locator stationed on the jetty at Coalhouse Fort. This exposed position was defended by a Lewis gun, but was frequently strafed by enemy fighters. A second AA searchlight was positioned on the old river wall near the north caponier of Coalhouse Fort. (There were separate searchlights installed at the fort to direct the coastl guns.)
Postwar
When the TA was reconstituted in 1947, 37 AA Bde was reorganised as 63 AA Brigade, with its HQ at London NW1 (still in 1 AA Group), with the following composition:
When AA Command was disbanded in 1955, all of 63 AA Bde's units were also disbanded, but the brigade HQ was retained, first designated as X AA Bde, then redesignated as 33 AA Bde, with its HQ at Shepherd's Bush. It had no connection with the wartime 33rd (Western) AA Bde based on Merseyside, but had the following composition:
It may have formed part of London District.
On 1 May 1961, 33 AA Bde was amalgamated with HQ 56th (London) Infantry Division as 33 Artillery Brigade. It was disbanded when the TA was reduced in 1967.
Memorial
There is a memorial to 37 AA Bde at St Augustine's Church, Thorpe Bay, Southend-on-Sea, which reads: