Country United Kingdom Type Artillery Size Regiment | Branch Territorial Army Role Light Anti-Aircraft | |
Active 1 July 1938 – 10 March 1955 | ||
The Manx Regiment – the 15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery – was raised in 1938 as a Territorial Army unit of the British Army. It recruited on the Isle of Man and was attached to 53rd Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade in Anti-Aircraft Command at the outbreak of World War II. The regiment was posted to the Middle East in November 1940 where it served with various formations before joining the 7th Armoured Division in August 1942. It served with the division through the North African, Italian and North West European campaigns. Post-war, it was reformed as the 515th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment before being reduced to a staff troop in 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division in 1955.
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Formation
The 15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade, RA (TA) was formed with two batteries on 1 July 1938 at Douglas, Isle of Man. In December 1938 the batteries were numbered as 41st and 42nd and on 1 January 1939 the brigade was redesignated as a regiment. On 26 August 1939 a third battery – 129th – was regimented to bring the unit up to full strength.
World War II
At the outbreak of World War II, the regiment was assigned to 53rd Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade, 4th Anti-Aircraft Division in Anti-Aircraft Command. The regiment was mobilised shortly before the outbreak of the war and sailed from the Isle of Man to Liverpool to take up air defence of the River Mersey during the Liverpool Blitz.
In November 1940 the Regiment was sent to Egypt, with 41st Battery being deployed to the Sudan, 129th Battery with 11 Bofors guns to Crete (where it was to be overrun by German forces in 1941) and 42nd Battery remaining in Egypt. In August 1942 the regiment joined the 7th Armoured Division (the Desert Rats), and fought with it at the Battle of El Alamein.
The Regiment continued with 7th Armoured Division until the end of the war, in the invasion of Italy and returning with it to the UK in January 1944 in time for training for the invasion of Normandy (D Day) on 6 June 1944. Thereafter it saw action in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and finally in the Hamburg area.
Postwar
After World War II the Regiment was placed in suspended animation, and reformed in the Territorial Army as 515th (Isle of Man) LAA Regiment. When Anti-Aircraft Command was disbanded in 1955, the regiment was reduced to a staff troop in 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division.
Museum
Until 2005 the Old Comrades of the Regiment ran a museum at Tromode, but their exhibits are now displayed at the Manx Aviation and Military Museum at Castletown.