2nd Anti-Aircraft Division (United Kingdom)

2nd Anti-Aircraft Division

Royal Artillery cap badge and AA patch
Active 15 December 1935 – 1 October 1942
Country  United Kingdom
Branch Territorial Army
Type Anti-Aircraft Division
Role Air Defence
Part of Northern Command (1936–39)
Anti-Aircraft Command (1939–40)
2 AA Corps (1940–42)
Garrison/HQ RAF Hucknall
Engagements The Blitz

The 2nd Anti-Aircraft Division (2 AA Division) was an Air Defence formation of the British Army from 1935 to 1942. It controlled anti-aircraft gun and searchlight units of the Territorial Army (TA) defending the East Midlands and East Anglia during The Blitz.

Origin

In December 1935 the TA's 46th (North Midland) Division (which also acted as HQ for the North Midland Area of Northern Command) was disbanded and its headquarters was converted into 2nd Anti-Aircraft (AA) Division to control the increasing number of AA units being created. At first it administered all AA units in Great Britain outside London and the Home Counties, which were covered by 1st Anti-Aircraft Division. The new division was first organised at York, but shortly afterwards took over 46 Division's HQ at Normanton, Derby.[1][2][3]

Order of Battle

By the end of 1936 the division had the following order of battle, though many of the units were in an easily stage of formation or conversion:[1][3][4]

General Officer Commanding: Major-General James Harrison[4][5]

40, 41, 42, 44 and 46 AA battalions had previously been infantry battalions in 46th Division.[3]

In 1938 the Royal Artillery replaced the traditional unit designation 'Brigade' by 'Regiment', which allowed the AA Groups to take the more usual formation title of Brigades.

Mobilisation

The TA's AA units were mobilised on 23 September 1938 during the Munich Crisis. Because the organisation of 2 AA Division and its component units was not yet complete, it was only partially mobilised. The emergency mobilisation lasted nearly three weeks before the TA units were released on 14 October. The experience led to improvements in equipment scales, and a rapid expansion of AA defences brought many new AA gun and searchlight units into existence.[6] In November 1938, 31 and 33 AA Bdes transferred to the newly formed 7th Anti-Aircraft Division and 4th Anti-Aircraft Division respectively. In 1939, 30 AA Bde also joined 7 AA Division.[7] They were replaced in 2 AA Division by new brigadescreated in September 1938: 39th at Retford in Nottinghamshire and 40th and 41st in London.[3] 39th AA Bde also transferred to 7th AA Division just before the outbreak of war.[8] In April 1939, AA Command was formed to control all the AA gun and searchlight defences of the United Kingdom.

Major-General Harrison was transferred to command RA Training Establishments and was replaced as GOC 2 AA Division on 30 May 1939 by Maj-Gen Claude Grove-White.[5][9]

The deterioration in international relations during 1939 led to a partial mobilisation in June, and a proportion of TA AA units manned their war stations under a rotation system known as 'Couverture'. Full mobilisation of AA Command came in August 1939, ahead of the declaration of war on 3 September 1939.[10]

World War II

On the outbreak of war 2 AA Division had the following order of battle:[3][11][12][13]

When these units went to their war stations, the division had 97 heavy AA (HAA) guns (3-inch and 3.7-inch)ready for action, distributed as follows:[15]

The division also had 6 3-inch and 12 40mm Bofors light AA (LAA) guns, as well as 88 light machine guns (LMGs).[9]

By 11 July, at the start of the Battle of Britain, this had risen to 231 guns of all types (HAA and LAA excluding LMGs):[16]

In August 1940, all RE AA battalions became Searchlight regiments of the RA, and AA regiments became HAA regiments to distinguish them from the new LAA regiments being formed.

The Blitz

By late 1940, 2 AA Division formed part of 2 AA Corps. Grove-White had been promoted on 11 November to command the new corps and it shared 2 AA Division's HQ at RAF Hucknall.[5][7][9] The brigades were the same, but by February 1941 their locations and composition had changed:[14][17][18][19][20]

In the Spring of 1941, 50 LAA Bde was split up, keeping the S/L regiments while a new 66 AA Bde took the HAA guns and rockets:[14]

Mid-war

The division's order of battle thus contained a large number of S/L units. AA Command redeployed its S/L units during the summer of 1941 into 'Indicator Belts' of radar-controlled S/L clusters covering approaches to the RAF's Night-fighter sectors, repeated by similar belts covering AA Command's Gun Defence Areas (GDAs). Inside each belt was a 20-mile deep 'Killer Belt' of single S/Ls cooperating with night-fighters patrolling defined 'boxes'. The pattern was designed to ensure that raids penetrating deeply towards the Midlands GDAs would cross more than one belt, and the GDAs had more S/Ls at close spacing. The number of LAA units to protect Vital Points such as airfields was growing, albeit slowly.[23]

The increased sophistication of Operations Rooms and communications was reflected in the growth in support units, which attained the following organisation by May 1942:[24]

The RAOC companies became part of the new Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) during 1942. 'Mixed' indicates that women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) were integrated into the unit.

Disbandment

2 AA Division, like the other AA Corps and Divisions, was disbanded and replaced on 1 October 1942 by a new AA Group structure. The Midlands and East Anglia were covered by 5 AA Group, headquartered at Hucknall. 2 AA Divisional Signals was apparently converted into the new Group signal unit.[7][25]

General Officer Commanding

The following officers commanded 2nd AA Division:[26]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 2 AA Division 1936–38 at British Military History
  2. ↑ Northern Command 1930–38 at British Military History
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Monthly Army List 1936–39.
  4. 1 2 Routledge, p. 59.
  5. 1 2 3 Farndale, Annex J, p. 299.
  6. ↑ Routledge, pp. 62–3.
  7. 1 2 3 Sir Frederick Pile's despatch: "The Anti-Aircraft Defence of the United Kingdom from 28th July 1939, to 15th April 1945" London Gazette 16 October 1947
  8. ↑ 7 AA Division 1939 at British Military History.
  9. 1 2 3 Grove-White at British Military History.
  10. ↑ Routledge, p. 65.
  11. ↑ Routledge, Table LVIII, p. 376.
  12. ↑ 2 AA Division 1939 at British Military History
  13. ↑ AA Command 3 September 1939 at Patriot Files
  14. 1 2 3 Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 12 May 1941 with amendments, TNA file WO 212/79.
  15. ↑ Routledge, Table LIX, p. 377.
  16. ↑ Farndale, p. 105.
  17. ↑ Routledge, Table LXV, p. 397.
  18. ↑ Farndale, Annex D, p. 259
  19. ↑ 2 AA Division 1940 at British Military History
  20. ↑ 2 AA Div at RA 39–45 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  21. ↑ Farndale, Appendix J, p. 295.
  22. ↑ 15 AA Z Rgt at RA 39–45
  23. ↑ Routledge, pp. 398–400.
  24. ↑ Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 14 May 1942, TNA file WO 212/81.
  25. ↑ Lord & Watson, pp. 251, 269.
  26. ↑ Robert Palmer, 'AA Command History and Personnel' at British Military History.
  27. ↑ Harrison at Generals of World War II.
  28. ↑ Grove-White at Generals of World War II.
  29. ↑ Crossman at Generals of World War II.

References

External sources

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