The brigade was created on 8 December 1920 at Blackdown Barracks, near Aldershot in Hampshire, when its first commander, Colonel Edward Ashmore was appointed. At first it was designated 1st Air Defence Brigade, then 1st Anti-Aircraft Group. It formed part of Aldershot Command and had the following composition:
The Royal Garrison Artillery was merged into the Royal Artillery in 1923, and the RA adopted the designation 'regiment' instead of 'brigade' for its units in 1938, allowing the title of brigade to be used solely at the more usual formation level. 1st AA Group therefore became 1st AA Brigade.
Mobilisation
On the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939, 1st AA Bde had the following composition:
The brigade proceeded to France with the British Expeditionary Force. The two AA regiments were each equipped with 16 obsolescent 3-inch guns and eight of the newer 3.7-inch heavy AA guns. 54th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA joined by November 1939. 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 Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA
*15th, 16th and 17th Batteries
6th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA
*2nd, 12th and 18th Batteries
85th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA – crossed to France 5 April 1940 with 24 x 3.7-inch guns
* 174th, 175th and 220th Batteries
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 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA 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 or Light. 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:
78th S/L Rgt – new regiment raised in August 1940, disbanded September 1943
* 498, 499, 500, 551 S/L Bty
83rd S/L Rgt – new regiment raised January 1941 at Crewe, disbanded December 1944
* 513, 514, 515 S/L Btys
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 and for the few available Royal Air ForceNight 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. Although operating within AA Command during the Blitz, 1st AA Bde HQ together with 1st HAA Rgt 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 in the North African Campaign. 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:
