43rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade (United Kingdom)


43rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army. Formed in 1938, it was responsible for protecting Teesside in North East England during the early part of World War II, and later defended South East England from V-1 flying bombs. It was reformed postwar and survived under different titles until 1961.

Mobilisation

With the expansion of Britain's Anti-Aircraft defences in the late 1930s, new formations were created to command the growing number of Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers AA gun and searchlight units 43rd AA Brigade was raised on 1 October 1938 at West Hartlepool and comprised part-time TA units from Teesside and County Durham. Initially, it formed part of 3rd AA Division, which had responsibility for defending Scotland, Northern Ireland and North East England. The first brigade commander was Brigadier K.D. Yearsley, MC.
At the time the brigade was formed, the TA's AA units were in a state of mobilisation because of the Munich crisis, although they were soon stood down. In February 1939 the TA's AA defences came under the control of a new Anti-Aircraft Command. In June a partial mobilisation of AA Command was begun in a process known as 'couverture', whereby each unit did a month's tour of duty in rotation to man selected AA gun and searchlight positions. That summer, 43rd AA Bde came under the command of the newly formed 7th AA Division, which was created to cover North East England, Yorkshire and Humberside. Its exact responsibilities were still being worked out when war broke out. AA Command mobilised fully on 24 August, ahead of the official declaration of war on 3 September.

Order of Battle 1939

The composition of the brigade upon mobilisation in August 1939 was as follows:
Equipment was critically short at the outbreak of war. In August 1939, 7 AA Division only had 14 3-inch or 3.7-inch Heavy AA guns deployed on Teesside. Luckily, the months of the Phoney War that followed mobilisation allowed AA Command to address its equipment shortages and a Gun Defence Area was established around Teesside including Middlesbrough and Billingham. Vital Points such as RAF Fighter Command airfields and factories began to receive a few Bofors LAA guns.
85th AA Regiment left the brigade in November 1939 to mobilise for overseas service; in April 1940 it joined the British Expeditionary Force in France. Later, 54th S/L Regiment transferred to 31st Anti-Aircraft Brigade covering West Yorkshire.

Battle of Britain

After the Fall of France and the BEF's evacuation from Dunkirk, returning AA units were re-equipped and re-integrated into AA Command as quickly as possible. By the summer of 1940, all TA searchlight regiments had been transferred to the Royal Artillery, and AA regiments had been redesignated Heavy Anti-Aircraft to distinguish them from the new Light Anti-Aircraft regiments being formed.
Teesside and Wearside were important strategic targets because of their concentrations of heavy industry and ports. During the early part of the Battle of Britain, German day and night air raids and mine laying began along the East Coast of England, intensifying through June 1940. Thereafter the Luftwaffe concentrated on Royal Air Force sites in the South of England, with occasional raids on the North East, such as the period 12–15 August.
On 15 August, in the belief that the defences of NE England had been denuded, Luftflotte 5 attacked across the North Sea from Norway. Some 65 Heinkel He 111 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 26 escorted by 35 Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer fighters of Zerstörergeschwader 76 were picked up on radar and ambushed by fighters of No. 13 Group RAF before they reached the coast. Those bombers that succeeded in breaking through then split into two groups, one being engaged by the guns of the Tyne GDA the other by the Tees GDA. Bombs were widely scattered and only at Sunderland was any major damage inflicted. KG 26 lost 8 bombers and 7 fighters for no loss to the RAF, in 'one of the most successful air actions of the war'.

The Blitz

After the defeat of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe switched to night raids over Britain's cities during the winter of 1940–41. By 21 August, the Teesside GDA contained 30 HAA guns, and as more LAA units became available they were distributed to defend VPs. AA 'Z' Regiments were also formed, equipped with Z Battery rocket projectiles.
The S/L layouts had been based on a spacing of, but due to equipment shortages this had been extended to. The S/L layout was changed in November to clusters of three lights to improve illumination, but this meant that the clusters had to be spaced apart. The cluster system was an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or RAF Night fighters. Eventually, one light in each cluster was to be equipped with searchlight control radar and act as 'master light', but the radar equipment was still in short supply. The number of raiders shot down steadily increased until mid-May 1941, when the Luftwaffe scaled down its attacks.

Order of Battle 1940–41

By now AA Command had been greatly expanded and reorganised. The order of battle of 43 AA Bde was now as follows :
preserved at Imperial War Museum Duxford.
During 1942 the Luftwaffe switched to 'hit and run' attacks against coastal targets. One notable example was the bombing of Middlesbrough railway station by a lone Dornier bomber on August Bank Holiday.
As the war progressed, AA units began to be sent to overseas theatres. 8th HAA Rgt was posted to GHQ Reserve in November 1941 preparatory to embarking for India. In January 1942, 47th and 55th S/L Rgts were converted to the LAA role and became 112th and 113th LAA Rgts respectively. Both regiments later served under 21st Army Group in. 73rd HAA Rgt was sent to Middle East Forces by April 1942. and 72nd LAA Rgt was in Tunisia by July 1943.
This continual turnover of units accelerated with the need to transfer LAA units to counter the hit-and-run attacks and preparations for the invasion of North Africa in late 1942. However, newly-formed units continued to join AA Command, the HAA and support units increasingly becoming 'Mixed' units, indicating that women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service were fully integrated into them.
At the end of 1941 this turnover meant that 43 AA Bde consisted only of one new HAA regiment, one new LAA regiment, and one S/L regiment.

Order of Battle 1941–42

During this period the brigade had the following composition :
In October 1942 AA Command reorganised its structure, replacing the AA Divisions with AA Groups coinciding with RAF Fighter Command's Groups. 43 AA Bde came under 6 AA Group, covering Scotland and North-East England.
By late 1943 AA Command was being forced to make manpower cuts, releasing men to 21st Army Group for Operation Overlord, the planned Allied invasion of Normandy, and a number of batteries were disbanded.

Order of Battle 1942–44

During this period the composition of the brigade was as follows:
In March 1944, 6 AA Group HQ was transferred to Southern England to assist 2 AA Group by taking over some of the responsibility for defending the assembly camps, depots and embarkation ports for Operation Overlord, and planning for the expected onslaught of V-1 flying bombs. 5 AA Group assumed responsibility for NE England, including 43 AA Bde.
The first V-1 missiles were fired against London in June, a week after D-Day, and Operation Diver was activated. 2 AA Group's HAA batteries left their 'Overlord' sites and moved to pre-planned sites across the 'funnel' of V-1 flightpaths. 43 AA Brigade was one of four reinforcing brigade HQs moved into the area within two weeks. However, the initial results were disappointing, and after a fortnight AA Command changed its tactics. Firstly, mobile HAA guns were replaced with static installations that could traverse more quickly to track the fast-moving targets. These were emplaced on temporary 'Pile platforms' named after the Commander-in-Chief of AA Command, Gen Sir Frederick 'Tim' Pile. Secondly, the HAA gun belt was moved to the coast and interlaced with LAA guns to hit the missiles out to sea. This new belt was divided into six brigade sectors, with 43 AA Bde HQ taking charge of one sector, with 183rd HAA and 143rd LAA Rgts under command. The whole process involved the movement of hundreds of guns and vehicles and thousands of servicemen and women, but a new 8-gun site could be established in 48 hours. The guns were constantly in action, but success rate against the 'Divers' steadily improved, until over 50 per cent of incoming missiles were destroyed by gunfire or fighter aircraft. This phase of Operation Diver ended in September after the V-1 launch sites in Northern France had been overrun by 21st Army Group.
, 28 July 1944.

Order of Battle 1944–45

From July 1944 the brigade's composition was as follows:
By October 1944, the brigade's HQ establishment was 11 officers, 10 male other ranks and 28 members of the ATS, together with a small number of attached drivers, cooks and mess orderlies. In addition, the brigade had a Mixed Signal Office Section of 1 officer, 5 male other ranks and 19 ATS, which was formally part of the Group signal unit.

Disbandment

In October 1944, AA Command began planning to counter the expected attacks by air-launched V-1s coming in across the North Sea against targets on the East Coast and the Midlands. AA units and formations were moved from the South Coast, and 43 AA Brigade HQ was disbanded on 15 November.

Postwar

When the TA was constituted in 1947, 43 AA Bde reformed at Leeds as 69 AA Brigade , once again forming part of 5 AA Group at Nottingham. It now comprised the following units from the West Riding of Yorkshire:
AA Command was disbanded on 10 March 1955, and there was a considerable reduction in the number of TA AA units. 69 AA Bde was converted into an Army Group Royal Artillery and temporarily designated 'V' AGRA; from 1 August 1955 it became 42 AGRA at York with the following composition:
In 1959, 42 AGRA Signals was renumbered 308 Signal Squadron. When the AGRA was disbanded, this unit transferred to become 308 Signal Sqn.
42 AGRA was disbanded on 1 May 1961.

Footnotes

External sources