Can anyone give me the composition and movements of the 13th Light A.A. Regiment R.A between 1940 and 1942 please. I have a little from Derek's site, but am looking to put some "flesh" on the "bare bones"!
13th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) HQ, 37th, 38th Btys: Hillsborough, Sheffield 6 122nd Bty: Raised 3 September 1939 as a mobile battery The regiment was serving under command of 57th AA Brigade at the outbreak of war. It was sent to Egypt in September 1940 and arrived there on 20 November 1940. On arrival it took 155th Light AA Battery (52nd Light AA Regiment) under command to replace 122nd Battery, which was sent to Greece. The regiment moved to Mersa Matruh on 30 November 1940 with 37th and 155th Batteries. 122nd Battery had arrived in Piraeus, Greece in early December. On 13 April, the battery was defending Volos harbour. It next moved to Lamia to cover the road to Larrissa and from there to Argos airfield. Some of its guns defended the bridge over the Cornith Canal. These men were captured, but another four officers and 126 men escaped to Suda Bay, Crete on 27 April. Due the attack on Crete the battery acted as infantry in the Suda-Canea sector. During the attack on Italian forces in Egypt, which started on 9 December 1940, 37th Battery joined HQ 2nd Heavy AA Regiment for mobile operations to replace 20th Heavy AA Battery, which returned to Alexandria for operations in Greece. On 16 December 1940, the regiment came under command of 7th Armoured Division with 37th Battery providing AA protection for the Advanced Divisional HQ. 1st Light AA Battery also joined the division until 38th Battery arrived on 31 December to relieve it. 1st Light AA Battery came under command of the regiment on 28 December 1940, when 2nd Heavy AA Regiment returned to Cairo. The regiment reached Tobruk on 1 February 1941 and then arrived at Derna on the 19th. The regiment was engaged in the withdrawal to Tobruk in early April 1941. It then withdrew into Tobruk as part of 4th AA Brigade with its own 37th and 38th Batteries and 39th Battery of 14th Light AA Regiment along with 1st Light AA Battery attached. Later in Tobruk it commanded 152nd/51st, 153rd/51st, 40th and 1st Light AA Batteries. 37th and 38th Batteries of the regiment were withdrawn from Tobruk and in October 1941 were located in Egypt in the area of the Canal and Alexandria under 2nd AA Brigade. During the Crusader battle, 122nd Battery served under 4th Armoured Brigade while HQ served as the command for Tobruk Harbour. It also served under 22nd Armoured Brigade at Chor es Sufan at the end of December. 37th and 38th Batteries remained in the rear in Egypt. The regiment joined 8th Army after the battle. It stayed as part of 8th Army, except for a spell under 9th Army in Palestine and Syria in late 1942 and early 1943 under 20th AA Brigade, through the end of the desert campaign in May 1943, when it formed part of 1st AA Brigade in Cyrenaica.
The regiment landed at Salerno on 9 September 1943 under 12th AA Brigade. 122nd Battery of the regiment served under No. 3 Beach Group. It transferred to 22nd AA Brigade at Salerno in September and remained with it until after April 1944. It then served under 8th AA Brigade, until January 1945 when it returned to 22nd AA Brigade. At the end of the campaign the regiment formed part of 66th AA Brigade in April 1945.
Dear Very Senior Member, In answer to your post could I recommend you read " In the Prison of his days "- which is a wartime autobiography of a WW2 soldier/gunner who was in the37th Light AA battery. I have no vested interest in the book whatsoever - apart from being the author's son! Kind regards, John.
