45th LAA Regt

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by nemo120, Dec 7, 2016.

  1. nemo120

    nemo120 Member

    My gt grandfather was TOS of the 45th LAA Regt (Most likely as a REME engineer) on 25/6/44. I have seen some info on their participation in North Africa, but nothing on Italy. If anyone knows of their whereabouts around this time, that would be much appreciated.
     
  2. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

    Here is a brief summary of the service of the 45th Light AA Regiment RA:


    45th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A. (T.A.)

    RHQ, 500th-507th Light AA Troops

    Raised: 10 July 1940


    The regiment was reorganized with 102nd Battery by August 1940. The regiment formed part of 1st Anti-Aircraft Brigade at Crewe in February 1941. 306th Battery was added at Meriden on 15 September 1941, but left on 16 December 1941. 135th and 142nd Batteries were added on 27 July 1942.

    The regiment landed at Bougie in North Africa on 9 November 1942 as part of V Corps and was still part of the corps until mid-March 1943, when it came under XIX French Corps. By May 1943, it was serving under 52nd AA Brigade in Tunis. It joined 66th AA Brigade in Italy by April 1944 and moved with the brigade to the defences at Salerno in June 1944.

    The regiment was converted to 45th Garrison Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) on 4 November 1944 and reorganized as 603rd Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) on 13 February 1945 with ‘A’ to ‘D’ Batteries. It served as a garrison unit in Italy until the end of the war.
     
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  3. nemo120

    nemo120 Member

    Sorry if I'm late to reply,
    Going over his service record I have realised that he briefly left the regiment to join the x(II) list for a few days between Jan-Feb 1945. When he was posted back to the regiment, he was posted back to "45th LAA Regt W/S" but by this point, I did not think that the 45th LAA regt still existed as it would have undergone the change to 45th Garrison and then 603rd RA regt. No war diaries exist for 45th LAA regt beyond Oct 44. Also throughout this period, when the regt returned to England, he remained in N/Africa and Italy (seen on his service record, he did not return to the UK until 1946). Maybe this is different for REME detachments. Sorry if I am being too specific, I just wanted to clarify his service a bit more but it seems quite complicated and the service records do not always match up and are prone to errors, which could explain this.
    Thanks
     

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