Does anyone know when the Middle East War Establishment for Light AA Regiments changed from 36x 40mm Bofors to 48x 40mm Bofors? And how quickly is was put into practise? Thanks, David.
It depends on exactly what you mean by "put into practice" The War Establishments could be promulgated quickly by signal and also implemented via the staff O & D Channels. However, all this would not change overnight the actual numbers of soldiers or their holdings of equipment. All it would mean would be that they had a series of deficiencies or surpluses against the new establishment.against which the A and Q side indented for people or equipment to be shipped across some a very long lines of communications. I may be wrong, but I am not sure there is a simple or comprehensive .answer to the question "when did all the LAA units established for 48 x Bofors actually receive them with all the stores needed to make them work" I am not sure that the paper trail for this information exists. it may or may not be in the Regimental war diaries, but these do not always have the information for batteries temporarily. detached . I once tried to obtain a comprehensive orbat for the Gunners down to battery level for WW2. I was told that this had been a task assigned to a civil; servant at the end of the War, but the task had been abandoned after his retirement with the task incomplete sometime in the 1970s. There were an awful lot of LAA Units. ..
Thanks guys. Maybe I need to ask for individual Regiments? And whilst I'm about it, I'll write to Whitehall for a job. The one that they are not advertising to complete the .B for the LAA Regiments down to Battery level. Imagine being paid a Civil Servant's wage for doing what I do now as a hobby!!!
Hi, I've only got the diary for November - December 1941, but I'll have a look and see whether there is any mention of an increase in the war establishment. Cheers Tom
Note that I wrote in the past tense. Can I refer you to the thread about Fire-power being closed and moved....
Thanks Tom. Sheldrake. I was serious about asking about the individual Regiments. But was joking re the Whitehall job. I was baffled by your comment above however.
I have only ever seen 12-gun batteries, for what it's worth. Organisation was in three troops with two sections of two guns each. (2x2x3=12). I can't see how a 9-gun structure would work. All the best Andreas
Thanks Andreas. The reason I asked is that I see regiments with 4 Batteries at the time when they were supposed to have 36 guns.
I'm intrigued, which particular type of LAA Regt are you looking at here, Divisional or higher? I know the Armd Div LAA Regt had 36 guns and the Inf Div version 48 guns through 1941 and into 1942. There were though of course lots more AA units at Corps/Army level which I won't pretend to be as familiar with. I would though echo the above that LAA Btys were on 12-guns until well into 1942 with the move to 18-guns, and haven't seen any reference to a 9-gun variant myself. Gary
Gary. Like I said above, it was just the maths that prompted the question, not any secret knowledge of 9 gun batteries!
I think that I will need to enquire about 36 & 48 gun Regiments Individually. To save time, I'll do batches of three. The time scale is 1940 - 1942, the theatre is north Africa. 15th. 57th. 25th. thanks in advance.
