45th Anti-Aircraft Brigade (United Kingdom)


45th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army. Formed in 1938, it was responsible for protecting South Wales during World War II. It was reformed in the postwar TA under a new title, and continued until 1955.

Origin

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. 45th AA Brigade was formed on 29 September 1938 at Newport, Wales, to take over the TA AA units in South Wales. The HQ later moved to Penylan Court, Cardiff, the pre-war HQ of 20th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery. The brigade was responsible for the AA defences of South Wales, and initially formed part of 4 Anti-Aircraft Division. The first brigade commander was Brigadier Charles Massy, DSO, MC.

Mobilisation

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, during the period of tension leading up to the outbreak of World War II, 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. AA Command mobilised fully on 24 August, ahead of the official declaration of war on 3 September.

Order of Battle 1939

On the outbreak of war 45 AA Bde was supposed to have come under the command of 5 AA Division, but this process was not completed until 1 May 1940. In September 1939 it had the following composition:
In addition, 20th Light AA Regiment was at Cardiff under the command of the Welsh area of Western Command and 34th LAA Regiment was forming in Swansea under the command of 55 Light AA Bde at Plymouth. These soon came under the command of 45 AA Bde.
In mid-May, as the Battle of France got under way, 45 AA Bde's units – particularly the widely spaced S/L sites – were ordered to find rifle detachments to guard against possible attacks by German paratroopers. The brigade also had to lend 240 AA Bty of 77th AA Rgt, with a Gun-laying radar set, to reinforce the defences of Littlehampton on the South Coast of England, and 160 Troop of 20th LAA Rgt with its AA Light machine guns to Portsmouth.

Battle of Britain

After the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, the German Luftwaffe began almost nightly minor air raids, often by single aircraft, against the dock facilities and steelworks of South Wales, though the Battle of Britain was mainly fought over Southern England.
In July 1940, the Cardiff area was protected by a mere 12 HAA guns, but during the summer the AA defences of South Wales were bolstered by a number of units that had been re-equipped after evacuation from Dunkirk and Norway. These included 5 AA Bde, which was reformed to take over the Gloucester–Hereford area, 55th LAA Rgt, a mobile unit returned from Norway, and 79th AA Rgt and 85th AA Rgt from Dunkirk. The arrival in September of the Regular Army 1st S/L Rgt, RA, also re-equipped after Dunkirk, allowed 45 AA Bde to complete the illuminated areas of South Wales, and 484 S/L Bty was relieved and sent to Devonport.
In June all AA regiments equipped with 3-inch or the newer 3.7-inch guns were termed Heavy Anti-Aircraft to distinguish them from the new Light Anti-Aircraft units being formed. On 1 August all RE and converted infantry S/L regiments were transferred to the RA.

Dispositions, August 1940

In August and September 1940, the Cardiff area had 26 HAA guns. The available LAA units were distributed to defend Vulnerable Points such as docks and Glascoed Royal Ordnance Factory. The number of raids over South Wales, and the number of times the guns engaged, increased sharply at the end of August. At this time, 45 AA Bde was deployed as follows:
There were frequent moves of sub-units as reinforcements were integrated into the defences, and as opportunities arose for training. During this period, 45 AA Bde was commanded by Brig Cuthbert Baynham, DSO.

Blitz

Following the Luftwaffe's defeat in the Battle of Britain, it began heavy night attacks on Britain's cities. At first the towns of South Wales, including important coal and oil port facilities, refineries, steelworks and ordnance factories, were under almost nightly air attack, to which the AA defences replied as best they could. In the absence of effective GL radar control, at night the guns could only reply blindly with fixed barrages. In September, 45 AA Brigade was also called upon to lend reinforcements to London. There was a lull in the intensity of raids on South Wales from late September as the Luftwaffe concentrated on London and the industrial cities of the English Midlands, but there was a flare-up in activity over South Wales in late October. Some of this was aircraft dropping Parachute mines in the Bristol Channel. In November the AA guns began to claim some hits from GL-controlled fire.
As AA Command's resources expanded, 5 AA Division's responsibilities were split in November 1940 and a new 9 AA Division was created to cover South Wales and the Severn Valley. 45 AA Brigade was transferred to the new formation, and was itself split in half, a new 61 AA Bde taking over the western part of its area around the Swansea Gun Defence Area and out to Pembroke Dock, while 45 AA Bde concentrated round the Cardiff GDA ; the S/L detachments were widely spread across brigade boundaries. For example, 37th S/L Rgt of 5 AA Bde had 307 Bty at Llandaff operating the 'Cardiff–Newport Dazzle Area' for 45 AA Bde. However, both splits did not take full effect until 3 February 1941.
There were heavy night raids on Cardiff on 2 January, 3 and 4 March 1941, with frequent smaller raids. By the end of February 1941 the HAA guns in the Cardiff GDA only numbered 52 out of a planned establishment of 64. This increased a month later to 56 guns, though further additions to the establishment were already being called for. The position on LAA gun sites was worse: only small numbers of Bofors guns were available at the start of the Blitz, and most LAA detachments had to make do with AA LMGs. However, they began to be supplemented by AA rocket batteries. Four of these were assigned to 45 AA Bde from early September 1940, and a regimental HQ was established soon afterward to command them.

Order of Battle 1940–41

The composition of 45 AA Bde during this period was as follows:
After a busy period for the AA defences of South Wales in early May 1941, the Blitz effectively ended in the middle of the month. Desultory raiding continued through June and July while the gaps in AA defences were filled as more equipment and units became available. Searchlights, now assisted by Searchlight Control radar, were reorganised, with a 'Killer Belt' established between the Cardiff and Bristol GDAs to cooperate closely with RAF night fighters. Obsolete equipment such as 3-inch guns and Vickers pom-poms were gradually replaced by 3.7-inch and Bofors guns, and GL Mark II radar became available. The HAA and support units increasingly became 'Mixed', indicating that women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service were fully integrated into them. Some LAA units and many 'Z' batteries also incorporated part-time members of the Home Guard. At the same time, experienced units were posted away to train for service overseas. This led to a continual turnover of units, which accelerated in 1942 with the preparations for the invasion of North Africa and the need to transfer AA units to counter the Luftwaffe 's Baedeker Blitz against largely unprotected inland cities and then the hit-and-run daylight attacks against South Coast towns. South Wales did occasionally receive a raid, as at Cardiff in May 1943.
In October 1942 AA Command abolished its hierarchy of divisions and corps, and established a single tier of AA Groups corresponding to the Groups of RAF Fighter Command. 45 AA Brigade came under 3 AA Group covering South Wales and South West England and affiliated to No. 10 Group RAF.

Order of Battle 1941–44

During this period the brigade was composed as follows:
In March 1944 AA Command undertook a major reorganisation in order to defend the assembly camps, depots and embarkation ports for the planned Invasion of Normandy and to prepare for the expected onslaught of V-1 flying bombs against London. As a result of these changes, 45 AA Bde came under the command of 4 AA Gp, which previously had only controlled North Wales and North West England.

Order of Battle March–December 1944

During this period 45 AA Bde's composition was as follows:
By October 1944, the brigade's HQ establishment was 8 officers, 7 male other ranks and 22 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.
In the autumn of 1944, the requirements of the anti-'Diver' defences of South East England meant that AA Command progressively stripped units from the West and North West. At the same time the Luftwaffe was suffering from such shortages of pilots, aircraft and fuel that serious air attacks on the rest of the UK could be discounted. On 17 November 1944 45 AA Bde was disbanded and the last of its units were posted away.

Postwar

When the TA was reconstituted in 1947, 45 AA Bde was reformed at Cardiff as 71 AA Brigade , taking the number of a wartime formation that had been disbanded. Forming part of 2 AA Group, it had the following composition:
AA Command was disbanded in March 1955, and 71 AA Bde was placed in 'suspended animation' from 31 October that year. It was formally disbanded on 31 December 1957.

External sources