The 32nd (Midland) Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Anti-Aircraft Command in Britain's Territorial Army (TA) from 1936 to 1955, charged with defending the East Midlands of England.
Origin
The formation was raised on 1 November 1936 at Normanton House, Derby, as 32nd (South Midland) Anti-Aircraft Group, forming part of 2nd Anti-Aircraft Division. It comprised anti-aircraft (AA) 'brigades' of the Royal Artillery (RA) and AA battalions of the Royal Engineers (RE), but when the RA redesignated its brigades as regiments in 1938, the group adopted the more usual title of 32nd (Midland) Ant-Aircraft Brigade in November 1938. On first formation the brigade comprised the following units:[1][2]
All these units had previously been infantry battalions of the former 46th (North Midland) Division, which had been converted into 2 AA Division in 1935.[3]
Second World War
Mobilisation
With the continued expansion of AA defences, especially after the Munich Crisis of 1938, new formations appeared, culminating in the creation of Anti-Aircraft Command, responsible for all TA air defence units in the UK. As a result of this expansion, some existing units transferred from 32 AA Bde to the new formations, while newly formed units replaced them, although the brigade remained within 2 AA Division. On the outbreak of war its order of battle was as follows:[4][5][6]
68 AA Regiment RA – HAA unit formed in 1936 by conversion of 62nd Field Brigade, Royal Artillery, also from 46th Division[3]
In 1940 the RE AA battalions were transferred to the RA, and that summer the AA regiments of the RA were redesignated Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) to distinguish them from the new Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) units being formed.
Order of Battle 1940–41
Formation sign of 2 AA Division, worn 1940–42
During The Blitz of 1940–41, 32 AA Bde controlled the following AA units defending the East Midlands:[7][8][9][10][11]
78 (1st East Anglian) HAA Regiment (part) – formed in 1937 by conversion of 84th (1st East Anglian) Field Brigade, RA; split into detachments during Battle of Britain; concentrated into 40 AA Bde by May 1941[12][13]
113 HAA Regiment (part) – new unit raised November 1940;[14][15] split into detachments during Blitz; concentrated into new 66 AA Bde by May 1941
The Blitz ended in May 1941, but occasional raids continued.[23][24] The brigade's order of battle was now predominantly composed of searchlight (S/L) units. AA Command redeployed its S/L units during the summer of 1941 into 'Indicator Belts' of radar-controlled S/L clusters covering approaches to the RAF's Night-fighter sectors, repeated by similar belts covering AA Command's Gun Defence Areas (GDAs). Inside each belt was a 20-mile deep 'Killer Belt' of single S/Ls cooperating with night-fighters patrolling defined 'boxes'. The pattern was designed to ensure that raids penetrating deeply towards the Midlands GDAs would cross more than one belt, and the GDAs had more S/Ls at close spacing. The number of LAA units to protect Vital Points such as airfields was growing, albeit slowly.[25]
Newly formed units joining AA Command were increasingly 'mixed' ones into which women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service were integrated. At the same time, experienced units were posted away for service overseas. This led to a continual turnover of units, which accelerated in 1942 with the preparations for Operation Torch.[23][29]
Order of Battle 1941–42
During this period the division was composed as follows (temporary detachments omitted):[11][30][31][32]
32 AA Bde Signal Office Mixed Sub-Section (part of No 2 Company, 2 AA Division Mixed Signal Unit, Royal Corps of Signals)
When the AA Divisions were disbanded in 1942, 32 AA Bde came under the command of 5 AA Group, based in Nottingham,[36] and remained with it until the end of its wartime service.
Late war
At the end of 1942, 120th LAA Rgt left for mobile training, and in the early part of 1943 41st (5NSR) S/L Rgt moved to the Humber defences and 58th (Middlesex) S/L Rgt left for 41 AA Bde. Although 43rd (5th Duke of Wellington's Regiment) S/L Rgt joined, by March 1943 32 AA Bde had been reduced to one battery of 136th HAA Rgt (the others being distributed to other brigades) and the six S/L batteries of 43 and 65 S/L Rgts. All these units had left by August 1943, after which the brigade was entirely composed of Mixed (M) units, including some armed with Z Battery rocket projectiles that were partly manned by members of the Home Guard.[32][37][38]
Order of Battle 1943–44
From August 1943 the brigade had the following composition:[39][40]
127th HAA Rgt – from 2 AA Group Autumn 1943; to 40 AA Bde November 1943
172nd (M) HAA Rgt – to 63 AA Bde August 1943; returned February 1944; to 65 AA Bde May 1944
517, 570, 573 (M) HAA Btys
582 (M) HAA Bty – joined by February, left by March 1944
668 (M) HAA Btys – left by March 1944
81st LAA Rgt – from 8 AA Group March, to 2 AA Group April 1944
199, 261, 307 LAA Btys
15th (M) 'Z' AA Rgt
120, 180, 181, 219 (M) 'Z' Btys
16th (M) 'Z' AA Rgt – joined from 39 AA Bde April 1943
126, 195, 227 (M) 'Z' Btys
'Z' AA Rgts were redesignated AA Area Mixed Rgts in April 1944
Order of Battle 1944–45
Home Guard soldiers load a single launcher on a static 'Z' Battery, July 1942
The composition of 32 AA Bde remained stable during the summer of 1944. Then in October there was a further reorganisation:[40]
161st (M) HAA Rgt
447, 478, 558 (M) HAA Btys
182nd (M) HAA Rgt
588, 592, 594 (M) HAA Btys
6th AA Area Mixed Rgt
146, 183, 209 (M) 'Z' Btys
15th AA Area Mixed Rgt
120, 180, 181, 219 (M) 'Z' Btys
16th AA Area Mixed Rgt
126, 195, 227 (M) 'Z' Btys
32nd AA Area Mixed Rgt
170, 20, 207, 225 (M) 'Z' Btys
By this time, 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 (male and female). In addition, the brigade had a Mixed Signal Office Section of 5 male other ranks and 19 ATS, which was formally part of the Group signal unit.[41]
Disbandment
During the Summer of 1944 London and South-East England had been bombarded with V-1 flying bombs. Once the launching sites were overrun by 21st Army Group, the Luftwaffe began launching them from aircraft over the North Sea. 5 AA Group had to reorganise its defences, stripping HAA guns from inland sites and moving them to the coast of East Anglia.[23][42] AA Command was also suffering a personnel shortage, as fit men were posted to make up losses in 21st Army Group fighting in North West Europe.
In November 1944 all the brigade's units left except 15th and 16th AA Area Mixed Rgts, which were joined by 9th (Londonderry) HAA Rgt (24, 25, 26 HAA Btys) returned from service in the Italian Campaign.[43][44] Then at the end of the year the Home Guard was stood down and all the Z Btys disappeared. By the beginning of 1945 the brigade only had four AA Area Mixed Rgt HQs (2nd, 15th, 16th, 17th) left under its command.[23][40] It was briefly joined on 1 January by 72nd (Middlesex) S/L Rgt at Hatfield Militia Camp near Doncaster, which consolidated the personnel of 72nd, 80th and 82nd S/L Rgts while they awaited posting elsewhere.[45]
32nd AA Brigade HQ was disbanded on 31 January 1945.[1][40]
Postwar
The Brigade was reformed in the TA in 1947, still based at Derby, but renumbered as 58 AA Brigade (TA),[a] with the following composition:[1][46][47]
262 (North Midlands) HAA Regt at Derby – formerly 68 (North Midland) HAA (see above)[48]
575 (6th Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters) S/L Regt at Chesterfield – formerly 149 LAA, and before that 40 S/L (see above)[50]
577 (The Robin Hoods, Sherwood Foresters) S/L Regt at Nottingham – formerly 42 S/L (see above)[50]
In 1954, 262 and 526 HAA Regiments amalgamated as 262 Regiment. Then on 10 March 1955, AA Command was disbanded and a number of AA units were disbanded or merged. From 58 AA Bde, 262 HAA Regiment became P (North Midland) Battery of a new 438 LAA Regiment (which also included the former Leicester and Northampton Searchlight Regiments, see above), while 528 and 577 Regiments merged into 350 Regiment in Nottingham. Finally, the brigade was placed in suspended animation on 31 October 1955, and completely disbanded on 31 December 1957.[1][47]
Footnotes
^The TA AA brigades were now numbered 51 and upwards, rather than 26 and upwards as in the 1930s; the wartime 58th AA Bde had been disbanded in 1945.
^ abOrder of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 12 May 1941, with amendments, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 212/79.
^Order of Battle of the Field Force in the United Kingdom, Part 3: Royal Artillery (Non-Divisional Units), 14 August 1942, with amendments, TNA file WO 212/7 and WO 33/1927.
Gen Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: The Years of Defeat: Europe and North Africa, 1939–1941, Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1988/London: Brasseys, 1996, ISBN1-85753-080-2.
J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol II, Wakefield, Microform Academic, 1984, ISBN1-85117-009-X.
Monthly Army Lists.
Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1960]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield, East Sussex: Naval and Military Press. ISBN978-1-84342-474-1.
Brig N.W. Routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914–55, London: Royal Artillery Institution/Brassey's, 1994, ISBN9781857530995.
Titles and Designations of Formations and Units of the Territorial Army, London: War Office, 7 November 1927.
