Mobilisation and Phoney War In June 1939, as the international situation worsened, a partial mobilisation of
Anti-Aircraft Command's TA units 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. On 24 August, ahead of the declaration of war, AA Command was fully mobilised at its war stations. 94th AA Regiment and its three batteries accordingly mobilised under the command of 36th AA Bde in
3rd AA Division. There was little action for AA Command during the period of the
Phoney War, which allowed it to continue building up its strength and equipment, for which 3rd AA Division was given a high priority. 228 (Edinburgh) AA Battery was one of the few units to see any action. It was deployed to defend
Aberdeen, and at 13.50 on 7 March 1940 a
Heinkel He 111 of the
Luftwaffe was spotted by the
Royal Air Force (RAF). The gunners calculated the height of the intruder as , climbing to , which was beyond the
Fuze range of their guns, but they passed the information to the RAF, which 'scrambled' some
Spitfires. The fighters flew out over the guns while the gunners continued to track the target, calculating that the gun time-of-flight to the Heinkel was 28 seconds. While the fighters flew out to sea to gain height, the battery fired three salvoes of rounds at fuze settings of 22, 28 and 30 seconds to direct them to the target. Although the Heinkel took avoiding action, the fighters shot it down at a height of . This was a novel application of the use of 'pointer' rounds developed for AA-fighter cooperation during
World War I. On 1 June 1940, all RA units equipped with the older
3-inch or newer
3.7-inch and
4.5-inch guns were designated as Heavy AA (HAA) regiments to distinguish them from the new Light AA (LAA) regiments appearing in the order of battle. Although there were some night raids on Scottish cities, the main action in the
Battle of Britain and the subsequent
Blitz was over Southern England and there were few chances of action for the Scottish AA defences in 1940.
Gibraltar , Gibraltar, November 1941. In January 1941 94th HAA Rgt left AA Command and became part of the
War Office Reserve to mobilise for overseas service. In March 228 (Edinburgh) HAA Bty became independent. In May, 228 HAA Bty embarked for
Gibraltar where it joined a newly-formed
13th HAA Rgt and absorbed the personnel of 19 HAA Bty. On the outbreak of war in September 1939 the AA defences of Gibraltar had been weak, but the
Royal Navy Dockyard and
airfield became strategically vital in 1940 after the entry of Italy into the war and the
Fall of France. Additional AA guns had been installed, manned by the RA, Royal Navy and
Gibraltar Defence Force (GDF). Gibraltar suffered a number of air raids during 1940 by the Italian
Regia Aeronautica (operating from
Sardinia) and from the
Vichy French Air Force (from French North Africa) in retaliation for British and
Free French attacks on
Mers-el-Kebir and
Dakar. On other occasions the guns fired at single Italian reconnaissance aircraft, known to the garrison as 'Persistent Percy'. 13th HAA Regiment HQ was formed in Gibraltar to command 228 (Edinburgh) AA Bty, a troop of
Z projectors (AA rockets) and the radar battery. The rest of the HAA defences including the GDF batteries came under
82nd (Essex) HAA Rgt. By now there were 28 3.7-inch HAA guns (and four old 3-inch guns manned by the GDF). The gun and searchlight (S/L) sites and
Gun-laying radar (GL) positions were carefully selected so that the fire of 20 HAA guns could be brought to bear on a target approaching at a speed of 240 mph from any direction at a typical height of 12,000 feet. Each AA gunsite was also given an
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon for self-defence. , Gibraltar. During 1941 there were five air raids that were positively identified as Vichy French, another six were attributed to Italian aircraft. A total of nine 'kills' were claimed with one 'probable', though the Vichy and Italian HQs announced higher losses than these, so some aircraft probably crashed in Spain or elsewhere. Throughout 1942, raiding was spasmodic and in small strength, most enemy
sorties being confined to high level reconnaissance overflights, including German
Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 and
Heinkel He 111 aircraft from March 1942. There were occasional Italian raids on moonlit mights, generally of three
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers flying at medium height. On 29 June the
Royal Air Force early warning radar detected one such raid at a range of 60 miles, which was duly picked up by GL radar as the aircraft turned towards the Rock. One aircraft was illuminated by S/L and shot down, the others were engaged with barrage fire by the HAA guns and Z battery rockets. Although bombs fell on the airfield causing some casualties, two more of the hostile raiders were shot down and crashed in Spain.
Home Defence After more than two years in Gibraltar, 228 (Edinburgh) HAA Bty was relieved in August 1943 and returned to the UK, where it rejoined 82nd (Essex) HAA Rgt in October. 82nd HAA Regiment moved in early May to join
60 AA Bde in
3 AA Group, covering the invasion ports on the South West Coast.
Operation Diver The invasion of Normandy was launched on 6 June. A week after D-Day the long-awaited attacks on London by
V-1 flying bombs ('Divers') began. AA Command had prepared
Operation Diver to counter these weapons, and AA guns were moved from all over the UK to strengthen the 'Diver Belt' in Southern England. In early August 82nd HAA Rgt moved to join
26 (London) AA Bde in
1 AA Group, covering London itself. bomber. As
21st Army Group overran the main launch sites in the
Pas-de-Calais, the
Luftwaffe shifted its focus to air-launching V-1s over the
North Sea during the autumn. Once again AA Command redeployed units in response, this time to Eastern England. New HAA sites had to be quickly established, with static guns mounted on ingenious 'Pile Platforms' (named after the commander of AA Command,
Sir Frederick Pile) and thousands of huts moved and re-erected to shelter the crews as winter approached. AA Command formed a new
9 AA Group to take over the 'Diver' defences in
East Anglia and in early December 1944 82nd HAA Rgt joined
37 AA Bde in this group. ==Postwar==