Phoney War After war was declared on 3 September there were numerous adjustments to AA Command's deployment as further units and equipment became available. During the autumn 79th (HY) AA Rgt handed over most of its responsibilities for airfields, and shifted towards the Gun Defence Area (GDA) round the port of
Harwich and adjacent harbours. 248 Battery was deployed as follows: • 2 x 3.7-inch at site H2 (
Trimley, Felixstowe) • 2 x 3.7-inch at site H3 (
Dovercourt) • 20 x AA LMG at RAF Martlesham Heath • 20 x AA LMG at
Parkeston Quay, Harwich On 17 October the battery fired the regiment's first rounds in anger, when sites H2 and H3 engaged an aircraft identified as hostile. The War Establishment of the battery was now 290 all ranks, and on 21 October a draft of 132 recruits (
Militiamen with 3 months' AA training) arrived, after which the 125 men who were aged under 19 or over 38, or who were unfit for overseas service, were posted away in early November. The
Battle of France began on 10 May with the German invasion of the
Low Countries and France. The BEF followed the pre-arranged
Plan D and advanced into Belgium, but a rapid German breakthrough in the
Ardennes forced it to fall back again. By 21 May the main body of the BEF was cut off, and between 26 May and 4 June as much as possible was evacuated through Dunkirk (
Operation Dynamo). From 10 to 19 May the only
Luftwaffe activity in the Le Havre area had been daily reconnaissance flights, but on the night of 19/20 May there was a three-hour raid on the French airfield at Octeville, during which 'Pillar of fire' brought down an enemy aircraft, followed on succeeding nights by attempts to drop
Parachute mines into the harbour entrance. Even after the Dunkirk evacuation ended, there were still British forces in France north of the
Seine, and 79th (HY) HAA Rgt maintained its defences at Le Havre covering the Seine ferries. Nightly air attacks on the harbour area began in earnest on 3/4 June, with the guns in action for long periods. By 8 June, under renewed German attacks,
1st Armoured Division,
51st (Highland) Division and assorted other British forces were withdrawing to the Seine. That night, with much of the town and oil depots set on fire by the raids, 'Cuckoo Section' of 79th (HY) AA Rgt ferried the highly secret GL radar transmitter trailers and their receiver trailers across the river to Honfleur, followed by the mobile guns. With the enemy closing on Le Havre (51st (H) Division was cut off and forced to surrender), 3 AA Bde was ordered to evacuate. On the night of 11/12 June RHQ and most of 248 Bty boarded SS
St Briac, which took them to
Cherbourg, while a party of 248 Bty destroyed the remaining static guns.
Operation Aerial, to evacuate the remainder of the British forces from France, was now under way. From Cherbourg, RHQ and the batteries without equipment were shunted by train between
Nantes and
Rennes before being evacuated from
St Nazaire aboard SS
Duchess of York and reaching
Liverpool on 18 June. The party of 248 Bty that had stayed to disable the guns was evacuated through
St Malo.
Home Defence The bulk of 79th (HY) Heavy AA Rgt (as AA units were designated from June 1940 to distinguish them from Light AA By early September, the regiment was concentrated round the
Swansea GDA, where RHQ and 248 Bty set up a Gun Operations Room (GOR) in two Requisitioned houses and arranged a barrage scheme codenamed 'Ball of Fire'. Two sections of 248 Bty occupied V site near
Neath with the 3-inch guns brought from Cardiff, but these guns did not have the range to cover Swansea, so the battery exchanged with 246 Bty at T site at
Sketty. These guns were replaced with 3-7-inch at the end of December. During October, 248 Bty began constructing a new gunsite (S) at
Mumbles, which broke away from convention by positioning the emplacements at the corners of a field, concealed in the hedges and served by the existing road, rather than grouped in the centre of the field with visible access tracks. The position was completed and guns mounted in December. The new elevation-finding (E/F or 'Effie') attachment for the GL Mk I radar was also installed. During the winter, 79th (HY) HAA Rgt provided
cadres for new batteries forming at the training regiments. It also took in a draft of local Welsh recruits for basic training, some of whom stayed with the regiment afterwards, and then trained an intake of older men for
'Z' Battery Rocket units. Heavier raids against Swansea began on 4/5 January 1941, when a bomb put all the GOR telephone lines out of action, but 248 Bty at S and T sites was able to continue with 'Ball of Fire' barrages controlled by T site's GL radar with Effie providing angles of sight. 248 Battery's S and T sites were heavily engaged again on 17/18 January as the German aircraft bombed systematically across the town. One aircraft was destroyed that night. By the beginning of February 1941 the HAA guns in the Swansea GDA still only numbered 18 out of a planned establishment of 36. The battery was responsible for the following renamed sites: • N5 – Mumbles – 4 x 3.7-inch • N6 – Sketty – 2 x 3.7-inch In February 1941 the
Luftwaffe began a new tactic of hitting the same towns on successive nights in an attempt to put them completely out of action. Swansea was the first town so attacked. On the night of 19/20 February the building housing RHQ and the GOR was destroyed by a direct hit during a heavy raid, but the guns continued firing under local control and communications were maintained, once again through N6 site. A temporary GOR was established at 248 Bty HQ. The
Luftwaffe returned to continue the '
Swansea Blitz' on the nights of 20/21 and 21/22 February. On the latter night there was confusion between the Sector Operations Room at
RAF Pembrey and the temporary GOR, resulting in the guns ceasing fire between 20.20 and 21.10, leaving the town centre unprotected. Although some raiders were shot down once the restriction was lifted, the centre of Swansea was devastated, and fires and delayed-action bombs destroyed communications. The GOR had to be temporarily relocated again to Neath. The number of HAA guns in the Swansea GDA was increased when two batteries of the newly formed
120th HAA Rgt came under the operational command of 79th (HY) HAA Rgt, and 248 Bty was brought up to its full establishment of eight guns. However, activity was now limited to firing at aircraft overflying the area on the way to bomb
Merseyside (12/13 March),
Clydeside (13/14 March) and
Bristol (16/17 March). Engagements were sporadic thereafter as the Blitz ended in May.
London on the Isle of Dogs On 20 August 1941, 248 Battery was transferred from 79th (HY) HAA Rgt to bolster the inexperienced 120th HAA Rgt, which was transferring to
26 (London) AA Bde. Between 18 and 20 August it handed over its responsibilities to a newly arrived battery and on 21 August it took over two static four-gun 3.7-inch sites in North London: • ZW2 –
Edmonton • ZE10 –
Highams Routine moves over the coming months saw the battery occupying the following sites at various times: • ZW5 –
Hyde Park • ZW8 –
Hurlingham • ZE22 –
Hampstead • ZE5 –
Clayhall • ZW13 –
Mill Hill • ZE21 –
Hackney (4 x
4.5-inch guns) • ZE8 –
Isle of Dogs (4 x 4.5-inch) 120th HAA Regiment and 248 Bty remained in and around London for over a year, serving through the desultory
Luftwaffe raids of 1942. Major Fremantle was promoted to Temporary
Lieutenant-Colonel to command
140th HAA Rgt in February 1942, and was replaced as OC 248 (Welwyn) Bty by Major G.A. Reid. and at the end of the war he was on the financial staff of
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in North West Europe.
Cyprus In mid-January 1943, 120th HAA Rgt left 26 AA Bde and came under
War Office control to mobilise as a defended ports unit. After two months at the mobilisation centre at
Easthampstead in
Berkshire it sailed from Liverpool on 14 March and disembarked at
Port Tewfik in
Egypt on 6 May. Here it came under
Middle East Forces. After a month in Egypt it was moved by railway to
Beirut and then by sea to
Cyprus, where it landed on 14 June to take over AA defence of ports and airfields on the island under
20 AA Bde in
Ninth Army. 248 Battery was initially deployed as follows: The state of readiness in Cyprus was relaxed in March 1944 and the AA defences on the island were run down during April. The remaining personnel moved to
Cairo where 120th HAA Rgt, including 248 (Welwyn) Bty, was disbanded on 25 June 1944. ==Postwar==