Mobilisation In June 1939, a partial mobilisation of the TA was begun in a process known as 'couverture', whereby each AA unit did a month's tour of duty in rotation to man selected AA positions. On 24 August, ahead of the declaration of war,
Anti-Aircraft Command was fully mobilised at its war stations. All batteries of 89th AA Regiment were reported as ready for action on 27 August, and the newly formed 306 AA Battery joined from 75th HAA Rgt on 30 August. War was declared against Germany on 3 September. 306 AA Bty left for training in September, and 235 (Kent) Bty deployed to
The Midlands as an independent battery in October, but both rejoined in February 1940. 306 AA Battery was then passed back to 75th HAA Rgt at the end of May. During the spring of 1940, batches of recruits were posted to the regiment from 210th AA Training Regiment at
Oswestry.
Battle of Britain 205 and 235 Batteries carried out the regiment's first engagement early on the morning of 10 May, when their fire broke up a formation of
Junkers Ju 88s flying over Kent. There were more engagements as the
Battle of Britain got under way, with 205 Bty being sent with its guns to reinforce the AA defences of
Southampton in June and
Dover in July. Dover was attacked almost daily during August, and there were some raids over
Maidstone and
Chatham. Towards the end of January, the
Luftwaffe had begun attacking the
Suez Canal from Italian bases on
Rhodes, dropping
magnetic and acoustic mines that disrupted shipping in the canal. Most of the vital supplies and reinforcements for
Middle East Command therefore had to be landed at Suez rather than passing through the canal. While RHQ of 89th HAA Rgt developed the AA defences of the port facilities at Suez, its own three batteries were dispersed. 205 Battery was transferred to British Troops Egypt in early April, ready to join
6th Division, which was being reformed (though it appears the battery never actually joined it before the division went to
Syria). Later in the month 234 Bty was sent to
Crete to bolster the defences after the British forces were evacuated from
Greece, and 235 Bty went to reinforce the AA defences of
Tobruk.
Battle of Crete transport aircraft (one burning) over Crete, May 1941. 234 (Kent) Battery disembarked at
Suda Bay in Crete on 24 April and was deployed in the Suda-
Canea area to protect harbour installations alongside 151 (London) Bty from
51st (London) HAA Rgt, both under the command of RHQ
52nd (East Lancashire) LAA Rgt. The British bases on Crete had been regularly dive-bombed in March and April, and the HAA guns at Suda had been reorganised for close defence against these tactics. The battery was in action immediately after unloading its guns on 25 April. On 14 May Left Troop of 234 Bty was moved to Suda Point, and the concentration of AA fire reduced shipping losses. In May the
Luftwaffe began attacking the AA sites directly, and the gunners replied with multiple
Vickers .50 machine guns and
Lewis guns as well as scoring direct hits with their 3.7-inch guns. When the German airborne assault began at 06.00 on 20 May, the HAA guns took a heavy toll of the German transport aircraft and gliders coming in. Some of the paratroopers were specifically tasked with knocking out the AA defences but those briefed to take Left Troop found the positions empty and were wiped out. But Right Troop of 234 Bty at Canea was swamped by glider troops against whom their eight rifles and two Lewis guns were ineffective. The survivors were forced to surrender after close-quarters fighting with grenades and sub-machine guns. A party of
Royal Marines recaptured the gun positions later that day and rescued 32 survivors, but the Germans had damaged the guns; other guns around Suda had burst barrels from excessive firing. Although German casualties in men and aircraft had been heavy, their troop transports were able to use Maleme airfield the next day, followed by landings from the sea. On 26 May, the Allied forces were ordered to retreat, the remaining AA positions were ordered to destroy their equipment and move by small boats or cross-country for evacuation from the south coast of the island. Many could not be evacuated and became prisoners of war. The Royal Artillery historian describes 234 as a 'very gallant battery' who had 'defended their guns to the last and took a terrible toll of their attackers in those terrible few minutes'. Of 12 officers and 347 other ranks who landed in Crete, 234 (Kent) Battery's total casualties in the campaign were 57 killed in action and 187 missing, believed
prisoners of war, many of them wounded (only 30 wounded members of the battery managed to get back to Egypt). One of those killed was Lt Hedley Stebbings, in whose memory a medical charity was later founded by his sister. GHQ Middle East ordered the depleted battery's disbandment, which was carried out on 1 July. The survivors were posted to 16 Bty of
2nd HAA Rgt. Lieutenant A.P. Corbett was awarded an MC and Serjeant E.A. Hooker a
Military Medal (MM) for their service in Crete with 234 Bty. On one occasion Hooker had put his foot on a grenade thrown into his gun pit, 'risking the full force of the explosion, in order to save his detachment'.
Siege of Tobruk Meanwhile, 235 (Kent) Bty under Major G.D. Boyd had also been detached from the regiment at Suez to replace 151 Bty in 51 HAA Rgt, which was operating with the
Western Desert Force (WDF). General
Erwin Rommel counter-attacked in
Cyrenaica in April 1941, forcing the WDF back, and by 7 April 51 HAA Rgt was within the
Tobruk perimeter. 235 Battery, together with eight static 3.7-inch guns brought by sea, arrived to reinforce the garrison just before the ring closed round the port on 11 July, beginning the
Siege of Tobruk. In Tobruk, 51st HAA Rgt, including 235 Bty, came under the command of
4th AA Bde, which was a major element of the garrison. Including the static guns delivered by sea, there were a total of 24 3.7-inch HAA guns available to the garrison (although two were disabled early in the siege by premature bursts), and 152 and 235 Batteries each had an Italian 102mm gun that had been restored to working order by 51st HAA Rgt's workshop detachment. 152, 153 and 235 HAA Batteries, together with 51st HAA Rgt's workshops and signals, formed part of the Harbour Defended Area under the command of RHQ
13th LAA Regiment. Early in the siege, RHQ and 152 Bty of 51 HAA Rgt were attacked by
Stukas and suffered serious casualties, after which they were evacuated by sea. 235 (Kent) and 153 (London) Btys however remained there throughout the 240-day siege under 4th AA Bde. The
Official History records that the AA artillery in Tobruk was 'incessantly in action against attacks of all kinds, from all heights, but especially by dive-bombers'. 235 Bty's casualties by the end of August were 5 killed and 13 wounded, and a further 5 were killed in September and October. Lieutenant M.F. Felton was awarded the MC, Serjeant W. Pay and Lance-Bombardier E.L. Billinghurst the MM for their service with 235 Bty at Tobruk. Billinghurst, a gun layer, had refused medical assistance when wounded on 25 May and continued at his post, informing the gun No 1 of the line of attack of the enemy aircraft.
Defence of Suez While the Crete and Tobruk operations were going on, RHQ and 205 Bty (8 × 3.7-inch guns and 1 ×
Gun-Laying Mk I* radar set) had remained at Suez under
2nd AA Bde. RHQ 89th HAA Rgt provided the HQ for AADC Suez, which meant that a number of different AA units came under its command at various times. At the beginning these included a Gun Operations Room (GOR) established in May, a Troop of
Bofors guns from 6 LAA Bty (left behind when
2nd LAA Rgt went to Tobruk), and 306 Searchlight Bty from
27th (London Electrical Engineers) Searchlight Rgt, replaced by 390 S/L Bty from the same regiment when 306 Bty went to Tobruk. 100 LAA Battery (52nd LAA Rgt) and 276 HAA Bty (
88th HAA Rgt) (8 × 3.7-inch guns, 1 × GL Mk I set) arrived in July, and the LAA guns were deployed round Port Tewfik and Shallufa Airfield. Occasional bombing raids by Ju 88s flying from Greece against Suez began in July and became almost nightly in August and September. The targets were the Port Tewfik dock installations, the oil refinery, railway marshalling yards, Shallufa Airfield and shipping at the anchorage in the bay During September and October, the AA defences were strengthened so that, by the end of October, 89th HAA RHQ/AADC Suez had the following units under command: • 88th HAA Rgt (RHQ, 281 and 282 Btys) (16 × 3.7-inch, 1 × GL Mk I) • 205/89 HAA Bty (8 × 3.7-inch, 1 × GL Mk I) • 5 HAA Bty,
Royal Australian Artillery (RAA), (8 × 3.7-inch) – from
Beirut, replacing 276 HAA Bty • 100/52 LAA Bty (12 × Bofors) • 9 LAA Bty, RAA (12 × Bofors) • 81/
25 LAA Bty (12 × Bofors) • One Troop each of 1 and 38/
13 and 41/
115 LAA Btys (12 × Bofors) • 390/27 S/L Bty (less one Troop) (24 × S/Ls) • 135 'Z' Bty (64 ×
Z Battery rocket projectors) • 89 HAA Rgt Signals • Gun Operations Room 281 HAA and 41 LAA Btys left the area in November and were replaced by 5 HAA Bty,
Royal Malta Artillery and 37/13 LAA Bty, and 16/2 HAA and 150/
42 LAA Btys replaced the two Australian batteries in January. There were five further
Luftwaffe attacks on Suez during November. Lt-Col Stebbings was promoted to Acting Brigadier in November 1941 and took command of
1st AA Bde (he was later captured at the
Fall of Tobruk in June 1942). Lt-Col W.R. Brackett took over as CO of 89th HAA Rgt and AADC Suez. Regimental morale was boosted in February when Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, as
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, accepted the appointment of
Honorary Colonel of the regiment. By October,
Eighth Army was preparing its counter-strike at El Alamein. In October, 89th HAA Rgt was transferred to
21st AA Bde from 1st AA Bde, which was being prepared for mobile operations under Eight Army. Shortly afterwards a new 106 AA Defence HQ arrived to take over the role of AADC Suez, and 89th HAA Rgt moved into camp for mobile training and anti-tank training before the end of the year. Lt-Col Brackett was appointed AADC Benghazi on 17 February There was an air raid on 18 February, when one attacker was shot down, but generally there was little enemy activity, the German and Italian air forces concentrating their efforts on the fighting fronts. 89th HAA Regiment was kept busy convoying supplies and carrying out a trial of the effectiveness of the 3.7-inch gun against concrete emplacements (a technique that later bore fruit in Italy). • RHQ 89th HAA Rgt • 205/89 HAA Bty • 231/89 HAA Bty • 235/89 HAA Bty • 89th HAA Rgt Signal Section • 89th HAA Rgt Workshop (the
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) had taken this role over from the RAOC) • 28/9 HAA Bty (later replaced by 280 Bty from
87th HAA Rgt, then by 312 Bty from
54th (City of London) HAA Rgt) • 17 AAOR • RHQ 2nd LAA Rgt (later replaced by 13th LAA Rgt and
86th LAA Rgt, then by
61st LAA Rgt) • Two Troops 6/2 LAA Bty • 37/2 LAA Bty • 155/2 LAA Bty • 2nd LAA Rgt Signal Section • 2nd LAA Rgt Workshop • C Troop 135 Z Bty • 390/27 S/L Bty • 7th Radio Repair Section After the end of the
Tunisian Campaign in May 1943, the AA defences of North Africa could be scaled back, and 135 Z Battery returned to Suez in June. However, the build-up of the
USAAF's
IX Bomber Command at landing grounds around Benghazi still required protection, and guns were redeployed accordingly. By 22 October 1943, 89th HAA RHQ/AADC Brindisi had the following units under command in the Bridisi Gun Defence Area (GDA): By March 1944, the deployment had become as follows: ==Postwar==