The Manx Regiment – the 15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery – was raised in 1938 as a Territorial Army (TA) unit of the British Army. It recruited on the Isle of Man and formed part of Anti-Aircraft Command at the outbreak of the Second World War. The regiment was posted to the Middle East in November 1940, serving in the Western Desert, East Africa and Crete (where one of its batteries was lost). In August 1942, it became the air defence regiment for the 7th Armoured Division (the 'Desert Rats'). It served with the division through the North African, Italian and North West European campaigns. It was reformed in the postwar TA as 515 (Isle of Man) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment before being reduced to a staff troop in 42nd (Lancashire) Division in 1955.
Origin In 1938, during the period of international tension preceding the Second World War, the TA began to raise specialist Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) regiments of the Royal Artillery (RA), to supplement the existing Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) units. The 15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade, Royal Artillery, was formed at Douglas, IoM, on 1 July 1938. It was organised with two batteries that were numbered 41 and 42 in December. On 1 January 1939, it was redesignated as a regiment rather than a brigade, in line with the RA's modernisation of its terminology.Frederick, pp. 800–1, 822.Litchfield, p. 105.Routledge, p. 60. At this stage, light anti-aircraft (LAA) units were armed with Light machine guns (AALMGs), but the new Bofors 40 mm gun was on order.Routledge, pp. 52–5.
Second World War Mobilisation
In February 1939, the existing AA defences came under the control of a new Anti-Aircraft Command. In June, as the international situation worsened, 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 gun and searchlight positions. On 24 August, ahead of the declaration of war, AA Command was fully mobilised and moved to its war stations, with LAA units distributed to defend Vulnerable Points (VPs) such as factories, docks and airfields.Routledge, pp. 65–6, 371, 388-9. During this mobilisation the regiment formed a third battery, numbered 129, on 26 August. 15th (IoM) LAA Regiment sailed to Liverpool to take up air defence of the River Mersey and war was declared on 3 September.
15th LAA Regiment formed part of a new 53rd Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade that was forming in 4th Anti-Aircraft Division, which was responsible for defending the industrial areas of North West England.Routledge, Table LX, p. 378. During the period of the Phoney War the AA defences of NW England were not tested in action, and the time was spent in equipping and training the TA units.Routledge, pp. 371–6.
After the entry of Italy into the war, in June 1940, there was an urgent need to reinforce British forces in the Middle East, and a series of convoys began shipping troops (including AA units) on the six-week journey via the Cape of Good Hope and the Red Sea to Egypt.Farndale, pp. 117–9.Playfair, Vol I, pp. 190–2.Playfair, Vol I, pp. 244–5.Routledge, pp. 127–30. 15th LAA Regiment was one of the first units selected (leaving the UK as The Blitz was starting) and arrived in January 1941. It initially joined GHQ Reserve with 122 LAA Bty detached from 13th LAA Rgt also under its command. By then the Italian invasion of Egypt had been defeated, but the commitments of Middle East Forces were widening, including campaigns in East Africa and Greece. The regiment was split up, with each battery being detached to a different campaign.Farndale, p. 168.Routledge, Table XIX, p. 141.Frederick, p. 821.
Egypt By 31 January 1941, Regimental HQ (RHQ) and 42 LAA Bty formed part of 2nd AA Brigade in the Nile Delta area, with 42 Bty deployed at Ismailia.Joslen, p. 479. Towards the end of January 1941, the Luftwaffe had begun attacking the Suez Canal from Italian bases on Rhodes, dropping magnetic and acoustic mines at night to disrupt shipping in the canal. Most of the vital supplies and reinforcements therefore had to be landed at Suez rather than passing through the canal.Playfair, Vol I, pp. 326–8.Playfair, Vol II, pp. 226–7. Defending against these attacks was an obvious role for searchlights (S/Ls) and LAA guns, but the numbers required for complete coverage were excessive. The compromise plan involved siting single S/Ls on either side of the canal at intervals, with additional rows on the flanks spaced at 5-6000-yard intervals. Thus, illumination was restricted to a belt along the length of the canal. Fighter aircraft were to provide the main defence, but the need to defend against low-level raids led to the deployment of single Bofors guns spaced at intervals of about on the banks of the narrow stretches of the canal. Regimental HQ of 15th LAA Rgt was given responsibility under 2nd AA Bde for the 'Canal South' sector with its commanding officer (CO), Lieutenant-Colonel G.P. MacLellan, appointed AA Defence Commander (AADC).Farndale, Annex F.Routledge, pp. 134–5.
East Africa Meanwhile, 41 LAA Bty under Major G. Kniveton had been sent to the Sudan, where a limited offensive into Italian Eritrea was being prepared.Farndale, p. 149; Annex G.Glover, Appendix.Joslen, p. 480. On 5 February, soon after the advance began, the battery was deployed with Y Troop defending the Kassala railhead, Z Trp with the advancing force, and X Trp covering the field artillery of the column. Its other commitments were to protect tank 'harbours', Royal Air Force (RAF) landing grounds, and vulnerable infantry positions: the result was that the available guns were spread too thinly in 'penny packets', while the Regia Aeronautica was very active with low and medium level attacks on columns. However, even a small amount of AA fire was sometimes sufficient to deter an attack, and on 8 February Z Trp shot down a Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero bomber. By 12 February, Y Trp had moved up from the railhead to Agordat, where the Italians had been driven out and the road opened. The British force then moved on towards Keren, where there were weeks of tough fighting in the mountains to clear the Dongolaas Gorge (the Battle of Keren). By 22 February, 41 LAA Bty HQ was under command of 4th Indian Division, with two guns detached to 10th Indian Infantry Brigade of 5th Indian Division, and Y Trp still at Agordat defending the airfield there. All the artillery, including 41 LAA Bty, suffered from counter-battery and harassing fire from the Italian guns. However, the RAF and South African Air Force had now established air superiority, and Italian air attacks (by obsolete Fiat CR.42s) became rarer. Finally, the infantry took the heights and allowed the mechanised column to break through the gorge on 26 March. Two days later, Keren had fallen and 41 LAA Bty was up with 5th Indian Division, two guns well forward with 11th Indian Infantry Brigade, and Z Trp was advancing up the Dongolaas Gorge. As the advance became a pursuit, 41 LAA Bty moved to the captured airfield at Asmara. The Italian forces in East Africa surrendered on 18 May. On 24 June, 41 LAA Bty sailed for Suez to rejoin 15th LAA Rgt at Beni Yusef in Egypt.Farndale, pp. 151–6, 159.Glover, pp. 76–86, 107–25, 138–40, 166–70.Playfair, Vol I, pp. 401, 431–42, 446–7.Routledge, p. 196.
Crete
The regiment's third battery, 129 LAA Bty, went to Crete under Maj W.H. Cain in February 1941, where it was deployed with 11 Bofors guns in 'M Group' in the Suda–Canea Sector under RHQ 52nd (East Lancashire) LAA Rgt.Farndale, pp. 177, 180; Annex F. p. 272.Joslen, p. 481.Playfair, Vol II, pp. 121–5, 132 fn 2.Routledge, pp. 148–9. The German invasion of Crete began in May 1941. The bases had been regularly dive-bombed in March and April, and heavy losses had been caused to the ships unloading at Suda Bay until AA guns were concentrated round the harbour. Then, the Luftwaffe began attacking the AA sites directly: 129 LAA Bty at Suda was attacked all day on 17 May, with Junkers Ju 88s and Messerschmitt Bf 109s trying to knock out individual guns. The prolonged action caused worn out barrels and broken parts, for which there were no spares, and eventually the battery had three of its guns out of action. When the German airborne assault began on 20 May, the AA sites were bombed for 30 minutes and some of the paratroopers were specifically tasked with knocking them out. Although German casualties in men and aircraft were heavy, German troop transports were able to use the captured airfield at Maleme, followed by landings from the sea. By 26 May, after continuous German attack from the air and by airborne troops, the defences round Canea finally collapsed and Suda had to be abandoned. The remaining AA units were ordered to destroy their equipment and move to Sfakia on the south coast. Parties of 129 LAA Bty began a march over the hills under air attack and while waiting for evacuation on the beach at Sfakia lost another 9 killed and 20 wounded to air attack. The Royal Navy evacuated as many as possible to Egypt, but thousands of British and Commonwealth troops were taken prisoner.Farndale, pp. 178–84.Playfair, Vol II, pp. 131–48.Routledge, pp. 149–52.
Only one officer and 40 men of 129 LAA Bty made it back to Egypt from Crete and the battery was not reformed; it was officially disbanded on 1 July 1941.GHQ ME letter 28 June 1941; copy in 580th (Lancashire) Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers, War Diary 1941, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 169/1914.Routledge, p. 152.
Western Desert
Before 41 LAA Bty rejoined, 15th (IoM) LAA Rgt (RHQ and 42 LAA Bty) spent 9 to 21 February 1941 in 2nd Support Group of 2nd Armoured Division, which was working up in Egypt, but did not accompany that formation into Libya (where much of it was captured in April).Joslen, p. 216. The regiment and its two remaining batteries spent the rest of 1941 in Egypt.Joslen, pp. 479, 481. By October, it was back in 2nd AA Bde: one Trp of 41 LAA Bty (4 x Bofors) was in the Suez and Shallufa area, the remainder of 41 and 42 LAA Btys on the Canal with 20 x Bofors.Routledge, Table XXII, p. 143.
In early 1942, the Eighth Army was defending the Gazala Line, a series of fortified 'boxes', whose garrisons included AA guns under 12th AA Bde. The Battle of Gazala began on 26 May 1942. Eventually, Eighth Army was forced to evacuate the boxes and retreat towards Egypt. Tobruk was captured on 21 June. During the long retreat to the El Alamein position, 12th AA Bde under Brig Percy Calvert-Jones fell back in a series of rearguard actions at landing grounds (LGs), in the course of which it 'swept up' a sizeable body of AA units, including 15th LAA Rgt. Eighth Army seized upon this collection to act as a blocking force, giving Calvert-Jones two infantry brigades in addition. 'Calforce' held defensive positions at 10 LGs, providing its own artillery support from AA guns sited for ground tasks. It also developed dummy LGs, complete with fake AA positions. Calforce remained in position during the First Battle of El Alamein, and was not withdrawn from the front line until later in September.Routledge, pp. 139–40.Joslen, pp. 162–3.
By then, 15th LAA Rgt had joined 7th Armoured Division (the 'Desert Rats') on 2 August 1942.Joslen, pp. 19–21. It was reinforced by 1 LAA Bty, a Regular Army unit that had fought in the Battle of France and subsequently served as an independent battery in 7th Support Group and in the Tobruk garrison.Joslen, p. 218.Routledge, Table XX, p. 141. 15th LAA Regiment remained with 7th Armoured Division as its air defence component from the Second Battle of Alamein until the end of the war.Joslen, p. 569.Routledge, Table XXIII, p. 161.
Alamein