101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery

101st Light Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery of 1940 June 2021 12th Bn, King's Regiment (Liverpool)101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA Koning_Soldaat.,_item_60.jpg Cap badge of the Royal Artillery 4 July 1940 – 11 June 1944 United Kingdom 23px British Army InfantryAir defence BattalionRegiment 8th AA Brigade10th Armoured Division The 101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, (101st LAA Rgt) was an air defence unit of the British Army during World War II. Initially raised as an infantry battalion of the King's Regiment (Liverpool) in 1940, it transferred to the Royal Artillery in 1941. It served with 10th Armoured Division in Middle East Forces until it was disbanded in June 1944 to provide infantry reinforcements. 12th Battalion, King's Regiment (Liverpool) 12th (Service) Bn, King's (Liverpool Regiment) 1914–19 The 12th was one of a number of battalions of the King's formed on 4 July 1940 as part of the rapid expansion of the Army with wartime conscripts.Frederick, pp. 128–30. On 20 October the 11th and 12th King's both joined 202nd Independent Infantry Brigade (Home), which was being organised by No 2 Infantry Training Group as a static defence formation in Northumbrian Area, later Northumberland County Division. On 28 May 1941, 12th King's transferred within the division to 225th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home).Joslen, pp. 115, 365, 388. Late in 1941, Northumberland County Division began to be broken up and a number of its units and formations were converted to other roles. While 225th Bde was converted into a tank brigade, 12th King's was selected to be retrained in the light anti-aircraft (LAA) role equipped with Bofors 40 mm guns. It left on 13 November 1941 and on 1 December it transferred to the Royal Artillery (RA) as 101st LAA Regiment, comprising Regimental Headquarters and 333, 334 and 335 LAA Batteries.Farndale, Annex M.Frederick, pp. 805, 836. 101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery thumb|left|A Bofors 40 mm LAA gun crew under training, January 1942. After initial training the regiment joined Anti-Aircraft Command, but left in February 1942 before it had been allocated to a brigade.Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 2 December 1941, with amendments, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 212/80. It then came under the command of II Corps District in East Anglia.Order of Battle of the Field Force in the United Kingdom, Part 3: Royal Artillery (Non-Divisional units), 2 April 1942, TNA file WO 212/515. It left II Corps in the autumn and joined the GHQ Reserve, joined by a Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) workshop sub-section for each battery in preparation for mobile warfare.Order of Battle of the Field Force in the United Kingdom, Part 3: Royal Artillery (Non-Divisional Units), 14 August 1942, with amendments, TNA files WO 212/7 and WO 33/1927. By mid-December it had come under War Office control preparatory to going overseas. It embarked in early February 1943.Order of Battle of the Field Force in the United Kingdom, Part 3: Royal Artillery (Non-Divisional Units), 22 November 1942, with amendments, TNA files WO 212/8 and WO 33/1962.Routledge, p. 306. Middle East thumb|right|10th Armoured Division's formation sign. In May 1943 101st LAA Rgt regiment was in Middle East Forces and joined 8th AA Brigade at El Tahag in Egypt. The North African campaign having ended, Egypt was now a rear area and the regiment was non-operational, but 8th AA Bde was in training for the forthcoming Italian campaign.Joslen, p. 483.Routledge, Table XXV, p. 164. On 11 October 1943 101st LAA Rgt joined 10th Armoured Division, which had been with Ninth Army in Palestine and Syria since the Second Battle of Alamein, when its LAA regiment had left.Joslen, pp. 25–6. However, 10th Armoured Division was not destined to see any further action. Armoured divisions were at a disadvantage in Italy (one cavalry historian described 'Fighting with an armoured division in Italy was like using a dagger to open a tin'R.L.V. ffrench-Blake, quoted in Molony, Vol VI, Pt I, p. 241.) and eventually 10th Armoured's armoured brigades from Egypt were rotated with exhausted ones from Italy, and the division was broken up. 101st LAA Regiment left on 30 April 1944.Molony, Vol VI, Pt I, p. 13. Meanwhile British forces in Italy were suffering an acute manpower shortage. In June 1944 the Chiefs of Staff decided that given the reduced activity of the Luftwaffe the number of AA regiments in Italy could be reduced, their surplus personnel being converted to other roles, particularly infantry. The Middle East School of Infantry began retraining AA gunners to reinforce depleted infantry formations rotated from Italy to Egypt.Molony, Vol V, pp. 421–3.Molony, Vol VI, Pt I, pp. 448–50.Routledge, p. 278. 101st LAA Regiment was accordingly disbanded on 11 June 1944.There are two apparently spurious references to 101st LAA Rgt in the North West Europe campaign. One in a listing of AA units in Operation VeritableRoutledge, p. 350. is probably a typographic error. The Imperial War Museum photograph collection contains an item (H38831) captioned 'A soldier from 101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment (12th King's Regiment (Liverpool)) 3rd Division, prepares for D Day by reading at his French handbook at Camp A2 at Emsworth, near Portsmouth, Hampshire, 29 May 1944'. However, 3rd Division's LAA regiment was 92nd (Loyals) LAA Rgt.Joslen, p. 43. Footnotes Notes 3 References 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, 1-85753-080-2. J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol I, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, 1-85117-007-3. J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol II, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, 1-85117-009-X. Brig C.J.C. Molony, History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series: The Mediterranean and Middle East, Vol V: The Campaign in Sicily 1943 and the Campaign in Italy 3rd September 1943 to 31st March 1944, London: HM Stationery Office, 1973/Uckfield, Naval & Military Press, 2004, 1-845740-69-6. Brig C.J.C. Molony, History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series: The Mediterranean and Middle East, Vol VI: Victory in the Mediterranean, Part I: 1st April to 4th June 1944, London: HM Stationery Office, 1987/Uckfield, Naval & Military Press, 2004, 1-845740-70-X. Brig N.W. Routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914–55, London: Royal Artillery Institution/Brassey's, 1994, 1-85753-099-3. Category:Light anti-aircraft regiments of the Royal Artillery Category:Military units and formations established in 1941 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1944