110th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery
7th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment 110th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA | |
---|---|
Active | 10 May 1940–6 April 1946 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | British Army |
Role | Infantry Air defence |
Size | Battalion Regiment |
Part of | 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division |
Engagements | Operation Epsom Operation Jupiter Operation Bluecoat Crossing of the Seine Operation Market Garden Operation Clipper Operation Blackcock Operation Veritable Operation Plunder North Germany |
The 110th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, (110th LAA Rgt) was an air defence unit of the
7th (Garrison) Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment
The unit was originally formed on 10 May 1940 at
At the end of 1941 the battalion was selected to be retrained in the light anti-aircraft (LAA) role equipped with
110th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment
The new regiment was originally part of Anti-Aircraft Command, but left in February before it was allocated to a brigade, and instead it joined 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division on 23 March 1942; it would stay with this formation (alongside two infantry battalions of the Dorsets) for the rest of the war.[6][7][8]
Overlord training
43rd (W) Division was stationed in Kent at this time, and as part of XII Corps was training hard for eventual deployment overseas. By July 1943 it was included in 21st Army Group for the planned Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord).[7][9][10]
On 14 March 1944 the regiment's three batteries were augmented to a strength of four
- One trp 360 LAA Bty with 129 Bde Group
- One trp 361 LAA Bty with 130 Bde Group
- One trp 362 LAA Bty with 214 Bde Group
Normandy
43rd (W) Division moved into its concentration area in
The division was committed to its first action in the Battle of the Odon (
The division's first major offensive action of its own was
After a short rest 43rd (W) Division moved to XXX Corps to launch an attack towards the dominating height of Mont Pinçon as part of Operation Bluecoat. Casualties were heavy, particularly from mines, and the advance was slow. After a succession of pre-dawn attacks, the division was still 4 miles (6.4 km) from Mont Pinçon on 5 August. In the end the hill fell to a surprise attack by a few tanks on the evening of 6 August. By daybreak the summit was firmly held by tanks and infantry, despite heavy German bombardment.[25][26][27][28][29]
43rd (W) Division then participated in XXX Corps' pursuit of the broken enemy, many of whom were caught in the Falaise pocket. The main opposition came from mortars and booby-trapped mines.[30][31] 110th LAA Regiment's commanding officer, Lt-Col Oscar Dent, TD, was killed on 18 August and was succeeded by Lt-Col F.S. Cowan, who commanded the regiment until the end of the war.[32][33][a]
Seine crossing
The breakout achieved, XXX Corps drove flat out for the
- 360 LAA Bty (25 vehicles) moved with Group One (the assault group, including 129th Bde)
- 71st LAA Rgt from 100th AA Bde, attached to XXX Corps,[38] was with Group Two (214th Bde and the artillery)
- The rest of 110th LAA Rgt (50 vehicles) came up with Group Three (130th Bde and the bridging engineers of 15th (Kent) GHQ Troops Royal Engineers)
Group One arrived at Vernon on the afternoon of 25 August, ready to begin the assault crossing that evening. Parties of infantry struggled across by stormboat and amphibious vehicle, and by using the broken bridges, to establish bridgeheads by morning. This was followed by two days of bitter fighting as the defenders counter-attacked the bridgeheads and shelled the bridging sites. On 28 August the armour began to cross in numbers. The Luftwaffe had been unable to intervene, having suffered a heavy defeat at the end of the Normandy campaign and been forced to reposition to airfields further back. After the Seine crossing, 43rd (W) Division was 'grounded' while the rest of XXX Corps raced across northern France and Belgium.[39][40][41] 100th AA Brigade then moved up to defend the Seine crossings, including that at Vernon.[42]
Operation Market Garden
When 43rd (W) Division next moved, the war was now 250 miles (400 km) away. The first elements moved up to Brussels to protect headquarters, then the division concentrated at Diest to take part in Operation Market Garden, beginning on 17 September. In 'Garden', the ground part of the operation, XXX Corps was to link up river crossings as far as the Nederrijn at Arnhem via a 'carpet' of airborne troops. 43rd (W) Division was to follow Guards Armoured Division, carrying out assault crossings if any of the bridges were found to be destroyed, and guarding the 'corridor' to Arnhem. The advance up the only road ('Club Route') was slow but on 21 September 43rd (W) Division caught up with the Guards at Nijmegen. Further progress was blocked by strong German forces, and 1st Airborne Division holding out at Arnhem was in a desperate plight. 43rd (W) Division fought its way through to the Nederrijn, with the road behind being frequently cut by German tanks. During the night of 23/24 September the division ferried a few reinforcements across to 1st Airborne, but another assault crossing on the night of 24/25 September suffered heavy casualties and few supplies were got across. By now 1st Airborne had been effectively destroyed, and the only course now was to evacuate the survivors. This was carried out on 25/26 September, a dark night with heavy rain. The whole divisional artillery opened up at 21.00, with tracer fired by 110th LAA Rgt marking the flanks of the crossings while the sappers crossed and recrossed the river in stormboats ferrying around 2300 exhausted survivors of 1st Airborne back to the south bank.[43][44][45][46][47]
In the aftermath of Market Garden, 43rd (W) Division was stationed on 'The Island' (between the Rivers Waal and Nederrijn), fighting off some serious counter-attacks in early October. Further back the vital bridges at Nijmegen came under air attack, but their defence was handled by 100th AA Bde, while divisional LAA regiments protected their own field gun positions.[48][49]
Operation Clipper
43rd (W) Division was relieved on 10 November and then shifted east with XXX Corps to cooperate with the
Planning was under way to renew the offensive when the Germans attacked in the Ardennes (the Battle of the Bulge) on 16 December. 43rd (W) Division was positioned to counter-attack should the Germans cross the Meuse (Dutch: Maas) but was not needed. When the Luftwaffe launched its Operation Bodenplatte against Allied airfields on 1 January 1945, GHQ AA Troops for 21st Army Group reported that '40 mm LAA had the time of its life'. 110th LAA Regiment shot down six aircraft on that day, including one Messerschmitt Me 262 jet.[53][54]
Rhineland
Once the German Ardennes Offensive had been halted, 43rd (W) Division returned to the offensive in early 1945 in
Operation Plunder
Although 43rd (W) Division was not scheduled to take part in the assault crossing of the Rhine (Operation Plunder), 110th LAA Rgt played a full part with the other follow-up divisions' LAA units in the 'Pepperpot'.This was a bombardment by massed LAA and A/T guns, machine guns and mortars of all calibres to saturate the enemy positions in front of the assaulting infantry, while the field and medium artillery concentrated on specific targets. The LAA units also fired lines of tracer to guide the amphibious vehicles across the wide river in the dark.[63][64]
By this stage of the war divisional LAA regiments had started to receive quadruple 0.5-inch Browning machine guns on SP mountings (the M51 Quadmount) in place of a proportion of their Bofors guns, to improve their capability against 'snap' attacks by the new German jet fighter-bombers. Under this arrangement a troop comprised four SP or towed Bofors and two quadruple SP Brownings.[65]
The division's leading brigade crossed the river on 25 March behind 51st (Highland) Division, and found itself in immediate combat, but had broken through by 29 March.[66][67][68] During the subsequent pursuit, 43rd (W) Division was given the task of opening 'Club Route' for XXX Corps. The division combined with 8th Armoured Brigade to form five battle groups for the first 25 miles (40 km) drive. The advance began on 30 March: after initial traffic jams, the groups either overcame or bypassed German rearguards and Lochem was liberated on 1–2 April. The division was then given the task of taking Hengelo to secure the flank while Guards Armoured Division drove for the Dortmund–Ems Canal; 43rd (W) by-passed the end of the Twente Canal and liberated the town. It then moved back into Germany to capture Cloppenburg on 14 April after a stiff fight and fight off a final counter-attack next day.[69][70][71] During these advances the Luftwaffe attacked bridging sites, artillery positions and road movements. For the divisional LAA guns most of these involved 'snap' actions, against low-flying attackers using cloud cover, and often using jet aircraft.[72]
The pursuit continued through April and ended with the division's capture of Bremen against spasmodic opposition and XXX Corps' drive into the Cuxhaven peninsula. The number of Luftwaffe attacks on the advancing divisions peaked in the last week of the war before the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath came on 4 May. That night 110th LAA Rgt lit up the sky with tracer fire, and hostilities ended at 08.00 next day.[73][74][75][72]
The division's units were then employed as occupation forces in XXX Corps' district in Germany.[7] The regiment was serving in British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) when it began to disband on 1 March 1946, completing the process by 6 April.[1][4][3]
Footnote
Notes
- ^ a b c Frederick, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Joslen.
- ^ a b c Frederick, pp. 805, 837.
- ^ a b Farndale, Annex M.
- ^ 7th & 8th Dorsets at The Keep.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d e Joslen, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Essame, Appendix A.
- ^ Essame, pp. 3–12.
- ^ Order of Battle of the Forces in the United Kingdom, Part 2: 21 Army Group, 24 July 1943, with amendments, TNA file WO 212/238.
- ^ Frederick, p. 828.
- ^ Routledge, pp. 78, 306.
- ^ Essame, p. 4; Appendix C.
- ^ Essame, pp. 13–17.
- ^ Buckley, pp. 77–82.
- ^ Ellis, Normandy, pp. 279–86.
- ^ Essame, pp. 20–34.
- ^ Saunders, Epsom, pp. 87–9, 100–6, 143–9.
- ^ Routledge, pp. 314, 317.
- ^ Saunders, Hill 112, p. 124.
- ^ Buckley, p. 92.
- ^ Ellis, Normandy, pp. 317–8.
- ^ Essame, pp. 37–50.
- ^ Saunders, Hill 112.
- ^ Buckley, pp. 153–68.
- ^ Ellis, Normandy, pp. 388–90, 402, 409–10.
- ^ Essame, pp. 53–7.
- ^ Horrocks, pp. 189–90.
- ^ Hunt, Mont Pinçon.
- ^ Buckley, pp. 180–1.
- ^ Essame, pp. 73–89.
- ^ Essame, Appendix B.
- ^ a b Dent at CWGC.
- ^ Monthly Army List, May 1939.
- ^ Ellis, Normandy, pp. 453–5, 465–6.
- ^ Essame, pp. 91, 94–5.
- ^ Ford, pp. 28–34, 49–54; Appendix 1.
- ^ Routledge, p. 314; Table L, p. 327.
- ^ Buckley, pp. 184–9.
- ^ Essame, pp. 95–113.
- ^ Ford, pp. 55–177.
- ^ Routledge, p. 317; Table LI, p. 328.
- ^ Buckley, pp. 228–30.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, pp. 42–3.
- ^ Essame, pp. 113–38.
- ^ Horrocks, pp. 221–30.
- ^ Ryan, pp. 462–5, 477–8, 486, 489, 509–13, 515–31.
- ^ Essame, p. 140–56.
- ^ Routledge, pp. 324–5, 344; Table LII, p 331.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, p. 161.
- ^ Essame, pp. 164–86.
- ^ Horrocks, pp. 233–6.
- ^ Essame, pp. 186–94.
- ^ Routledge, pp. 346–7.
- ^ Buckley, pp. 265–8.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, pp. 241–7.
- ^ Essame, pp. 195–200.
- ^ Essame, p. 204.
- ^ Buckley, pp. 274–7.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, pp. 261–76.
- ^ Essame, pp. 202–31.
- ^ Horrocks, pp. 250–5.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, pp. 288–9.
- ^ Routledge, p. 356.
- ^ Routledge, pp. 349–51.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, pp. 293–4.
- ^ Essame, pp. 233–40.
- ^ Horrocks, pp. 261–2.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, pp. 306–8, 311–2.
- ^ Essame, pp. 241–56.
- ^ Horrocks, pp. 260–2.
- ^ a b Routledge, pp. 361–2.
- ^ Ellis, Germany, pp. 307–16, 338–40.
- ^ Essame, pp. 256–70.
- ^ Horrocks, pp. 246, 261–6.
References
- ISBN 978-0-300-13449-0.
- Maj ISBN 1-845740-58-0.
- Maj L.F. Ellis, History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series: Victory in the West, Vol II: The Defeat of Germany, London: HM Stationery Office, 1968/Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2004, ISBN 1-845740-59-9.
- Maj-Gen H. Essame, The 43rd Wessex Division at War 1944–45, London: William Clowes, 1952.
- Gen Sir ISBN 1-85753-080-2.
- Ken Ford, Assault Crossing: The River Seine 1944, 2nd Edn, Bradford: Pen & Sword, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84884-576-3
- J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol I, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, ISBN 1-85117-007-3.
- J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol II, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, ISBN 1-85117-009-X.
- Lt-Gen Sir Brian Horrocks, A Full Life, London: Collins, 1960.
- Eric Hunt, Battleground Europe: Normandy: Mont Pinçon, Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2003, ISBN 0-85052-944-1.
- Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1960]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield, East Sussex: Naval and Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84342-474-1.
- Brig N.W. Routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914–55, London: Royal Artillery Institution/Brassey's, 1994, ISBN 1-85753-099-3
- Tim Saunders, Battleground Europe: Operation Epsom: Normandy, June 1944, Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2003, ISBN 0-85052-954-9.
- Tim Saunders, Battleground Europe: Normandy: Hill 112, Battles of the Odon – 1944, Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2000, ISBN 978-0-85052-737-7.