6th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery was an air defence unit of the British Army raised in the years leading up to World War II. It served in the Battle of France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. Re-equipped, it defended London and the West Midlands during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz. It was then sent to the Middle East theatre, but was diverted en route to the Far East, where the Japanese Army had invaded British Malaya. Split up, ill-equipped and fighting against overwhelming odds, the regiment was captured in Java, Dutch East Indies, in March 1942. Many of the men taken prisoner later died working on the Burma Railway and in the 'Hell Ships' taking them to work in Japan. Its successor unit served in the post-war British Army until 1958.
Origin
6th Anti-Aircraft Brigade (as lieutenant-colonel's commands were then known in the Royal Artillery) was formed on 6 September 1935 at Lichfield around a nucleus of 12 (Independent) AA Battery with a newly formed 16 AA Battery. On 1 November it was joined by 3 AA Battery, which had been reformed after World War I, and by 1 AA Machine Gun Battery, both from 1st AA Brigade. Before the end of the year the new unit moved to Blackdown Barracks, near Aldershot in Hampshire, where it came under the command of 1st Air Defence Brigade. Over the next few years it had the following organisation:
Headquarters (HQ) 3 AA Bty 12 AA Bty 16 AA Bty (left for 4th AA Bde on 1 July 1936 and was replaced by 15 (Independent) AA Bty) 1 Machine Gun Bty (redesignated 1 Light AA Bty 1 May 1937 and left by August 1939 and later joined 1st LAA Rgt)
Apart from 1 MG Bty, the standard equipment of the batteries was the QF 3-inch 20 cwt AA gun that had been used in World War I, mounted on a cruciform travelling platform and towed by a lorry. The brigade became 6th AA Regiment on 1 May 1938 when the RA changed its unit designations and from 1 June 1940 the 6th and other heavy AA (HAA) regiments and batteries adopted the HAA designation. The regiment formed part of 1 AA Brigade (previously 1 AD Bde) in Aldershot Command.
Mobilisation
On the outbreak of war 6th HAA Rgt mobilised at Blackdown under the command of Lt-Col E.D. Milligan as part of 1 AA Bde. It was embarked from Southampton in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France, landing at Cherbourg Harbour and initially deploying to protect the BEF's concentration area round Le Mans from attacks by the Luftwaffe. As the build-up continued it moved to Bellancourt on the Somme and later to Berlette in the Aubigny area. Here 3 HAA Bty carried out the regiment's first engagement, against a Heinkel He 111, on 21 November. There followed months of tedium as the 'Phoney War' dragged on.
The regiment was reorganised in January 1940, exchanging 15 HAA Bty for 2 HAA Bty from 1st HAA Rgt and 3 HAA Bty for 18 HAA Bty from 4th HAA Rgt, while 1 LAA Bty was subordinated directly to 1 (later 4) AA Bde. Lieutenant-Colonel Milligan was promoted to command 1 AA Bde and was succeeded by Lt-Col E.M.C. Brittan as CO.
On 19 March the regiment received its first Gunlaying Mk I radar sets to provide early warning and to assist optical instruments in picking up targets, although there were problems in calibrating them. They were later handed over to 4th HAA Rgt, which was envisaged to have a more static role in the forthcoming campaign.
Battle of France
The Battle of France began on 10 May with the German invasion of the Low Countries. The BEF followed the pre-arranged Plan D and advanced into Belgium to take up defences along the Dyle. 1 AA Brigade's role was to defend the routes forward, protecting roads and bridges, artillery concentrations, HQs and supply dumps. 6th HAA Regiment moved up as part of this advance, split into detachments. On 13 May, B Section of 12 Bty brought down a Junkers Ju 88, and later B and C Sections hit three low-flying Dornier Do 17s and believed they had brought one down. On 15 May B and D shot down another Ju 88.
