The 1st Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery was an air defence unit of the British Army from 1920 until 1954. Originally formed in the Royal Engineers (RE), it was transferred to the Royal Artillery (RA) at the start of World War II. It fought with distinction in the defence of Calais during the Battle of France, in which it was virtually destroyed. Reformed, it helped to protect the cities of South Wales from the Luftwaffe during The Blitz, and later defended the South Coast of England against Fighter bomber and V-1 flying bomb attacks. It went to North West Europe to defend Antwerp during the final stages of the war, and served in the Gibraltar garrison postwar.
Royal Engineer origins
The Royal Engineers (RE) had developed an extensive anti-aircraft (AA) searchlight (S/L) organisation during World War I, but this was quickly reduced after the Armistice. The last remnants of Nos 3 and 17 AA Companies moved to Blackdown Camp at the end of 1920 to form the nucleus of 1st AA Battalion, RE, as part of the newly created 1st Air Defence Brigade. Although destined to become the largest Regular unit of the RE during the inter-war years, its initial strength was three non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and four sappers under the command of a lieutenant of the Royal Field Artillery. It was another year before it got its first RE commanding officer (CO), Lt-Col G.C.E. Elliott, and nearly two years before it received substantial reinforcements, including troops who had operated lorry-mounted searchlights during the Irish War of Independence. It formed two companies, A and B. From early 1925 the battalion also had a detachment at Belfast, but this disappeared in late 1926.
The main responsibility for AA defence of the United Kingdom was entrusted to the part-time Territorial Army, which developed a large-scale organisation under Anti-Aircraft Command before the outbreak of World War II. The Regulars of 1st Air Defence Brigade (later 1st AA Brigade) were to provide AA cover for field forces, initially for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that would go overseas on the outbreak of war. In 1938 it was decided that all coastal and AA searchlights, which operated alongside the Royal Artillery (RA), would become the responsibility of that corps; however, the transfers had not been completed when war was declared in September 1939. A 2nd AA Battalion, RE, was organised at Blackdown in 1936, but this was disbanded in September 1938 and replaced by 2nd Searchlight Regiment, RA.
World War II
Mobilisation
1st AA Battalion, RE, under the command of Lt-Col R.M. Goldney, RA, was ordered to mobilise by 1st AA Brigade on 1 September 1939, and war was declared two days later. Battalion HQ with A and B Companies (which officially became Nos 1 and 2 Companies) left Blackdown and embarked at Southampton on 10 September, landing at Cherbourg Naval Base the following day. However, this may have been a mistake: it is alleged that the movement order was supposed to have said 'less 1st AA Bn RE', and the battalion was intended to defend the Thames Estuary under AA Command.
On arrival in France, the battalion deployed to protect the BEF's No 2 Base Sub-area at Nantes, but at the end of the month it moved up to Fauquembergues, where its lights cooperated with night fighters of No 60 Wing, Royal Air Force in the Aircraft Fighting Zone (AFZ) bounded by Bergues, Cassel and Guisnes (just inland from the ports of Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk). The 72-light S/L layout (at an average separation of 4500 yards, seven rows deep, with Mk VIII Sound locators in the first row) was built up from west to east as 3rd Searchlight Battery arrived.
3rd Searchlight Battery, RA, had mobilised at Portsmouth, and sailed from Southampton, disembarking on 16 September at Brest, where it was delayed for a week awaiting the arrival of much of its transport. It joined the rest of the battalion on 3 October and deployed three days later. On 17 October the battalion came under the command of 2nd AA Brigade, and on 2 November the first Luftwaffe raider came over the battalion's area (a Heinkel He 111 shot down by the RAF).
4th Searchlight Battery, RA, mobilised on 1 December at Yeovil and sailed from Southampton to Cherbourg on 8 December. It joined the battalion and began deploying round La Capelle-lès-Boulogne on 21 December, filling in the west end of the AFZ. This brought the number of lights operated by the battalion up to 96. From late December, the regiment provided two sections at Boulogne and Dunkirk to cooperate with Light AA (LAA) guns in trying to prevent German seaplanes from dropping Parachute mines in the harbours.