2 Anti-Aircraft Corps (United Kingdom)

2 Anti-Aircraft Corps
Active 11 November 1940–30 September 1942
Country  United Kingdom
Branch British Army
Type Anti-Aircraft corps
Role Air Defence
Part of Anti-Aircraft Command
Garrison/HQ Hucknall
Engagements The Blitz
Baedeker Blitz

2 Anti-Aircraft Corps (2 AA Corps) was a high-level formation of Britain's Anti-Aircraft Command from 1940 to 1942. It defended the Midlands and North West of England and Wales during the Blitz and the middle years of World War II.

Origin

AA Command had been created in 1938 to control the Territorial Army's rapidly-expanding anti-aircraft (AA) organisation within Air Defence of Great Britain. On the outbreak of war in September 1939, it commanded seven AA Divisions, each with several AA Brigades, disposed around the United Kingdom.[1][2][3][4] Continued expansion made this organisation unwieldy, so in November 1940 – during the Luftwaffe's nightly Blitz on London and other British cities – five further AA Divisions were organised, and all the divisions grouped under three corps headquarters directly subordinate to AA Command. 2 AA Corps covered the Midlands and North West of England and North Wales, and by February 1941 comprised four AA divisions and 14 brigades. Its boundaries roughly coincided with 9 Group and 12 Group of RAF Fighter Command. [1][4][5]

Order of Battle

2 AA Corps had the following organisation from February 1941:[6][7][8][9][10][11]

Corps HQ: Hucknall, Nottinghamshire

General Officer Commanding: Lieutenant-General M.F. Grove-White[4][12] [13]

2nd AA Division

4th AA Division

10th AA Division

11th AA Division

Intermediate Ammunition Depots

Equipment Ammunition Magazines

Operations

As soon as it was organised, 2 AA Corps had to deal with the 1940–41 Blitz on industrial cities and towns such as Barrow-in-Furness, Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield. The corps was responsible for large Gun Defence Areas (GDAs) around Merseyside, Humberside and South Yorkshire, and the North and West Midlands, with 'Indicator Belts' and 'Killer Belts' of searchlights in between, the former working with the GDAs and RAF Sectors, the latter with the night fighters in the air. Redeployment was called for in 1942 when the Luftwaffe began the 'Baedeker raids' on towns and cities such as Norwich, King's Lynn and York that had previously warranted little AA defence.[1][4][15]

Disbandment

The AA Corps and Divisional HQs were disbanded in October 1942 and a replaced by a more flexible system of AA Groups, each aligned with a Group of RAF Fighter Command. The area covered by 2 AA Corps became the responsibility of two of the new groups: 4th AA Group (North Wales and North West England) with 9 Group RAF, and 5th AA Group (North East England) with 12 Group RAF.[1][4][16]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Pile's despatch.
  2. ↑ Routledge, p. 65.
  3. ↑ Farndale, p. 5.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Robert Palmer, A Concise History of Anti-Aircraft Command (History and Personnel) at British Military History.
  5. ↑ Routledge, p. 394.
  6. ↑ Routledge, p. 394; Table LXV, p. 396.
  7. ↑ Farndale, Annex D, pp. 257–9.
  8. ↑ AA Command structure at British Military History.
  9. ↑ Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 12 May 1941, The National Archives (TNA), Kew file WO 212/79.
  10. ↑ Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 2 December 1941, TNA file WO 212/80.
  11. ↑ Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 14 May 1942, TNA file WO 212/81.
  12. ↑ Farndale, Annex J.
  13. ↑ Grove-White at Generals of World War II
  14. ↑ Order of Battle of the Field Force in the United Kingdom, Part 3: Royal Artillery (Non-Divisional Units), 25 March 1941, TNA file WO 212/5.
  15. ↑ Routledge, pp. 387–404 & Map 35.
  16. ↑ Routledge, p. 401 & Map 36.

References

External sources


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