42nd Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA). It was responsible for protecting the area around Glasgow and industry along the Firth of Clyde during the Second World War.
With the expansion of Britain's Anti-Aircraft (AA) defences during the late 1930s, new formations were created to command the growing number of Royal Artillery (RA) and Royal Engineers (RE) AA gun and searchlight units. 42nd AA Brigade was raised on 1 October 1938 at Glasgow, and formed part of 3rd AA Division, which had been created a month earlier for the air defence of Scotland and Northern Ireland. 42 AA Brigade's first commander was Brigadier W.M.M.O'D. Welsh, DSO, MC, appointed 1 October 1938.
At the time the brigade was formed, the TA's AA units were in a state of mobilisation because of the Munich crisis, although they were soon stood down. In February 1939 Britain's AA defences came under the control of a new Anti-Aircraft Command. In June a partial mobilisation of TA units was begun in a process known as 'couverture', whereby each unit did a month's tour of duty in rotation to man selected AA and searchlight positions. AA Command mobilised fully on 24 August, ahead of the official declaration of war on 3 September.
On mobilisation in August 1939, 42nd AA Bde had the following composition:
The AA regiments of the RA were redesignated Heavy AA (HAA) in 1940 to distinguish them from the new Light AA (LAA) regiments being formed.
Attacks on Royal Navy bases early in the so-called Phoney War period prompted calls for stronger AA defences at Scapa Flow, Invergordon, Rosyth and the Clyde anchorage, and 3rd AA Division was given priority for delivery of HAA guns. The defenders had problems at Scapa, where a chain of rugged islands enclose an extensive area of water, which stretched beyond the reach of HAA fire from the islands. Installing gun positions on the islands required an immense amount of labour. A new Luftwaffe attack on 16 March 1940 caught the defences half-prepared: only 52 out of 64 HAA guns were fit for action, and 30 out of 108 searchlights. About 15 Junkers Ju 88s approached at low level in the dusk: half dived on the warships and the rest attacked the airfield. 44 HAA guns of 42 AA Bde engaged, but their predictors were defeated by erratic courses and low height. 17 LAA guns also engaged, but the Gun layers were blinded by gun-flashes in the half light. No enemy aircraft were brought down. A subsequent inquiry concluded that the low level attack had evaded radar, the gun lay-out still left gaps in the perimeter, and guns were out of action awaiting spare parts.
Following the Luftwaffe's defeat in the Battle of Britain, it began night attacks on Britain's cities ('The Blitz'). 3rd AA Division's responsibilities were split in November 1940 and a new 12th AA Division created, to which 42nd AA Bde was transferred, with its responsibility restricted to the defence of Glasgow and the Firth of Clyde. The industrial town of Clydebank near Glasgow was badly hit on the nights of 13/14 and 14/15 March 1941 in the 'Clydebank Blitz', but none of the raiders was brought down by AA fire. The urgent need for more HAA guns on Clydeside was well known: the authorised scale had been 80 in 1939, raised to 120 in 1940, but in February 1941 there were still only 67. A new scale of 144 guns was authorised on 21 March, but only 88 were in position. There were three other heavy raids on Clydeside during the Blitz, on the nights of 7/8 April, 5/6 and 6/7 May 1941.
By this stage of the war, 42nd AA Bde's order of battle was as follows:
(By this time, 74th HAA Rgt was on its way to Egypt.)
As the war progressed, units equipped with Z Battery rocket launchers appeared, and several of the existing TA AA units went overseas, to be replaced by war-formed units, many of them 'mixed', including women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. By June 42, 83 HAA and 18 LAA Rgts had joined Tenth Army in Iraq.
The composition of the brigade was completely reorganised in the summer of 1941, giving it the following order of battle from September (temporary attachments omitted):
The AA divisions in the UK were disbanded in September 1942 and replaced by a system of AA Groups corresponding to the Groups of RAF Fighter Command. 42nd AA Bde came under 6 AA Group based at Edinburgh and affiliated to No. 14 Group RAF.
The composition of the brigade at this time was as follows (temporary attachments omitted):
By early 1944 aerial attacks against Scotland were rare and the AA defences could be scaled back. 6 AA Group HQ moved to the south of England to defend the embarkation ports for Operation Overlord (the planned Normandy landings) and to prepare for the expected assault with V-1 flying bombs, and 42 AA Brigade HQ was disbanded at Edinburgh on 20 February 1944.
When the TA was reconstituted on 1 January 1947, 42 AA Bde was reorganised as 68 AA Brigade (TA), with its HQ at Glasgow, forming part of 3 AA Group at Edinburgh. It comprised the following units:
On 1 October 1948, the brigade became a Regular Army HQ and dropped the '(TA)' part of its title, though continuing to command its TA units. In 1950, 500 and 558 HAA Regiments merged, as 558 HAA Rgt at Coatdyke, and 518 LAA Rgt merged with 591st (Cameronians) (Mixed) LAA/Searchlight Rgt (formerly 125 LAA Rgt, originally 5/8th Bn, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)).
AA Command was abolished on 10 March 1955, when 558 HAA was disbanded and the other regiments of 68 AA Bde underwent mergers. A few weeks later, HQ 68 AA Bde itself was converted into HQ 1st Army Group Royal Artillery (Field). It joined the British Army of the Rhine as a Corps artillery HQ in 1958 and was redesignated again as 1st Artillery Brigade in 1961.