10th Indian HAA Regiment

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by bamboo43, Jul 1, 2020.

  1. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Hi All,

    I'm trying to find out more about the above unit in 1943-44 please. It is part of an investigation for a family and all they have is the RA card posted below. It is possible that the soldier trained with the 1st South Staffs in preparation for Chindit 2.

    Any assistance gratefully received.

    RA card.jpg
     
    Rothy likes this.
  2. Rothy

    Rothy Well-Known Member

    Hi Steve,

    I read your post and the attached card with great interest. Unfortunately, the 10th H.A.A. Regiment, I.A. is not very well documented. I have not found any war diaries for the regiment or any of its three batteries - 27th, 28th and 29th - at TNA.

    I have pieced together what bits I have found to create a fragmentary history, it can be found in the Resources section of this forum here: http://ww2talk.com/index.php?resour...ent-indian-artillery.124/download&version=134

    From what I can see on the card, Ogborn appears to have been sent to India in a draft of reinforcements. It then appears that he was posted to the Reserve A.A. Regiment. This was a holding unit and appears to have been based at Mhow.

    He was then posted to the 10th H.A.A. Regiment, I.A. on 15th November 1942. This was the date that the Regiment was formed. It was a Madrassi unit, sometimes referred to as British-Madrassi. The men were recruited from South India, and at that time were referred to as Madrassis. This "class" or ethnic group were recruited into the Indian A.A. Artillery due to manpower shortages in the groups more normally recruited into the Indian Army. South Indians did/do not speak Urdu/Hindi as a rule and it was decided that the lingua franca of the Madrassi A.A. units would be English, this being found to be easier to teach the men than Urdu. The officers and N.C.O.s were British, and reinforcements arriving from the U.K. could be easily drafted into the Madrassi regiments without having to learn Urdu.

    The 10th H.A.A. Regiment, I.A. would have been raised and trained at Deolali, under the control of No. 3 Anti-Aircraft Training Centre. The A.A.T.C. was established at Deolali in April 1942 to train specifically Madrassi units. It moved to its own lines at Mehgaon at the end of 1942.

    It took around 5 to 6 months to train a new Indian A.A. unit. The first deployment that I have found occurred in April 1943 when each Battery provided a troop for deployment in Orissa and West Bengal in the operational area commanded by the 2nd Indian A.A. Brigade.

    This is all I have found to date. If anyone else has further details I would be very grateful to see them.

    Best wishes for your investigation, Steve
     
    bamboo43 likes this.
  3. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Thanks Steve, much appreciated.
     
  4. Rothy

    Rothy Well-Known Member

    As a P.S., if I have read the card correctly, Ogborn appears to have been posted to the reinforcement draft for India on 26th May 1942? If correct then he may have sailed in convoy W.S.19P, which sailed from Liverpool on 31st May 1942 and from the Clyde on 1st June. The Bombay element of the convoy, W.S. 19PB, arrived at Bombay on 23rd July 1942.

    If this is correct, it allows Ogborn to have made his way to Mhow, to join the Reserve A.A. Regiment before being posted to the 10th H.A.A. Regiment on 15th November 1942.
     
  5. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Thanks once again Steve. I will have plenty to tell the family now, but ironically, not about the Chindit element of the story.
     
    Rothy likes this.

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