Good Morning All, Hope everyone has had a good Christmas. Ive been doing some research in to my grandads military history during WW2, and was wondering if anyone had any more information on the regiments in the title. His initial posting upon joining in 1940 was to the 194th Battery of the 60th Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment (60th HAA). There isn't much detail on his exact operational postings, but I know from old stories he was part of the aircraft defence of the Coventry Blitz. So I think this would have still been under the 60th HAA regiment. The 194th Battery was moved under 80th HAA which is recorded as 12/09/1941 on his records and is shown as unut 194/80. It then mentions something regarding becoming 2nd Batty on 22 I know again from stories that he was assigned on the North Africa mission, and that he was in Strathaven before boarding the boat (he told of visiting the Strathaven Cinema the night before and them playing a good luck message at the end to all the soldiers). Doing a bit of research, I understand the 80th HAA was assigned to Operation Torch, and destined for Algerias. On his records it gives an embarkment on 1st November 1942. I've been looking at the outward movements of Convoys of Operation Torch, and I believe that KMF 2 left Clyde on 1st November. This would match the Embarked stamp on his record, and near to Strathaven where he was. What I can't match is the disembark date on his record. Which is as follows, Disembarked: Entered Theatre of Operations on 16th November 1942 This is over 2 weeks since departing, and its seems like none of the KX, KMF or KMS covoys took that length of time in transit, more like a week, so the 16th seem long. He also spoke of the ship that carried all his equipment being torpedoed and sunk, so they arrived without equipment. On the Uboat records, the only sinkinga on around these dates were to the KMS route (F for Fast, S for slow). Unless the equipment went on the slow boats and the personal on the fast boats? I was wondering if anyone had any photos of the 80th HAA regiment, or 194th Battery? Or any further information?
I've looked briefly at the diary for 80HAA and its not conclusive and suggest that the regiment and different batteries were quite dispersed and may have landed at different times. What you probably need is the diary for 194Bty itself - WO175/399 1st November 42 to 30th June 43. Drop me a PM if you are interested in the regiment diary for this period but unfortunately I don't have the battery diary.
Thanks mate, really appreciate the reply. I would love to see the regiment diary but I am not able to PM you yet. How do I go about getting the Battery diary, are these items that Kew hold?
There is also a record on 8th July 1943 that says "Embarked for unknown destination between 28/06/43 to 08/07/43. ToS of 8th Army (BNAF)
Welcome. There are two threads here which refer to 80th HAA, I have not looked through them in detail: So Post 5 in 17 LAA RA, 1943 North Africa and Post 7 in: 17 LAA RA, 1943 North Africa Using 80 HAA identifies the ship sunk off Algiers, upon which some personnel were aboard and your subject disembarked long before. See: SS Banalbanach sunk 7 Jan 1943 Somewhere in this: 1st Army Timeline There is very little on 60 / 60th HAA and nowt on 194 Battery.
Hi David, I will take a look in those theads now, thank you kindly for the links. Assuming 80HAA travelled on 1st November 1942 per my grandfather's records, then based on the below map, I assume they were part of the KMF2 convoy leaving The Clyde. https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-RN-II/maps/map32.jpg So I was thinking maybe this could have been the ship that got sink with the equipment on which was part of the "slow" convoy of KM. Convoy KMS-2 - Convoy Battles - German U-boat Operations - uboat.net But I'm just not sure I see the ship you posted left The Clyde on Christmas Eve, I can't imagine the sending the equipment nearly 2 months after the personal?
Russell, Others here may give a better explanation for the delay in sending equipment. I would suggest AA defences were not a top priority for shipping and the ship took two weeks to reach Algiers. SS Browning is shown as having: No-one from the Royal Artillery died as a result of the sinking on the day. Two 80th HAA did die on 20/11/1942.
Thanks David, appreciate you confirming. 194th Battery was part of 60th HAA during the Blitz, and my grandad was stationed around the Birmingham area during this time. 168th, 169th and 194th Battery formed 60th HAA. By the end of the Blitz, 194th Battery had left 60th HAA to join the War Office and where subsequently put under 80th HAA 4th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment - Wikipedia This below read seems to suggest the 80th HAA left on the first wave of convoys in late October for Operation Torch and landed on the 8th November but that wouldn't match my grandads records, maybe they divided the 80th HAA in to two convoys. Berkshire Royal Horse Artillery - Wikipedia
