I am new to British Army research, as my main research prior to last year has been RAF squadrons and establishments. Recently however I have started to research Chain Home Radar stations and other such establishments and it is apparent that many of these were defended by Army units. The RAF is structured in what I deem to be a fairly simple way with Wings, Groups and Squadrons etc. Is there such a structure to the British Army? I am trying to find out which Army units were based in the North East of England during WW2, specifically Northumberland. Is there an overall Operations Record Book like the RAF use which tracks the movements of units? Recently I have been researching the Chain Home Radar station at Otterops Moss and a couple of the defensive pillboxes have names and units carved into them of a number of Light Anti Aircraft battalions of the Royal Artillery. These all seem to be dated 1940/41 and I am curious to know who took over when these units left. I am now interested in the wider goings on of the Army in Northumberland so understanding the structure would be of great help so I can target specific records and dates when I visit the archives.
AA units are a complicated matter. There is no single order of battle for RA units in WW2. The English Heritage book abiut the AA lists the grid reference fo AA positions but there is no systematic documentation that links particular batteries to sites. Back in the 1990s the RAI librarian at the old library in "the shop" told me that the War department had employed a civil servant to compile the RA order of battle (Unit and subunits) but he retired and the post abolished before the work was completed. Many of the piollboxes etc were manned by the Home Guard . IRRC these came under the County(?) Divisions charged with static defence. These should have war diaries. Whether they go into the level of detail that identifies responsibility for individual pill boxes is a different matter.
That is very useful information, thank you. I am putting together a list of the LAA units I have identified as having served at Ottercops and I will post separately on them to see if anyone has their war diaries, if not I will copy them when I go to Kew in Feb. The LAA batteries seem to have left when posted to the Middle East so finding out who took over might be tricky as their doesn't seem to be a Record Book for the radar station itself, although it did fall under the command of 60 Group and reported directly to the 13 Group HQ at Kenton. We have found four LAA positions at Ottercops and the concrete hard standings for the guns are visible on Google Earth at three of them. Each site seems similar in that they have a defensive pillbox, a structure 10x10ft square (the base of a concrete building is still there) and a large earthed or brick structure, possibly for storing the shells. There may also be the footings of a communications mast too.
For the anti aircraft side of this query Have you looked at units above the diaries for the individual LAA batteries or regiments? 7th AA Division (which I assume will cover your area of interest) and its constituent Brigades will very likely have the sort of detail that could tell you who backfilled a particular location. A quick trawl of the Discovery search engine has certainly thrown up a number of diaries for 7th AA Division. I am pretty sure I have seen a few references to army regiments other than RA AA that have referred to 'defense' generally.
I going to Kew in Feb and I was hoping to learn which units to check before leaving. Thanks for the heads up so far. Those units who kindly carved their names and regiments onto a couple of Pillboxes are as follows: 204 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery 123 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery - specifically 349 Troop 127 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery
