The 10th Anti-Aircraft Division was one of five new divisions created on 1 November 1940 by
Anti-Aircraft Command to control the expanding anti-aircraft (AA) defences of the United Kingdom. The division was formed by taking the two southern brigade areas (31st and 39th) from the existing
7th AA Division in North East England, together with a newly formed brigade (62nd brigade), and giving it responsibility for the air defence of East and West Yorkshire and the Humber Estuary.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
The divisional headquarters (HQ) was at
York and the first General Officer Commanding (GOC), appointed on 14 November 1940, was Major-General Langley Browning, who had been Commander, Royal Artillery, at
4th Infantry Division. The 10th AA Division formed part of
II AA Corps.[8][9]
The Blitz
The division's fighting units, organised into three AA Brigades, consisted of Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) and Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) gun regiments and Searchlight (S/L) regiments of the
Royal Artillery. The HAA guns were concentrated in the Gun Defence Areas (GDAs) at
Hull,
Leeds and
Sheffield. The LAA units were distributed to defend Vulnerable Points (VPs) such as factories and airfields, while the S/L detachments were disposed in clusters of three, spaced 10,400 yards (9,500 m) apart.[10]
At the time the 10th AA Division was created, the industrial towns of the UK were under regular attack by night, to which the limited AA defences replied as best they could. West Yorkshire, despite its important industrial facilities, steelworks, aircraft and ordnance factories, was at a considerable distance from the Luftwaffe's bases and was less often raided than coastal targets and
The Midlands. Nevertheless, in the 10th AA Division's area, Sheffield was badly bombed on 12 and 15 December 1940 (the
Sheffield Blitz), Leeds on 14 March 1941 (the
Leeds Blitz), Hull on 18 March (the
Hull Blitz) and on 7 and 8 May, when Sheffield was also hit again.[6][7][11][12]
There were still too few AA guns for the tasks set them, and in March 1941 AA Command was obliged to shift some HAA guns from Sheffield to
Liverpool, which was under much heavier attack.[13] The position on LAA gun sites was worse: only small numbers of
Bofors 40 mm guns were available at the start of the Blitz, and most LAA detachments had to make do with
Light machine guns (LMGs).[14]
Order of Battle 1940–41
The division's composition during the Blitz was as follows:[5][15][16][17][18]
Even when the main Blitz ended in May 1941, Hull was an easy target for inexperienced Luftwaffe crews and was frequently bombed and
Parachute mines dropped in the Humber Estuary. A special S/L 'Dazzle Barrage' installed at Hull foiled at least one attack, in August 1941.[50] The other gaps in AA defences were filled as more equipment and units became available. Searchlights, now assisted by Searchlight Control (SLC) radar, were reorganised, with a 'Killer Belt' surrounding the Hull GDA to cooperate closely with RAF
Night fighters. The HAA and support units increasingly became 'Mixed', indicating that women of the
Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) were fully integrated into them.[6][50][51]
In the spring of 1942, a new phase in the air campaign began with the so-called
Baedeker Blitz mainly directed against undefended British cities. In the 10th AA Division's area, York was accurately hit on 28 April, Hull on 19 May and 31 July, and
Grimsby on 29 May. The severity of the raid on Hull on 19 May was lessened when many bombs were aimed at a fire started by incendiary bombs landing on an AA site outside the city.[52][53] Redeployment of resources became necessary to counter the Baedeker raids, mostly to southern England, but also the establishment of a GDA at York. A series of Luftwaffe 'hit and run' raids against towns on the South Coast also led to the withdrawal of many LAA guns. At the same time, experienced units were posted away to train for service overseas (sometimes being lent back to AA Command while awaiting embarkation). This led to a continual turnover of units, which accelerated with the preparations for the invasion of North Africa (
Operation Torch) in late 1942.[6][52][54]
The 65th AA Brigade HQ joined in June 1942 and several regiments were transferred to it from the 39th AA Brigade.[55] The 62nd AA Brigade HQ left in August 1942 and took part in Operation Torch, landing in North Africa in December.[56]
Order of Battle 1941–42
During this period the division was composed as follows (temporary attachments omitted):[18][57][55][58]
29th LAA Rgt – from the 39th AA Brigade May 1942; to WO Control for Operation Torch June 1942'[67][68][76]
71st LAA Rgt – from the 31st AA Brigade August 1942'
2nd AA 'Z' Rgt – from the 39th AA Brigade May 1942
The increased sophistication of communications for Gun Operations Rooms (GORs) and RAF Sectors was reflected in the growth in support units, which attained the following organisation by May 1942:[55]
A reorganisation of AA Command in October 1942 saw the AA divisions disbanded and replaced by a smaller number of AA Groups more closely aligned with the groups of
RAF Fighter Command. The 10th AA Division, which had been at
Sand Hutton, outside York, but was by now at
Leeds, merged with 2nd AA Division to form
5th AA Group based at
Nottingham and cooperating with
No. 12 Group RAF.[3][4][5][6][89]
General Officers Commanding
The following officers commanded 10th AA Division:[90][8]
Major-General Langley Browning, from 14 November 1940 to 13 February 1942[9]
^
abOrder of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 12 May 1941, with amendments,
The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 212/79.
^Order of Battle of the Field Force in the United Kingdom, Part 3: Royal Artillery (Non-Divisional Units), 14 August 1942, TNA file WO 212/7 and WO 33/1927.
^
abOrder of Battle of the Field Force in the United Kingdom, Part 3: Royal Artillery (Non-Divisional Units), 22 November 1942, TNA file WO 212/8 and WO 33/1962.
Gen Sir
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