90th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery

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used the observation posts (OPs) of the field artillery or set up their own. 312 LAA Battery alone fired over 12,000 rounds against such targets. 90th LAA Regiment receives special praise from the Royal Artillery historian for remaining in action from the first day to the last of the Anzio campaign. Its AA score in four months of action was 113 Category 1 'kills', of which only seven were due to concentrations, the remainder to individual shooting.

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continued all through March, in strengths varying from single aircraft to 20-plus, while the grim fighting along the front often drew in the LAA troops to give fire support to the infantry. 35th AAA Brigade claimed that by 25 March the number of aircraft shot down by all AA units at Anzio amounted to 141. Although the tempo of air attacks declined in April, the calls for support from the infantry engaged in

498:: 'this produced a curtain of bursts at about 8,000 feet (2,400 m) with sheets of tracer behind it'. These concentrations could be ordered by the gun operations room, by radio, or by a 'master gun' on watch in each troop. By 19 February Turner was reinforced by the other two batteries of 100th LAA Rgt to extend the fire plan, one of which was stationed aboard 406:. Pantelleria was rumoured to be an island fortress, but after massive air and naval bombardment, the garrison surrendered without any land fighting. There were some subsequent air attacks from Sicily, but a number of British AA units had been landed with radar to defend the captured island, and 1st Division was soon back in North Africa. 465:

and ammunition trucks could be taken. 311 LAA Battery with towed Bofors landed next day (D + 1) and the two batteries, having lost one gun, moved inland to defend the field artillery positions. At first all went well, but the commander of the operation waited too long to build up his forces and lost

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facing Longstop Hill, which had proved unassailable as far back as 22 December. Much of the divisional LAA was used to protect the field gun positions. In the rough country of Tunisia the forward LAA units were often involved in 'snap' engagements against fast, low-flying air attacks. Increasingly,

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90th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment was formally disbanded on 8 January 1945. Many of the men would have been sent to the Infantry Reinforcement Training Depot. In the case of retrained AA gunners, care was taken to post them to infantry battalions from their home areas, though there were few Welsh

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was suffering from such shortages of pilots, aircraft and fuel that serious air attacks were rare. At the same time British forces in Italy were suffering an acute manpower shortage. As early as June 1944 the Chiefs of Staff had decided that the number of AA regiments in Italy must be reduced and

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were endless. On 21 April alone, 90th LAA Rgt fired 3425 rounds against German infantry working their way up dry river beds into the Allied positions. Other targets included enemy forming-up areas, buildings containing machine-guns, and enemy positions along railway embarkments, The LAA batteries

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on 'Banana Ridge', which posed some danger to the artillery that was assembling well forward for the forthcoming attack. The spoiling attack was driven off after some stiff fighting. On 23 April 1st Division launched its attack against a line of low hills, with considerable artillery support, but

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In the flat, open country of the beachhead, the LAA positions were dangerously conspicuous and were frequently shelled and mortared. During February 90th LAA Rgt lost 17 men killed and 53 wounded. Although the battered infantry of 1st Division were rotated, 90th LAA remained in action. Raids

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in each LAA battery was equipped with self-propelled (SP) Bofors guns, the other two being towed. However, for this landing 90th LAA Rgt concentrated all 18 of its SP Bofors in 312 LAA Bty to land with the first wave on 'Peter' Beach on 21 January 1944. Apart from the SP guns, only

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the initiative. The Germans quickly contained the beachhead and by 1 February were attempting to drive the Allied troops back towards the sea, and sending over waves of air attacks. 313 LAA Battery had been landed on D + 5, and two other LAA batteries (168 Bty from

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found the captured ground too hard to dig in, and was thrown back by counter-attacks. The ridge was taken again next day and securely held, at the cost of high casualties. The division had some sharp actions over the succeeding days but by 5 May it was in place for

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When the Allies broke out of the Anzio beachhead on 23 May, the exhausted 1st Division was left as a holding unit under Fifth US Army. By 3 June it was pushing forward again as a flank guard as Fifth Army drove on. It met some resistance but reached the

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as the Allied supply lines were stretched and the difficulty of finding suitable gun positions increased. 1st Division was exhausted and could not continue to attack in the winter conditions. The offensive was closed down on 26 October.

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back at Salerno. All his batteries prepared concentrations of fire within their sectors, for use by day or night to cover the front. The guns fired on fixed bearings at an elevation of 35 degrees, employing 12-second long-burning

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their fit personnel converted to other roles, particularly infantry. 90th LAA Regiment was one of those selected for disbandment: it was withdrawn from the front on 7 November and replaced in 1st Division by

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casualties were so heavy that it stopped daylight raids over the beachhead in May and concentrated on night bombing of the port and beaches, which were protected by the heavy AA guns of 35th AAA Bde.

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Most of the AA effort at Anzio was controlled by 35th US AA Artillery Brigade, but the radar of its single mobile operations room was having trouble giving early warning of attacks by low-flying

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E.S. Turner, tasked with coordinating the AA cover of the British sector, asked for help and got some mobile No 4 Mark III lightweight local warning radar sets sent from

474:) also arrived, but the five batteries had to cover the spread of six field artillery regiments, which were unable to disperse or find cover in the congested beachhead. 383:. That evening it took Djebel Bou Aoukaz with massive artillery support, securing the flank for First Army's main attack early next morning. British troops entered 582:. (11th (CoLY) LAA Regiment only deployed one Bofors battery in AA defence of bridges while the rest of the regiment served in a variety of support roles.) 245: 285: 982: 676: 233: 1033: 926: 375: 217:, as part of the rapid expansion of the Army with wartime conscripts. It converted to a normal infantry battalion on 9 October that year as 486: 1112: 1097: 1074: 1055: 1017: 998: 975: 960: 945: 490: 260: 415: 184: 190: 225: 289: 419: 132: 675:

Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 2 December 1941, with amendments,

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on 27 January 1942, and remained with that formation for the rest of its existence. At the time, 1st Division was in

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2 AA Brigade, 'History of the Italian Campaign for the Period August 1944–April 1945', TNA file WO 204/7240.

448: 427: 304: 213: 204: 164: 374:), but early on the morning of 21 April the Germans launched a spoiling attack against 1st Division's 478: 17: 938:

History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: The Years of Defeat: Europe and North Africa, 1939–1941

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