1st L.A.A./Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.

The 1st L.A.A./Atk Battery, W.A.A. began life as the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, W.A.A. on 1st May 1941.  This Battery was then reorganised and redesignated to become the 1st L.A.A./Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A. on 8th March 1943 and then as the 81st L.A.A. Battery, W.A.A. on 2nd May 1944.  The final reorganisation/redesignation resulted in the formation of the 65th Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.  Here is a summary:

1st Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, W.A.A.

1st May 1941                formed at Freetown, Sierra Leone
8th March 1943             reorganised as the 1st L.A.A./Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.

1st L.A.A./Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.

8th March 1943             by reorganisation of the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, W.A.A.
2nd May 1944               reorganised and re-designated as the 81st L.A.A. Battery, W.A.A.

81st L.A.A. Battery, W.A.A.

2nd May 1944               by reorganisation of the 1st L.A.A./Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.
9th October 1944          redesignated as the 65th Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.

65th Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.

23rd October 1944         by redesignation of the 81st L.A.A. Battery, W.A.A.
1946                             disbanded in West Africa.

 

1st Light Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A.

The 1st Light Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Tank Battery, W.A.A. was formed by conversion of the 1st L.A.A. Battery, W.A.A. at Freetown by 8th March 1943.  Notification had been received on 4th February 1943 of the impending re-organisation of the Battery.  Major J.A. Macnabb was the Commanding Officer.  The Battery appears to have embarked for Nigeria at the end of April, where it disembarked from the H.M.S.T Hailes at Lagos on 5th May.  It moved to Awba Camp, arriving the next day.  Sixteen 40mm Bofors guns were taken on strength on 4th June.  Major D.N. Isaac assumed command of the Battery on 16th July 1943.[1]

The Battery left Awba with the 1st L.A.A./Atk Regiment for Lagos, on or around 17th September 1943 where the units embarked for Freetown, Sierra Leone. Having arrived the previous day, the Regiment disembarked on 25th September and was billeted in the Freetown area. The ship carrying the Regiment, the S.S. Volendam, left Freetown at the end of October.  The Regiment arrived at Bombay on 17th November. The personnel disembarked and entrained in two groups on 19th and 20th November, the 1st Battery disembarking on 20th November.  The second group, including the 1st Battery, entrained for Calcutta and arrived on 24th November and the complete Regiment embarked on the S.S. Santhia for Chittagong.  However, the ship caught fire the following day, with all kit lost and the Regiment forced to disembark followed by a move to Deula, arriving on 26th November. [2]

The Battery sent a detachment to Chittagong on 1st December 1943, to take over some motor transport there.  On 7th December, a second detachment left Deula Camp to work in the docks where an air raid had disorganise the civilian labour. This work lasted until 11th December when the detachment is thought to have returned to Deula.[3]

The Regiment moved to Chittagong, entraining for Calcutta on 5th January 1944 and arriving on 8th January.  Here the personnel of the Regiment were reorganised on the basis of two L.A.A. (1st and 4th L.A.A./Atk Batteries) and two anti-tank batteries (the 2nd and an improvised ‘X’ L.A.A./Atk Batteries).  The 1st Battery’s ‘C’ Troop was detached on 25th January.  ‘A’ Troop deployed with six Bofors guns on 4th February, followed by ‘B’ Troop also with six guns on 6th February.  Between 5th and 7th February, the Regiment had seventeen guns in action in the L.A.A. role at Chittagong, manned by the 1st and 4th L.A.A./Atk Batteries, under the command of the 13th A.A. Brigade.  Despite this deployment, much of the Battery’s firing practice was in the ground role.  On 23rd March, ‘B’ Troop moved to Fazilpur landing strip where it remained until returning to Chittagong on 15th April.[4]

The 1st L.A.A./Atk Battery, W.A.A. was re-designated when on 25th April 1944, the batteries of the 1st L.A.A./Atk Regiment, W.A.A. were reorganised to form the 61st and 62nd Anti-Tank Batteries and the 81st and 82nd L.A.A. Batteries.  On 2nd May 1944, the 1st L.A.A./Atk Battery, W.A.A. became the 81st L.A.A. Battery, W.A.A.[5]

05 July 2025