19th Battalion, London Regiment (St Pancras)

British infantry advancing through gas at Loos, 25 September 1915.

During 1915 the battalion was engaged in the following operations:[12][19][20][21]

• Battle of Festubert 24–27 May
• Battle of Loos 25 September–1 October

At the Battle of Loos the 1/19th formed part of the second wave attacking the southern side of Loos village itself. Its CO, Lt-Col Collison-Morley, was killed at the head of the battalion soon after leaving the trenches, and the 1/19th encountered stiff opposition in Loos cemetery before pushing on to clear houses and cellars in the village. It ended the day at its final objective, the coal-mine winding gear known as 'Tower Bridge'. 1/19th suffered the heaviest casualties in 47th Division that day (14 officers and 372 other ranks).[22][23]

• Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt 13–19 October

During 1916 the battalion was engaged in the following operations:[12][19][20][21]

• Vimy Ridge – the units of 47th Division were involved in frequent crater-fighting in this sector from April to July 1916, including the major German attack on 21 May.[24]
• Battle of the Somme:
  • Battle of Flers-Courcelette 15–19 September
  • Capture of High Wood 15 September – the 1/19th were in the second wave of the attack, but got caught up in the confused fighting. Their CO, Lt-Col A.P. Hamilton, assembled all the available men and went up into the wood to try to restore order, but was killed. High Wood, which had held up the British for two months, was finally taken, but casualties were so heavy that 141 Bde had to be reorganised into a composite battalion.[25]
  • Battle of the Transloy Ridges 1–9 October
  • Capture of Eaucourt l'Abbaye 1–3 October
  • Attacks on the Butte de Warlencourt 7–8 October

47th Division moved into the Hill 60 sector of the Ypres Salient in October 1916 and took part in regular raids and crater fighting for a number of months.[26] It then took part in the following operations:[12][19][20][21]

• Battle of Messines – in the weeks leading up to the battle, 141 Bde held the divisional front and carried out preparations for the attacks, including digging new trenches and establishing ration and ammunition dumps. For the attack on 7 June it was in support, moving up to relieve 142 Bde two days later.[27]

A patrol of 1/19th Londons moves through a shattered village near Ypres, 27 August 1917

• 3rd Battle of Ypres – 47th Division was not directly involved in the offensive, being in reserve during the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 July–2 August) and spending two periods holding the line (18 August–2 September and 8–17 September), described as 'among the most unpleasant in its experience'.[28]
• Battle of Cambrai – 141 Bde took over the recently captured Bourlon Wood on 29 November in time to be hit by the German counter-attack the following morning. 1/19th Londons were badly affected by the enemy bombardment, particularly by gas shells. Out of 15 officers and over 600 men of the battalion who took up position in the wood, only 5 officers and 65 other ranks remained in the line by the end of the day, and many of these were later evacuated to hospital suffering from the effects of gas.[29]

By early 1918 the British Army was suffering a severe manpower shortage and a number of battalions were disbanded to bring others up to strength. In February the 1/19th received a large draft of 14 officers and 375 men from A, B and D Companies 1/7th Londons in 140th (4th London) Brigade.[12][30][31]

When the German Spring Offensive opened on 21 March, 47th Division had just relieved another formation in the line and were holding the right flank of Third Army. The main blow fell on Fifth Army to the south, but the Londoners were heavily bombarded and later in the day the Germans attacked behind a smoke screen. 1/19th took part in the successful counter-attack to regain the positions lost. However, Fifth Army was collapsing and 47th Division, with its flank open, was obliged to fall back on successive lines of half-dug trenches. The retirement, with rearguards contesting the German advance throughout, went on for six days and casualties were heavy. By the end, the remnants of 1/19th and 1/20th Londons were formed into a composite battalion.[32]

The Germans attempted to renew the offensive on 5 April. By now 47th Division had reorganised. Most of 1/19th was with 141 Bde in divisional reserve, but one company was in the front line still attached to 1/20th. The attack was made after an intense bombardment, and fighting went on all day, with reserves fed in progressively. The Germans made some gains, but the line held. 47th Division was relieved that night.[33]

47th Division now had three quiet months, resting and then holding a quiet sector of the line, which gave the battalions time to absorb the hundreds of 18-year-old recruits they were sent to fill up their ranks. It was then engaged in the following operations:[12][19][20][21]

• Battle of Albert 22–23 August – The division joined the Allied counter-offensive in this battle. 141 Brigade began their advance at 0445, and gained their objective with little resistance, but in the morning mist and battle smoke the battalions began to consolidate a little short of the intended line; the follow-up units suffered heavily.[34]
• 2nd Battle of Bapaume 31 August–3 September – 141 Bde advanced behind a creeping barrage at 0530, gained all the ground required, and continued to advance the following day. A new dawn attack on 5 September suffered a check, so it was successfully repeated under cover of a barrage and a thunderstorm at 1900, followed by a further push on 6 September.[35]

After a further period of rest, 47th Division was preparing for a move to the Italian Front when it was instead ordered to take part in the final operations on the Western Front. On 1 October 141 Bde was hurried forward to keep in touch with the retreating Germans. Like the rest of the brigade, 1/19th Bn was now very weak, and further casualties were suffered from German rearguards, but the brigade took Aubers Ridge, scene of previous costly attacks during the war. The pursuit continued, until on 4 October the 1/19th secured a position on the strongly-held Armentieres-Wavrin railway embankment. The advance was resumed on 16 October, 1/19th coming upon Fort d'Englos, one of the string of forts encircling Lille. On 28 October the division accompanied Third Army's commander, Sir William Birdwood on his ceremonial entry into Lille. 141 Brigade resumed its place in the Line on 31 October and took up positions along the River Schelde. The river was crossed on 9 November, and the Armistice with Germany on 11 November found the battalions of 141 Bde administering the liberated city of Tournai.[9][36]

Demobilisation of 47 Division began in early 1919. By March the units had been reduced to cadres, and these left for England in May.[12][37]

The following officers commanded 1/19th Londons during World War I:[38]

• Lt-Col P.T. Westmorland, CMG, DSO, to 2 June 1915
• Lt-Col H. Collison-Morley, killed in action 25 September 1915
• Lt-Col A.P. Hamilton, MC, killed in action 15 September 1916
• Major C.H. Fair, DSO
• Lt-Col J.G. Stokes, DSO, MC
• Lt-Col E.J. Collett
• Lt-Col R.S.I. Friend, DSO
• Maj J.J. Sheppard, DSO, MC, to May 1918
• Lt-Col H. De L. Fergusson, DSO, to August 1918
• Maj J.J. Sheppard, DSO, MC, to September 1918
• Lt-Col Hutchisson, to December 1918
• Maj C.J. Bantick, until demobilisation

2/19th Battalion landed in France on 25 June 1916. After a period of familiarisation alongside the experienced 1/5th Seaforth Highlanders, the battalion took over a section of the line on Vimy Ridge. Over succeeding weeks the 2/19th alternated in the line, in support and in reserve with the 2/17th Londons.[9][41] The 60th Division adopted coloured flashes painted on each side of the steel helmet to aid recognition: 180 Bde adopted a triangle, which was blue in the case of the 2/19th Bn.[42] During the summer the battalion was engaged in occasional crater-fighting and trench-raiding. After five months in the line, it had suffered around 200 casualties, 40 of them fatal.[43]

On 1 November, 60th Division was ordered to prepare to move to the Macedonian front, and the battalion embarked at Marseille on 25 November and landed at Salonika on 1 December. It began the march north on 18 December and went into the line on Christmas Eve.[9][16][44] The battalion was peripherally involved in the Battle of Doiran 24–5 April and 8–9 May 1917.[16][45]

The 60th Division was next transferred to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force for the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The 2/19th left Lake Doiran on 1 June and marched back to Salonika where it embarked on 10 June. After a period of training and acclimatisation in the Canal Zone, the battalion moved up to the front in July.[9][46] On 31 October the battalion was with 180th Brigade in divisional reserve for the Battle of Beersheba, but the attack was so successful that it never came into action.[47] On 6 November the 2/19th was one of the attacking battalions that captured the Kauwukah position during the Battle of Hareira and Sheria. The Sheria position remaining untaken, the brigade attacked again the following day, and the 2/19th suffered heavy casualties, the acting commanding officer, Major A.W. Gray, being killed.[48]

Nebi Samwil mosque before the battle

The pursuit through the Judaean Hills saw the battalion engaged at the Battle of Mughar Ridge and by 25 November it took over the Nebi Samwil position a few miles from Jerusalem.[49] This position had been captured after heavy fighting by British and Indian troops. On 27 November the Turks opened a heavy bombardment on the mosque that crowned the hill, which was held by D Company of 2/19th. This was followed by wave after wave of attacks, but the company, without significant artillery support, drove them all back, causing several hundred casualties.[50]

During the night of 7/8 December the 2/19th began the attack on Jerusalem by taking the Deir Yesin position. After a holdup in daylight, the battalion renewed the attack in the afternoon. The following morning, the Turks had retreated. Sergeants Hurcomb and Sedgewick went out to reconnoitre and met the Mayor of Jerusalem and a party of civilians who offered them the keys of the abandoned city. After the capture of Jerusalem, the 2/19th, reduced to some 300 men, went into billets in the city. On 11 December it provided a guard of honour for General Allenby's ceremonial entry into the city.[51][52]

Sergeants Hurcomb (right) and Sedgewick (left) with the Mayor of Jerusalem and his delegation

Monument to the surrender of Jerusalem to the 60th London Division.

The Turkish counter-attack on Jerusalem began on 27 December. When 180th Brigade relieved the defenders who had beaten off the initial Turkish attacks, it went over to the offensive, with 2/19th capturing the slopes of Shab Saleh.[53] After a pause, Allenby resumed his advance and the 2/19th took part in the capture of Jericho on 19–21 February 1918, storming Talat ed Dumm.[54]

The battalion took part in the 1st and 2nd Trans-Jordan raids of 21 March–2 April and 30 April–4 May. On the first occasion (the Battle of Hijla) the leading elements of the 2/19th struggled across the river by swimming and rafting during the night of 21/22 March while other battalions were driven back. Once a pontoon bridge had been completed and reinforcements arrived, the advance continued in the afternoon of 22 March with artillery support. But the next position could not be taken and the troops were pinned down until nightfall, the 2/19th suffering heavy casualties. A second night attack succeeded in extending the bridgehead. The battalion remained in reserve during the subsequent attack on Amman, and covered the retirement of the raiding force to the bridgehead.[55]

The pontoon bridge across the Jordan

In the 2nd Transjordan raid, the 2/19th attacked out of the Jordan bridgehead. The night attack on 29/30 April became bogged down with heavy casualties against strengthened Turkish positions. The leading companies held out during the daylight hours until other units outflanked the position. The battalion then held the outpost line until the raiders returned on 4 May.[56]

In the summer of 1918 many units from 60th Division were transferred to the Western Front and the division was converted to the Indian establishment. 2/19th Londons remained, however, as the sole British battalion in 180th Bde, alongside three newly recruited Indian Army units.[16][57] The division was intensively trained for its part in the forthcoming Megiddo offensive.[58]

At Zero hour on 19 September 1918, the Indian battalions of 180th Bde attacked, and had taken all their objectives by 05.40. The 2/19th Londons then passed through, forced the passage of the shallow Nahr el Faliq with some losses, and established a bridgehead on the far side by 07.20. 181st Brigade followed through and continued the attack. The division had accomplished all its tasks and played a major part in the final defeat of the Turkish army in Palestine.[59] This set-piece battle is known as the Battle of Sharon.[16]

The pursuit of the retreating Turks was so rapid that the infantry formations were left behind, and 2/19th Londons, together with the rest of 60th Division, was left to collect prisoners and secure captured stores along the line of advance until the Armistice with the Turks was signed on 30 October 1918.[60]

The 2/19th Londons spent the New Year at Alexandria, where it was required to keep order among the Egyptian population. In March 1919 it embarked for Lebanon, from where it was sent to Homs in Syria. On 24 March the battalion was amalgamated with 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, but retained its identity, the HQ of 2nd Leicesters returning to the UK. In April the composite battalion moved to Aleppo to keep order during the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. Parties of the battalion had already been sent home for demobilisation, and in October 1919 a large draft of men arrived from the Suffolk Regiment to maintain numbers. The battalion was disbanded on 21 January 1920 in Egypt.[1][9][61]

The following officers commanded 2/19th Londons:[62]

• Lt-Col E.J. Christie, from first raising
• Lt-Col D.C. Sword, DSO, from training on Salisbury Plain to Fall of Jerusalem; evacuated sick 2 January 1918
• Maj A.J. Gray (Royal Scots), acting during Battle of Hareira and Sheria, killed in action 7 November 1917
• Maj W.M. Craddock, DSO, (2/20th Londons), during Trans-Jordan raids
• Lt-Col A.E. Norton, DSO, (2/18th Londons), from reorganisation during summer 1918 to disbandment
• Maj C.S. Williamson, acting during final advance in Palestine

33rd AA Battalion was mobilised on 26 September 1938 during the Munich Crisis and went to its war stations (334 Company to Baldock). It was stood down after 12 days. In June 1939, as the international situation worsened, a partial mobilisation of the TA was begun in a process known as 'couverture', whereby each AA unit did a month's tour of duty in rotation to man selected AA gun and searchlight positions. 334 Company was deployed on 13 August. On 24 August, ahead of the declaration of war, Anti-Aircraft Command was fully mobilised at its war stations:[72][80][81]

90 cm Projector Anti-Aircraft, displayed at Fort Nelson, Portsmouth

• Battalion HQ: The Limes, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex
• 332 AA Company: White Hart Hotel, Yeldham, Essex
• 333 AA Company: Hargrave Park, Stansted
• 334 AA Company: Colliers End, near Ware, Hertfordshire
• Mobilisation stores at Buntingford, Hertfordshire

The battalion mobilised in 29 AA Bde, but by the end of September 1939 had transferred to the new 40th Anti-Aircraft Brigade, covering East Anglia.[81][82][83][84] 33rd AA Bn occupied S/L sites across Hertfordshire supporting the Debden Sector of No. 12 Group RAF, with battalion HQ at Stansted Mountfitchet. On 2 September, the day before war was declared, a colour party of the battalion returned to Albany Street and took the colours to St Pancras Town Hall for safekeeping. By mid-September, a detachment of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) had been attached to the battalion.[72]

On 1 July 1940, 33rd AA Bn came under the command of 6 AA Bde HQ, newly arrived at Debden after participating in the Norwegian Campaign. The brigade ordered the construction of a concrete pillbox at each S/L site and each company and section HQ – a total of 75 in 33rd Bn's area. These were to provide defended patrol bases in the event of attack by enemy paratroops, and each site was joined by an infantry detachment and equipped with a wireless set.[72]

On 1 August 1940 the RE 'Anti-Aircraft' (searchlight) battalions were transferred to the Royal Artillery, so the battalion became the 33rd (St Pancras) Searchlight Regiment RA (TA) and the AA companies and sections were redesignated searchlight batteries and troops.[1][69][74][71][72][78][79][85]

On 10 August, Debden Sector was transferred from 12 Group to No. 11 Group RAF, so 6 AA Bde similarly transferred to 6th AA Division, responsible for the eastern approaches to London.[72][77][86][87][88]

33rd S/L Rgt was largely unaffected by the Battle of Britain, but during the subsequent night Blitz on London it was active, particularly in cooperation with the night fighters of Debden Sector. The S/L layouts had been based on a spacing of 3500 yards, but due to equipment shortages this had been extended to 6000 yards by September 1940. The difficulty of illuminating night bombers led to a redistribution of S/Ls into clusters of three lights, one of which was the 'master light' that would eventually be equipped with searchlight control radar (SLC). This meant that the clusters had to be spaced 10,400 yards apart. 33rd S/L Regiment carried out the redistribution during December 1940 and January 1941, but did not begin to receive SLC equipment until October 1941.[72][89]

The regiment supplied a cadre of experienced officers and men to 230th S/L Training Rgt at Blandford Camp where it provided the basis for a new 520 S/L Bty formed on 14 November 1940. This battery later joined 85th S/L Rgt.[74]

In May 1941 the regiment was required to form a composite troop of six searchlights withdrawn from cluster sites to defend the new night-fighter base at RAF Hunsdon. By July this had become E Troop of 334 Bty. S/Ls were sometimes exposed as homing beacons for friendly aircraft. Once SLC equipment was widely available, 33rd S/L Rgt 'declustered' and reverted to deployment by single lights.[72]

6 AA Division formation badge worn 1941.[90]

By October 1941 the availability of SLC radar was sufficient to allow AA Command's S/Ls to be 'declustered' into single-light sites spaced at 10,400-yard intervals in 'Indicator Belts' along the coast and 'Killer Belts' at 6000-yard spacing inland to cooperate with the RAF's night fighters.[91]

On 23 January 1942, 33rd S/L Rgt was increased by one battery, with 543 Bty joining from 89 S/L Rgt, though it was several months before it moved into the regimental area from Kent.[74][72][92] 543rd S/L Bty had originally been formed in March 1941 from a cadre of 64th (1/6th Essex) S/L Rgt at 237 S/L Training Rgt at Holywood, Northern Ireland, with personnel mainly from Manchester. It had served with 89th S/L Rgt around Exeter and Plymouth during the latter part of the Blitz.[74][93]

In January 1943, the growing ATS detachments allocated to AA units were reorganised: those with 33rd S/L Rgt became B Company, 6 AA Bde Group ATS, with a dedicated platoon to each S/L company.[72]

On 10 April 1943, 33rd S/L Rgt was ordered to change places with 73rd (Kent Fortress) S/L Rgt in 27th (Home Counties) AA Bde, taking over four areas of Kent under Biggin Hill Sector of 11 Group RAF, with Regimental HQ at Faversham. This area was under regular attack by Luftwaffe fighter-bombers, and the defensive armament of S/L positions was increased, with twin Vickers K machine gun mountings being added to the existing Lewis guns. The regiment's first Category 1 'kill' came on the night of 15/16 September when a site of 334 Bty at Kingsgate shot down a Heinkel He 111 with Lewis and Vickers guns, shared with the local Light AA gun unit. In September the regiment began to receive twin 0.5-inch Browning machine guns on power mountings. Between 21 January and 14 March 1944 the Luftwaffe carried out eleven night raids on London in the so-called 'Baby Blitz': two sites of 334 Bty shared another Cat 1 kill on 22/23 February.[72]

150 cm S/L with AA Radar No 2.

However, by early 1944, AA Command was being forced to release manpower for the planned invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord). 33rd S/L Rgt's contribution came through the disbandment of 543 Bty on 6 March and E Trp of 334 Bty; however E Trp of 346 Bty, 36th (Middlesex) S/L Rgt joined on 13 March as D/332 Trp.[72][94] From September 1943 the regiment had been carrying out experiments on new combinations of S/Ls and SLC; in July1944 this was stepped up with the start of the V-1 flying bomb campaign against London, though Kent was on the fringe of the V-1s' route.[74][72][95]

On 21 September, a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress, attempting to reach the emergency airfield at RAF Manston, crashed onto one of the regiment's positions at Minster. Seven members of the detachment were commended for bravery in rescuing survivors from the burning wreck, and Lance-Bombardier Harkness and Gunner Bateman were later awarded the British Empire Medal.[72]

As 21st Army Group overran the V-1 launching sites in Northern France, the Luftwaffe began to launch them from aircraft over the North Sea. AA Command shifted units from Kent to deal with the threat, and in November 33 S/L Rgt had to take over some of these units' sites along the East Kent coast.[72]