Home Guard Z Batteries cap badges

[Peter Brydon]

I understand that Home Guard members who were employed on Anti Aircraft duties with Z ( rocket ) Batteries became members of the Royal Artillery. Is this an over simplification ?. Second question, did members of the Z Batteries wear R.A. cap badges.

Any assistance in helping me understand the organisation of these units would be appreciated.

Thanks

P.B.

[manchesters]

Peter,

Good question and one I have never had answered satisfactorily.

Lancashire had 2 AA Regiments (East & West).

The 23rd at Salford with 5 Rocket batteries (101 at salford, 102 at Stretford, 103 at Manchester, 104 at manchetser & 105 in Rusholme) and the
24th in Liverpool with 5 Batteries (101 in Bootle, 102 in Liverpool, 103 in Liverpool, 104 in Preston & 105 in Barrow in Furness)

I would like to know if they were badged to the local home guard, in the E. Lancs that would be a Manchester Regt cap badge and a 'MAN' sleeve badge.

I believe they wore the black on Red AA Div arm badge also.

There were also a multitude of other Factory based LAA troops also.

Any information most welcome.

regards

[Peter Brydon]

Simon,

The 102 West Lancs battalion certainly wore both the HG style arm designation and the AA Command sign.

The Z Batteries don't seem to be mentioned on some Home Guard websites :

http://www.home-guard.org.uk/hg/index.html

They are listed in the R.A. part of Frederick.

I agree, any information welcomed.

Peter

[54Bty]

Not at home at the moment, but, all the Home Guard Artillery Batteries should have been cap badged RA., in some cases they continued to wear what ever they had before. Although some of them were rather proud to wear the RA badge. In some Btys they used the AA Comd badge as a method of proficiency and was only worn once the individual had completed a conversion course and was proficient in the use of the equipment, the same applied to the Lanyard. All the Btys also had a RA ORBAT number such as
122 (101 East Lancashire HG) 'Z' Anti Aircraft Battery, wearing the EL / 101 sleeve badges.

Marc

[Peter Brydon]

Thanks Marc,

So presumably personnel for the Z Batteries would be recruited from the local Home Guard Battalions and would have continued to wear the badge of their affiliated Regiments.

What if personnel were recruited directly into Z Batteries, or did that not happen ?

I also presume that, if and when R.A. badges were adopted , they would have worn the R.A. grenade collar in the field service cap ?

Peter

[wardog]

Bought at a carboot in Slough in the '90s. Regards, Paul. (Greatcoat and FS cap, no other military items on sale)
BUX 101.jpg

[badjez]

There is a big difference between the ZAA batteries, armed with rockets, and the LAA units armed with Marlin guns and Hispano guns etc. The latter were usually sub-units of local general service HG battalions, frequently defending their place of employment (although some became independent later adopting serial numbers 131 onwards). The Z batteries were raised as sub-units of their own HG regiments, frequently upon a cadre of RA men (the HG personnel were often transferees from existing general service units, supplemented by compulory enlisted HG). As such the ZAA batteries formed part of AA Command and wore their formation sign, together with the titles 100/ 101/ 102/ 103... The LAA batteries or Troops wore their usual county HG titles and numerals.

I'm not sure exactly what the rules were for cap badges, but I've yet to see photos of HG wearing the RA grenade badge (The RA gun would not have been worn as it had been reserved solely for RHA units during the war).

Incidentally, apart from one Homeguardsman in Bedfordshire, the AA units were the only HG ever to come into combat with the Axis forces. Private Shelton was the only member of the HG to engage enemy forces in ground combat, when he exchanged rifle fire with an escaped Italian PoW who had earlier murdered his guard.

Stephen.

[BWEF]

For which action Pte J M Shelton was awarded the British Empire Medal:

http://www.home-guard.org.uk/hg/bemm.html

[badjez]

If anyone is interested in John Shelton I can refer them to my book 'Prisoners of War in Bedfordshire', Amberley Publishing (ISBN 978-1-4456-0312-4). There used to be many remainders of it on eBay!

Stephen.

[Peter Brydon]

Thanks Stephen,

The reason for starting this thread was as you say :

I'm not sure exactly what the rules were for cap badges.................

Whilst this is something I have been trying to find out for some time, Paul S saw a picture of a Wirral HG battalion who were not wearing Cheshire Regiment cap badges, although what they were wearing is not clear,and that brought the question up again.

There must be some clear photos out there confirming what was worn ?

Peter

[Postwarden]

A bit long winded but this extract from my Home Guard book explains the situation of both cloth and metal badges for Home Guard AA units both Z Batteries and the smaller number of AA guns.

Amongst other things it answers the question of cap badge. RA badges were not allowed - but were worn unofficially any way.

Jon

After the decline in aerial attacks against Britain in 1941, Anti-Aircraft (AA) units of the Royal Artillery (RA) in the home-based AA Command were subjected to constant demands for experienced troops from formations proceeding overseas. Still required to keep a large presence in the UK, the Command’s GOC, General Pile, regularly sought alternative sources of manpower to make up his deficiencies. The War Office had considered HG assistance for the AA defences as early as January 1941, deciding at a Directorate meeting on the 29th that in principle, HG members might undertake duties with the new rocket projectors which were then undergoing trials. These projectors, not as accurate as guns but requiring shorter, less technical training, fired a six foot-long, three-inch calibre rocket with a 4lb warhead. For security purposes units using this weapon were known as Z Batteries. The meeting noted that some HG were already manning AA defences. In several factories under the MAP, surplus 20mm guns “not quite up to standard for aircraft use” had been given ground mountings and were crewed by the factory Home Guard unit. All new units however were to be under the control of AA Command

In September 1941, following the departure of a further 50,000 of his men for overseas, General Pile agreed that Home Guards might be used in rocket units and a trial battery (the basic RA unit) was set up in Liverpool. Although satisfactory, these trials revealed that manpower problems might ensue from restrictions recently placed on the duty time available from HG crews. A government ruling, designed to ensure that work of national importance and home life did not suffer unduly from the demands of war, had laid down a maximum of 48 hours training and duty in any 28 day period. With a single barrel projector as the main weapon and 64 of these grouped in one location, each site required 178 HG for each nightly duty. With eight shifts a week, just over 1,400 men were required for every HG rocket site.

A War Office letter of 11th December 1941 announced that “It has been decided by the War Cabinet that HG personnel are to be employed on certain duties in AA Command”. The phrase “certain duties” hid the fact that men would be working with the secret rocket weapons. Special HG battalions were not to be formed for these duties: the men were to be found from, or formed into, a company of the local GS battalion. No special uniform changes were made at this date for members of these new units.

Although some volunteers came through direct recruitment by batteries, an initial burst of enthusiasm produced only 7,000 men and it became necessary to resort to direction enforced by the Ministry of Labour and National Service. Never a successful measure, many directed men simply never turned up. By 1943 the situation had become so serious that men were compulsorily transferred from GS battalions to gunner duties, a move popular neither with the men nor with their battalion commanders. Recruitment from April 1942 also included boys between the ages of 16 and 17.

In March 1942 HG batteries, which had been part of existing battalions, were reorganised into units independent of these GS battalions. Uniforms remained as for other units in the area, with the addition of the formation badge of the parent AA division which was to be supplied by the division, of which at the time there were twelve, each with its own distinctive formation sign. Whilst evidence exists of these signs being worn by HG in 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th AA Divisions (205-208), it is not clear if this practice was universal throughout all twelve divisions. Some photographic evidence suggests that volunteers enlisted directly into AA units rather than being drawn from local GS battalions, wore the formation sign with the shoulder title alone, without any county designations.

In June 1942 batteries were integrated into the regular RA structure. They were given county designations according to the County in which they were formed, then numbered serially, commencing with 101 in each county. As batteries also had a nucleus of regular army staff, the battery designation included a regular RA battery number e.g. 150th (101st Surrey) Z AA Battery, Royal Artillery. In May 1944, the secrecy surrounding Z batteries was abandoned when they were re-designated Rocket Batteries. For these units a new range of numerals - running from 101 to 108 - was issued to wear below the county letters (212). The formation sign of the parent AA division was then worn half-an-inch below this new sign. Thus both arms of the battledress now displayed the Home Guard title, the county letters, the number of the battery and the divisional sign. Whether this arrangement of badges was ever widespread is unknown. There is ample evidence of AA divisional signs being worn, but the authors have seen no examples of these earlier signs worn with county letters and numerals in the 101 to 108 series during the six months that they should have been worn together. In December 1942 one area of AA work was denied to the Home Guard when it was ruled that they were not to be employed on searchlights because of the difficulties of transporting crews to and from isolated and scattered locations.

A new formation sign, to be worn by all troops in Anti-Aircraft Command was issued in January 1943, replacing the separate divisional signs. HG units took down the old divisional sign from their sleeves and replaced it with the Command sign. Although no reason is known for the change, there are two patterns of the new sign (209,210), the differences being a variation in the shape of the bow and a more elegant rendering of the device in the second pattern. Two units, 102nd and 103rd Cheshire HG Z Batteries, based around Birkenhead and Liverpool, granted the right to wear the Command sign only when volunteers had passed a firing test and were considered fully operational gunners, thus making the sign a quasi-proficiency badge. Although normally only worn on battledress, Home Guards serving with london units of the Command were specifically ordered to wear the AA sign on their greatcoats for the stand-down parade in 1944.

Throughout the mid-war period the larger part of the Luftwaffe was engaged on the Russian front or in the defence of Germany against British and American strategic bombing raids. As a result, attacks against Britain consisted mainly of tip-and-run raids on isolated locations or strategic points, carried out in daylight by fast-moving fighter-bombers flying at low level. To combat this new menace, in November 1943 the War Office authorised the formation of Home Guard Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) troops, manning AA weapons above 20mm calibre, which in most cases meant the 40mm Bofors gun. The majority of these formed part of the defences of factories or vulnerable points such as railway junctions. Whittaker lists 237 LAA troops in locations ranging from the Royal Ordnance Factory at Drigg, Cumberland to the Southern Railway Works at Ashford in Kent. HG thus employed wore the insignia of the local unit with the AA Command sign below. A typical example, from the LAA troop of the 3rd Somerset Bn guarding the Westland Aircraft Factory at Yeovil is illustrated (211R).

These LAA units brought about a brief revival of the Home Guard armlet. In the run up to D-Day, when it was feared that a counter-invasion might take place, it was suggested that under invasion conditions, LAA troops defending key points might not have time to put on their HG uniform and risked being shot as partisans if captured. They were therefore ordered, in a War Office letter of 7th January 1944, to wear the HG armlet with civilian clothes if called upon for duty. It is interesting to note that the insistence of 1940 that the “protective” armlet be securely sewn to the sleeve has been abandoned.

In March 1944, the War Office authorised a Home Guard component at the headquarters of each unit commanding HG AA troops. The letter authorised the designation of regimental HQ’s by a number commencing at 1 (e.g. 1st Home Guard AA Regt). We assume that this refers to the employment of HG staff at the regimental HQ of the 28 Home Guard Anti-Aircraft Regiments that existed at this date. The instruction stated that personnel on the HQ’s establishment “will wear the Home Guard shoulder title, the HQ’s number and the AA badge”. This instruction makes no mention of county letters, possibly because several of these regiments crossed county borders (e.g. 10th AA HG Regt which had units in Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire) and we assume they were not worn. The cap badge to be worn was that of the county in which the HQ was situated. No photographic evidence of the use of these numbers has come to light.

The manpower situation was not completely solved by raising HG Z Batteries. At the same time as they authorised their creation, the War Office asked General Pile to consider allowing HG units to man heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) guns. As a result, from October 1942, AA Command was also able to hand over some gun batteries to the Home Guard. With the need for greater technical skill and a higher level of fitness to lift heavy 3.7 inch shells into loading trays, Home Guard HAA gunners were never as numerous as those on rockets - some 27 batteries compared with 93 Z batteries.

This new task saw the arrival of further numerals. Home Guard gun batteries were numbered in a separate county sequence from 71 to 73, the numerals worn by these units being taken from the existing sequence. Where these were already in use by GS battalions, 171, 172 and 173 were used in their place, new printed numerals being issued to cover these units. Examples include 171 West Lancashire Home Guard HAA Battery in Liverpool and 171 and 173 West Riding Batteries in Rotherham and Sheffield. Again, these gun batteries eventually wore the sign of AA Command beneath the number. There is evidence that in July 1943 an independent HAA troop based in Dundee wore the county lettering DDE without a numeral, but this is unconfirmed.

There was constant agitation by HG gunners for greater identification with the regulars alongside whom they served. Much sought after were the Royal Artillery gun cap badge and the red and blue arm of service strip. Official permission to wear these was never forthcoming, but there are records of both being worn. The September 1942 issue of the popular magazine “Defence”, aimed at an HG audience, reminded readers that “HG’s serving with AA units must not wear the badge of the Royal Artillery in their cap - those doing so must remove it.”, whilst photographs of an unidentified unit with 1st AA Division in January 1943 show both officers and ORs wearing the arm of service strip below the divisional sign.
The continuing manpower shortage forced AA Command to look for volunteers wherever it could find them. The June 1942 memo had suggested that “Anti-Aircraft Home Guard Commanders will be encouraged to enrol Civil Defence personnel...provided that the CD authorities can release men for training ...”. Soon CD personnel could be seen manning guns alongside the Home Guard. On duty they continued to wear their CD blue battledress, as noted in the history of the Birkenhead-based 71st Cheshire HG Heavy AA Battery:-
“from July 1943...it was decided as an experiment to form special detachments from the air-raid wardens in West Kirby, Hoylake and Meols, who had for a long time been expressing great keenness to be allowed to join the Battery. It was agreed that wardens...should wear their ordinary Civil defence battledress with the AA Command sign, all other badges of rank to be khaki.”
A similar practice of wearing the AA Command sign with CD uniform has been recorded from the Bristol area.

[Peter Brydon]

Thanks Jon,

I had read that part of your book. The bit that confuses me is

[I]"Some photographic evidence suggests that volunteers enlisted directly into AA units rather than being drawn from local GS battalions......."

Would those Volunteers have been regarded as members of the Home Guard and what cap badge would such volunteers have worn ?

On page 92 of your book it says ".........Amongst men from the 5th Cumberland Bn............... "

"Orders were now received that the HG gunners were authorised to wear the RA cap badge, the RA regimental red and blue flash and the regulation white lanyard over the right shoulder"

So presumably that was a local rather than general Home Guard order which just applied to the Workington Battery ?

Peter

[Paul Spellman]

Hi Peter,
I have requested again to get permission to post the image.
Paul

[Peter Brydon]

Thanks Paul,

Fingers crossed that they say yes.

Peter

[Mr Spigot]

My father, Jack McFadden was a 2nd Lt in the Home Guard (London 101) and commanded a troop of 'Z batteries' in Hyde Park during the war. I have a photo of him but unfortunately his cap badge is not clear.
Jack McFadden 2nd Lt Home Guard, London 101 Z Battery D Troop commander Hyde Park 1944 001.jpg