The Cornwall Fortress Royal Engineers, was a volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers formed in 1908. It helped to defend the coastal towns of Cornwall and sent engineer units to work on the Western Front. Converted to an air defence role before World War I, it served as a searchlight unit during the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, then, as a light anti-aircraft gun unit, it served in the most heavily attacked part of the South Coast of England throughout 1942–44, including the V-1 flying bomb campaign (Operation Diver).
Precursor unit In 1886, the War Office (WO) began organising units of 'submarine miners' in the Volunteer Force to man the fixed minefields being installed to defend British seaports. One such unit was the Falmouth Division, Royal Engineers (Volunteers) Submarine Miners, based at Falmouth in Cornwall. However, the proposed unit was soon abandoned: no officers were ever commissioned into it, and its title disappeared from the Army List in March 1888.Westlake, p. 15.
In July 1888, the Falmouth Division reappeared, this time with Officers having been commissioned on 23 June 1888.
In 1891 it was decided by the War Office that Falmouth would be better served by the Militia, so the unit was converted to Falmouth Division, Royal Engineers (Militia) Submarine Miners.
In April 1907, the Secretary of State for War was asked what units of the Royal Engineers (Militia) Submarine Miners had been disbanded since January 1906 and what the establishment of each unit was as at January 1907. The Falmouth Division was reported to have 83 men.
Territorial Force After the Territorial Force (TF) was created by the Haldane Reforms in 1908, a new TF unit of the Royal Engineers was raised to maintain the defences of the Cornish seaports. Designated the Cornwall Fortress Royal Engineers, it had the following organisation by the outbreak of World War I:Monthly Army List, August 1914.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 12.
HQ at Falmouth No 1 (Electric Lights) Company at Falmouth No 2 (Works) Company at Fowey Town HallFowey at The Drill Hall Project. No 3 (Works) Company at Bow Hill, PenrynPenryn at The Drill Hall Project.
The HQ and No 1 Company shared the Drill Shed on The Bar in Falmouth with the Cornwall (Duke of Cornwall's) Royal Garrison Artillery and No 18 Company of the RE Coast Battalion.Falmouth at The Drill Hall Project. No 2 (Works) Company at Fowey maintained a band.Internet Bandsman's site.
World War I On the outbreak of war in August 1914, the fortress engineers moved to their war stations in the coastal defences, the Cornwall Fortress Engineers coming under the command of South Western Coast Defences HQ at Devonport, Plymouth.Conrad. Shortly afterwards, the men of the TF were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service and WO instructions were issued to form those men who had only signed up for Home Service into reserve or 2nd Line units. The titles of these 2nd Line units were the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. They absorbed most of the recruits that flooded in, and in many cases themselves went on active service later.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6.
This process was carried out with the Cornwall Fortress Engineers, resulting in six companies. Once it was clear that the threat to Britain's coastal defences was small, six of the fortress engineer units organised their 1st Line as 'Army Troops' companies for service on the Lines of Communication of the British Expeditionary Force. The 1/3rd Cornwall Army Troops Company embarked for France on 19 January 1915 and after arriving at Camiers was assigned to Second Army.'Embarkation Dates', The National Archives (TNA), Kew file WO 162/7.Morling, p. 38.
When the TF companies of the RE received numbers in February 1917, they were assigned as:Watson & Rinaldi, pp. 63–4, 68–9.RE Museum list of WWI unit war diaries. 573rd (Cornwall) Army Troops Company – formerly No 2 (Fowey) Works Company 574th (Cornwall) Army Troops Company – formerly No 3 (Penryn) Works Company 575th (Cornwall) Works Company – formerly 2/2nd Works Company 576th (Cornwall) Works Company – formerly 2/3rd Works Company 608th (Falmouth) Fortress Company – amalgamation of No 1 (Falmouth) Electric Lights Company and 2/1 (Reserve) Electric Lights Company
Of these, 573rd, 574th and 575th Companies are known to have served with the BEF in France. 573rd was with X Corps in June 1917 and with Second Army by the Armistice with Germany in November 1918. It remained with Second Army until December 1919. During the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, III Corps sent 574th up to repair the canal bridge at Masnières but it found 29th Division's engineers already doing the work. Instead 574th was diverted to Marcoing, where 29th Divisional engineers had saved two heavy bridges from destruction, and 574th was put to work on 24 and 25 November building two subsidiary bridges for tanks. 574th was serving with Fourth Army at the Armistice. All TF units were demobilised after the Armistice.Watson & Rinaldi, pp. 20–21, 63.Anon, RE History, Vol V, p. 331.
Interwar The unit was reformed in the renamed Territorial Army (TA) in 1920, consisting of a single company based at the RE Barracks in Falmouth. It formed part of the Coast Defence troops in 43rd (Wessex) Divisional Area. Later, it was amalgamated with the Devonshire Fortress Engineers to form the Devonshire and Cornwall (Fortress) Engineers (D&C (F) RE).Army List, January 1923.Titles and designations, 1927.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 104.Monthly Army List May 1939.
During World War I, the electric light companies of the fortress engineers, which operated searchlights primarily to assist the coastal defence guns, had increasingly used the lights for anti-aircraft (AA) defence.Short et al.. During the 1930s, the threat of aerial bombing was taken seriously, and large numbers of dedicated AA searchlight units were created in the TA. The Falmouth company of the D&C (F) RE was designated No 4 (AA) Company.
World War II
As the international situation deteriorated, the TA was ordered to mobilise on 22 August 1939, and the company draw its equipment from store and began to take up its war stations. Company HQ was moved to the D&C (F) RE HQ at Mutley Barracks, Plymouth, but took its orders from 55th Anti-Aircraft Brigade, which was in the process of formation. Soon afterwards, the company was redesignated 482nd (Devon & Cornwall) Searchlight Company, RE.482 (D&C) S/L Bty war diary, 1939–40, The National Archives (TNA), Kew file WO 166/3323.
During 1940, all of the RE's AA units were transferred to the Royal Artillery (RA). On 18 June, the company was informed that its new title was to be 482nd (Cornwall) Independent Searchlight Battery, RA. The following month, the opening of the Battle of Britain saw the start of day and night air raids on Plymouth and the searchlights were frequently in action.
81st Searchlight Regiment, RA Anti-Aircraft Command was expanding rapidly to meet the threat, and new intakes of recruits arrived in Plymouth to form the 509th S/L Battery on 15 September. On 1 November, the two batteries formed the new 81st Searchlight Regiment, RA at Kea, Cornwall, under the command of under Lt-Col H.D. Bennie.Frederick, pp. 860–2, 874.81 S/L Rgt War Diary 1940–41, TNA file WO 166/3101. At the same time, 55th AA Bde came under the command of the new 8th Anti-Aircraft Division. As German night bombing increased, 55th AA Bde was responsible for AA defence of Plymouth, Devonport and the vital naval dockyards as well as smaller ports like Falmouth.8 AA Division at British Military History.Routledge, Table LXV, p. 396.Farndale, Annex D, p. 251.Farndale, Annex M, pp. 338, 342.
482 Battery, together with 483 (Dorset Fortress Engineers) S/L Bty, supplied a cadre of experienced officers and NCOs to 232nd S/L Training Rgt at Devizes, where on 14 November they formed the basis of a new 538 S/L Bty. This battery later joined another newly formed regiment, 88th S/L Rgt at Topsham, near Exeter.
For some months, 81st S/L Rgt regiment shuttled its HQ between Falmouth and Truro. In the new year, 509 Bty formed a Training Troop, which continued training the recruits under the supervision of the experienced 482 Bty. At this time, the S/Ls were deployed in clusters following a 'master light' (ideally equipped with S/L Control (SLC or 'Elsie') radar),Routledge, p. 99.Brigstock. while single lights were provided for homing beacons at airfields or for anti-minelaying duties at harbours such as Falmouth, Penryn and St Mawes. Each site was supplied with three or four Lewis guns for AA defence.
In April 1941, the regiment was redeployed from Cornwall to North Devon, with RHQ at the Glenhaven Hotel in Mortehoe, and on 5 May was joined by the newly formed 545 and 555 S/L Btys from 230th and 231st S/L Training Regiments at Blandford Camp, but no equipment arrived for them until July and communications to the remote S/L sites were tricky.
By September, the availability of SLC radar (AA Radar No 2) was sufficient to allow AA Command's S/L sites to be 'declustered' into single-light sites spaced at 6000-yard intervals in 'Indicator Belts' along the coast and 'Killer Belts' co-operating with night-fighters.Routledge, p. 399. 81st S/L Regiment moved its HQ to Buckland Filleigh and spent the autumn testing its sites for their suitability to mount SLC radar. The redeployment was completed by mid-October.
Further adjustments came in November, when 555 Bty deployed lights to defend RAF St Eval, while 509 and 545 Btys moved to Westward Ho! to conduct dazzle experiments. (Although enemy aircraft were occasionally brought down after being dazzled by S/Ls, it was not particularly effective as a tactic.)
131st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA On 7 December 1941, it was announced that 81st S/L Rgt had been selected for conversion to the Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) gun role. The regiment moved to Clacton-on-Sea in Essex and joined 29th (East Anglian) AA Brigade in 6th AA Division to prepare for conversion. The establishment of an LAA Rgt was lower than that of a S/L Rgt, so the tradesmen were transferred to other S/L Regts in 6th AA Division, 200 surplus men were drafted to other S/L regiments that were under-strength and another 100 sent to the AA Driver Training Rgt at Fleetwood in Lancashire.29 AA Brigade War Diary 1941, TNA file WO 166/2251.Order of Battle of Non-Field Force Units in the United Kingdom, Part 27: AA Command, 2 December 1941, with amendments, TNA file WO 212/80.
On 12 January 1942, Regimental HQ moved to Boxted House near Colchester and three of the batteries took over vacant LAA gun positions at the RAF airfields at Debden, Martlesham Heath, North Weald and Wattisham to learn the basics of LAA work before attending a training regiment. 555 Bty stayed at Clacton, training at Butlin's Holiday Camp next to 16 LAA Practice Camp.29 AA Brigade War Diary 1942, TNA file WO 166/7386.
On 15 March, the regiment was officially converted into 131st LAA Rgt RA with the following organisation:Frederick, pp. 806, 840.81 S/L Rgt War Diary 1942, TNA file WO 166/7827. 482 (Devon & Cornwall Fortress Engineers) S/L Bty redesignated 432 LAA Bty 509 S/L Bty redesignated 433 LAA Bty 545 S/L Bty redesignated 434 LAA Bty 555 S/L Bty redesignated 435 LAA Bty
The batteries then proceeded to 212th and 233rd LAA Training Rgts at Saighton Camp, Cheshire, for re-training in their new role.