89th (Cinque Ports) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery

The 89th (Cinque Ports) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery was an air defence unit of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) raised in Kent just before the outbreak of World War II. It served during the Battle of Britain and defended the Suez Canal while batteries served in the Battle of Crete and the Siege of Tobruk. The regiment then fought through the North African and Italian campaigns.

Origin This unit was formed as a consequence of the doubling in size of the TA after the Munich Crisis in late 1938. Formally, it was a duplicate of the newly converted 75th (Home Counties) (Cinque Ports) Anti-Aircraft Regiment, based on two batteries (234th and 235th) transferred from that regiment, together with a more experienced anti-aircraft (AA) battery (205th), which had served with several Kent units, most recently 55th (Kent) AA Rgt, and provided the regimental headquarters (RHQ) at Sittingbourne. Whether officially sanctioned or not, the new regiment used the same 'Cinque Ports' subtitle as its parent regiment raised in the ancient Cinque Ports of Kent. The new regiment came into existence on 1 April 1939 with the following organisation:Frederick, pp. 755, 777.Monthly Army List, May 1939.1st Cinque Ports Artillery (75th HAA Rgt) at Regiments.org.

89th (Cinque Ports) Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery RHQ at Crown Quay, Sittingbourne 205 (Kent) AA Battery at Sittingbourne 234 (Kent) AA Battery at Deal 235 (Kent) AA Battery at Margate

The regiment formed part of 28th (Thames and Medway) AA Brigade at Chatham in 6th AA Division.89 HAA Rgt at RA 39–45AA Command 3 September 1939 at Patriot Files.Routledge, Table LX, p. 378.

World War II Mobilisation In June 1939, 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 positions. On 24 August, ahead of the declaration of war, Anti-Aircraft Command was fully mobilised at its war stations.Routledge, pp. 65–6, 371. All batteries of 89th AA Regiment were reported as ready for action on 27 August, and the newly formed 306 AA Battery joined from 75th HAA Rgt on 30 August. War was declared against Germany on 3 September.89 HAA Rgt War Diary, 1939–40, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 166/2380.

306 AA Bty left for training in September, and 235 (Kent) Bty deployed to The Midlands as an independent battery in October, but both rejoined in February 1940. 306 AA Battery was then passed back to 75th HAA Rgt at the end of May. During the spring of 1940, batches of recruits were posted to the regiment from 210th AA Training Regiment at Oswestry. From 1 June 1940 those AA units like 89th armed with 3.7-inch guns were termed 'Heavy AA' (HAA) to distinguish them for the Light AA (LAA) units then being formed.

The commanding officer (CO) was Lieutenant-Colonel John Morley Stebbings, TD, who as a young officer had won the Edward Medal by leading a rescue party into the ruins of the Uplees explosives factory near Faversham after the Great Explosion on 2 April 1916. He had subsequently won a Military Cross (MC) on the Western Front. Between the wars Stebbings had served with the 75th (Home Counties) (Cinque Ports) HAA Rgt and was its CO before the 89th HAA Rgt was separated from it.London Gazette, 22 January 1918.Sale of Stebbings' medals at auction 17 May 2016. Sale of Cpl Ashley's medals at auction 13 December 2007.

Battle of Britain 205 and 235 Batteries carried out the regiment's first engagement early on the morning of 10 May, when their fire broke up a formation of Junkers Ju 88s flying over Kent. There were more engagements as the Battle of Britain got under way, with 205 Bty being sent with its guns to reinforce the AA defences of Southampton in June and Dover in July. Dover was attacked almost daily during August, and there were some raids over Maidstone and Chatham.

Egypt On 15 September 1940, 89th HAA Rgt was relieved of operational duties and ordered to prepare to move overseas. At the end of November it moved into Butlin's Holiday Camp at Clacton-on-Sea to complete its mobilisation. The regiment then entrained for Glasgow where it embarked on HM Transport J5 (SS City of Canterbury) and sailed on 15 December 1940 bound for Egypt. It sailed with a strength of 49 officers and 1419 men including the attached Signal Section (Royal Corps of Signals), Workshop (Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC)) and Transport (Royal Army Service Corps), which all came from 60th (City of London) HAA Rgt. After a close call on Christmas Day when the German surface raider Admiral Hipper intercepted its convoy, the regiment disembarked at Port Tewfik, Suez, on 16 February 1941. After a spell in a training camp, the regiment assumed responsibility for the air defence of Suez on 28 April, with Lt-Col Stebbings as AA Defence Commander (AADC).Monthly Army List.Farndale, pp. 119 and 168.89 HAA Rgt War Diary, December 1940–February 1941, TNA file WO 169/306.89 HAA Rgt and 234 HAA Bty War Diaries, December 1940–February 1941, TNA file WO 169/306.89 HAA Rgt and AADC Suez War Diary, 1941, TNA file WO 169/1583.

Towards the end of January, the Luftwaffe had begun attacking the Suez Canal from Italian bases on Rhodes, dropping magnetic and acoustic mines that disrupted shipping in the canal. Most of the vital supplies and reinforcements for Middle East Command therefore had to be landed at Suez rather than passing through the canal.Playfair, Vol I, pp. 326–8.Playfair, Vol II, pp. 226–7. While RHQ of 89th HAA Rgt developed the AA defences of the port facilities at Suez, its own three batteries were dispersed. 205 Battery was transferred to British Troops Egypt in early April, ready to join 6th Division, which was being reformed (though it appears the battery never actually joined it before the division went to Syria).Joslen, p. 49. Later in the month 234 Bty was sent to Crete to bolster the defences after the British forces were evacuated from Greece, and 235 Bty went to reinforce the AA defences of Tobruk.

Battle of Crete

234 (Kent) Battery disembarked at Suda Bay in Crete on 24 April and was deployed in the Suda-Canea area to protect harbour installations alongside 151 (London) Bty from 51st (London) HAA Rgt, both under the command of RHQ 52nd (East Lancashire) LAA Rgt.Farndale, p. 177.Routledge, pp. 148–9.Playfair, Vol II, pp. 125–7.

The British bases on Crete had been regularly dive-bombed in March and April, and the HAA guns at Suda had been reorganised for close defence against these tactics. The battery was in action immediately after unloading its guns on 25 April. On 14 May Left Troop of 234 Bty was moved to Suda Point, and the concentration of AA fire reduced shipping losses. In May the Luftwaffe began attacking the AA sites directly, and the gunners replied with multiple Vickers .50 machine guns and Lewis guns as well as scoring direct hits with their 3.7-inch guns. When the German airborne assault began at 06.00 on 20 May, the HAA guns took a heavy toll of the German transport aircraft and gliders coming in. Some of the paratroopers were specifically tasked with knocking out the AA defences but those briefed to take Left Troop found the positions empty and were wiped out. But Right Troop of 234 Bty at Canea was swamped by glider troops against whom their eight rifles and two Lewis guns were ineffective. The survivors were forced to surrender after close-quarters fighting with grenades and sub-machine guns. A party of Royal Marines recaptured the gun positions later that day and rescued 32 survivors, but the Germans had damaged the guns; other guns around Suda had burst barrels from excessive firing.Detailed accounts in 89 HAA Rgt War Diary (TNA file WO 169/1583) extensively quoted by Farndale, pp. 178–81.Routledge, pp. 150–51.Creforce at British & Commonwealth Orders of BattlePlayfair, Vol II, p 132.

Although German casualties in men and aircraft had been heavy, their troop transports were able to use Maleme airfield the next day, followed by landings from the sea. On 26 May, the Allied forces were ordered to retreat, the remaining AA positions were ordered to destroy their equipment and move by small boats or cross-country for evacuation from the south coast of the island. Many could not be evacuated and became prisoners of war.Farndale, p. 183.Routledge, p. 151.Playfair, Vol II, pp. 142–3. The Royal Artillery historian describes 234 as a 'very gallant battery' who had 'defended their guns to the last and took a terrible toll of their attackers in those terrible few minutes'.Farndale, p. 180.

Of 12 officers and 347 other ranks who landed in Crete, 234 (Kent) Battery's total casualties in the campaign were 57 killed in action and 187 missing, believed prisoners of war, many of them wounded (only 30 wounded members of the battery managed to get back to Egypt). One of those killed was Lt Hedley Stebbings, in whose memory a medical charity was later founded by his sister.Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity.Stebbings at King's College War Memorials. GHQ Middle East ordered the depleted battery's disbandment, which was carried out on 1 July. The survivors were posted to 16 Bty of 2nd HAA Rgt.GHQ ME 28 June 1941; copy in 580th (Lancashire) Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers, War Diary 1941, TNA file WO 169/1914.

Lieutenant A.P. Corbett was awarded an MC and Serjeant E.A. Hooker a Military Medal (MM) for their service in Crete with 234 Bty. On one occasion Hooker had put his foot on a grenade thrown into his gun pit, 'risking the full force of the explosion, in order to save his detachment'.Corbett's citation at TNA file WO 373/27/290.Hooker's citation at TNA file WO 373/27/323.

Siege of Tobruk

Meanwhile, 235 (Kent) Bty under Major G.D. Boyd had also been detached from the regiment at Suez to replace 151 Bty in 51 HAA Rgt, which was operating with the Western Desert Force (WDF). General Erwin Rommel counter-attacked in Cyrenaica in April 1941, forcing the WDF back, and by 7 April 51 HAA Rgt was within the Tobruk perimeter. 235 Battery, together with eight static 3.7-inch guns brought by sea, arrived to reinforce the garrison just before the ring closed round the port on 11 July, beginning the Siege of Tobruk.Farndale, p. 160-2.Routledge, p. 130. In Tobruk, 51st HAA Rgt, including 235 Bty, came under the command of 4th AA Bde, which was a major element of the garrison.Farndale, p. 165.Routledge, p. 131; Table XX, p. 141.

Including the static guns delivered by sea, there were a total of 24 3.7-inch HAA guns available to the garrison (although two were disabled early in the siege by premature bursts), and 152 and 235 Batteries each had an Italian 102mm gun that had been restored to working order by 51st HAA Rgt's workshop detachment. 152, 153 and 235 HAA Batteries, together with 51st HAA Rgt's workshops and signals, formed part of the Harbour Defended Area under the command of RHQ 13th LAA Regiment. Early in the siege, RHQ and 152 Bty of 51 HAA Rgt were attacked by Stukas and suffered serious casualties, after which they were evacuated by sea. 235 (Kent) and 153 (London) Btys however remained there throughout the 240-day siege under 4th AA Bde.Playfair, Vol II, Chapter VIII, p. 158.Farndale, p. 167.Farndale, p. 188.