2nd Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment, RCA - Nominal Roll - 17 Sep 1941

[Temujin]

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[SMByrd]

Hi, fascinating to see the nominal roll of 2nd HY AA Regt. from 1941 ... I'm trying to confirm my grandfather (i.e., Gunner W. A. Reed, D-7239) served with this regiment during the second world war ... he likely enlisted sometime in 1940/41 ... I remember hearing his stories about the 3.7-inch AA Gun. Are there any other nominal rolls from (still existing) from later in the war?

[Phil]

Hi, fascinating to see the nominal roll of 2nd HY AA Regt. from 1941 ... I'm trying to confirm my grandfather (i.e., Gunner W. A. Reed, D-7239) served with this regiment during the second world war ... he likely enlisted sometime in 1940/41 ... I remember hearing his stories about the 3.7-inch AA Gun. Are there any other nominal rolls from (still existing) from later in the war?

Welcome to WARTIMES.ca! Good to have you aboard. The best thing to do would be to request your Grandfather's service record from the LAC, it'll be the definitive record, info on how to do that here,

https://wartimes.ca/research/soldiers/

I'll poke around and see what I can find, I'm sure Temujin will open up some research lines for you as well. Just a heads-up I may move this to Soldier Research.

[Temujin]

Hi, fascinating to see the nominal roll of 2nd HY AA Regt. from 1941 ... I'm trying to confirm my grandfather (i.e., Gunner W. A. Reed, D-7239) served with this regiment during the second world war ... he likely enlisted sometime in 1940/41 ... I remember hearing his stories about the 3.7-inch AA Gun. Are there any other nominal rolls from (still existing) from later in the war?

I’ll see what else I can find for you.

Cheers

[Temujin]

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Gunners of the 2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery (R.C.A.), carrying a battery charge, Dunkirk, France, 1 February 1945.

[Temujin]

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Gunners of the 2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, pushing a 3.7-inch (9.84 cm) anti-aircraft gun through mud.

[Temujin]

Found him

The 2nd Cdn Heavy AA Regiment was made up of 3 x Battery’s:

1st Heavy AA Battery
8th Heavy AA Battery, and
11th Heavy AA Battery

I found his name in an Appendix to Part I Orders, he’s on the second page of these two pages. You can see from the first page he was with the 1st Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery, May 1944:

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[Phil]

The first two 3.7-inch Guns were issued to the 1st Battery of the 1st Canadian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment in the UK. In mid-January 1942, this regiment moved to Essex to assume an operational role, manning anti-aircraft guns including six 3.7-inch Guns (in addition to 4.5-inch Guns) on the north side of the Thames. The Canadians also send gun detachments outside the city to practice using the gun in an ground role, becoming introduced to a newly-developed percussion fuze. The regiment was the only Canadian heavy anti-aircraft regiment to deploy overseas during the war, and served in North-West Europe as part of First Canadian Army, usually using its guns in a ground-support role.

https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapon ... 37inch.htm

[Phil]

History of the Montreal Artillery Units
Perpetuated by the 2nd Field Regiment RCA, Page 8

1st Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery RCA was mobilized on 1 September 1939 at Montréal as 1st Medium Battery RCA CASF, a
sub-unit of 2nd Medium Brigade RCA CASF. The Battery was amalgamated with 57th Medium Battery (Howitzer) RCA CASF
on 10 June 1940 to form 1st /57th Medium Battery RCA CASF. This Battery was converted to heavy anti-aircraft artillery as 57th
Heavy Ant-Aircraft Battery RCA on 11 June 1941, and was redesignated 1st Heavy AntiAircraft Battery RCA on 21 June 1941 t.
It arrived in the United Kingdom on 27 September 1941, and participated in the air defence of England as a sub-unit of 2nd Heavy
Anti-Aircraft Regiment RCA, 1st Canadian Anti-Aircraft Brigade until 1 March 1944. The Battery landed in Normandy on 6
9
August 1944 and served in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany as a sub-unit of 2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment
RCA, 1st Canadian Army until VE Day. It was disbanded on 7 September 1945.

http://www.sheldrakeslog.com/sites/defa ... istory.pdf

[Temujin]

Attached are the Aug War Dairies for the Regiment, that shows them loading for France on the 1st Aug, and arriving on the 6th Aug 1944 at Beny-sur-mer. Regiment almost immediately moved into the ground defence roll, that they had been practicing for in Britain. Two of the Batteries served in the AA role at the beach head, but then shortly theirafter joined the rest of the regiment.

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