101st Australian Anti Aircraft Regiment

Brief History

HQ 1st Anti-Aircraft Brigade (M) was raised at Georges Heights, New South Wales in January 1939, and it was mobilised in September 1941 as HQ Sydney Fixed Defence Ant-Aircraft Artillery. However, as they also controlled units at Newcastle and Port Kembla they were renamed HQ Anti-Aircraft Artillery Coast Defence Eastern Command in December, and HQ Anti-Aircraft Group (Eastern Command) in February 1942. In April 1942 with a major re-organisation of the Army following the return of troops from the Middle East, it was renamed again, this time as HQ Anti-Aircraft Defence NSW Line of Communication Area. In May the 2/1st Anti-Aircraft Brigade took over all NSW air defences outside Sydney. For a time the unit was known as HQ 101st Anti-Aircraft Regiment before in July it became HQ Anti-Aircraft Group (Sydney). In June 1942 they moved to Bellevue Hill before moving again, this time to Kensington Racecourse at Rosebery in August.

In February / March 1944, with a decreased need for defence from the air, the number of batteries, and the number of AMF troops manning them, decreased with the balance being provided by Voluntary Defence Corp (VDC) soldiers. This was repeated in July 1944, with most batteries now having only enough AMF and AWAS soldiers to man two guns, and the search light batteries also converting to VDC or mixed manning.

Most Anti-Aircraft defences in southern Australia were closed down in December 1944, with Sydney retaining only a limited capacity of light anti-aircraft defences. The heavy batteries and search light units worked at dismantling their sites until they were disbanded in May 1945. HQ 2nd Anti-Aircraft Group was disbanded in July 1945.

Unit Personnel

• William Albert Nicholls late 1944 - 21Feb 1945
• Frederick George (Ted) Price
• Roy Searle Williams 30 Nov 1944 - 6 Mar 1945

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 3 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 3.217 - 3.219 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018