4th Australian Anti Aircraft Battery

12 Oct 1943 140th AA battery personnel using height & range finder equipment at Exmouth. AWM photo 058327

Brief History

4th Anti-Aircraft Battery (M) was raised at Geelong Victoria in 1938 with two companies of Militia and one of permanent soldiers, and in September 1939 they were mobilised as 4th Ant-Aircraft Battery at Maribyrnong before relocating to Williamstown, manning guns both there and on Coode Island. In December 1942 the unit comprising at that time the 452nd and 453rd Gun Stations as well as unit headquarters moved to Western Australia.

In January 1943 the battery took over two gun positions in Exmouth protecting the US Navy submarine base. In September 1943 the unit was renamed 140th Australian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, with A Troop and B Troop, with their role now to protect airfields in North Western Australia as the US Navy was decommissioning the submarine base. The unit headquarters and B Troop moved to Corunna Downs, and A Troop to the Noonkanbah airfield in the Kimberley region. In May 1944 A Troop rejoined the rest of the unit at Corunna Downs. With the reduced danger to forward air bases, in October 1944 the battery moved to Bellevue where it was disbanded in December 1944.

Unit Personnel

• Percy John Powell 4 Jan - 26 Apr 1943
• Arthur John Saw 19 Feb - 17 Sep 1943
• Albert Dawson Winstanley 10 Feb - 28 Jun 1943

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 3 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 3.252 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018