The Manx Regiment – the 15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery – was raised in 1938 as a Territorial Army (TA) unit of the British Army. It recruited on the Isle of Man and formed part of Anti-Aircraft Command at the outbreak of World War II. The regiment was posted to the Middle East in November 1940, serving in the Western Desert, East Africa and Crete (where one of its batteries was lost). In August 1942 it became the air defence regiment for the 7th Armoured Division (the 'Desert Rats'). It served with the division through the North African, Italian and North West European campaigns. It was reformed in the postwar TA as 515 (Isle of Man) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment before being reduced to a staff troop in 42nd (Lancashire) Division in 1955.