page_title: 6th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
section_title: Alamein and after
hierarchical_section_title: 6th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment / World War II / Alamein and after
context_page_description: The 6th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment was a unit of Britain's Territorial Army from 1908 until 1961. Recruited from Birmingham, it served as infantry in some of the bloodiest fighting on the Western Front and in Italy during World War I. Converted to an Anti-Aircraft role, it defended the West Midlands during The Blitz in the early part of World War II, and then joined Eighth Army in North Africa, including service in the famous Siege of Tobruk and in the Italian Campaign. It served on in the air defence role in the postwar TA until 1961.
context_section_description: The regiment was now under the orders of 2 AA Bde supporting Eighth Army's build-up by defending lines of communication. Enemy air activity preceding the Second Battle of El Alamein was sporadic, but during one attack on the railway 192 HAA Bty shot down three Messerschmitt Bf 109s. 51st HAA Regiment Signal Section was relieved by 74th (Glasgow) HAA Rgt Signal Section, and in August the regiment moved back to Alexandria.
  Immediately after the Battle of Alamein (23 October–4 November), 69th HAA Rgt moved up behind the advancing Eighth Army to El Alamein, then on to Mersa Matruh, arriving on 11 November. Here it  controlled 192/69 and 261/94 HAA Btys sited to defend the harbour, with 105/40, 165/55 and 166/56 LAA Btys defending the harbour and Smuggler's Cove. In addition, 8 x 6-pounder anti-tank guns of 296 A/T Bty provided coast defence while 204 Coast Defence Bty emplaced its guns. Other units, including 199 and 200 HAA Btys, and two troops of 390/27 S/L Bty, came and went as the army pushed on to Sollum, Tobruk and beyond.
  On 20 November, RHQ was ordered up via Sidi Barrani to Benghazi, which had been captured that day. By early December the regiment was established at Bnghazi port with the following units under Lt-Col Ruffer's command as AADC:
  RHQ 69 HAA Rgt
  192, 199, 200 HAA Btys
  213/57 HAA Bty
  261/94 HAA Bty
  RHQ 2nd LAA Rgt
  6, 155 LAA Btys
  390/27 S/L Bty (two Troops)
  17 AA Operations Room (AAOR)
  74th HAA Rgt Signal Section, RCS
  69th HAA Rgt Workshop Section, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME)
  213 and 261 HAA Btys were relieved by 51st (London) HAA Rgt (3 Btys) and 171/61 HAA Bty when they arrived and came under Ruffer's command in mid-December. By January, 69th HAA Rgt also had 135 'Z' Bty under its command, armed with 16 x Z Battery rocket projectors. 1 AA Brigade took over control of Benghazi while 2 AA Bde HQ accompanied Eighth Army's advance.
  In February 1943, the regiment moved up to Tripoli, which had fallen to Eighth Army on 23 January. Here it remained until the end of the Tunisian Campaign, coming under the command of 79 AA Bde. In April the regiment was 'diluted' (as the process was officially described) by 250 Bechuana troops of 1975 AA Company, African Pioneer Corps (APC), to be trained as gunners.  The regiment formed 651 HAA Bty as a cadre to accommodate the British gunners who were replaced and awaiting redeployment. The regiment also received extra AEC Matador gun tractors to make it fully mobile. 
  On 26 June the regiment (less 200 HAA Bty) was ordered back to Cyrenaica, a 630-mile journey taking two days. It deployed to defend a group of USAAF landing grounds around Marble Arch, with Lt-Col Ruffer as AADC and 122/13 LAA Bty under command. However, the process was reversed at the end of July, when the regiment retraced its steps to Tripoli, rejoining 200 HAA Bty. 74th HAA Regiment Signal Section, which had been with the regiment for a year, was disbanded, and 69th HAA Rgt formed its own small Signal Detachment. On 10 August the regiment set out on the coast road once more, this time back to the Nile Delta, arriving at the end of the month, when the troops were given leave and training.
caption: African gunners being trained on a 3.7-inch HAA gun.
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