page_title: 44th Anti-Aircraft Brigade (United Kingdom)
section_title: Operations Overlord and Diver
hierarchical_section_title: 44th Anti-Aircraft Brigade (United Kingdom) / Operations Overlord and Diver
caption_attribution_description: English: The crew of a twin-Browning light anti-aircraft gun keep watch for V-1 flying bombs, 19 June 1944. The crew of a twin-Browning light anti-aircraft gun keep watch for V1 flying bombs, 19 June 1944.
context_page_description: 44th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army. Formed in 1938, it was responsible for protecting Manchester and later the Isle of Wight during World War II. It was reformed postwar under a new title, and continued until 1955.
context_section_description: In March 1944, 44 AA Bde HQ was moved from Manchester to take over the AA defences on the Isle of Wight. Here it came under the command of 6 AA Group, which had responsibility for covering the 'Overlord' embarkation ports around the Solent and Portsmouth. The brigade established its HQ at 'Broadlands', Staplers Road, Newport, and took over command of 82nd (Essex) HAA Rgt and 151st LAA Rgt from 47 AA Bde and was soon reinforced. Additional LAA guns (mainly Bofors, with a few Oerlikon 20 mm cannon) were sited singly at Yarmouth, Shanklin, Sandown and Ventnor.
  Brigadier Vere Krohn, MC, TD, a former head of AA Command's technical branch, arrived from 43 AA Bde to take command on 2 May, and began redeploying the HAA sites and additional radar-controlled searchlights to tackle aircraft attempting to lay mines in the Solent. There were sporadic attacks, with 619/185, 182/136 and 438/136 HAA Btys submitting claims for 'kills' on 15, 16 and 23 May, but the Luftwaffe failed to disrupt the 'Overlord' preparations.
  A week after D-Day the long-awaited attacks on London by V-1 flying bombs ('Divers') began. AA Command had prepared Operation Diver to counter these weapons, and AA guns were moved from all over the UK to strengthen 2 AA Group's 'Diver Belt' in South East England. 6 AA Group also deployed additional HAA batteries in the Solent–Portsmouth defences. The first V-1 appeared over the Isle of Wight on 26 June, and 44 AA Bde redeployed its LAA guns in an anti-Diver role, including twin Browning .50 Machine Guns from S/L sites in the west of the island. However, the V-1 launch sites in Normandy were quickly overrun, and few missiles were seen in the Solent–Portsmouth area. As 21st Army Group overran the main launch sites in the Pas-de-Calais, the Luftwaffe shifted its focus to air-launching V-1s over the North Sea during the autumn, and AA Command redeployed units from the South Coast to Eastern England in response.
  44 AA Brigade 'blacked out' its searchlights on 12 November apart from those required as homing beacons for friendly aircraft, and the crews were sent to provide construction parties for the gun sites in the new 'Diver Strip'. In early December it handed over its remaining commitments to 67 AA Bde, and Brigade HQ was disbanded on 31 December 1944.
caption: Crew of a twin Browning LAA gun keep watch for divers, 19 June 19544.
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