page_title: 76th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery
section_title: The Blitz
hierarchical_section_title: 76th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery / The Blitz
caption_attribution_description: English: Pythouse - West Tisbury Grade II* Listed country house built circa 1725, and rebuilt in 1805. It survives today as private residential apartments.
context_page_description: The 76th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery was a British Army air defence unit during World War II. It was engaged during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz, defending Royal Air Force airfields and the towns of southern England.
context_section_description: During the autumn, as the night-bombing 'Blitz' against British cities got under way, there was some movement among the regiment's detachments. While 474th and 485th Btys deployed at the standard 3000-yard intervals, 493rd Bty was in four six-light clusters and 485th was in three-light clusters. The cluster system was an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or Night fighters. Eventually, one light in each cluster was to be equipped with searchlight control (SLC) radar and act as 'master light', but the radar equipment was still in short supply. 485th and 493rd Btys received their first Gun-Laying Radar Mk I sets in December and became operational at the end of the year. The regiment was fully deployed in three-light clusters by mid-January
  In November 1940 76th S/L Rgt came under 64th AA Bde in 8th AA Division, both being new formations created in the rapidly-expanding Anti-Aircraft Command. The brigade's prime responsibility was airfield defence in South West England.
  In January 1941 474th Battery moved to Alderbury in Wiltshire, but its role was unchanged. It began to receive improved GL Mark I E/F gun-laying radar equipped with elevation-finding equipment. It was also engaged in experiments at RAF Boscombe Down to see how searchlights combined with AA guns could deal with low-flying attacks. By the spring the battery manned clusters of three searchlights at Boscombe Down and RAF Middle Wallop. Meanwhile, 485th and 493rd Btys were engaged in large-scale trials for AA Command and RAF Fighter Command.
caption: Pythouse, West Tisbury: 76th S/L Regimental HQ 1940–41
exif: {}