page_title: 77th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery
section_title: The Blitz
hierarchical_section_title: 77th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery / The Blitz
caption_attribution_description: English: Radar and Electronic Warfare 1939-1945 Aircraft Navigation and Guidance: MPs visiting No 554 Anti Aircraft Battery near Harwich watching a demonstration of a searchlight with radar equipment known as ELSIE - 90 cm Searchlight Control Radar (SLC) No 2 Mk VI - which entered service in 1942 and was of immense assistance to anti-aircraft when used against the flying bomb attacks of 1944.
context_page_description: The 77th Searchlight Regiment was an anti-aircraft unit of Britain's Royal Artillery formed during World War II. After serving in Anti-Aircraft Command during the Blitz it was converted into a Light Anti-Aircraft gun unit. Although assigned to 21st Army Group for Operation Overlord, it did not go overseas and was disbanded in June 1944.
context_section_description: The new regiment formed part of 45 AA Brigade in 5 AA Division. In November 1940, however, 5 AA Division was split, and a new 9 AA Division took over South Wales. 45 AA Brigade was also split, and in February 1941 the regiment came under the newly-formed 61 AA Bde in Swansea.
  At this period searchlights were deployed in clusters of three lights in an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or Royal Air Force (RAF) 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.
  There was enemy air activity over the Bristol Channel and South Wales coast on most nights during the winter of 1940–41, but usually these were reconnaissances or nuisance raids. Heavier raids against Swansea began on 4/5 January 1941, when a bomb put all the Gun Operations Room (GOR) telephone lines out of action. 
  In February 1941 the Luftwaffe began a new tactic of hitting the same towns on successive nights in an attempt to put them completely out of action. Swansea was the first town so attacked. On the night of 19/20 February the building housing the GOR was destroyed by a direct hit during a heavy raid. The Luftwaffe returned to continue the 'Swansea Blitz' on the nights of 20/21 and 21/22 February, the city centre was devastated, and fires and delayed-action bombs destroyed communications.
  After a busy period for the AA defences of South Wales in early May 1941, the Blitz effectively ended in the middle of the month. Desultory raiding continued through June and July while the gaps in AA defences were filled as more equipment and units became available. With more SLC radar available, the S/Ls could now be 'declustered'. 77th S/L Regiment remained with 61 AA Bde throughout 1941.
  Because of growing manpower shortages during 1941, the Commander-in-Chief of AA Command, Gen Sir Frederick Pile, pioneered the employment of women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in AA units. On 25 October 1942 a new predominantly female searchlight regiment was formed, 93rd (Mixed) Searchlight Regiment, RA, to which 77th S/L Rgt supplied 495 Battery, which had been detached to 1 AA Division in London since the previous May. Although 495 Bty was mainly male, there was a wholescale transfer of ATS personnel in, and male gunners out after it had been transferred.
caption: 150 cm Searchlight fitted with No. 2 Mk VI SLC radar
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