page_title: 52nd (London) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: 52nd (London) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery / Origin
caption_attribution_description: English: The Saatchi Gallery at the former Duke of York's Headquarters in Chelsea, London, UKThis is a photo of listed building number 1266717.
context_page_description: 52nd (London) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment was a volunteer air defence unit of Britain's Territorial Army from 1922 until 1961. In World War II it defended London during The Blitz and later served in the Burma Campaign.
context_section_description: German air raids by Zeppelin airships and Gotha bombers on London and other British cities during World War I had shown the need for strong anti-aircraft (AA) defences in any future war. When the Territorial Army (TA) was reformed in 1922 it included a number of dedicated AA units of the Royal Artillery (RA). The second of these was 52nd (London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (RFA), formed on 16 October 1922 and comprising 154th, 155th and 156th  (London) AA Batteries. The Regimental Headquarters, 154 and 155 Batteries were at the Duke of York's Headquarters in Chelsea, London, while 156 Battery was based at Empress Hall, Ripple Lane, Barking. On 8 February 1923 the regiment was transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), which had provided the AA batteries in World War I. However, on 1 June 1924 the RGA and RFA merged to become simply the Royal Artillery (RA). 156th (London) Bty was redesignated 156th (Barking) Bty in February 1926. It formed part of 26th (London) Air Defence Brigade also headquartered at the Duke of York's Headquarters. The original TA AA units were formed on a low peacetime establishment with a few old 3-inch guns on static mounts.
  As Britain's AA defences expanded during the 1930s, higher formations became necessary, and the  26th AD Bde (now renamed 26th (London) AA Group), including 52nd AA Bde, was assigned to  1st AA Division organised to cover London and the Home Counties. The Royal Garrison Artillery had been absorbed into the Royal Artillery (RA) in 1924; on 1 January 1938 the RA replaced its traditional unit designation 'Brigade' by the modern 'Regiment', and the 'AA Groups' reverted to the more usual formation title of 'Brigades'. Anti-Aircraft Command was formed in April 1939 to control all the TA's AA units and formations.
  By 1938, RHQ, 154 and 155 Batteries had moved from Chelsea to Artillery House, Horn Lane, in Acton, and were joined on 1 November 1938 by a new 271 AA Battery based at Brentford, replacing 156 (Barking) AA Battery, which had become part of a new 82nd (Essex) AA Regiment.
caption: The Duke of York's Headquarters
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "The Saatchi Gallery at the former Chelsea Barracks in London, UK", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D700", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Nikon Transfer 1.4 W", "Image DateTime": "2009:12:28 16:24:54", "Image Artist": "Jack Gavigan", "Image Copyright": "Copyright Jack Gavigan 2009", "Image ExifOffset": "342", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "958", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "18691", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/3200", "EXIF FNumber": "7/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:12:19 14:05:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:12:19 14:05:26", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "727741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "1", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4294967295", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "75", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "75", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "50", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}