page_title: City of London Rifles
section_title: East Anglia
hierarchical_section_title: City of London Rifles / World War II / 123 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment / East Anglia
caption_attribution_description: English: The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 The crew of a Bofors anti-aircraft gun keep watch for V1 flying bombs, 19 June 1944.
context_page_description: The City of London Rifles was a volunteer regiment of the British Army, originally raised as the 'Printers' Battalion'. It saw a great deal of action as an infantry regiment in World War I. During World War II it served in the air defence role, first as a searchlight regiment in the United Kingdom, and later as an anti-aircraft artillery regiment in North West Europe.
context_section_description: 103 AA Brigade at Great Yarmouth was the former 39 AA Bde  in AA Command and was in the process of converting into a field force component. It came under GHQ Home Forces but retained its existing AA Command responsibilities and took over various vulnerable points (VPs) in East Anglia, mainly RAF airfields. 123rd LAA Regiment was distributed as follows:
  HQ at Lenwade House, near Norwich
  405 Bty at Cromer
  A Trp at Cromer
  B Trp at RAF Docking
  C Trp at Sheringham
  408 Bty at Lowestoft
  A & B Trps at Lowestoft
  C Trp at Hopton-on-Sea
  Detachment at RAF Oulton
  409 Bty at Aylsham
  A & C Trps at RAF Coltishall
  B Trp at RAF Bircham Newton
  May saw a number of daylight attacks by Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers on Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The defences of these towns were reinforced by moving detachments of 123rd LAA Rgt from guarding RAF stations and equipping them with 20 mm Hispano cannon.
  That summer the field force AA units were shuffled as they went for battle training or to other brigades, and additional LAA units arrived to defend the Norfolk coast. On 11 June 123rd LAA Regiment moved to Grimsditch Camp near Salisbury and came under the command of 100 AA Bde.
  On 2 January 1944, 123rd LAA Rgt temporarily rejoined 103 AA Bde, which was at that time in South West England defending the build-up of troops (mainly US Army) and landing craft for the Invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord). The regiment was based at Bournemouth, but was relieved on 20 March and went to No. 16 H&LAA Practice Camp at Clacton-on-Sea. It officially joined Second Army that month in preparation for Operation Overlord.
  It landed in Normandy in June 1944 and served in the air defence role throughout the North West Europe Campaign.
caption: Bofors gun and crew, summer 1944
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