The Anti-Aircraft Battery was a unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery.
The following information is from “War Establishments of the New Armies”, a War Office publication of 1915. It relates to a battery equipped with four Quick Firing 13-pounder guns.
Establishment
Personnel: all of the Royal Garrison Artillery unless stated. Total 4 officers and 78 men.
- 1 Captain in command
- 3 Subalterns (Lieutenant or Second-Lieutenant)
- 6 Sergeants
- 1 Smith
- 4 Corporals
- 6 Bombardiers
- 36 Gunners (or which 8 acted as Observers)
- 4 Batmen
- 26 Drivers attached from the Army Service Corps (all Privates except 2 Corporals and 2 Lance-Corporals)
- 2 Fitters and Turners attached from the Army Service Corps.
Transport
- 4 gun platform lorries (which had 8 Drivers allocated to them)
- 8 3-ton ammunition lorries (16 Drivers allocated)
- 2 Motor Cars (2 Drivers allocated)
- 2 Motor Cycles
Note: each gun would carry 80 rounds of ammunition (just 10 minutes-worth at sustained maximum rate of fire), while the ammunition lorries would hold 800 rounds in all (100 minutes-worth)
Note: the battery would receive technical support from an Army Ordnance Corps travelling workshop as needed.
Research tips
Unfortunately, anti-aircraft batteries are not easy units to trace. Things are not helped in this regard by these units being small and mobile, and often moved from one command to another. War diaries exist for some of them and are held in the National Archives document series WO95. If you are researching a man who served with a battery the war diary of which does not exist, you may find some details in the diaries of the artillery commanders at Corps or Army headquarters level.
Links
Development of British anti-aircraft gunnery