Manx Regiment

The Manx Regiment - the 15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery - was raised in 1938 as a Territorial Army unit of the British Army. It recruited on the Isle of Man.

The Regiment was mobilised shortly before the outbreak of World War II and sailed from the Isle of Man to Liverpool to take up air defence of the River Mersey. A further Battery - 129 Battery - was raised to take the Regiment to its full complement of three Batteries.

In November 1940 the Regiment was sent to Egypt, with 41 Battery being deployed in East Africa, 129 Battery in Crete (where it was to be overrun by German forces in 1941) and 42 Battery remaining in Egypt, seeing action with the 7th Armoured Brigade (the Desert Rats), including at the Battle of El Alamein.

The Regiment was later to be involved in the invasion of Italy and returned to the UK in January 1944 in time for training for the invasion of Normandy (D Day) on 6 June 1944, seeing action in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and finally in the Hamburg area.

The Regiment was disbanded after the Second World War.

External links

• Museum of the Manx Regiment - a short history of the Regiment
• Military history of the Isle of Man, from the Manx National Heritage Library (PDF format)