Anti Aircraft Sections

The No 1 Gun of 98th A.A.S. mounted on a packard lorry. Image reproduced with permission from GWF member Martin Wills

The Anti Aircraft Sections exchanged there 3 ton Lorries for 30cwt ones early in the campaign, these proved unsatisfactory and in August 1917 the 801st helped the 74th and 91st switch back to 3 ton Lorries.

An Anti Aircraft Section typically consisted of between 40 and 50 men in total with 2 to 4 officers depending on whether their guns were deployed together or separately. The unit was divided into two gun detachments of 12 men including an ASC Driver and mate, in addition to the gun detachments there were telephonists, linesman, height finders, height and fuse Indicator men, an Order Board Setter, a Lookout man, an orderly and a cook. The section typically had two Thorneycroft or Packard Lorries mounted with a 13 pounder anti aircraft gun, three 3ton Lorries, a staff car and a motorcycle.

The next Sections to arrive were 73rd and 74th in the middle of August 1916 but they were not considered ready for action and required further training. The 73rd eventually took up a position on the ridge north of Dudular and stayed in that area. The 74th was sent to the Struma Valley and had one gun at 72.5 km on the Seres road and the other gun at various positions between Kopriva and Ormanli.

The photograph on the right is of a restored Thorneycroft Type J mounted with a 13 pounder Anti Aircraft gun

At the end of the Salonika campaign in 1918 there were 14 Anti Aircraft Sections in Macedonia, the first to arrive in Salonika were the 24th. The 24th were the only anti aircraft section to serve at Gallipoli, their first posting in the field. Both their guns were in action at Suvla bay in September 1915. They were evacuated to Mudros at the end of December, but A sub section, was back in action at Cape Helles in January 1916 at the end of the Gallipoli campaign, before returning to Mudros. A sub section arrived in Salonika in January 1916 and reported to 27th Division HQ. In the meantime B sub section, had moved from Mudros to Alexandria and at the end of April moved on to Salonika, where they were reunited with sub section A.In May, the 24th Sub sections were split up again with A moving to Kukus and B to to Orljak in the Struma valley, they were reunited when A moved to the Struma valley a short time later. At the end of July both sections were on the move again arriving at Janes on the 31st.

The next to arrive in Salonika were 32nd AA Section who left Woolwich in November 1915, and were sent to Alexandria, disembarking on 21st and moving to Camp Gabbari. They remained there, undergoing training, until the end of January 1916, when orders were received to move to Salonika. The men and equipment arrived on the 24th and 25th January before taking up a position near the 6km point on the Seres Road. On 29th April, 32nd AAS moved to a position near Summer Hill Camp that appears to have been in anticipation of the Zeppelin raid on 5th May returning back to the Seres road immediately afterwards. On the 19th May, 32nd AAS moved to a position near the 9km mark on the Seres Road, where they stayed until No 1 Gun was detached and moved to the Janes railhead.

The next four sections, 90th, 91st, 94th and 95th arrived in January and February 1917. No 1 Gun of 90th was always in the Janes area and its No 2 gun on the Doiran front. The 91st went to the Struma valley; the 94th spent a short time near the 73rd AAS on the Dudular ridge but was then moved to the XII Corps area at Snevce and Hill 420. The 95th went to a two-gun position east of the 5km post on the Seres road. The 97th, 98th and 99th arrived around March 1917; the 97th went to the Doiran front, the 98th went to Guvezne but the 99th did not become operational until July 1917, when its guns arrived and it set up a two-gun position at the eastern end of the ridge by what was called the Harmankoj tumulus, these were the last Sections to be formed in Britain that operated at Salonika. 141st, 153rd and 154th were formed at Salonika in 1918 and the last two saw very little active service.

The AA sections were deployed to protect key sites, camps, supply dumps, railheads, heavy gun emplacements etc. Success was not measured by the number of aeroplanes shot down but by how effectively they were able to disrupt the enemy pilot’s mission often by forcing them to fly higher reducing bombing effectiveness or the quality of reconnaissance photographs. The AA sections like most units operating behind the lines had no men killed in action but like others in this theatre they suffered many losses due to sickness, particularly the influenza outbreak.