29th (East Anglian) Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) before and during the Second World War.

Although LAA units were receiving Bofors 40 mm guns, many of the sites only had LMGs, though some like the Royal Naval Mining Depot at Wrabness at least had quadruple mountings.

A plan to attach groups of riflemen from the infantry training centres to 6 AA Division's widely spaced S/L sites foundered on the lack of men.

Instead the S/L detachments themselves were given the responsibility for attacking parachutists before they could organise, and spare men at company HQs were formed into mobile columns using requisitioned civilian transport to hunt them down.

[7] At the end of May the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, and the Germans began preparations to invade South East England.

In late June the Luftwaffe began small day and night raids on Ipswich and the Harwich Gun Defence Area (GDA) and during July 1940 there were almost daily attacks on shipping off the East Coast.

In August, while the Battle of Britain was progressing by day over Kent and Essex, Luftwaffe seaplanes regularly dropped Parachute mines in the harbours and estuaries by night, which 29 AA Bde's guns and S/Ls attempted to counter.

[a][23][24] On 15 August Erprobungsgruppe 210 slipped through to attack RAF Martlesham Heath and got away without loss, despite being engaged by the Harwich AA guns while withdrawing.

[28] As the Battle of Britain merged into the night Blitz during September 1940, the brigade's area was regularly crossed by night raids heading for London and the industrial cities of the Midlands, which the S/L sites strove to track for the night-fighters and HAA guns, often causing the raiders to jettison their bombs (frequently near the AA sites) and turn back.

[7][29] Between 25 October 1940 and 2 January 1941, units of the Corpo Aereo Italiano based in Belgium made 11 day and night attacks on the East Coast, all but one of which targeted Harwich and Ipswich.

[29] By December 1940 all S/Ls in the brigade's area, except the coastal sites, had been 'clustered' The cluster system was an attempt to improve the chances of picking up enemy bombers and keeping them illuminated for engagement by AA guns or Night fighters.

[29][42] The number of Bofors gun-equipped LAA units available to AA Command to protect Vital Points such as airfields was growing, albeit slowly.