[6][7] It sailed for France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on 1 January 1940 and was initially deployed in the Airaines area with Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) at Fruges.

[3] During February, A and B S/L Btys were joined by two newly formed ones, 6 and 475, though during the coming campaign the four were designated 5, 6, 7 and 8, even if this change did not officially take effect until July.

[3][9][10][11][12] When the Phoney War ended with the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May, 2nd AA Rgt was scattered across Northern France: some troops were 90 miles (140 km) from their battery HQ (BHQ) and even further from RHQ.

As Army Group A cut the BEF's lines of communication into France and drove it back towards the coast at Dunkirk, 2nd S/L Rgt's subunits found themselves involved in ground fighting and rearguard actions.

However, 2nd Panzer Division was already in Abbeville blocking the way, and they had to fight a rearguard action with enemy ground troops to get to the coast and make it back to Dunkirk.

On the evening of 23 May 20 Guards Bde was ordered to evacuate and the remaining troops, including the AA survivors, closed in to form a tight perimeter.

1st S/L Regiment was stationed there, and the 1st Bn Queen Victoria's Rifles (QVR), the lead unit of 30th Infantry Brigade, arrived by sea on 22 May, just before advanced German troops began probing the defences.

The three-day defence of Calais, holding up Heinz Guderian's XIX Panzerkorps, had provided some respite for the Dunkirk evacuation (Operation Dynamo), which was now under way.

[20][21][22][23][24] Among the units covering the BEF's retreat to Dunkirk was F Trp of K Bty, Royal Horse Artillery (RHA), equipped with four World War I-vintage 18-pounder guns and reinforced by 80 men from 2nd S/L Rgt.

The Germans were already in this village, but the assorted gunners, together with some drivers of the Royal Army Service Corps, charged them, driving them off, and then got away in whatever vehicles were still running.

[25] [26][27][a] Meanwhile, Lt-Col Anderson with RHQ, 8 S/L Bty and odd details of other batteries of 2nd S/L Rgt had fallen back from Arras to St Omer, where by 24 May they were deployed to defend the canal.

Once relieved, this remnant withdrew through Herzeele and was concentrated at Les Moëres where it rested for the first time in five days, while Anderson went into Dunkirk to try to find news of his lost batteries.

12th AA Brigade set off though Vendôme, Le Mans and Rennes to Nantes, where its remaining HAA batteries and 7 S/L Bty (without searchlights), occupied positions on either side of the River Loire.

But the situation in France was now beyond remedy, and the British government decided to evacuate its remaining troops from the Atlantic ports between 15 and 17 June (Operation Aerial).

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.

[37][38] 2nd S/L Regiment supplied a cadre of experienced officers and men to 230th S/L Training Rgt at Blandford Camp where it provided the basis for a new 554 S/L Bty formed on 13 February 1941.

[39][40][41][42][43] By 1943, with the lower threat of attack by the weakened Luftwaffe, AA Command was forced to release manpower for the planned invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord).

These would be allocated by fighter controllers, and the S/Ls would assist by illuminating targets and indicating raid approaches, while area boundaries would be marked by vertical S/Ls.

[53][54] During the campaign from Normandy to the Rhine, culminating in 'Veritable', the S/L units of 21st Army Group had developed the technique of 'artificial moonlight' to assist the ground troops.

[2][55][56] The build-up of troops and supplies for Operation Plunder required largescale AA defences, extending back to cover vital bridges and routes.

107th AA Brigade arrived on 18 March to protect the Cleve, Gennep and Mook bridges behind II Canadian Corps, including 6 S/L Bty.

After dark on 24 March scattered Ju 88s began making divebombing attacks on the bridging sites, artillery areas and supply routes.

By now the bridges over the Rhine were completed and in use, and as the fighting moved deeper into Germany the number of air attacks diminished, though 5 S/L Bty remained on duty on both sides of the Rees crossing.

[2][44][59][60][61] In St Mary and St Bartholomew Church in Cranborne, Dorset, there is a memorial board with the following text:[4] 'TO RECORD WITH PRIDE AND GRATITUDE/ THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH THIS CHURCH/ AND VILLAGE THIS TABLET IS PLACED HERE/ BY THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE SECOND/ SEARCHLIGHT REGIMENT, ROYAL ARTILLERY,/ WHICH SERVED IN AND AROUND CRANBORNE FROM JULY 1940 UNTIL AUGUST 1944 & IN PROUD MEMORY OF BRIGADIER THURGAR ROLLAND ANDERSON MC WHO RAISED THE REGIMENT ON 24TH MAY 1939 (sic) AND COMMANDED IT AT HOME AND OVERSEAS UNTIL JUNE 1941.