[5][11][15] After the Dunkirk evacuation in May–June 1940, some AA units that had served in France with the British Expeditionary Force were sent to the West Midlands to refit and joined the brigade.

[23] The Coventry raid was preceded by a dozen pathfinder aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 100 riding an X-Gerät beam to drop flares and incendiary bombs on the target.

The huge fires that broke out in the congested city centre then attracted successive 40-strong waves of bombers flying at heights between 12,000 and 20,000 feet to saturate the defences.

The AA Defence Commander (AADC) of 95th HAA Rgt had prepared a series of concentrations to be fired using sound-locators and GL Mk.

Although the Coventry guns fired 10 rounds a minute for the whole 10-hour raid, only three aircraft were shot down over the UK that night, and the city centre was gutted.

The Coventry raid was followed by three consecutive nights (19–22 November) of attacks on Birmingham and other Black Country industrial towns including West Bromwich, Dudley and Tipton.

Meanwhile, 15 HAA Bty provided anti-paratroop fighting patrols to defend 34 AA Bde HQ and the GDA Gun Operations Room (GOR) in case of invasion.

This exercise (Operation Chestnut) was carried out in Oxfordshire in March and April, though the gunsites in 34 AA Bde area remained manned.

By now the HAA sites had the advantage of GL Mk I* radar with an elevation finding (E/F or 'Effie') attachment, and several attackers were turned away by accurate fire and their bombs scattered widely, some on nearby Nuneaton.

[49][50] This continual turnover of units accelerated in 1942 with the preparations for Operation Torch and the need to relocate guns to counter the Baedeker Blitz and the Luftwaffe's hit-and-run attacks against South Coast towns.

[18][39][26][51] By March 1944 AA Command was being forced to release manpower to 21st Army Group for the planned Allied invasion of continental Europe (Operation Overlord), and most regiments lost a battery.

As the launching sites in Northern France were overrun by 21st Army Group, the Luftwaffe began air-launching V-1s from the North Sea, and further HAA batteries had to stripped from the Midlands and repositioned along the East Coast.