Originally raised as an anti-aircraft (AA) battery, in which role it served during the Battle of Britain and Blitz, it also provided artificial illumination, or 'Monty's Moonlight', for night operations by 21st Army Group during the campaign in North West Europe in 1944–45.

[14][16] After attending various training camps and field exercises, the battery moved to Silverstone in Northamptonshire and joined 100 AA Bde, one of the formations preparing for Operation Overlord, the planned Allied invasion of Normandy.

[19][20][21] Over succeeding days the battery brought more lights into action (16 by D + 4), but engagements were difficult because of the low cloud, the haphazard directions from which raiders approached, and their use of 'Window' to interfere with searchlight control (SLC) radar.

[24] On 22 August, as the Allied breakout from the Normandy beachhead got under way, A Troop was withdrawn from its sites and attached to 71st Light AA Regiment for the drive to the Seine.

On 26 August the troop deployed its lights at Vernon, to defend the bridges under construction where 43rd (Wessex) Division had made an assault crossing of the river the previous day.

However, 21st Army Group was now advancing rapidly across northern France, and A Troop moved up via Amiens and Douai while the rest of the battery deployed round Rouen on 10 September.

[18][19][28][29] During the winter of 1944–45, while A Troop experimented with using SLC radar to direct LAA guns, the rest of 474 S/L Bty was frequently deployed in detachments to provide movement light to various formations – for example, for laying or lifting minefields, bridgebuilding, or fighting patrols.

That night there was a series of raids by single Luftwaffe bombers at heights up to 8000 feet, where S/L illumination permitted the AA guns to fire predictor-controlled shoots.

By now the crossing points were covered by integrated systems of heavy and light AA guns, radar and S/L positions, which prevented accurate attacks and destroyed a significant number of aircraft.

[30][33] In mid-April the battery handed over its S/L responsibilities at the Rhine crossings and began carrying out rear-area duties such as guarding and clearing ammunition dumps.

It continued this battlefield clearance work after the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath on 7 May, and also provided artificial moonlight at prisoner of war and refugee camps.