52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) during the Second World War.

[1] 52nd Light Anti-Aircraft Brigade was formed at Stirling with responsibility for searchlight provision across 3 AA Division's sectors.

The units of 52 LAA Bde were therefore redesignated as follows: During the Phoney War period there were a number of attacks on the naval bases of Scotland before the Luftwaffe turned its attention to the campaigns in Norway and France and the Low Countries.

[32][33][34][35] Leaving three HAA and three LAA batteries to unload and set up an 'Inner Artillery Zone' (IAZ) around Algiers, 22 and 52 AA Bdes began a long march eastwards.

The need to get AA units forward quickly to protect the vital airfields had been foreseen, and three of the HAA regiments deployed in the operation (58th (Kent), 71st (Forth) and 80th (Berkshire) HAA Rgts) had been deliberately equipped with obsolescent 3-inch 20 cwt guns rather than modern 3.7-inch guns, because the former were lighter and handier, and were quicker to deploy in rough country.

By the end of November the AA deployment had reached planned levels, but V Corps' advance had been held by the rapid arrival of German forces.

As the Allies built up strength for a renewed advance, the emphasis for the AA units turned to defence for the ports and airfields against heavy attacks by the Luftwaffe.

[37][38] By mid-January 1943, 52 AA Bde was deployed as follows:[39] The policy of forward deployment paid off: when General von Arnim launched a counter-offensive against V Corps in February (Operation Ochsenkopf), 52 AA Bde was able to provide 32 HAA and over 200 LAA guns to cover the combat zone, while transferring 24 HAA and 72 LAA guns to the Free French XIX Corps.

[40][41] By mid-March 1943, 52 AA Bde was deployed as follows:[42] As the fighting continued in April, the HAA guns in forward positions were increasingly used to fire on ground targets to supplement the medium artillery.

At Bizerte the AA advance parties were shelled from outside the town, and two batteries of 29th LAA Rgt had to be employed as infantry to flush out resistance.

[47] 52 AA Brigade spent almost a year defending the North African bases at Bizerte, Bône and Philippeville before it was finally called forward to join the Italian Campaign in April 1944.