The 54th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) formed immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War.

[9][10] There were numerous small raids on the West Midlands during the Battle of Britain, including one on the night of 26/27 August when the officers' mess of 54 AA Bde received a direct hit that wrecked the building without causing any casualties.

[14] 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 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.

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

[20] The brigade's composition by the end of the Blitz was as follows:[2][21][22][23][24][25] In the summer of 1941, AA Command began to receive purpose-built searchlight control (SLC of 'Elsie') radar in sufficient numbers to allow some S/Ls to be 'declustered' into single-light sites.

[40] After September 1943, 54 AA Bde only had one unit (67 S/L Rgt) under command, and the brigade HQ began disbanding at Knowle on 28 November, completing the process on 21 December.