During the period of international tension following the Munich Crisis of 1938, the War Office rapidly increased the size of Britain's anti-aircraft (AA) defences manned by part-time members of the Territorial Army (TA).

[3][5][6] It formed part of 42nd Anti-Aircraft Brigade, newly-formed to take responsibility for the AA defence of Glasgow and the Clyde estuary.

74th HAARegiment sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and landed at Port Tewfik in Egypt on 16 November 1940.

By the end of January 1941 the regiment under Col Muirhead was stationed in the Suez Canal Line of Communication Area under British Troops in Egypt, with 230 HAA Bty under Major L.C.

[13][4][17][19][20][21] The regiment remained with Middle East Forces (MEF) in Egypt until the summer of 1942, when it moved to Ninth Army in Palestine.

[13][22][23] Here it came under the command of 20 AA Bde, which was responsible for the defence of ports and oil facilities at Haifa, Beirut, Lydda, Tripoli and for Cyprus.

[22][26][27] During 1944 the Eastern Mediterranean AA Group began to be run down: the air threat had diminished and the need to provide manpower for combat tasks elsewhere had become urgent.