7th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (7th HAA Rgt) was an air defence unit of the British Army that served in the Siege of Malta during World War II.

It fired the first British shots in the Mediterranean Theatre in the war, and provided the basis on which the heavy anti-aircraft defences of Malta were built.

[1][2][3][4] From its formation the regiment 'provided the cadre on which the [island's] heavy AA defences were built up',[5] training newly formed batteries of the Royal Malta Artillery (RMA).

[1][6] The regiment was composed as follows:[1][7][8] Malta was a major naval base, being Britain's only port in the central Mediterranean on the crucial route between Gibraltar and Alexandria.

[15][16][17] When Italy under Mussolini declared war on the Allies on 10 June 1940, 7th HAA Rgt was deployed as follows:[18][19][20] The first Italian air raid came at 06.45 the following day, when two formations appeared at 12,000 feet, each of five Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers, and were engaged by all the AA gun positions.

One bomber was shot down, claimed by the Marsa and San Giacomo sites, and one man of 13 HAA Bty was killed when the telephonists' hut at French Creek received a direct hit.

[22][23] On 2 September, as part of Operation Hats, the battleship HMS Valiant arrived at the island with eight 3-7-inch guns and twelve 40 mm Bofors guns carried as deck cargo, and a draft of gunners including trained operators for the single GL Mk I gun-laying radar established at San Giacomo since 4 August.

[26][27][28] When the Battle of France began in May it was defending airfields around Aubigny and Arras; it took part in the BEF's advance into Belgium on 10 May and took up positions round Tournai.

Repeated attacks on 20 May saw the guns in constant action, then it retreated for six days, alternately moving and deploying, with dwindling ammunition.

[34][35][36][37][38] In February the Luftwaffe 's Fliegerkorps X was ordered to neutralise Malta, and it began a series of heavy bombing raids, mainly at night, accompanied by mine-dropping in and around the harbour, and daylight sweeps by Messerschmitt Bf 109 single-engined fighters.

On 1 November a high-flying bomber jettisoned its bombs, hitting a barrack room in Fort Manoel and killing five off-duty gunners of 7th HAA Rgt.

[50][51] In late March the Royal Navy supply ship HMS Breconshire was bombed on a run in to Malta, and a Troop of 13 HAA Bty provided AA cover with 3-inch guns while she was towed up the coast to Kalafrano Bay.

[52][55][56] On the last day of April the Regia Aeronautica rejoined the attack – which 7th HAA Rgt took as a sign that the Luftwaffe was suffering badly.

When the fast minelayer HMS Welshman ran in ammunition supplies on 10 May (part of Operation Bowery), the most intense AA barrage yet fired was provided to protect her while unloading.

[43][57][58] In May 1942 the regiment was disposed at gunsites in west central Malta as follows:[20] By October the Luftwaffe had reinforced Fliegerkorps II, and a new round of heavy raids began, using new low-level tactics.

However, these attacks also lost heavily to the AA guns and RAF fighters, despite the increasing shortages of food and supplies on the island.

With the Axis defeat at Alamein and the Allied North Africa landings (Operation Torch) the same month, the siege of Malta was ended.

[19][61] In May, Axis aircraft reappeared in an attempt to disrupt preparations for the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), but these raids caused little damage.