The 94th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, (94th LAA Rgt) was an air defence unit of the British Army during World War II.

The unit was originally formed at Kingston upon Hull on 28 May 1940 as 50th Holding Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI), as part of the rapid expansion of the Army with wartime conscripts.

[8] Its first action was Operation Goodwood on 18 July, in which VIII Corps' three armoured divisions would secretly cross to the east side of the River Orne and then thrust southwards past Caen deep into German-held territory.

The Guards were the second division in the column, but the advance ran out of impetus once the tanks had passed out of range of the supporting artillery, which was still west of the river because of congestion in the bridgehead.

That night the Luftwaffe made one of its rare air raids, hitting the Orne bridgehead and causing damage among the rear echelons of the armoured divisions.

[8][16][17][18] It was during that afternoon (19 July) that the regiment scored its first 'kill' when a formation attempted to attack 32nd Guards Brigade HQ: 324 LAA Bty 'sent one crashing down in flames and the rest made off hurriedly, two of them smoking and losing height.

LAA units fired tracer to guide night attacks onto their objectives, and the Bofors guns were much in demand for infantry support.

The advance lost impetus, with hard fighting round Arclais and Estry, but by 11 August the division was pushing its way south from Vire.

21st Army Group then began a rapid advance across northern France, with Guards Armoured driving over 90 miles (140 km) in under 24 hours to seize a bridge over the River Somme at Corbie on 31 August.

[27][28][29][30][31] Guards Armoured Division was chosen to spearhead XXX Corps in the ground part of Operation Market Garden (beginning on 17 September) to link up a series of bridgeheads captured by airborne troops as far as Arnhem on the Nederrijn.

The Bofors were in the road column, which was blocked by three lines of traffic, but 'they provided an exemplary display of snap-action', shooting down one aircraft immediately, while another crashed further off.

[36][38][39][40][41][42] When the Germans began their Ardennes Offensive (the Battle of the Bulge) in December, Guards Armoured Division was moved to block their possible advance over the River Meuse The Luftwaffe was more active than for many weeks, mainly attacking bridges and US Army positions.

94th LAA Regiment's Q Troop, attached to 153rd (Leicestershire Yeomanry) Field Rgt, broke up this attack, destroying one aircraft that came down in the gun area and hitting two others.

This brought the regiment's score to 40 destroyed and 12 confirmed damaged in the campaign so far, a creditable record given the generally low level of enemy air activity.

Finally on 5 March it passed through and captured Bonninghardt and its commanding ground, then next day it broke through the German lateral line after stiff fighting.

[56][57][58][59] Guards Armoured's gunners celebrated the surrender by choosing a deserted area and firing into it a Feu de joie codenamed 'Fire Plan Grand Finale'.

[1][4][5] Commanding officers of the regiment included the following:[63] A memorial plaque to the dead of 324 LAA Bty, carrying 18 names, was erected at Stolberg after the war.