96th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, was an air defence unit of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) formed in West Yorkshire during the period of international tension leading up to the outbreak of World War II.

It was formed in the West Yorkshire towns of Castleford and Halifax in April and was soon joined by an experienced TA battery from Leeds:[1][2][3][4][5] In June 1939, as the international situation worsened, a partial mobilisation of Anti-Aircraft Command's TA units was begun in a process known as 'couverture', whereby each unit did a month's tour of duty in rotation to man selected AA gun and searchlight positions.

31 AA Bde reported that out of 1000 recruits sent for duty, '50 had to be discharged immediately because of serious medical defects, another 20 were judged to be mentally deficient and a further 18 were unfit to do any manual labour such as lifting ammunition'.

[5][8][11][12][13] The main action in the Battle of Britain was over Southern England, but after its defeat the Luftwaffe turned its attention to night bombing of London and the industrial cities of the UK.

West Yorkshire, despite its important industrial facilities, steelworks, aircraft and ordnance factories, was at a considerable distance from the Luftwaffe 's bases and was less often raided than coastal targets and The Midlands.

The regiment remained with the Eastern Mediterranean AA Group throughout 1943, but by the beginning of 1944 the air threat had diminished and manpower was urgently required elsewhere.

In 1961 the TA was further reduced and 466th HAA Rgt was converted back to infantry and merged with its original parent unit, 7th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment.