Essex Fortress Royal Engineers

The Essex (Fortress) Royal Engineers was a volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers formed to defend the Essex coast. It served in this role in World War I and then converted to a searchlight regiment for air defence in World War II. The unit ended the war as a garrison infantry battalion. Its descendants continued to serve in the Territorial Army until 1961.

Precursor unit
The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer units composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need. One such unit was the 1st Essex Engineer Volunteer Corps formed at Heybridge, Maldon, in December 1861 under the command of Edward Hammond Bentall, proprietor of a firm of agricultural engineers in the town. Two other members of his family featured among the list of officers. A small unit, it was attached to the larger 1st Middlesex EVC in 1863, and wad disbanded in 1871. There were no other engineer volunteers in the county of Essex for over 30 years.

Territorial Force
When the Territorial Force (TF) was created by the Haldane Reforms in 1908, a new unit was formed at Chelmsford under the title Essex (Fortress) Royal Engineers. It consisted of a single Electric Lights Company based at the Corn Exchange Drill Hall in Market Road, which it shared with the Essex Royal Horse Artillery, 5th Battalion Essex Regiment and other local TF units.

World War I
On the outbreak of World War I, the fortress engineers were mobilised and the Essex company moved into its war station in the Harwich Coast Defences.

As well as operating searchlights for the coastal defence guns, the RE fortress companies began to use them in the Anti-Aircraft (AA) role as the war progressed and raids by airships and fixed wing bombers on the East Coast became more frequent. As a naval base, Harwich was a tempting target, and although the town was darkened, German aircrews could still recognise it from harbour lights and the outline of the power station and railway. By mid-1917 Harwich AA Defence Command (AADC) was allocated No 9 Mobile Searchlight Company, RE (manned by the Tyne Electrical Engineers and as the system became more sophisticated in 1918 the RE searchlight detachments were assigned directly to AA gun batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery, and Harwich AADC had No 8 AA Battery, forming part of the London Air Defence Area. By this stage of the war most of the men of medical category A1 had been withdrawn from the coastal and AA defences to be sent to join the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front All TF units were demobilised in 1919 after the Armistice with Germany.

Interwar
The Essex (Fortress) Engineers, consisting of No 1 (Lights) Company, was reformed in the renamed Territorial Army (TA) in 1920, forming part of Coastal Defences in 54th (East Anglian) Divisional Area, with its HQ still at the TA Headquarters in Market Road, Chelmsford.

During the 1930s the increasing need for AA defences was recognised, and the Essex Fortress Engineers company was redesignated as an AA Searchlight (AASL), company, later simply an AA company. After the Munich Crisis, Britain's AA defences were rapidly expanded as part of the TA's new Anti-Aircraft Command and by May 1939 the Essex Fortress Engineers had been incorporated into a new unit designated 74th (Essex Fortress) AA Battalion, RE, organised as:


 * HQ at a new drill hall at Tottenham High Road
 * 310 (Essex) AA Company at Epping – transferred from 28th (Essex) AA Bn
 * 335 AA Company at Tottenham – transferred from 33rd (St Pancras) AA Bn
 * 469 AA Company at Chelmsford – former 1 AA Company, Essex Fortress Engineers

World War II
On the outbreak of war the unit was subordinated to 29th (East Anglian) Anti-Aircraft Brigade in 6th Anti-Aircraft Division, which was responsible for the air defence of the Thames Estuary, Essex and north Kent.

In 1940 the RE's AA battalions were transferred to the Royal Artillery (RA), which designated them Searchlight Regiments, and the companies became batteries.

During the Battle of Britain, the subsequent London Blitz, on into 1941, the regiment remained part of 29 AA Bde covering the crucial area of Kent. Its searchlights had a dual role in assisting both the guns of AA Command and the night fighters of RAF Fighter Command.

By the end of 1944, 21st Army Group fighting in North West Europe was suffering a severe manpower shortage, particularly among the infantry. At the same time the German Luftwaffe was suffering from such shortages of pilots, aircraft and fuel that serious aerial attacks on the United Kingdom could be discounted. The War Office began to reorganise surplus AA regiments in the UK into infantry battalions, primarily for line of communication and occupation duties, thereby releasing trained infantry for frontline service.

74th (Essex Fortress) was one of the searchlight regiments selected for conversion, reorganising in the infantry role as 74th (Essex Fortress) Garrison Regiment, RA in November 1944. It was redesignated again in February 1945 as 613rd (Essex Fortress) Infantry Regiment, RA and joined 21st Army Group on line of communication duties in April 1945.

Postwar
When the TA was reconstituted in 1947, the 74th Searchlight Regiment was reformed at Tottenham as 609 (Mixed) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA (Tottenham), equipped with anti-aircraft guns. ('Mixed' indicating that it was composed partly of women of the Women's Royal Army Corps). The regiment formed part of the short-lived 52 AA Brigade, based at Chingford, Essex.

Simultaneously, 469 Searchlight Battery at Chelmsford, the direct descendant of the Essex Fortress Engineers, was reformed as 855 AA Control and Reporting Battery, RA (Essex Fortress). In 1953 the battery was authorised to adopt a supplementary arm title with the wording ESSEX FORTRESS in red on navy blue worn below the RA shoulder title.

AA Command was abolished in 1955, and both units were disbanded.

855 Battery was reformed at Chelmsford in 1959 as 855 AA Reporting Battery, but in 1961 it was disbanded again, when the technically trained personnel went to 470 (3rd West Lancashire) Light Air Defence Rgt and the remainder to 287 (1st West Lancashire) Medium Rgt.

Museum
Essex (Fortress) RE is one of the units covered by the Essex Regiment Museum at Chelmsford.

External sources

 * British Army units from 1945 on
 * Mark Conrad, The British Army in 1914.
 * British Military History
 * The Drill Hall Project.
 * Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
 * The Long, Long Trail
 * Orders of Battle at Patriot Files
 * Army Museums Ogilby Trust
 * Richard A. Rinaldi, Royal Engineers, World War I at Orbat.com
 * Graham Watson, The Territorial Army 1947 at Orbat.com