WWII group of 3 with TEM. Maritime Royal Artillery. Williams, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire.

WWII medals unnamed as issued

TEM correctly named 3960358 Bdr B Williams RA

Born on the 30th of March 1917, Brinley enlisted into the Royal Artillery, 3rd Maritime Anti Aircraft Battery in February 1939. He had transferred from the Welsh Regiment. He later served with the 6th Maritime Regiment, Royal Artillery.

Records tell us in June 1941, he was courtmartialled for theft and given 113 days in prison, commuted to detention.

He resided at 21 Talbot Street, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire.

6th Maritime Regiment Royal Artillery:

Thornbury and District

The 6th Maritime Regiment was one of several artillery regiments tasked with protecting merchant shipping from the threats from German air and submarine attack. It was based in Thornbury and covered all types of vessels sailing from various ports in the Severn area. The men of the Maritime Regiments were infantry rather than sailors and returned to their regiments on their arrival back in port. The officers did not accompany the men on the ships, undertaking an administrative role only. The headquarters of the 6th Maritime were at Kyneton House near Thornbury which was requisitioned for the purpose.
The 6th Maritime Regiment Royal Artillery was constituted on the 1st November 1942. Prior to that it was known as the 6th battery Maritime Anti-Aircraft regiment, part of the Maritime Royal Artillery and was set up in May 1941.

The Maritime RA had its beginnings in the early part of the war when the Admiralty requested
the Regiment to provide 500, 2 man Light Machine Gun teams for embarking on merchant coasters. Taking with them either Lewis or Bren guns, they were to provide Anti-Aircraft defence for the vessels.
With the increase in severity of attacks on shipping, the Maritime Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA was formed in 1941.

There were initially 3 Light Machine Gun Regiments each with 2 Batteries and 1 Regiment of a battery of Bofors 40mm. Port detachments were formed to find pools of trained Light Machine Gun gunners who could be embarked as required. The light machine gun’s were supplemented with Hotchkiss guns and eventually mostly replaced by Oerlikon’s and Bofors.
There was no higher formation, each Commanding Officer reporting direct to RA6 at the War Office.

In September 1942 a gunner Brigadier was appointed as commander. By the end of the year batteries and troops were operating independently and in January 1943 the regiment was re-titled Maritime Royal Artillery.

In March 1943 numbers were increased and the regiment organised into 6 regiments and 24 port detachments in the UK, these were:

 1 Regiment – Loch Winnock, Renfrewshire

2 Regiment – Leslie, Fife

3 Regiment – North Shields, Tyne & Wear

4 Regiment – Southport, Lancashire

5 Regiment – Shoeburyness, Essex

6 Regiment – Thornbury, Gloucestershire

There were also 4 overseas batteries at New York, Port Said, Bombay and South Africa and 4 independent troops at Freetown, Sydney, Algiers and Haifa. A fifth troop was added later in Naples.
Most of the principal ports throughout the world that were visited by allied shipping also had small detachments. Sometimes these could be as small as a single NCO.

At this time the strength of the regiment was 170 officers and 14,000+ other ranks.
Operationally the regiment came under the Royal Navy and they worked in close cooperation with the DEMS Branch (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships).
In August 1945 the regiment was re-organised into 1st, 4th & 5th Regiments each with an RHQ, Training Battery and Holding Battery. There was also 2nd Regiment in India but this was not fully formed.

The numbers on board any individual ship varied from up to 30 on the large vessels down to 2 men in a small coaster. The average detachment on a Liberty ship was 7.
The gun crews could be a mix of Maritime RA, Royal Navy or Royal Marine personnel but the Bofors guns were always a solely Maritime RA responsibility.
As the number of men on any one ship was small they all had to be capable of handling every weapon on board. This could range from a 6 inch Naval Anti-Aircraft gun down to balloons and rockets. Many Maritime RA NCO’s proudly wore the Naval Gun Layers badge qualifying them to take charge of a detachment at sea along with all naval stores on board.
Men were issued with with their normal service equipment,  naval sea kit, tropical kit and a set of civilian clothes for use in neutral ports.  Personnel aboard ships on the North Russia convoys were also issued with special arctic kit. When embarked the men came under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act as well as the Army Act.
Naval decorations were awarded for gallantry and service at sea. The Maritime RA got a good share of these. Many of course lost their lives at sea. Despite the risks, service in the Maritime RA was popular even though they were doing it for less pay than their Royal Navy counterparts who, in turn, were getting considerably less than the merchant seamen.

He was awarded his TEM in 1946.