Operations Room (AAOR) 74th HAA Rgt Signal Section, RCS 69th HAA Rgt Workshop Section, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) 213 and 261 HAA Btys were relieved by 51st (London) HAA Rgt (3 Btys) and 171/61 HAA Bty when they arrived and came under Ruffer's command in mid-December. By January, 69th HAA Rgt also had 135 'Z' Bty under its command, armed with 16 x Z Battery rocket projectors. 1 AA Brigade took over control of Benghazi while 2 AA Bde HQ accompanied Eighth Army's advance. In February 1943, the regiment moved up to Tripoli, which had fallen to Eighth Army on 23 January. Here it remained until the end of the Tunisian Campaign, coming under the command of 79 AA Bde. In April the regiment was 'diluted' (as the process was officially described) by 250 Bechuana troops of 1975 AA Company, African Pioneer Corps (APC), to be trained as gunners. The regiment formed 651 HAA Bty as a cadre to accommodate the British gunners who were replaced and awaiting redeployment. The regiment also received extra AEC Matador gun tractors to make it fully mobile. On 26 June the regiment (less 200 HAA Bty) was ordered back to Cyrenaica, a 630-mile journey taking two days. It deployed to defend a group of USAAF landing grounds around Marble Arch, with Lt-Col Ruffer as AADC and 122/13 LAA Bty under command. However, the process was reversed at the end of July, when the regiment retraced its steps to Tripoli, rejoining 200 HAA Bty. 74th HAA Regiment Signal Section, which had been with the regiment for a year, was disbanded, and 69th HAA Rgt formed its own small Signal Detachment. On 10 August the regiment set out on the coast road once more, this time back to the Nile Delta, arriving at the end of the month, when the troops were given leave and training. Taranto The Italian Campaign began with Allied landings on 3 September. 69th HAA Regiment reorganised as a semi-mobile unit, and Lt-Col M.D. Burns took over as CO. The regiment then embarked on the Monarch of Bermuda at Alexandria on 18 September, landing at Taranto on 24 September, where it came under command of 8 AA Bde. The regiment provided the HAA defences for Taranto port for the rest of its wartime career. RHQ shared a building with 41 AAOR (later replaced by a Gun Operations Room (GOR) manned