474th Searchlight Battery, Royal Artillery was a unit of the British Army during World War II. Originally raised as an anti-aircraft (AA) battery, in which role it served during the Battle of Britain and Blitz, it also provided artificial illumination, or 'Monty's Moonlight', for night operations by 21st Army Group during the campaign in North West Europe in 1944–45. Origin 474th Searchlight Battery was formed in the Royal Artillery (RA) in 1940, based on a cadre drawn from two Scottish searchlight (S/L) units based in Edinburgh, the 51st (Highland) Anti-Aircraft Battalion, Royal Engineers (2 officers and 19 other ranks) and 4/5th Battalion, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), (52nd Searchlight Regiment) (5 officers and 27 other ranks). On 22 February February the cadres travelled down to 222nd Searchlight Training Regiment, RA, at Norton Manor Barracks near Taunton where, together with 235 conscripts and 83 volunteers, they formed a new battery on 1 March. The battery did not form part of a regiment, but was assigned to 5th Anti-Aircraft Division to be attached as required. Battle of Britain By mid-March, the battery had moved to the Tetbury area, with HQ at Manor Farm, Westonbirt, taking over existing searchlight sites and equipment from 455th Company, 1st (Rifle) Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment (68th Searchlight Regiment). The new battery came under the orders of that regiment, but within a month it moved to Kings Worthy in Hampshire and came under the command of 4th Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) (63rd Searchlight Regiment) in 47th AA Brigade. It was controlled by the operations room at RAF Tangmere and formed part of the AA defences for Southampton. Here the battery underwent training and began to receive the powerful new 150 cm searchlight to supplement the standard 90 cm equipment. From the beginning of June there were almost nightly alerts as the Battle of Britain got under way, and on the night of 18/19 June several Luftwaffe bombers were picked up by searchlights of 63rd Rgt and destroyed by AA guns and night fighters. On 3 July 1940 the battery was transferred from 63rd S/L Rgt to 3rd (Ulster) S/L Rgt, just returned from the Dunkirk evacuation, but three weeks later it was ordered to hand over its sites to another battery of 3rd S/L Rgt and move to Cornwall where it joined the newly formed 76th S/L Rgt under 55th AA Bde. Battery Headquarters was at