As the international situation worsened, key personnel of the unit were called up on 22 August, and the TA was fully mobilised two days later. In the first weeks of the Phoney War the CD light installations at Portland and the naval training establishment HMS Osprey were put into service, despite a lack of stores and a serious fire in the Nothe generator room on 10 September that burnt out the switchboard and cables. Portable Lister generators from the AA S/Ls were used as a temporary measure.Dorset Fortress No 1 Company War Diary, August 1939-February 1940, TNA file WO 166/3545. Five AA S/L sections, each of six lights, were deployed around Weymouth and Dorchester, operating under the control of the Portland AA Gun Operations Room (GOR):Dorset Fortress RE 2nd AA Company War Diary, September 1939–April 1941, TNA file WO 166/3324.
