Imagery from the period does suggest they did...
At the start of the First World War, searchlight units were deployed to the south coast and the banks of the Thames estuary, where they were deployed to form light barriers, just as they had done in the Boer War. Britain at this time had very little in the way of anti aircraft guns or searchlights but with support from the admiralty a month into the war 33 guns were in use but without any searchlights. London was only defended by only four 1-pounder Pom-Pom,s on the roofs of the Foreign Office, the Admiralty, the Crown Agent’s and in the Woolwich Arsenal.
The first Zeppelin raid on London was on 31st May 1915. The Air Defences of London had now grown to 12 Anti Aircraft Guns and 12 acetylene gas powered searchlights manned by 120 special constables, but it was still not enough. In this early stage of the War the co-ordination of Anti Aircraft Guns and Searchlights was poor and this showed in the lack of results, but if they guns not been doing well, night-fighters had even less success. It was clear that the Air Defence of Britain was in need of an overhaul.
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In 1916 the War Office took over responsibility for all anti-aircraft defences and a new strategy was developed which included a searchlight belt 25 miles wide stretching from Northumberland to Sussex (Fig 4). Each searchlight company was controlled directly by the commander of the air squadron whose aircraft patrolled over that sector.
The benefits of such tactics soon became apparent when the first Zeppelin, L15, was shot down over Purfleet after first being illuminated by searchlights based in Woolwich. Searchlight units soon became adept at picking up Zeppelins, and although the raids continued, airships were frequently turned back by anti-aircraft fire. By 1st October 1916, the Zeppelin threat had all but ended and the Germans attentions turned to use of the bomber.
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On 11th November 1918, Armistice Day, the Air Defence of Great Britain had a total of 469 guns and 622 searchlights. By 1920, only two years later, the strength of
AA Defence in Great Britain had dropped to one brigade of 32 guns and one battalion of 48 searchlights.
Exerpts from: ROYAL ARTILLERY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Winter Meeting, Wednesday 17th January 2007, at Larkhill
A Presentation by Mr Keith Brigstock of ROYAL ARTILLERY SEARCHLIGHTS.
Doc came up on Google when I searched 'search lights ww1'
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