10 November 1943 Part 1

10 November 1943 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

09:10 — Weather: wind 180°, 4 m/sec. Four Typhoons in grid square BF 2669, lower right, attacked harbour-protection boats F.K. 01 and F.K. 37 from north to north-east. Altitude was about 15 metres and range 600–800 metres. F.K. 37 returned fire. Two men were seriously wounded and slight damage was sustained. The diary credited F.K. 37 with shooting down one aircraft. Ammunition expenditure: 540 rounds of 2-cm ammunition; thirty-five rounds of 13.2-mm ammunition; fifty machine-gun rounds.

09:30–09:40 — Army Coastal Battery 464 conducted practice firing at a towed target. Ammunition expenditure: thirty 21-cm practice grenades.

10:18–10:22 — Batterie Steinbruch conducted Abkomm practice firing at a towed target. Ammunition expenditure: thirty-one rounds of 7.5-cm Abkomm practice ammunition.

11:13 — Seventeen to nineteen Whirlwinds in grid square BF 2668, lower right, first attacked harbour-protection boat F.K. 01 and then tug D 127 S and harbour-protection boat F.K. 37 with bombs and machine-gun fire. Altitude was 15–20 metres and range 500–600 metres. The tug was undamaged. The harbour-protection boats sustained slight damage to their superstructures and above the waterline but both remained operational. Four men were seriously and two lightly wounded. Hits were observed. Ammunition expenditure: 160 rounds of 2-cm ammunition; thirty-five rounds of 13.2-mm ammunition; 200 machine-gun rounds.

The attack on the tow and its two protection boats took place within Guernsey’s heavy anti-aircraft area, but the anti-aircraft weapons could not prevent it. The diary concluded that daytime firing exercises and boat traffic in the Channel Islands area could no longer be permitted.

The 3 November attack on Casquets also reopened the question of supplying its infantry platoon and lighthouse crew. The waterway and landing conditions permitted supply only by day. Supply boats had not yet been attacked, but the current air situation made this possible at any time. The remedy required two fast, seaworthy vessels capable of supplying Casquets at evening twilight regardless of the tidal current, then returning to Alderney during the night. With the existing boats, supply remained possible only by day; an air attack and its consequences were considered merely a matter of time.

T-1022 Roll 2422, scans 0721.