11 February 1943 Part 1

11–12 February 1943 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary and Le Marchant radar assessment

No special occurrences.

Fu.M.G. II Le Marchant, installed on 1 December 1942, had made no detections apart from a single occasion on 19 January. It had repeatedly been directed towards targets on the normal shipping route, generally at modest ranges, but had failed to detect even the largest vessels.

On 19 January it first detected two outpost boats and one coaster at ranges of 7–9 kilometres; beyond that distance the vessels could no longer be detected. In this condition the equipment was completely useless for artillery purposes, although an effective radar set at this position was considered very important.

A specialist inspection from 8 to 10 February found the set only conditionally operational. The required spare parts were expected in three to four weeks; until they arrived, reliable detections could not be expected. After almost a quarter of a year in service, the set was therefore tactically unusable and was unlikely to become usable within the following month.

Editorial note: the repeated typed extract on scan 0597 reads nearly a quarter of a year, consistent with installation on 1 December 1942; the fraction is less clear in scan 0595. Scan 0597 corrects the command heading from Normandy to Channel Islands and carries reference 1/Skl 595/43 g. The repeated assessment is included once here. Later administrative annotations are recorded separately.

T-1022 Roll 2422, PG 37997, scan 0595, 0597.