11 March 1944 Part 2

11 March 1944 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind from 360°, 3 metres per second. At 17:05 four aircraft flying at ten to fifteen metres dropped three objects in the centre of grid BF 3542. Suspected minelaying. At 17:50 Batterie Annes (Alderney) fired on three Thunderbolts passing from east towards south-east at approximately 1,000 metres' range. No hits observed; no enemy action. Ammunition expenditure: twenty 2-cm rounds.

Construction, Naval Artillery Battalion 604, Batterie Mirus: battery work on wire obstacles at No. 1 gun, camouflage at Nos. 1 and 2 guns, overhaul of the infantry position at No. 2 gun, camouflage painting of the turret and bunker at No. 3 gun and camouflage of its splinter trenches. Düsseldorf, Essen and Hamburg anti-aircraft positions continued. A command post on the commanding officer's house begun; positions at the fire-control post and splinter trenches at the service barrack continued. Further preparations for the Würzburg set. New Langenberg searchlight position complete and searchlight moved into it. Work on Seipa and Epa; fitting the horn ring at No. 3 gun; relocation of 30.5-cm propellant cartridges begun.

Batterie Steinbruch: weaving of camouflage coverings at Nos. 2, 3 and 4 guns complete; wire obstacles and camouflage of infantry positions. Gardening firm's earth banking and levelling.

Batterie Strassburg: camouflage of the bunker for a 7.5-cm gun position and searchlight generating set B; wire obstacles at the fire-control post; demolition of the Brown House continued. The searchlight garages and 7.5-cm shelters at Mirus and Strassburg, and generating-set shelters at Steinbruch, cannot be completed because the necessary cement is lacking.

Batterie Lothringen: garage for generating set A and the 7.5-cm gun complete. Work on the new fire-control post; demolition by explosives at the old post; two mortar positions complete; construction of a dummy battery position begun. The Naval Artillery Arsenal worked on fire-control-post ventilation; metre-elevation arc fitted to No. 2 gun.

Roll 2422, scans 0803–0804, original pages 22–23.