15 April 1944 Part 5

15 April 1944 Part 5 Discussion following Rommel’s visit: strength of the Channel Islands

Date note: 15 April 1944.

Army headquarters, 15 April 1944. Secret Command Matter. First copy.

Discussion arising from General Field Marshal Rommel’s presence on 14 April.

[Routing stamp: to be submitted to Ia upon his return. Handwritten circulation notes partly indistinct.]

1. Sabotage activity. A general increase is evident, particularly a shift into the area around Pontivy. Clearing this up is necessary. Since there are no lists of inhabitants, control is difficult. Chief of Staff’s proposal: either declare the whole of Brittany a combat zone, or bring in Military Commander’s forces and reinforce the SD. Employment of parts of the Eastern Cavalry Battalion in the XXV Army Corps area is advisable.

2. The SS military geology battalion has done little work. The battalion remains. The commanding general is responsible for its work output. General finding in LXXIV Army Corps: local commanders pay too little attention to fortification work and do not press it forward sufficiently. Chief of Staff’s finding: LXXIV Army Corps lacks the labour, hence the small progress. It is necessary to transfer Organisation Todt labour here from XXV Army Corps, together with firms and material.

3. Foreshore obstacles in Douarnenez Bay are inadequate; the stakes in particular are too short. Washed out by the surf. The whole installation can only be described as a dummy installation.

4. XXV Army Corps allegedly lacks wire.

[Original page 2]

5. Landward fronts are partly very good and partly still being developed. They are to enable divisions to defend themselves towards the rear against airborne troops. Definition: the rear boundary of the coastal defence sectors, facing in the opposite direction to the coastal front. Further construction must allow for managing with considerably fewer troops: only the divisions deployed in front, not the reserve divisions, can be counted on. This requires artillery, supply troops, trains and stocks to be located within the coastal defence sectors. Army installations that must remain outside them are to be concentrated so that they can defend themselves.

6. Artillery construction in XXV Army Corps is exemplary.

7. Construction of the second position is already being stopped in places.

8. The Army must direct construction of foreshore obstacles. [Handwritten: tackle it!]

9. LXXIV Army Corps claims that the Army prohibited arming the mines on foreshore obstacle stakes (telephone message from Colonel von Stiott [surname reading uncertain]).

10. Tetrahedra (Hepp) very good. Stable, since the individual parts are cast together and can therefore withstand the great loads caused by large landing craft running onto them.

11. Proposal: investigate use of Brittany’s canals for supply traffic to relieve the railway.

12. Eastern troops made a very good impression. Reinforcement of their cadre personnel nevertheless appears necessary.

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13. The Navy and Luftwaffe cannot be expected to exchange their good German weapons for captured weapons to strengthen the Eastern troops, since neither service will give anything up.

14. Reinforcement of Saint-Nazaire. Deployment of I Battalion, Grenadier Regiment 984, on the landward front is necessary. Conversely, it is proposed not to withdraw IV Battalion, Artillery Regiment 275, since the fortress’s landward front appears sufficiently secured.

15. Conditions at Special-Purpose Divisional Headquarters 136 are particularly difficult. The sector is not regarded as seriously threatened.

16. No further reliefs from 15 May.

17. Cherbourg Fortress. Motorised Artillery Regimental Group 621 is to remain where it is. The fortress’s landward front is sufficiently secured.

18. Chief of Staff’s briefing. The Channel Islands will be impregnable in a month! They can hold out for half a year against any attack. Their garrison is too strong. The Führer nevertheless will not depart from this.

19. The fortification work at Nantes has been very skilfully carried out. More mines are still to be laid.

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20. In accordance with Basic Order No. 22, there is no wish to split Angers Engineer School into an Army Group and an Army engineer school.

21. Trials with heavy rocket-launching equipment on tanks and small tractors deserve attention. Proposal: generally keep 15% of the heavy rocket-launching equipment mobile.

22. Chief of Staff’s briefing. The Army can accomplish more than its allocation of concrete permits. Savings elsewhere will release 800,000 cubic metres. The Army should request whatever else it needs. Whoever achieves the most also receives the most.

23. The Luftwaffe’s personnel and transport dollies cannot be counted on.

24. Chief of Staff’s briefing. Gas-mask equipment of Eastern troops: XXV Army Corps 8%; LXXIV Army Corps 0%; LXXXIV Army Corps 15%. Accelerated allocation necessary.

Distribution [handwritten]: Ia, first copy; OQu, second copy; Ic, third copy; war diary, fourth copy.

German Seventh Army Headquarters (AOK 7), NARA T-312 Roll 1565. Roll 1565 Jersey and Channel Islands English translations.docx, reference 24. Scan extracts: img042_01_0_1882.jpg, img042_02_1882_3820.jpg, img042_03_3820_5768.jpg, img042_04_5768_7703.jpg. Extract filenames identify the original image strip, section number and horizontal pixel boundaries; these are not archival frame numbers.