16 April 1943 Part 2

16 April 1943 Coastal strongpoint exercises and live firing Annex 123

Corps Headquarters, Ia 3197/43 (1592), secret, to the 716th, 709th and 319th Divisions and Artillery Commander 118.

1. Practise defence of resistance nests belonging to all three services, including batteries and positions in depth, by attacking them in exercises. Represent as far as possible every weapon and means of attack available to a landed enemy, using dummies if necessary. References are intelligence instructions on British fighting methods and American views on landing operations. Defenders must employ every weapon present in the resistance nest, the aim being to train a fully versatile soldier. Evaluate weaknesses in weapon handling revealed by the first exercise; repeat it and check that all have been corrected.

2. Exercises may also test whether the strongpoint’s supply arrangements meet orders. Cut it off for at least twenty-four hours from all normal supplies, except field post and medical care, and keep its garrison at Alarm Stage II. Exercise-control personnel supervise the garrison’s conduct.

3. Conduct adjustment firing and barrage checks towards the sea as often as training-ammunition allocations permit. They are compulsory during relief and when troops arrive who have not yet fired the strongpoint’s captured weapons with live ammunition. As a guide, allocate 30% of training ammunition to coastal weapons. This should allow machine guns to fire up to five rounds twice weekly; mortars, anti-tank guns, tank guns and other artillery up to two rounds once monthly; anti-landing guns up to two rounds twice monthly.

Use remaining training ammunition for coastal relief shoots, reserve exercises inland and especially live firing from resistance nests, including at night. Practise cooperation among several resistance nests and supporting weapons. Repeatedly check the correct placement of barrages, cooperation of all weapons with live rounds and changes in fire direction, concentrating fire at decisive points and switching back to individual targets. For newly deployed troops, such as Georgian Battalion 797, request a special one-time training-ammunition allocation for live firing with every static weapon.

4. Formal advance notification is required only for live firing that may endanger ships, where barrages fall across regular shipping channels, or where the trajectory exceeds one hundred metres altitude. Notify the naval commandant at least forty-eight hours in advance in the first case. For high trajectories notify Air Region Command Western France, Operations Group Ia, by teleprinter at least forty-eight hours in advance, copying Corps Headquarters. Give time, exercise area on a 1:200,000 map, firing direction and maximum trajectory height.

Divisions also notify directly airfields and aircraft-reporting stations in their areas and Airfield Area Caen. The corps-area reporting offices are Air Watch Command Caen and reporting centres at Théville, Douvres and Verne [last place name uncertain]. For all other firing, notify neighbours and nearby offices of other services by the simplest means to avoid unnecessary enquiries, particularly at night. Ensure that every office sending patrols into the danger area is informed. The superior officer ordering the firing is responsible for safety.

Translation note: The date is corrected or overwritten in the source; read as 16 April.

T-314 Roll 1604, T314_R1604_English_Translation.docx. 16 April 1943 | Source PDF pages 392–394. Selected island-related text; document or report date governs placement.