19 September 1942 Part 1

19 September 1942 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind from 180°, 1–2 metres per second. No special occurrences.

Construction, Naval Artillery Battalion 604 — Batterie Mirus. Senior Engineer Wagner of Naval High Command, together with representatives of the firms and Mirus construction management, tested the generator installations and compressed-air equipment of all guns, with satisfactory results. The acceptance record was being prepared at Naval High Command and would be forwarded shortly. Ammunition-transport tracks and supply tunnels at Nos. 1 and 2 progressing; No. 1 gun crew occupied its bunkers. Nos. 3 and 4 now both operational: oil for the ammunition-hoist gearing had arrived and been filled. Fire-control generator machinery erected but not yet completely secured to the foundations. Base of the fire-control accommodation bunker poured.

Batterie Strassburg: expansion of the existing auxiliary fire-control post planned because commencement of the actual main post was apparently not to be expected. Otherwise no important changes.

Batterie Steinbruch: interior work begun in Nos. 1 and 2 bunkers. Ammunition could begin to be stored at No. 1 from the middle of the following week. Command-transmission equipment at Nos. 1 and 2 being installed provisionally. Shuttering begun at No. 3 and removed at No. 4. All four guns could now be used for drill. No changes at the fire-control post; excavation continued.

Naval Artillery Battalion 605 — Batterie West. Fire-control post: excavation continued and excavation for the accommodation bunker begun. Turrets 1–4: essentially unchanged since the previous week because no decision had yet been made on alteration of the structures to remedy insufficient gun depression. Machinery bunker: work not resumed. Galley and communal room: excavation of the galley cellar and commencement of shuttering. Office erected and occupied. Battery telephone network completed. All barracks electrically wired.

T-1022 Roll 2422, PG 37996, scans 0513–0514.