25 September 1943 Part 1

25 September 1943 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind 338°, 13 m/sec. Between 10:45 and 11:54, No. 4 gun of Batterie Mirus was proof-fired. No malfunction or objection arose; the gun was again ready for action. Ammunition expenditure: four live 30.5-cm L/3.5 rounds with base fuzes.

Construction report, Naval Artillery Battalion 604.

Batterie Mirus: cable trenches were laid around the fire-control post. A mobile practice tank was built for training. The road from No. 1 gun to the service barrack was concreted. Work continued in the day room at No. 2 gun and on positions at Nos. 3 and 4 guns. Wiring at No. 3 gun was completed.

Batterie Mirus: Organisation Todt continued shuttering at anti-aircraft position No. 4 and began the interior fitting of anti-aircraft bunker No. 8.

Batterie Steinbruch: banking and work on the communication trenches of the Tobruk positions continued. A living room was prepared for Eastern Legion personnel. Other work was suspended while preparations were made for Abkomm practice firing. Organisation Todt removed shuttering from anti-aircraft bunkers Nos. 1 and 3 and plastered No. 1. Wire-mesh and shuttering work continued at No. 6, and levelling was carried out at the fire-control post and bunker No. 1. The Naval Construction Office and battery personnel installed a fuel pump and worked on the shell-breaking protective layer and concrete covering over the petrol tank.

Batterie Strassburg: the entrance passage to the fire-control post was altered and roofing began. Work on the trolley tracks continued. Splinter protection for the ammunition-bunker entrances was begun and completed at No. 1 gun. The two 7.5-cm positions were further extended.

Batterie Lothringen: work continued on camouflage, the minefield and infantry positions. Organisation Todt began installations in the new fire-control post, continued fitting the armoured cupola and the rangefinder cupola, and banked the fire-control-post bunker.

Naval Artillery Battalion 605, Batterie Annes: Organisation Todt poured the working floor at living bunker I and continued levelling and banking. Battery personnel extended several machine-gun and rifle positions, strengthened barbed wire, cleared fields of fire and spread topsoil for later grass sowing.

T-1022 Roll 2422, scans 0700–0701.