26 March 1944 Part 1

26 March 1944 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind from 135°, 2 metres per second. No. 3 gun of Batterie Mirus test-fired with three rounds between 16:50 and 17:14. No defects; the gun is ready for action.

Batterie Mirus has initially converted to reduced charges for fifty rounds of ballistic-cap shells per gun. The ballistic settings of the L.B.-Kleingerät [source equipment designation] have initially been modified provisionally. In an emergency the old charge can quickly be restored for high-explosive and armour-piercing high-explosive shells, for which no inserts have yet been supplied.

Construction, Naval Artillery Battalion 604, Batterie Mirus: machine-gun positions at Nos. 1, 2 and 4 guns and the fire-control post; No. 3 gun complete and bolting of No. 4 gun's armour plate finished. Machine-gun barrage-fire limit stops fitted at the fire-control post and Nos. 2 and 4 guns. Work continued on the Würzburg set and service-barrack splinter trench. Old pipes in No. 3 gun's heating room repainted; interior fittings in No. 4 gun bunker; camouflage at No. 2 gun and road construction there. Gates reinstalled in the inner wire perimeter at No. 4 gun. Düsseldorf, Essen and Hamburg anti-aircraft positions, the new horn ring at No. 3 gun and Epa–Seipa continued. Reworking of 30.5-cm propellant cartridges and construction of the infantry command post on the battery commander's house. Bunkers for the 7.5-cm gun and generating sets still suspended owing to lack of cement.

Batterie Steinbruch: camouflage of infantry positions; side walls poured at searchlight B; generating-set bunker A continued. Water pipes laid to bunkers 1 and 2; earth banking at anti-aircraft position 4. Camouflage firm completed No. 3 gun and began Nos. 1 and 4.

Batterie Lothringen: interior fittings of the new fire-control post continued; blasting and dismantling at the old post; 7.5-cm gun shelter continued. Dummy battery position complete. Machine-gun barrage-fire limit stop fitted. Naval Artillery Arsenal continued ventilation of the new fire-control post.

Batterie Strassburg: old searchlight B replaced by a new one; wire obstacles at the fire-control post and demolition of the Brown House continued. Generating-set bunker A poured; infantry positions camouflaged. The second 7.5-cm gun position cannot be completed owing to lack of cement.

Naval Artillery Battalion 605, Batterie Annes, Organisation Todt: roof of ammunition bunker I cleared; work group also carried out tidying. Water pipe at the machinery bunker exposed because settling earth had cracked it and caused leakage. Painting completed in accommodation bunker 4, continued in ammunition bunker II and begun in ammunition bunker I. Camouflage detachment continued levelling and camouflage.

Battery work: both searchlights continued. Eighteen metres of rail laid at each so they can already be withdrawn that distance by day, hidden from view from the side. Old fire-control post demolished and a new entrance to the communication trench made. Earth bank at the fifth anti-aircraft machine gun strengthened. New position trenches, wire obstacles, levelling and camouflage continued.

Batterie Elsass: battery wire obstacles and reserve fire-control post continued. Machine-gun position concreted; additional shelter holes made; further air-raid rooms fitted out. Searchlight Bruno position constructed; positions for a light mortar built. Artillery command post: hot-water heating installed; painting, earth banking and excavation continued. Naval radar: splinter protection constructed. Battalion headquarters: infantry-defence installations developed.

Roll 2422, scans 0810–0812, original pages 27–29.