3 July 1942 Part 3

3 July 1942 Heusinger asks Zeitzler about Channel Islands supply and fortress reorganisation

[Scan 1061.jpg] Secret command matter. Army General Staff, Chief of Operations Branch. No. 20341/42 secret (IIa). Army High Command headquarters, 3 July 1942. Dispatched 3 July 1942. Dear Zeitzler, Various questions have been raised here about regulating command on the Channel Islands, particularly supply. I should like to bring them to your attention and ask you to express your views when convenient.

Headquarters 319th Division is on Guernsey. Its divisional Ib is with it, but because of difficult communications within the island group he can exert little influence over supply to Jersey and Alderney. On the mainland the divisional supply commander is at Granville with the supply columns; there is also a special supply staff at Saint-Malo with branches at Granville and Cherbourg. On the islands the division has hired motor vehicles and assembled them into columns. The mainland supply columns and divisional horses accommodated there are reportedly not fully employed in 319th Division’s service, thus tying up horse attendants unnecessarily.

The Quartermaster-General has therefore suggested a change: retain one common supply staff, equivalent to a divisional supply commander, for all three islands on the mainland, but otherwise give each island [Scan 1062.jpg] its own supply organisation proportionate to its size, not subordinate to a divisional Ib on Guernsey. This solution would release the present divisional supply commander at Granville, his columns and 319th Division’s mainland horse detachments for other employment. On the basis of the documents known to me, this solution seems worth considering.

Beyond that, the question arises whether a change in tactical command organisation is also expedient. Before 319th Division’s headquarters moved to Guernsey, the “Commandant of the British Channel Islands” was established on Jersey. This staff has remained there under its old title, although it no longer bears it justifiably, since divisional headquarters on Guernsey commands all the Channel Islands. 319th Division’s headquarters will probably not feel permanently stationed as long as it still hopes for relief and other employment with its division.

Since there is no prospect of that, given the importance Armed Forces High Command has always attached to the Channel Islands’ defensive strength, conversion of 319th Division into a static fortress formation should be considered, similar to 164th Division’s transfer some time ago to Crete as “Fortress Division Crete”. [Scan 1063.jpg] Details of any such reorganisation can be discussed later. No fundamental change in the present allocation of forces—five battalions Guernsey, three battalions and one machine-gun battalion Jersey, one battalion Alderney—will be needed. Among the questions requiring examination are incorporation of the present “Commandant of the British Channel Islands” into the fortress division, perhaps as a brigade headquarters, and the location of fortress divisional headquarters, Guernsey or Jersey.

I should be grateful, dear Zeitzler, if you would send me your views on these questions when convenient, before I pursue matters further here. With best greetings, yours faithfully, [signature absent].

German Army High Command records, T-78 Roll 317. Supplied English translation T78_Roll_317_English_Translation.docx. Source images: 1061.jpg, 1062.jpg, 1063.jpg.