31 October 1941 Part 3

October 1941 Island reinforcements battery accident inspections and supplies

Editorial note: Monthly report or annex; placed at the end of the reporting month because no single document date is supplied. Dates within the text retain their original meaning.

On the Führer’s orders, the defences of the Channel Islands were strengthened further. Higher Command LX issued its implementing order Ia No. 653/41 Secret Command Matter on 10 October, reproduced as Annex 1. On 9 October, on the strength of a telegraphic preliminary order, the commander of 319th Infantry Division assumed command as Commander of the Island Group.

The following reinforcements arrived. Guernsey: Fortress Construction Staff 20 on 11 October and the last elements of Infantry Regiment 583 on 13 October, when that regiment’s commander assumed command of the Guernsey coastal-defence sector. Jersey: Machine-Gun Battalion 16 moved from Guernsey on 15 October; Panzerjäger Detachment 319 arrived on 17 October; and I Battalion, Artillery Regiment 319, on 30 October. Sark received a reinforced company of Infantry Regiment 583 on 16 October. Alderney received an additional rifle company on 18 October.

Army High Command ordered the reorganisation of 319th Infantry Division on 14 October. Details are in Ia Information Notice No. 14 at Annex 4, and implementation began immediately. During the first half of the month the artillery of 83rd Division was re-equipped with 10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 18 and 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18.

During live firing by Naval Battery St Auburg on Guernsey, equipped with captured French 22 cm guns, two guns suffered premature detonations in their barrels. Both guns were completely wrecked and one man was seriously injured. The detonations were attributed to defective fuzes in the captured French ammunition.

On 3 and 4 October Oberst i.G. Schmundt, the Führer’s adjutant, visited Guernsey and Jersey on the Führer’s instructions; see Annex 5. From 14 to 17 October the corps chief of the general staff accompanied Generalleutnant Hilpert, chief of the general staff of Army Group D, to the islands.

These papers record briefings and inspections concerning the tactical organisation of the Channel Islands. The Jersey discussion included the division of the island into three sectors, the central sector as the main effort, enemy possibilities, shortages affecting company command, the weakening of reserves by detachments, communications and the employment or exchange of Machine-Gun Battalion 16. Artillery employment, coastal defence and harbour protection were also reviewed. Portions of the surviving copy are faint; indistinct names and detailed figures have therefore not been reconstructed.

Winter clothing was allocated to the divisions and corps troops. Potatoes for winter storage were arriving. In addition to current coal requirements, Fifteenth Army supplied each division with a reserve controlled by the army. Reinforcement of the island garrisons required a substantial increase in stocks; one thousand stoves for each island left for Granville on 29 October. The full requirement for 310 huts was approved. Food on each island was held in four depots, and an increase of the ammunition scale to eight issues was ordered.

Weapons and equipment were requested to bring 319th Infantry Division’s rifle and machine-gun companies and anti-tank platoons up to first-wave establishment. Supply troops received captured rifles. Fifteen newly allocated tanks with French 4.7 cm guns, thirty 5 cm anti-tank guns and thirty spigot-type demolition projectors were distributed in consultation with the operations section.

Of 125 surplus motor vehicles held by 83rd Infantry Division, sixty-eight were used to fill shortages in other divisions, ten went to the Army Vehicle Park at Lisieux and the army received the remainder. Thirty-eight lorries issued by the army closed the remaining vehicle deficiencies. Inspections found surplus tyres and inner tubes; a collection campaign recovered 259 items for redistribution. Island fuel stocks were increased and a further rise in permanent Luftwaffe stocks was requested. Vehicle parades were held for all vehicles of 716th and 83rd Infantry Divisions, decontamination installations were extended, and a horse exchange provided each division with 275 light draught horses in return for the same number of heavy draught horses. More horses were sent to the islands. The corps quartermaster and medical, veterinary and administrative officers also lectured on battalion-commanders’ courses at Canisy.

T-314 Roll 1603, T314_Roll_1603_English_Translation.docx. Source PDF page 0034 | Original document page 1; Source PDF page 0035 | Original document page 2; Source PDF page 0036 | Original document page 3; Source PDF pages 0152–0155 | Annexes 5 and 6 to the October activity report; Source PDF pages 0156–0157 | Annex 7 to the October activity report of Higher Command XXXXIII Army Corps