4 October 1942 Part 1

4 October 1942 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind from 225°, 2 metres per second.

05:25 [first hour digit partly obscured]: 319th Infantry Division reported that British troops had raided a strongpoint on Sark. The Sea Commander ordered: (1) the fastest available harbour-protection boats to search for enemy boats; (2) two harbour-protection boats to sail from Alderney to cut off the enemy’s retreat; (3) Naval Signals Officer Cherbourg to transmit a K.R. radio message notifying all vessels at sea and the appropriate shore authorities. Two minesweepers at St Peter Port were not employed because they were too slow, six knots, and would have to proceed against the current.

The raid was on an isolated, unguarded barrack whose occupants, engineers, were surprised in their sleep. According to a soldier who escaped, approximately sixteen British soldiers in uniform carried out the raid; some spoke German. The diary inferred that they knew Sark’s conditions precisely because they landed between two minefields.

After being surprised asleep, the occupants had their hands bound and were led away in their shirts. One soldier freed his hands and struck the nearest British soldier. The ensuing struggle caused the following reported losses: one NCO and one man killed, one man slightly wounded and one man missing.

The British took four rifles, one tunic, watches and pay books. They left two electric torches, two daggers, one wire cutter, two magazines and one ammunition box. The harbour-protection boats searching for enemy craft saw nothing. Daylight patrols to the islands around Sark also made no special observations. Sark’s only naval unit, the lighthouse detachment, was not involved. [This is the German diary’s account, including its witness statement and assessment.]

T-1022 Roll 2422, PG 37996, scans 0523–0524.