4 October 1942 Part 7

4 October 1942 Sark raid reporting sequence garrison and supply details

Editorial note: Additional detail for the raid already recorded under 3–4 October. These are successive German reports and allegations, not additional raids. The expanded edition identifies Engineer Battalion 319; the earlier edition in the master reads 349.

At 05:30, 319 Division reported cries and shots from a house in central Sark, three wounded men and two missing, with investigation continuing. It requested daylight air reconnaissance; a customs boat and naval patrols were being used. At 05:45 the chief of staff required clarification whether the incident was an enemy raid, sabotage or drunken disturbance before reporting upwards. At 06:40 the division identified a British party, then estimated at sixteen, one NCO killed, two wounded and one missing; the fifth man had escaped. The report reached army at 07:10. These preliminary accounts were superseded by the investigation of 6 October.

Army asked who commanded Sark, weather conditions, landing-site and accommodation security, the engineers’ subordination, alarm and communications arrangements, cause of reporting delay and island strength. Corps replied: First Lieutenant Herdt, 6/583, commanded; heavy ground mist reduced visibility beneath clear higher skies. The initial suspected site was Dixcart Bay, protected by an S-minefield. The engineers’ quarters were roughly five hundred metres from shore and four hundred from the reserve strongpoint. Rifle fire and cries prompted alarm at 04:10; no fighting had been heard during the initial seizure. A telephone cable linked Sark’s commander to Regiment 583 on Guernsey and local strongpoints were interconnected.

The communication timeline was given as company to regiment 04:47, regiment to division 04:50, division’s preliminary report to corps 05:30, fuller report 06:40, chief of staff informed 06:45, commanding general 06:55, his amendments 07:00 and army informed 07:10. Sark held 6/583 reinforced by a platoon of 14/583, a heavy-machine-gun platoon and heavy-mortar section—four heavy machine guns and two heavy mortars—plus three static antitank guns, three flamethrowers and a customs detachment with one light machine gun.

Further answers at 18:25 state that the engineers were attacked asleep and ordered to rise, their hands bound. The dead NCO had two abdominal gunshot wounds and two stab wounds. The severely wounded man died from an abdominal gunshot; the lightly wounded man had a head cut. They occupied an older barrack immediately beside a hotel run and occupied by two women. The escape attempt began about twenty metres from the barrack. Sark was supplied from Saint Peter Port to Creux Harbour three times weekly and held ninety days’ food and eight ammunition scales.

Later tracks identified the landing at Point Château’s southern tip. The steep cliff had no guard or mines because it had been considered unsuitable. The engineer party had been placed there on the island commander’s own order. He was removed and proceedings ordered for disobeying the divisional commander’s earlier instructions. Corps considered local navigational and terrain knowledge necessary and suspected a former island resident had guided the raid. Carrier-pigeon communications with Britain were suspected because pigeons had been recovered elsewhere; this was an intelligence supposition.

Translation note: Times, casualty descriptions and distances vary among these first reports. They are retained as successive reports, not harmonised into a single definitive account.

T-314 Roll 1603, expanded reading edition T314_R1603_English_Translation.docx. 4 October 1942 | Source PDF pages 452–459. Supplement to material retained from earlier editions.