5 December 1942 Part 1

5 December 1942 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind from 225°, 6–7 m/s.

No special events. Construction, M.A.A. 604: Battery Mirus — interior fitting-out continues at the previous pace. Parts of the director’s periscope for the main control post have arrived. Backfilling at gun 1 is complete. Wire obstacles around the guns have begun. Ammunition replenishment bunker I is being poured. The searchlight has arrived and is to be installed at Fort Saumarez next week.

Battery Strassburg — work on the upper platform of the temporary control post is to begin early next week. The rangefinder could be raised in the middle or at the end of that coming week, making the post ready. Shuttering and reinforcement work on the lower storey of the main control post has begun.

Battery Steinbruch — one-third of the shuttering of the upper control-post storey is complete. Shuttering of gun 4’s accommodation bunker is complete; pouring next week. The floor of gun 3’s accommodation bunker has been poured. One-fifth of gun 2’s excavation remains; excavation at gun 1 progresses. The searchlight has arrived and is temporarily emplaced. Its machinery is not ready: resistors smoulder. Maza has been informed.

M.A.A. 605, Battery West, report dated 5 December: Organisation Todt — preparations for pouring the control post. Turrets 1–4: installation of iron doors and hoists. Chipping back the upper edge of turret 4 by 30 cm is complete. Machinery-bunker work is suspended. Ammunition replenishment bunker I: excavation; bunker II: structure poured. Accommodation bunker 2: reinforcement begun; bunker 4: further excavation under the new plan. Battery’s own work: common-room construction continues; senior NCO barrack complete; all-round wire obstacles continued. [The ammunition-bunker numbering is retained as printed, despite differing progress under those numbers in the 29 November report.]

Signed Steinbach.

T-1022 Roll 2422, scan 0565–0566.