5 September 1942 Part 1

5 September 1942 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

Weather: wind from 225°, 3 metres per second. No special occurrences.

Construction, Naval Artillery Battalion 604 — Batterie Mirus. Nos. 1 and 2 guns: excavation of approaches for ammunition-transport tracks begun; backfilling continued at both guns. No. 3: permanent cabling sufficiently complete for powered elevation and traverse in an alarm; ammunition handling still manual. No. 4: machinery sufficiently complete for electric traverse in an alarm. Fire-control post: a parallax calculator delivered and the crew trained on it; temporary L.B.K. apparatus not yet usable. Excavation for the fire-control crew’s accommodation bunker completed and its base already poured.

For Mirus close defence, one 7.5-cm field gun with five hundred rounds and two heavy French 8.1-cm mortars with 124 bombs were delivered and emplaced. Strassburg received and emplaced two British 8.76-cm field guns for close defence.

Batterie Steinbruch: rough concrete at No. 1 was being dressed and smoothed. Formwork removal after pouring begun at No. 2; preparations for pouring at Nos. 3 and 4 continued. Reserve fire-control post held up by lack of shuttering boards. A five-metre rangefinder provisionally installed. Equipment delivered for the fire-control post: one bearing instrument with counter, E.A. clock C 31, E converter C 40, S converter C 40 and wind disc [technical designations retained]. Two French 2.5-cm anti-tank guns with 750 rounds emplaced for close defence.

Naval Artillery Battalion 605 — Batterie West. Fire-control post: excavation and blasting continued; a provisional wooden-barrack post erected. Turrets 1 and 2: shuttering and reinforcement continued. Turret 3: work suspended. Turret 4: shuttering and reinforcement complete, ready to pour; fourth accommodation barrack completed and occupied. Machinery bunker: excavation and blasting continued. Galley and communal room: excavation continued. No gun ready to fire.

T-1022 Roll 2422, PG 37996, scan 0502–0503.