8 February 1944 Part 2

8 February 1944 Part 2 British fighter shot down on Jersey and shipping suspended

Date note: 8 February 1944.

Seventh Army Headquarters

Ia No. 832/44 Secret

Army headquarters, 8 February 1944

Secret

Ia evening reports

I Report to Commander in Chief West

1. Enemy situation

On 8 February at about 12:30, an attack by 36 bombers on construction sites 10 km south of Cherbourg. Damage not known.

One four-engined bomber shot down. Six members of the crew detained by Eastern Battalion 649 and an air-force signals company. The remainder of the crew burned with the aircraft. One British fighter shot down over Jersey by anti-aircraft fire. The pilot, a second lieutenant, was taken prisoner.

2. Eastern Battalion 642, 716th Infantry Division, and Georgian Battalion 795, 709th Infantry Division, hitherto divisional reserves, have additionally been committed to coastal protection. Battalion command posts: Eastern Battalion 642 at Ver-sur-Mer, northeast of Bayeux; Georgian Battalion 795 at Beaumont-Hague, west of Cherbourg.

3. The following have arrived for the 77th Infantry Division:

Headquarters of the 355th Division with map section and field-gendarmerie detachment; Field Post Office 355; half of Signals Battalion 223; and 29 officers of the leadership reserve.

Headquarters of the 355th Division accommodated at Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay, 9 km south of Caen.

4. Shipping between the Channel Islands and the mainland has been interrupted owing to stormy weather.

II Further reports from

1. LXXXIV Army Corps

The following have been deployed:

Eastern Battalion 642, with the attached 7th Company of Grenadier Regiment 736, in the new coastal-defence subgroup Neuvaines, previously the sector of 7th Company, Grenadier Regiment 736.

Georgian Battalion 795, less 1st Company, in coastal-defence subgroup Jobourg.

III Battalion, Grenadier Regiment 739, with 1st Company, Georgian Battalion 795, in the new coastal-defence subgroup Vauville, with battalion headquarters at Vasteville.

Accommodation details for the units will follow with a map.

15th Company, Grenadier Regiment 921, 243rd Infantry Division, moved to Coutances as 2nd Company, Field Replacement Battalion 243.

2. XXV and LXXIV Army Corps and LVIII Reserve Panzer Corps: nothing special to report.

[Signature not confidently deciphered. Original page marking 31.]

German Seventh Army Headquarters (AOK 7), NARA T-312 Roll 1565. Roll 1565 Jersey and Channel Islands English translations.docx, reference 5. Scan extracts: img007_01_0_1963.jpg. Extract filenames identify the original image strip, section number and horizontal pixel boundaries; these are not archival frame numbers.