9 October 1941 Part 3

9 October 1941 Report on the garrisons and defensive readiness of the British Channel Islands

[Scan 1132.jpg] Army High Command, Army General Staff, Operations Branch IIa, no. 1567/41, top secret. Headquarters, 9 October 1941. Commanders only; convey only by officer. Fourth of four copies. Reference: Armed Forces High Command/Operations Staff/L I op no. 002222/41, top secret, of 29 September 1941. Subject: garrisoning the British Channel Islands. Three annexes. To Armed Forces High Command/Operations Staff/L. [Receipt stamp dated 14 October 1941.]

In response to the above telegram, Army High Command reports: I. Commander-in-Chief West continually checks defence preparations on the Channel Islands. Constant readiness of the island garrisons is assured. II. To reinforce the infantry, Infantry Regiment 583, the third infantry regiment of the 319th Infantry Division, is being transferred with two battalions to Guernsey and one to Jersey. Corresponding reinforcement of signals and supply troops and of ammunition and ration reserves has been ordered.

III. Enclosed is one map each of Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney at 1:10,000, showing the state of defence on 3 October 1941. Details: 1) Sector boundaries, organization, all infantry field works (strongpoints and obstacles), minefields and deployed captured tanks are marked in blue.

[Scan 1133.jpg] Defence plan: infantry defence is organized for complete all-round defence of individual strongpoints. Heavy weapons can generally cover a radius of 2.5 to 3.5 kilometres. Particular emphasis is placed on mutual flanking fire; this is possible everywhere. Within the infantry strongpoints, alternative positions for heavy weapons for all-round defence have been reconnoitred, surveyed and made ready for occupation. Mining is being reinforced immediately; 5,000 mines (1,000 antitank Teller mines and 4,000 S-mines) have been made available immediately.

2) Artillery coast and island defence: all artillery except antiaircraft guns is marked in red. Traverse sectors, calibres and gun types are individually marked in red on the maps. Batteries not shown in artillery strongpoints (outlined in red) also constitute the islands’ mobile artillery reserves, but occupy positions at night so that they can fire barrages off the coast along the principal firing directions shown. Batteries 470 on Jersey and 471 on Guernsey currently exist only as personnel units; their positions are under construction (22 cm guns). Mountings and guns will arrive during October.

3) Deployed antiaircraft artillery is shown in brown. Ground combat employment is also planned and possible. According to Air Fleet 3, Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment Headquarters 39, half of 3rd Battery/911 (six 2 cm guns) and 1st Battery/911 (nine 3.7 cm guns) are additionally on their way.

[Scan 1134.jpg] 4) Airfields are shown in yellow. Captured tanks are chiefly employed for their protection, in camouflaged garages. 5) Barrage plans have been prepared everywhere and adapted to all possibilities, with flexible fire control.

6) Command arrangements: the commander of the 319th Infantry Division has assumed command over Guernsey and Jersey as commander of the island group. Island commanders: on Guernsey, the island-group commander; on Jersey, Colonel Count Schmettow. The other armed services on the islands have been subordinated, including all organs and installations of the Military Commander in France. This also puts all communications under one authority.

Alderney has been left tactically in the coastal defence sector of the 83rd Infantry Division because of better communications and for supply reasons. A particularly suitable captain with an improvised staff has been appointed island commander. In cooperation with the Naval Commander Normandy, artillery fire from both sides is to block passage between the Cherbourg peninsula and the eastern side of Alderney.

7) Further infantry reinforcement: Infantry Regiment 583 of the 319th Division is being transferred with two battalions to Guernsey and one to Jersey. One battalion has already been transferred. Weather permitting, the entire transfer will be completed on 11 October 1941.

[Scan 1135.jpg] 8) Supply: forty-five days’ rations for the garrison strength are already on the islands; this is currently being increased to sixty days. Potatoes for the civilian population are currently stocked on the islands until the end of the year. 9) Infantry ammunition: an average of four allocations.

Artillery ammunition. Guernsey: four 7.5 cm guns, 4,000 rounds; eight 10 cm (Czech) field howitzers, 7,200; eight 15 cm guns, 4,248; four French 15.5 cm guns, 1,760; nine 21 cm mortars 18, 2,700; four French 22 cm guns 17, 960; four French naval 22 cm guns, 1,200. Jersey: four French 7.5 cm guns, 4,000 rounds; eight Czech 10 cm howitzers, 7,200; four French 15.5 cm guns, 1,760; nine 21 cm mortars 18, 2,700; three naval 15 cm guns, 894. Alderney: four 15 cm guns 18, 1,860 rounds; three naval 17 cm guns, 1,659.

[Scan 1136.jpg] 10) Delivery of fifteen self-propelled 4.7 cm antitank guns and twenty-five to thirty 5 cm antitank guns to the islands has been ordered. Five 5 cm antitank guns will go to Alderney; the remainder will be employed on Guernsey and Jersey under the island-group commander’s instructions. Commander-in-Chief West has already ordered delivery destinations.

11) Air Fleet 3’s cooperation in an enemy attack on the islands is assured with all available forces, including replacement groups and flights of the night-fighter command and fighter school. 12) Communications are continually tested through signals exercises. 13) Commander-in-Chief West has ordered particular attention to communications, faultless observation and reporting, and accustoming the entire coastal defence to darkness.

14) By agreement with Naval Group Command West and Air Fleet Command 3, Siebel ferries will be equipped and employed as antiaircraft platforms to escort transports: initially four, and ten when further seafaring personnel become available. IV. Battery plans and infantry strongpoint plans at 1:2,500, and further information on the state of fortification construction, will follow. By order [signature unclear].

Distribution: Armed Forces High Command/Operations Staff/Branch L, first copy with three annexes; Army High Command/General of Engineers and Fortresses, second without annexes; Operations Branch V, third without annexes; Operations Branch IIa, fourth without annexes. [The three referenced maps are not attached within scans 1132–1136.]

Original source image 1135.jpg — T-78 Roll 317. Report on the garrisons and defensive readiness of the British Channel Islands.

German Army High Command records, T-78 Roll 317. Supplied English translation T78_Roll_317_English_Translation.docx. Source images: 1132.jpg, 1133.jpg, 1134.jpg, 1135.jpg, 1136.jpg.