20 February 1944

20 February 1944 Channel Islands Sea Defence diary

No special occurrences.

Construction, Naval Artillery Battalion 604. Batterie Mirus: camouflage and position construction at Nos. 1 and 2 guns; completion of the 7.5-cm bunker at No. 2 gun; further fitting of armour plates at No. 3 gun and completion at No. 2 gun; continued building at anti-aircraft bunkers Düsseldorf and Hamburg and position Essen; splinter-protection trenches at the service building; preparatory work for the Würzburg equipment.

Batterie Steinbruch: side walls of searchlight position B; an iron framework erected at Nos. 1 and 2 guns for camouflage; continued battery cabling and wire obstacles. The gardening firm carried out earth banking and levelling.

Batterie Strassburg: the first 7.5-cm shelter was poured; excavation began for the second, and continued for the 7.5-cm ammunition bunker. Shuttering for generating-set bunker B was completed and begun for bunker A. The Tobruk position at the sick bay was completed. The camouflage firm continued its work.

Batterie Lothringen: work continued on generating-set bunker A and the 7.5-cm bunkers; further development and camouflage of the fire-control post. The Naval Artillery Arsenal worked on ventilation in the fire-control post and fitted a range-elevation arc to No. 3 gun [Metererhöhungsbogen: elevation scale graduated for range in metres].

Naval Artillery Battalion 605, Batterie Annes: Organisation Todt installed fuse elements in accommodation bunker IV, at No. 4 gun and in both ammunition bunkers, and commissioned the electrical installation. A short circuit was found in the cable from the machinery bunker to the fire-control post. Since no testing bridge was available on the island, the cable would have to be dug up again. Painting in accommodation bunker I and the machinery bunker was continued and completed, and begun in accommodation bunker II. The camouflage detachment continued at the fire-control post and Nos. 3 and 4 guns.

The battery continued excavation at searchlight Bruno, the cable trench between No. 1 gun and accommodation bunker I, and the communication trench between the fire-control post and its accommodation bunker. Construction began on a mortar position and a tank-gun position [KwK]. Camouflage screens continued. The fire-control accommodation bunker was connected to the alarm and telephone lines. Levelling and camouflage continued.

Batterie Elsass: continued wire obstacles, camouflage of guns, covering pits against falling phosphorus, development of the air-raid shelter and construction of a splinter-protection wall for the ammunition bunker.

Artillery command post: Organisation Todt worked on lighting and ventilation, continued insulation and drainage, and excavated cable and drainage trenches. Naval radar: splinter protection continued. Naval Artillery Battalion 605 headquarters: infantry-defence installations developed.

Most local construction units and Organisation Todt personnel had been withdrawn some time ago, so construction to permanent-fortification standards was no longer possible. Now General Engineer order Gkdos 4344 of 14 January 1944, under which Fortress Engineer Sector Group II/19 strictly refused to issue even one further sack of cement, had completely halted even splinter-proof accommodation. In this command's area, shelters for two command posts, twelve guns and twelve searchlights, all 7.5-cm ammunition rooms and the transformer rooms for the new Würzburg-Riese equipment could not be finished, although much of the shuttering and reinforcement was already complete. If the order remained unchanged, these works, considered essential to the sector's combat readiness, could not be completed. All these construction works were currently suspended.

Roll 2422, scans 0792–0794, original pages 14–16.