28 December 1943

28 December 1943 Sark commando raid and battery construction

Weather: wind from 70°, 6 m/sec. At 01:30, five detonations were heard on Sark from the direction of Derrible and Dixcart Bay. At the same time the Army strongpoint on the island's centre observed flashes in that direction and heard motor-boat noises. The Army Island Commander immediately ordered combat readiness throughout Sark and dispatched patrols to investigate.

At 02:50, motor noises receding towards south-south-east were again heard from the strongpoint by Sark harbour. The Guernsey radar sets obtained no result. Night reconnaissance ordered by the Sark Island Commander made no observations. Combat readiness for the strongpoint garrison was maintained until morning.

At 09:20, a renewed search of the ground between Derrible and Dixcart Bay found two English soldiers dead in a minefield on a ridge. Their faces had been blackened and they were armed with pistols and daggers. Their legs were tied together. German minesweepers standing south-east of Sark had made no observations. A detailed inspection found drag marks near the two bodies.

The diary concluded that the raiding force had suffered further dead and wounded. It stated that the British had attempted to drag casualties from the minefield and remove evidence of their presence, but had apparently been disturbed by the patrols sent out by the Island Commander. They therefore left the two bodies, one of which had a rope placed around the legs for recovery from the minefield.

Construction report, Naval Artillery Battalion 604.

Batterie Mirus: emplacement and splinter-protection trench construction continued, as did the road by No. 2 gun. A gate was built at the passage to “yellow 10”. Linings were made for pits providing cover against tanks, a storage box for machine-gun ammunition was built, a concrete stair was erected at anti-aircraft position Düsseldorf, and the Flanders fence at the north-east gate was finished. The glasshouses at the fire-control post were repaired and put to agricultural use. Organisation Todt: no work. Siemens installed lighting in anti-aircraft bunker Köln.

Batterie Steinbruch: fitting-out continued in the anti-aircraft bunkers, crew bunkers Nos. 1 and 2, orderly room and battery commander’s room. The washrooms in crew bunkers Nos. 1 and 4 were completed. Camouflage of the infantry-defence positions continued. Excavation began for cable trenches and work started on a new searchlight position at Krähennest. Organisation Todt's gardening firm levelled ground between anti-aircraft position II and the main entrance and transplanted hedges.

Batterie Strasbourg: expansion of the close-defence installations continued. Organisation Todt's camouflage firm continued camouflaging and painting the battery.

Batterie Lothringen: accommodation and washrooms for the Eastern Legion troops were completed and camouflaged. A protective shield was fitted to No. 4 gun; the Flanders fence and intermediate floor in the fire-control post were completed. Newly delivered 15-cm ammunition was stored and work continued on the cover pits already begun.

Naval Artillery Battalion 605, Batterie Annes: Organisation Todt was removing the internal shuttering from the return-cooling bunker. Progress was slow because all the shuttering timber had to be sawn up inside the cramped bunker before removal through its narrow access shaft. Organisation Todt also lacked workers. Its suspension of work on 17–19 December is recorded separately under those dates. The fine concrete layer on the machinery bunker was tarred, and ventilation shafts were cast around the bunker’s ventilation outlets. Lighting-cable installation in ammunition bunker I and excavation of further electrical-cable trenches continued.

Battery personnel levelled ground in front of the guns, laid turf before Nos. 3 and 4 guns, painted the interior and stored ammunition in the No. 1 gun bunker, constructed cheval-de-frise obstacles and carried out clearance throughout the battery grounds.

T-1022 Roll 2422, scans 0740–0742.