page_title: Batterie Mirus
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Batterie Mirus / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: German observation tower MP 3 Guernsey
context_page_description: The Batterie Mirus is located in Saint Peter and Saint Saviour, Guernsey. Originally called Batterie Nina, it comprised four 30.5 cm guns. The battery was constructed from November 1941 and through the first half of 1942, and was the largest battery in the Channel Islands, the guns having a maximum range of 51 km. Although the guns were removed in the early 1950s, the reinforced concrete structures and associated positions remain intact.
context_section_description: The four gun battery was scattered over an area 1 km x 0.75 km. Some local civilians were evicted during the construction period, others after it was completed. Roads were closed and access restricted.
  A work camp for the OT workers was built, Lager Westmark, many of the workers, were Republican Spanish who had fled Franco and who had been collected from internment camps in France. They were badly fed and treated by the civilian German construction companies they worked for. Other workers included specialist experts brought to the island from Germany or occupied countries and Guernsey men. All workers were paid for their work. 
  If British aircraft were near, the Germans would cut all the lights at their building sites, but not the power to the concrete mixers. The huge mixers ran night and day. 45,000m³ of concrete was poured into the battery area. After they had been built, the battery they covered with earth again. Despite the care, Allied flights over the island had photographed the construction sites.
  Apart from the gun positions, the battery comprised:
  Command bunker leitstand (type S446) underground, with observation cupola and 10m wide stereoscopic rangefinder 
  Accommodation bunker underground, attached to command bunker
  Wurzburg radar built on the base of a Flak 29 emplacement in April 1944 
  Four Flak 38 and five Flak 29 & Oerlikon 20mm L/85 anti-aircraft gun on towers (type F1242) above bunkers for flak crews
  Three reserve ammunition bunkers above ground with 60 cm light trolly tracks (type S448a)
  A mess hall was built above ground in the centre of the battery.
  Underground water storage tank
  Mirus was the only battery in the Channel Islands that had its own Wurzburg radar.
  The command centre of the battery was linked by telephone lines to naval headquarters, Seeko-Ki at St Jacques, in St Peter Port and from there to each naval range finding tower, MP1 (facing north) at Chouet, MP2 (facing North-West at L’Eree, MP3 (facing west) and MP4 (facing south) located on cliff tops at Pleinmont. Each level of each tower being connected to, and sighting for, a different naval battery using range finding equipment and Freya radar mounted on the roof of each tower. Seeko-Ki used a grid system to indicate target areas for the batteries.
  Apart from the close support (<1,000m) 20mm anti aircraft guns, the battery received support from air attack from the six 8.8cm Flak batteries on the island. Three 60 cm and two 150cm searchlights provided night time illumination.
  Landings from sea or air landing assault were protected by coastal defences and by infantry and a panzer tank unit located inland. Close to the battery were two 8.1 cm and three 5 cm mortar positions, three 7.5cm FK 231(f) field artillery guns, 16 concrete machine gun positions, barbed wire and mines which gave all round protection.
  All accommodation bunkers produced using the standard Regelbau system were protected against gas attack with air tight doors, ventilation and filtration systems.
caption: MP3 range-finding tower
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