Naval Gun Battery Mirus

After the German occupation of the British Channel Islands in 1940, Adolf Hitler feared that the British would try to quickly regain the islands. The three islands of Jersey, Alderney and Guernsey were therefore strongly fortified. One of the heavy gun batteries on Guernsey was Battery Mirus, and in the summer of 1942 it was ready for operation with its four 305 mm. guns.

These guns were Russian and fell into the hands of the Germans during their occupation of Norway in April 1940. After a modernization at the Krupp plant in Essen, the guns were sent to Guernsey where they were mounted in separate pillboxes. The name of the gun battery was in honor of Kapitan-zur-See Rolf Mirus, who was killed in 1941 while sailing between Guernsey and Alderney. The guns were active throughout the war and fired regularly at Allied ships that came within the gun's impressive range of 51 km. The Germans in Guernsey and the other Channel Islands surrendered to the Allies 9 May 1945.