

Regarding the two Abteilungen HQ, I’ve seen the names of their locations on the map “Lage 7. Armee – Stand 5.6.44” with “La Roche-Coucou” for II./1262 and Beaumont(-Hague) for I./1262. There’s a nice reproduction of the map in the internal cover of “Le Mur de l’Atlantique en Normandie” from A. Chazette.

For the 1051, 1052 and 1053, my guess is that they were independent Army batteries like so many along the coast, and redesignated with 1262 battery numbers in December 43 along with all the coastal batteries in Normandy. I cannot find traces of any batteries between Flamanville and Carteret in mid 43. Therefore, these 3 batteries would have been moved to the eastern side of the Cotentin peninsula between June and December 43. That would fit with Jos’ batteries of 8,8 cm Flak (r) given to 7th Army in December 43 (Jos: don’t you mean 31(r) instead of 32(r) according to your document presented earlier on this topic?)

The I./1262 HQ is the renamed “Eisenbahn-Artillerie-Abteilungsstab 681“ after December 43. (For the non-German speakers: Eisenbahn = railroad and Stab = HQ in German). The EAA Stab 681 covered the Army coastal batteries in north-western Cotentin that became the 1, 2, 3/1262. It is interessant to note that the 3./1262 was an “Eisenbahn Artillery” battery as it had 2 heavy guns on railtracks at Auderville-Laye.
There was no coastal battery of 17 cm near Flamanville in mid 43. Therefore, it’s probable that the 4/1262 battery with its 17 cm guns was also ordered to the area in December 43 like the 10./1261 battery at Pernelle II in eastern Cotentin. The Germans being so orderly, it would seem more “German” to me to split 8 batteries equally, i.e. 4 and 4, between 2 Abteilungen, instead of 3 and 5.

As for the 9th battery of the 1262 maybe it’s a wild goose chase : the Internet source where I saw it could have made an error in the first place, reading and recopying 9 instead of 8 from the original German document !

Emmanuel