Military Collections in Sweden – First Chapter

January 26, 2025 CarloRLeave a comment

When visiting the countries of northern Europe as a foreigner today, you may be easily captured by the beautiful landscapes and elegant architectures, as well as the great food options and the generally exceptional hospitality. Actually, a visit to Scandinavia will hardly disappoint, either in the summer or in the cold season. Everywhere looks like an ideal place for having a good time off.

However, digging in the military history of Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, you might be surprised. Actually, since medieval times peaceful mutual relations have been built very slowly over the years in the area, going through centuries of unrest and struggle often culminating in open wars. In the global conflicts brought about starting with Napoleon until the end of the Cold War roughly 190 years later, the Countries around the Baltic sea have been in the center of a theater of operations of their own.

World War II and the Cold War

Looking at WWII and the Cold War era, the roles of Northern-European countries have been significantly different. Denmark, geographically untenable in front of the German enemy, was taken by Hitler’s Third Reich forces almost overnight, with Norway following shortly after. This gave birth to fierce resistance actions, trying to jeopardize the activities of the enemy. Norway was in the focus of much attention by the Western Allies, who tried to land in Narvik, sank battleship Bismarck, bombed the heavy water plant in Vemork, and transited in its arctic seas to feed Stalin’s Soviet Union with much needed supply (see this chapter). Conversely, Finland fought a fierce war against the USSR, ending up as an ally of Germany after the start of Operation Barbarossa, and finally turning against the Wehrmacht on agreement with the USSR, and managing to leave the conflict in 1944 (see this chapter).

Finally, Sweden did not take part to offensive military actions in WWII, managing to keep a neutral role through delicate diplomatic actions. For this neutrality to be credible however, the Country had to be defended, and its border – both on land and along the shoreline – actively guarded. This meant the construction of many forts all along the Baltic coast, to the west, south and east, as well as ground installations along the border with Finland. Similarly, the military tradition of Sweden, that in modern times date at least from the 17th century, when in the Thirty Years War Sweden managed to take a primary role in the balance of powers in Europe, was not discontinued at all. Despite neutrality, traditional manufacturers of fine firearms and shipbuilders were flanked over time by companies making excellent heavy-duty vehicles, armored tanks and aircraft.

In the Cold War period following the end of WWII, Scandinavia got a possibly even more central status, due to its proximity with the USSR and the control it could exercise on the sea accesses of the Soviet Union to the Northern Atlantic. Where Denmark and Norway joined NATO (see this chapter for Norway, this for Denmark), Finland and Sweden kept a neutral role. Once again, Sweden, not entangled in a complicated post-WWII deal with the USSR unlike Finland, could develop the credibility of its neutrality, preparing for defending against the Soviet threat with a build-up of its armed forces, and the development of original and high-tech military solutions, tailored to its territorial and climatic needs, carried out mostly in-house.

Traces in Sweden

The facts of WWII and especially of the Cold War in Sweden have left relevant traces, which are proudly preserved for the public either in world-class exhibitions, sometimes prepared on the very site of former military installations, or in smaller, well-crafted and much detailed collections, often run by groups of exceptionally passionate enthusiasts.

This and the following chapters cover some of them, offering a cut-out of what a visitor interested in military technology and history can find in beautiful Sweden. Photographs were taken in 2024.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Aeroseum – former Säve Air Force Base – Göteborg
Maritiman – Göteborg

Sights

Aeroseum – former Säve Air Force Base – Göteborg

Besides making for a testimony to the originality and commitment of Sweden military planners, the air force base of Säve, located about 4 miles north of the major town of Göteborg in South-Western Sweden, is truly a one-of-a-kind example of a Cold War installation. Conceived for anti-blast protection in the early years of the nuclear age, the base was designed to carry out all operations, except take-off and landing, underground. This included aircraft storage and servicing, but also refueling, loading, towing, and lighting the engines in corridors carved down to 100 feet underground in the hard Scandinavian rock!

The project had an anticipation during WWII, when some special aircraft shelters had been obtained on site by drilling the hillside. However, the actual digging of this incredible Cold War underground base was started in 1950, to be inaugurated by the king Gustav VI Adolf in 1955 (even if not totally complete at the time). The base was sized for a crew of 40 men staying underground with 15 aircraft, of the then new type Saab J29 Tunnan (which translates into ‘barrel’).

The plan of the underground facility features multiple accesses from ground level, on the sides of local hills. Entrances are all misaligned, to reduce the potential damage from a hit by a single attacker. The actual access to the descending tunnel driving down is through a colossal concrete sliding door, 2.3 ft thick and weighing 70 tonnes, with a front area such to allow a fully mounted aircraft to transit with sufficient clearance from the walls and ceiling!

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Interestingly, the concrete door is preceded outside by a curtain, which together with traffic lights, switch cabinets and cables can still be seen today. This was installed for further protection to prevent the effects of fallout and contamination, in case of a nuclear attack on the base premises. The heavy curtain could be effective in stopping debris and lower-energy contaminated particles from even touching the doors. Soaked in water for cleansing, it could be then potentially re-employed multiple times, in case of a nuclear war scenario with waves of nuclear strikes.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

This feature of the base, already pretty unusual, is the first to welcome – and strike! – the visitor. Then the tour takes you inside, for a full exploration of the underground facility beyond the massive concrete doors.

The feeling when accessing the tunnel is really of something huge. A description of the history of the base is offered as a first item through pictures, schemes and original crests. Then the roomy environment of the access tunnel, descending in a bend to the bottom part of the base, is stuffed with a rich collection of aircraft and helicopters in service with the Swedish Air Force, their engines and technical accessories.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The base of Säve was fully completed by 1963, including the fuel supply system which had posed some safety issues in its original design (fuel went down in case of accidental spilling, thus remaining trapped in the deep-end of the base). However, the F9 squadron of the Air Force, home-based in Säve, was disbanded just a few years later, in 1969. This meant that the underground airbase saw active service with the J29 and later the J34, the latter being the Swedish designation of the British Hawker Hunter. After 1969, Säve was home base to the 2nd Helicopter Squadron, and the underground part, hardly of use for rotorcraft, was then employed as a safe storage for non-active aircraft, notably the illustrious Saab J35 Draken, of which 70 (!) were long-term stored inside, with wings dismounted. The base finally ended its military service in 1998. The underground bunker was re-opened later as the Aeroseum museum, where most of the former airbase was turned into a civilian airport, still working today.

Among the aircraft on display in this first descending tunnel are a Saab J29 Tunnan, alongside its De Havilland Ghost jet engine (license-built under the designation RM2 by Svenska Flygmotor, later Volvo Aero, in Sweden). In service between 1948 and 1976 with the Swedish Air Force, the somewhat elusive J29, little known in the West, was a massively produced swept-wing fighter and fighter-bomber, with 661 exemplars manufactured! Austria, another non-NATO country lying on the border with the Soviet bloc, was the only foreign customer for this machine, which in the 1950s formed the backbone of Sweden’s defense force. A modern fighter in many respects, in the same class of the North American F-86 Sabre and of the MiG-15, the J29 was not easy to master for novel pilots, and unfortunately caused many accidental losses, at a time when Sweden was the fourth air force in the world in strength. It was actively employed in the Congo, where Sweden took part within the United Nations contingent in the 1960s.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

On display are also the towing truck and generator employed for engine spool up. In a scramble, the aircraft could be towed up by this Volvo truck, directed on an open air apron, from where it could complete its taxi run alone and finally take-off.

Next in line is a Saab J35 Draken (meaning ‘dragon’), an iconic and successful supersonic fighter/interceptor from Sweden, first flown in 1955 and entering service in 1960, manufactured in 615 exemplars and not less than 10 variants. Besides the Swedish Air Force it was adopted by the foreign Air Forces of Denmark, Finland, and again Austria, the last to withdraw it from service in 2005! This Mach 2 capable machine, with a double-delta wing planform, was propelled by a slightly modified Rolls-Royce Avon engine (manufactured by Svenska Flygmotor as RM6). An original design from the Swedish school, among the features making it so versatile were provision for a two-seats airframe, as well as a general plant simplicity and undercarriage sturdiness, which together with a stopping parachute allowed its deployment from the wartime landing strips.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The latter were obtained in Sweden from the quick conversion of short sections of straight roads in the highway system, creating a network of so-called krigsflygbaser (‘war air bases’), in a defense plan called Bas 60 and later Bas 90. A solution to be found also in the Federal Republic of Germany in the Cold War years, this could greatly enhance the chance of survival of the air force following enemy strike on major air bases, through force dispersal. Yet not all aircraft can safely operate from similar airstrips. Swedish aircraft take this ability into account from the design phase, yielding dependable aircraft, capable of operations in far-from-ideal conditions.

Despite featuring a double, fixed-geometry and comparatively small air intake, the aircraft is single-engined. Underneath the fuselage, this aircraft features a ram air turbine (RAT), for powering the aircraft systems through kinetic energy in the airflow, in case of an engine shut-off in flight.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

To the back of this exemplar of the Draken model is a Saab J37 Viggen (which is the name of a local species of duck). Another great example of an original design from Sweden, the J37 is an attack aircraft built in a canard configuration, and like its predecessor capable of short take-off and landing from road runways. Made in mode than 300 exemplars and employed uniquely by Sweden, it was in service between 1971 and 2007. Quite difficult to see out of Sweden, at the time of its introduction it was arguably the most advanced aircraft design to date, in terms of aerodynamic study, avionic suite and attack potential.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Developed in a number of variants for several roles, the exemplar on display features a number of payloads, to be attached to the underwing pylons or under the fuselage, also thanks to the good clearance from ground offered by the tall undercarriage (not to be found on the Draken). Differently from its Saab predecessors, the J37 was powered by a Volvo RM8, based on the American Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbojet, instead of a British engine.

Close to the Viggen, on display is a Saab car employed for friction test on the runway. This was rather widespread in airport facilities in Sweden. Vehicles with similar function can still be found everywhere in the world, especially in countries where runways are subject to icing.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Next in the line is the Saab JAS 39 Gripen, the most current evolution of the Saab dynasty of attack aircraft. Currently manufactured in more than 300 exemplars and exported to several countries, this machine is another original design from Sweden which is also a post-Cold War commercial success. A canard design like the Viggen, this model was introduced in the late 1980s, and it has been updated over the years as an air superiority platform, with a good mix of performance and efficacy, dependability and economical efficiency. Based on the Volvo RM12, derived from the American General Electric F404, it is currently in service. The aircraft on display is the oldest surviving.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Before reaching to the bottom, in one of the recesses along the corridor, photos from the construction phase of the bunker base, its inauguration and the years of operation can be checked out.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Also mentioned in the exhibition is the peculiar chapter of the Swedish nuclear program. The latter was envisioned in the early nuclear age following WWII, and it took shape especially in the 1950s and early 1960s. Besides facilities for the making of what was needed for fueling and managing a nuclear deterrent, on the aviation side Saab was tasked with dedicated projects for a delivery aircraft for nuclear ordnance, to flank the Saab J32 Lansen intended as an interim platform in that role. Project A 36, for an aircraft featuring a Viggen-like fuselage but no canard, and with an unusual overhead layout of the engine similar to the North American F-107, was in the pipeline when the government started to face increasing contrast from the public opinion concerning the entire national nuclear program, which was eventually cancelled in 1968.

Looking at the structure of the tunnel, left mostly untouched from the days of operation, the original wiring and piping for various systems – electrical, ventilation, etc. – can still be seen. The tunnel is also interspersed with frames, where light fire-proof doors could be lowered in case of an accidental fire. They could seal segments of the tunnel, which could then be flooded with fire-suppressing foam.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Approaching the bottom of the descending tunnel, it is possible to find a group of helicopters, in service in Sweden mostly for rescue operations, like an ubiquitous US-made Piasecki H-21 (the ‘Flying banana’), a Sud Aviation Allouette 2, an Agusta-Bell 402 and a Bell 206, the latter employed in polar missions from icebreaker Ymen. An Eurocopter Super Puma and a MBB Bo 105 come from the Swedish military, the latter reportedly having been prepared in a special anti-tank version, but never pressed into service.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Once on the bottom level, you can explore the halls, which are all interconnected, forming a network with a plant similar to a double ‘H’. On the crossing of two halls, you can spot the big round turntables, employed to turn the aircraft when towing them from storage to the base of the ramps going up. There are actually two of these ramps, one is that employed for access by visitors, the other is currently only visible from the bottom level, and off limits (employed for museum service). Its access can be found to the opposite side of the bottom level upon entering.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

You can find several aircraft and exhibits on this level, including some pay-per-use professional flight simulators. An interesting exhibition tells about the organization of the STRIL, an acronym for stridsledning och luftbevakning, forming the backbone of the air defense system of Sweden from the early years of the Cold War on. Among the most unique facilities managed by the system are the krigsflygbaser mentioned above. Some original pictures and scale models tell about the detailed scheme of such bases, which could be activated when conditions required.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

It is possible to board examples of both the Draken and Viggen models. The latter is presented with the engine dismounted from the airframe, and with many examples of war load either hanging from the wing pylons, or lying underneath. The number of options is really big, witnessing the versatility of the Viggen as an airborne platform.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The cockpit of the Viggen has evolved over time. The one you can see is fully analog. Close by is also the RM8 jet engine of the Viggen, with the afterburner pipe installed – a pretty long assembly! Also a trailer for storing and transporting jet engines is on display.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

One of the Saab Draken exemplars is displayed alongside its engine as well. Interestingly, the afterburner pipe has been separated from the engine core in this case, allowing to check their respective size.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Another interesting item on display in this area, alongside a Bell 47 helicopter with its distinctive bubble canopy, is a Saab J32 Lansen. Primarily built as a fighter and entering service in the 1950s, the career of the Lansen stretched to the 1990s, and saw it employed in several roles, including as a trainer. Interestingly, the study for a dedicated engine – the STAL Dovern – was started alongside with that for the airframe, as typical to other military programs especially in the US. The engine, which reached the flight testing phase, is displayed alongside the aircraft. It represents one of the few projects of the Swedish company STAL for aviation. The company has been for long a primary manufacturer of turbines for electric power plants, started in the early 20th century on the remarkable Ljungström design (the homonym brothers actually founded STAL). In the end, the Lansen employed the British Rolls-Royce Avon.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A well-stuffed display is that of on-board radar equipment employed on the SAAB aircraft in service with the Swedish Air Force.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Among the many design and procurement programs of the Swedish military, special attention was given to missiles. The Robot 08 A, an anti-ship cruise missile employed on destroyers and from coastal batteries in Sweden, was the result of a collaborative program with the French. After a boost phase employing rockets, the efficient small jet engine employed for thrust in cruise (a Turbomeca Marbore) allowed the missile to travel at transonic speed, delivering a warhead up to 100 nautical miles away from the launch site. Navigation was through radio control, and homing on target was radar-assisted.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A real work-horse both in the US and abroad (see this post), a Cessna 337 Skymaster in service with the Coast Guard of Sweden can be found in apparently pristine conditions.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A wing of the museum is dedicated to the collection of the Aviation Veteran Society of Göteborg. Among their many interesting projects is the restoration of classic models, often times unique exemplars from an age prior to the introduction of jets. Each of the aircraft on display in their collection, which is always evolving, has a story to tell. For example, one of them, a British De Havilland Gipsy Moth, was employed by his owner (the Swede Gösta Fraenkel) in the 1930s for an experimental treatment of whooping cough, an infectious disease typically developing in children. The pilot took infected people on board the open-cockpit biplane, allowing cold, dry and clean air to ram into their respiratory channels and lungs for some minutes while flying at a sufficient altitude. Apparently, this treatment accelerated recovery in a percentage of cases. Another aircraft in this area is a SAAB 91A Safir. The ‘A’ version is the original and oldest of this light basic trainer and multipurpose aircraft, dating back to the 1940s, and a good commercial success for Sweden.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Another rich collection is based on an impressive archive of Cold War files documenting many Soviet activities in the territory of the German Democratic Republic. This exhibition (a topic often touched on this website, see for instance here and here) is especially interesting for its completeness and for the level of detail – most files show photographs and numerical data.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A nice array of models, often portraying in dioramas scenes from the real aviation history of Sweden or the region of the Baltic sea, is aligned along a wall. Among them, you can see the first ever defection of a MiG to the West on the Danish island of Bornholm (see this post), as well as the grounding of a Douglas DC-3 in Swedish markings by a MiG-15 which had taken off from Estonia (at that time within the borders of the Soviet Union). That DC-3 has been savaged from the bottom of the Baltic Sea years later, and it is now on display at the museum of the Swedish Air Force in Linköping.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Even if you don’t need it, you should take a detour to the toilet, to access an original corridor and have a look to two full-scale reconstructions of STRIL command centers.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Back outside, you can climb uphill to check out a few additional military vehicles on display, including an exemplar of the highly-succesful line of bi-modular track vehicles called Bandvagn, made by the Swedish company Hägglunds in tons of variants and for different roles. Basically unstoppable on any terrain (and actually working in shallow waters as well), this highly versatile machine is here displayed in a Swedish Army camo paint. Also on display is a rather rare moving lounge, a vehicle for easing boarding operation on larger aircraft. Made by Chrysler in the US (and reportedly employed at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., back then), this exemplar was in use at Göteborg Landsvetter airport, before the terminal was re-designed for a better management of passenger traffic.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

From the hilltop, you may get a vantage view of the airfield, now the general aviation airport of Säve.

Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Getting there and visiting

The exact address of Aeroseum is Nya Bergets Väg 50, 41746 Göteborg, Sweden. The location is easily reachable along Hisingsleden, taking north from Göteborg, and connecting some of the premises of the huge Volvo factory quartered north of town. From the crossing with Flygflottilijens Väg (where a bus stop is), it is a .4 miles stretch to the museum’s gate. Huge parking on site. Visiting for technically-minded people with an interest for aviation can easily take 3 hours (4 in my case), checking out all the nice exhibits. There is a self-service restaurant at the bottom of the bunker, as well as a nice shop. Entertaining activities for the kids are on the menu as well.

Together with the Air Force Museum in Linköping, this is possibly one of the top air museums in Sweden, well worth a dedicated trip also for the special construction where it is located. Website with full information (also in English) here.

Maritiman – Göteborg

Located in downtown Göteborg, this museum has on display a handful of vessels, originally employed in Sweden in either civilian or military roles. The most sizable of them, the destroyer Småland (J19), is also an illustrious witness of the Cold War, and a lone survivor of the Royal Swedish Navy of that era. She was built by Eriksbergs shipbuilding company in Göteborg, a now defunct primary player in the Swedish naval history, and it saw service between 1956 and 1979 together with the only sister ship Halland, which gave name to the class.

The neutrality of Sweden for the Navy meant that the fleet of the kingdom was developed with self-defense in mind. At the end of WWII, two cruisers were laid down, Tre Kronor and Göta Lejon, which were the largest vessels ever to see service in Sweden. In the 1950s the shipbuilding effort saw the completion of the new destroyers Halland and Småland, which went operating alongside many more destroyer units over the 1950s and 1960s. All these four ships however were the pinnacle of shipbuilding in Sweden in terms tonnage. By the end of the 1950s the last four destroyers of the Östergötland class (lighter than Halland class) had been put into service, and manufacture of either cruisers or destroyers ceased altogether. By the end of the 1960s, the two cruisers were stricken off, and over the 1970s and 1980s many of the destroyers followed. In the high-tech late era of the Cold War, Sweden opted for a larger number of lighter surface ships, in particular corvettes and torpedo boats. The former are represented today by the highly effective Visby class, which constitutes the backbone of the Royal Swedish Navy today.

Of the historical cruiser and destroyer fleet of the Swedish Navy, the Småland is the only surviving unit. In the Maritiman museum, it is possible to board and thoroughly explore this vessel. Among the distinctive construction features, the castle structure runs all along the ship, allowing the crew to operate while keeping inside, so as to avoid exposition to fallout radiation in a nuclear war scenario. Provision for cleaning the outer decks was made with a pressurized water system, running around the castle. Furthermore, material was steel and iron, instead of aluminum, sometimes employed in shipbuilding for saving weight, but more prone to fire damage than heavier steel. The crew was of 250-290 men. The ship went through three modernization programs, and included three fire direction facilities in the castle.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The heavier gun armament of the destroyer is composed of two turrets (one at bow, one at stern) with two 120 mm guns each, and a bow turret with two 57 mm cannon. Additionally, six 40 mm single-barrel anti-aircraft cannons on revolving turrets are placed along the sides of the ship. All guns were made by Bofors in Sweden.

A single 120 mm gun turret was manned by seven men, and could fire 42 rounds per minute, with a range of roughly 12 nautical miles. It could be employed for targeting other ships, aircraft or land installations.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

On the side of the 120 mm turrets you can see flare rockets with super intense illuminating power, which were employed for fire direction at night. Fire direction systems evolved over the years, but the task was mainly performed in the castle structure.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The 57 mm gun turret was designed for anti-aircraft operations, with a range of up to 4,000 m, which was roughly 25-30% more than the standard 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. Fire direction was from the castle deck or locally by the designated gunner.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

For anti-submarine war operations, Småland has revolving torpedo tubes on the deck, for the Torped 61 torpedo series, a highly-successful design from Sweden, employed also by foreign customers (see this post).

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Additionally, to the bow are two racks of launchers for four anti-submarine rockets each. An example of the body of a Bofors 375 mm anti-submarine rocket is on display beside the rocket launchers. It took 40 seconds to reload one launcher. Fire direction and timing was performed from inside the sonar room, or from a control station beneath the launchers.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The ship could carry out mine laying operations. To the stern of the ship some sea mines are on display on the rail employed for launching them outboard.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The Småland could manage helicopter landings on its deck, and it had the ability to launch anti-shipping cruise missiles. This rather innovative solution for the time was based on the Robot 08 platform (see also the Aeroseum exhibition here in this chapter). Two of them could be carried on the launching pad, where further missiles were stored under deck, and a special incline was employed to take them to the outer deck level for launch. Launch was managed with a dedicated fire control computer.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The Småland could operate as a flotilla capital ship, thus navigation and communication systems were particularly modern and capable on this ship, for the time. Digital computers, with pre-defined communications which could be issued at quick pace, are part of the scenery on the top decks of the castle structure.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The crew compartments, even those for higher-ranking staff, and many technical rooms are as cramped as usual on military ships, not so far from their WWII predecessors.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

On top of the castle, the command deck can be found, and from here you can get also a nice view of the town of Göteborg.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Among the most interesting parts, is the engine and power supply area. The Småland was pushed by two independent boiler/turbine systems, which gave power to two propellers. Top speed was 37 knots, and at that speed the ship employed 420 liters of fuel per minute!

The engines required 16 men for operations initially, working close to the hot ducts and parts of the engine at extreme noise level. At a later stage, control rooms were installed in the engine compartments, allowing to reduce the workload and increase comfort to a reasonable level. Filtering and shielding was installed on the air intake system, to reduce the effect of nuclear fallout ingestion by the combustion system.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

This area can be toured extensively, unveiling many narrow passages and showing the complex structure of the energy plant, producing power for motion and for all the other onboard systems.

Another highlight of the Maritiman is the Draken class submarine Nordkaparen (Nor, in the registry). The six ships of this class were manufactured in the early 1960s, Nordkaparen (laid down by Kockums at Malmö) entering service in 1962, to be stricken off in 1988. The Royal Swedish Navy has always invested much in its submarine fleet, especially along the entire span of the Cold War, with more than 20 units manufactured post-WWII and before 1989. New models have been introduced after the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, and currently four modern units are in service.

The Draken class, propelled by Diesel-electric propulsion, was introduced as an improvement of the older Hajen class, with a single slow rotating propeller instead of two, and a modified stern part and control surfaces. With an operative depth of 150 m and manned by 36 men, it was capable of a top speed of 22 knots submerged.

At the Maritiman it is possible to board the Nordkaparen from the stern hatch, and have a complete tour of its well preserved interiors, coming out from the hatch to the bow.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The rear compartment with the electric motors and a sleeping area for the crew is relatively roomy. Conversely, the center section of the submarine allows only a narrow passage between the Diesel engines, with round tight doors which require some body flexibility to go through!

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The navigation deck and the cockpit are again somewhat roomier than their WWII counterparts, similar to the forward compartment, with a reasonable area for the crew.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

A unique feature of this design is the revolving rack for storing the torpedoes. Torpedo tubes are four, and all placed to the bow of the ship. The revolving rack, resembling that of a giant revolver, hosts eight torpedoes. It is itself loaded from the back, and it can pivot around its axis pushed by a motor, putting a torpedo in the revolver at the level of the firing tube to be reloaded, thus allowing a faster recharging of any firing tube.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Another military boat from the Cold War years on display is the patrol boat Hugin (P151). A fleet of many, lighter vessels was preferred by military planners in Sweden to one of heavier and more expensive ships with greater firepower, especially towards the last decades of the Cold War. Hugin was the first of her class, and it was manufactured in Norway (Bergen Mekaniske Verksted). Sixteen units of this class were in service in the 1980s with the Royal Swedish Navy.

The boat features a steel hull, and is pushed by two 20-cylinders MB518D Diesel engines made by MTU, delivering a power of 3,500 hp each, and giving this boat a top speed of 39 knots. The crew of twenty men could operate for more days in a row on board the ship. This versatile fast boat was armed with inertial-guided and IR-homed anti-shipping missiles (type Robot 12 Mk 2, made in Sweden), depth charges and ASW-600 Elma grenades (made by SAAB in Sweden) for anti-submarine warfare, and sea mines for mine laying missions.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

Additionally, the boat has a single Bofors 57 mm cannon for anti-aircraft gunnery. One of the versions of the Arte fire control system made by Philips was installed on the ship, allowing to engage more targets simultaneously.

Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden

The Maritiman has on display a number of other boats, covering a range of uses and a big part of the storyline of shipbuilding in Sweden. Among them are fire-fighting vessels, tugboats, as well passenger commuters.

Getting there and visiting

A top attraction of Göteborg, the Maritiman museum can be reached with a nice walk from the historical city center, simply reaching the water bank from it. The museum will be very entertaining for children, but it has even more to tell to technically minded people. Many detailed descriptions in multiple languages all along the visiting path allow to get much from your visit. Furthermore, the majority of the compartments are open or visible on the Småland ship, all on the Nordkaparen, allowing to fully explore these vessels or look into the many technical rooms. A thorough visit may take about 2-3 hours or more, depending on your level of interest.

The exact address is Packhusplatsen 12, 411 13 Göteborg. Parking options nearby (public at a fee). Website with full access information (also in English) here.

Soviet War Memorials Southeast of Berlin

September 24, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

The final battle for the conquer of Berlin was a massive operation carried out by the Soviet Red Army, who had come on the line of Oder river, marking today’s border between Germany and Poland, at the conclusion of the westward march on the territories of Eastern Europe previously taken over by the Third Reich.

Witnessing the dramatic lack of men and supplies on the German side, the final Soviet attack from that position was launched on April 16th, 1945, to end just less thank two weeks later with the death of Hitler, the conquer of Berlin, and soon after with the German capitulation in early May. In this short time, the Soviets penetrated and gained control of a significant part of what was to become the territory of East Germany, including the capital city of the Reich.

It is estimated that the troops amassed in the spring of 1945 for this operation exceeded 2.2 millions on the Soviet side, whereas the contingent available for the defense of the region on the German side was below 300 thousand men, including almost improvised corps of elders or extremely young people, lacking any military training and experience. As a matter of fact, the original German war machine had been drained of resources also due to the eastward advance of the Western Allies in Western Europe and Germany, where some millions German soldiers were taken prisoners. Actually, by April 1945 the line of the Western front had reached East to the towns of Leipzig, Dessau, Magdeburg and Wismar, very close to Berlin, and all later ceded to the Soviets according to the Jalta and Potsdam agreements.

The defense of Berlin from the Soviet attackers was strenuous though, and heavy losses were recorded on both sides.

One of the most visible remains of these war operations today is a a number of memorials and war cemeteries, of larger and smaller size, scattered over the territory around Berlin. The most conspicuous such memorials are those erected by the winning Soviet forces. Besides their primary role of remembrance, they were in most cases erected soon after the end of the war, then making for an interesting historical trace from that age, when Stalin was the undisputed ruler in the Soviet Union. Their style often reflects the mix of pomp and simplicity typical to the communist art from the time.

Memorials related to these events can be found in Berlin (see here and here) and around. Some to the north of the town have been described in this post. In the present one, three memorials related to the battle around Berlin and located east and south of the German capital are covered – Seelow, Lebus and Baruth.

Photographs were taken in 2021 and 2023.

Sights

Seelow

The memorial in Seelow was designed and installed in 1945, soon after the end of the war in Europe, and was therefore one of the first of the kind. The location is that of the Battle of the Seelower Heights.

The small town of Seelow is located about 8 miles west of the Oder river, marking a natural border with Poland. The hills around the town dominate the flat country reaching to the river. Therefore, for the defending Wehrmacht, this was a natural obstacle between the Soviet invaders and Berlin. The hills were fortified heavily with guns and mortars, and the villages in the area were evacuated in anticipation of a major confrontation.

Fighting was started on the fateful April 16th, 1945, when a Soviet attack was triggered all along the line of the Oder, with a major focal point in the region of Küstrin and Seelow.

The battle went on for four days despite the clear imbalance of resources in favor of the Soviets, due to the advantageous geographical position of the heights around Seelow and the effectiveness of the German defense.

The memorial was erected around a simple statue of a Soviet soldier, put on top of a pinnacle, and portrayed beside the turret of a tank.

Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen – Soviet Monument and Museum by the Seelower Heights – Germany

To the base of the pinnacle is a small Soviet cemetery, with some marked graves and some gravestones with multiple names, or dedicated to unknown soldiers perished in the battle.

Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen – Soviet Monument and Museum by the Seelower Heights – Germany

From the cemetery, a good view of the plains extending to the east, where this fierce battle was fought in April 1945, can be observed from a vantage point. Purpose-designed maps allow to retrace the positions of the attackers and to pinpoint relevant locations.

Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen – Soviet Monument and Museum by the Seelower Heights – Germany

To the base of the monument is a memorial museum. The exhibition is compact but very interesting. Two thematic areas are presented, one related to the historical reconstruction of the battle, the other to the history of the monument and the archaeology of the battlefield around Seelow.

Among the artifacts on display related to the history of the battle are German and Soviet uniforms, machine guns and rifles.

Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen – Soviet Monument and Museum by the Seelower Heights – Germany

Interestingly, also mortar shells carrying leaflets are on display: these were employed by the Soviets, who launched propaganda leaflets inviting Germans to surrender, and even passes for the German military who wished to defect to the Soviets side. An armband of the ‘Deutscher Volkssturm Wehrmacht’, the non-professional corps recruited by the Third Reich in a desperate move to gather fresh units for the final defense of the German territory from invasion during the last stages of the war, is also on display.

Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen – Soviet Monument and Museum by the Seelower Heights – Germany

The history of the monument is interesting as well, and shows how it evolved from being primarily a Soviet monument – like others in the area – to a public gathering place for official ceremonies in the German Democratic Republic – a place for the celebration of friendship between the USSR and the GDR. Historical pictures, and the addition of a poetic commemoration stone written in German only to the base of the monument, witness this evolution.

Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen – Soviet Monument and Museum by the Seelower Heights – Germany

Outside the museum, a courtyard is framed by two original small obelisks with inscriptions in Russian and Soviet iconography. On the courtyard, some heavy armored vehicles – including a Katyusha rocket launcher – are on display.

Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen – Soviet Monument and Museum by the Seelower Heights – Germany

Getting there and visiting

The monument has a special relevance in the history of the liberation of Germany, and has been modernized and updated over the years. It is still a rather relevant destination for visitors. A ticket is required for the museum only. A visit to the monument may take 20-30 minutes. A complete visit including the museum may require 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Access is very easy, since the location is immediately to the side of the road leaving Seelow for Küstrin (now Kostrzyn, Poland). The name of the site in German is ‘Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen’, and the address is Küstriner Straße 28a, 15306 Seelow. A small parking can be found right ahead of the access, further parking options cross the street and near the railway station, 1 minute away by walk. A new modern building to the side of the monument hosts the ticket office and a small shop. Website with full information here.

Lebus

The cemetery in Lebus, located on the German bank of the Oder river, about 10 miles southeast of Seelow (see above) was activated already in April 1945 for burying Soviet soldiers perished in the final war actions against Germany. Starting 1946, the status of Soviet cemeteries and monuments established on the territory of the Third Reich was officially defined. The Lebus site received Soviet staff perished in Germany after the war, or unrecognized fallen Soviet soldiers whose remains were found in the years soon after WWII on the East German territory.

Following an agreement between Russia and reunified Germany, extending the relationship formerly existing between the USSR and the GDR on the management of war memorials, the Lebus site became a Russian cemetery. It was refurbished in 2014-16, and at the time of writing it is still an active cemetery, often receiving the remains of Soviet soldiers moved from elsewhere, or still found in the area.

It is estimated that more than 5.000 from the USSR/Russia are buried in Lebus.

The memorial is not much visited by the general public, and is an authentic place of remembrance, sober and silent.

Russische Kriegsgräberstätte in Lebus – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Lebus – Germany

The architecture is rather simple, with a central perspective leading to an obelisk with a red star on top, a hammer and sickle emblem to the front, and inscriptions in Russian.

Russische Kriegsgräberstätte in Lebus – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Lebus – Germany

To the sides are two lateral wings, where the names of many fallen soldiers are inscribed on memorial stones.

Russische Kriegsgräberstätte in Lebus – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Lebus – Germany

To the sides of the perspective are an anti-tank cannon, and some more fields, marked with marble red stars as places of interment of unknown soldiers.

Russische Kriegsgräberstätte in Lebus – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Lebus – Germany

Also two further memorial walls with many names in Cyrillic alphabet are symmetrically placed to the sides of the perspective.

Russische Kriegsgräberstätte in Lebus – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Lebus – Germany

Getting there and visiting

The location of the Soviet cemetery in Lebus, now called officially ‘Russische Kriegsgräberstätte in Lebus’, is on Lindenstrasse, immediately after leaving Strasse d. Freiheit, Lebus. It is clearly marked by an indication sign, and recognizable by the external fence. Parking can be found 200 ft further north on Lindenstrasse, on the side of a local school.

The site is not mainly a touristic destination, but a real, well maintained (war) cemetery. It is apparently open 24/7 and not actively guarded. Visiting may take 20 minutes, or more for specifically interested subjects.

Baruth

The Soviet war cemetery of Baruth was erected between 1946 and 1947 for the fallen soldiers of the Battle of Halbe. The battle was a last confrontation between the Soviet Red Army and the Wehrmacht, taking between April 24th to the first days of May 1945 – the very last battle out of Berlin.

The battle was fought around the village of Halbe, south of Berlin, between what remained of the German defense retreating from the bank of the Oder, and two large columns of the invading Soviet Army. The German forces got mostly surrounded in a salient. Losses were very heavy on both sides, of the order of the tens of thousands.

The war cemetery for Soviet soldiers, the final resting place for some thousands of fallen troops, is clearly visible when passing by, thanks to the two T-34 tanks put as gate guardians.

Sowjetischer Ehrenfriedhof Baruth/Mark – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Baruth – Battle of Halbe – Germany

The architecture of the place is rather simple, and composed of a rectangular yard crossed by an alley, leading to a very tall obelisk. The obelisk features a big metal star on top, and a hammer and sickle metal emblem in the middle.

Sowjetischer Ehrenfriedhof Baruth/Mark – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Baruth – Battle of Halbe – Germany

To the base of the obelisk are two bas-reliefs with war scenes.

Sowjetischer Ehrenfriedhof Baruth/Mark – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Baruth – Battle of Halbe – Germany

A number of marked gravestones can be found on the greens around the obelisk. More recent – yet pretty old – additions, somewhat altering the original neat appearance of the ensemble, include a wall with applied gravestones and names inscribed on it.

Sowjetischer Ehrenfriedhof Baruth/Mark – Soviet Monument and Cemetery Baruth – Battle of Halbe – Germany

Getting there and visiting

The Baruth war cemetery, named ‘Sowjetischer Ehrenfriedhof Baruth/Mark’ in German, can be found along the road 96 (Bundestrasse 96), about 1 mile north of the homonym town of Baruth. The monument can be clearly spotted on the eastern side of the road. A small parking can be found ahead of the entrance.

Due to the secluded and isolated location, the place is not a highly popular tourist destination, yet it is frequented by relatives and descendants of those interred on site. It is well cared for and perfectly maintained. It is apparently open 24/7.

A prototypical Soviet war cemetery from Stalin’s years, likely the largest in the region south Berlin, it is definitely worth a stop when visiting the area. A visit may take 20 minutes.

Notably, the place is located about 7 miles south of Wünsdorf (see this post), the former Soviet headquarters in the German Democratic Republic, which is crossed by the same road 96.

Preserved Cold War Bunkers in Northern England

April 8, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

The central role taken by Britain in WWII, firstly containing and then countering the expansion of the Third Reich, is duly and proudly celebrated all around the Country, with memorials and thematic exhibitions, often hosted in historical locations, regularly open for a visit.

The United Kingdom joined NATO as a founding member in 1949, and had already been at the forefront of a European anti-Soviet alliance with France since 1947. The strategic political and military ties with the US, pivotal in putting and end to WWII in Europe, were kept over the following decades, against the menace constituted by the Eastern Bloc. Thanks to its geographical position, and bolstering a nuclear arsenal, strategic bombers and submarines of its own, Britain was a major player of the Cold War.

Despite that, the Cold War left behind comparatively less memories than WWII, with only a handful installations open to the public, and somewhat out of the spotlight. In this regard, this reflects an attitude generally widespread in Europe towards the traces of the second half of the 20th century.

However, for people with an interest in the Cold War age, and more in general for those with a thing for (especially nuclear) warfare technology, there are two really unmissable sights in Northern England, which make for a vivid hands-on experience of the ‘era of Soviet threat’.

One is the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, with a fascinating history starting in WWII and spanning the entire duration of the Cold War. Here one of the finest collections of nuclear-war-related material in Europe can be found, together with much additional material from the era, in a largely preserved historical site.

Another is the York Cold War Bunker, built in the Cold War age to provide protection to the staff of the Royal Observation Corps (ROC) in case of a nuclear attack, as well as the ability to help coordinating fundamental public functions – health, transportation, food and energy supply, etc. – in a post-attack nuclear fallout scenario.

Both sites are regularly open for a visit, and provide a vivid testimony of civil and military plans and facilities seriously prepared in England for a nuclear apocalypse scenario.

Sights

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker
York Cold War Bunker

Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker

The Hack Green site is located deep in the Cheshire countryside, about one hour driving south of Manchester. Actually, it is in a really secluded location, far from any sizable urban center, and away from major roads. Even today, when this facility is working as a top-level museum, some attention to the signs is needed to reach the site.

Once by the gate, you are immediately driven back in time by the appearance of the tall military-style external fence with official government signs, and by the blunt and in impenetrable appearance of the big concrete bunker – what you see is only the part above ground level! – with a big antenna protruding from the top. Nearby, you can see an apparently still off-limits area, with a now-dead radar antenna and an old Jet Provost trainer in RAF colors.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

History

The history of the Hack Green site dates to as back as WWII, when it was established as one of the 12 most developed Ground Controlled Intercept (GCI) centers, out of 21 total nodes in Britain. Essentially based on the airspace scanning radar plants available at the time, the so-constituted ‘Chain Home’ surveillance system was operated by the RAF, and intended to track intruding German aircraft, thus directing air force planes against them. Radar aerials appeared on site at the time, suitable against relatively slow moving propeller-driven aircraft of those years.

With the start of the Cold War, and the need to reconfigure the defense against the USSR and Warsaw Pact forces operating with jet-powered aircraft of increasing speed, several modernization plans were started in Britain, aimed at implementing more effective detection and threat-countering radar technology, like ‘Green Garlic’, and later ROTOR. The latter called for the institution of a chain of detection nodes, not much dissimilar in concept from the older ‘Chain Home’ of WWII, but much more articulated, efficient and technologically advanced. At the time one of the most expensive government-funded operations ever, 66 installations were implemented all over Britain within ROTOR before the mid 1950s, with different roles in the network. The bunker you see today on the Hack Green site was one of them.

Keeping up with the fast-developing offensive technology of the 1950s and 1960s required a continuous update of the defensive network, in particular asking for the addition of intercontinental missiles to the enemy arsenal to counter. The US-led ‘Ballistic Missile Early Warning System’ (BMEWS) included 12 early-warning radar stations around the Atlantic, including a single station in the UK (RAF Fylingdales, Yorkshire, still in operation today). Before BMEWS went operational (early 1960s), triggering a re-organization of all other defense radar systems by the time obsolete, Hack Green took an interim role as one of only 4 radar stations operated by the RAF monitoring all military and civilian traffic through the British airspace, coping with new fast jetliners. The name of the Hack Green radar site in that stage was ‘Mersey Radar North’. Finally, in 1966 the RAF released the site to the government, which put it in mothballed status.

It was in 1976 that a new life began for Hack Green. Starting in 1958, the Home Office invested much in the preparation of an emergency structure, capable of keeping of managing a post-nuclear attack scenario, and keeping the basic public functions active. In the event of a total nuclear war, a failure of the national hierarchy and military chain of command was forecast, as a result of an extensive damage to the infrastructures and communication systems. In order to recover as fast as possible in such an emergency, the UK would split in 11 regions, each with a regional seat of government (RSG). In the region, a civil Regional Commissioner would take a leading administrative role, and would be responsible for coordinating disaster recovery operations, like supplying medical resources, food, water, and reconstructing infrastructures, while waiting for the national government to reactivate its functions. The Commissioner would be aided by the UK Warning and Monitoring Organization (UKWMO), which took over the function and organization of the older Royal Observation Corps (ROC) established during WWII. This structure was further potentiated in the 1960s and 1970s, also introducing a similar regional scheme for the military in case of a nuclear attack.

The seat of the RSG was in the Regional Government Head Quarters (RGHQ). Following some years when it was hosted in Preston, then in Southport, north of Liverpool, the RGHQ for the 10th region (then 10:2, following a split in two halves of this large region) found its home in Hack Green. The former radar facility was potentiated enormously, and set up with the ability to host 160 civil and military staff for 3 months without resupply in case of a nuclear attack on the UK.

Within the framework of the emergency plan for a nuclear attack, the RGHQs all over the UK went on operating until the demise of the USSR in December 1991, to be soon deactivated over the following years. Hack Green was scrapped of all content, and put up for sale in 1993. It was privately acquired in the mid-1990s, and carefully restored in some parts, or being stocked with interesting material from the Cold War era in some of the many rooms.

A tour of the bunker

Access to the bunker is via a concrete slide, and through a metal gate. Originally the male civil servants dorm, the first room you meet is now a kind of storage for items recently incorporated in the collection. These include a jeep, a model of an Avro Shackleton, and interestingly a nuclear warhead. The original system to activate the rooftop antenna is in a cabinet along a sidewall.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The ticket office and canteen are now in the original canteen area of the Hack Green site. Restored to a 1960s appearance, parts of the kitchen furniture are original from the site. Along the sidewalls are several memorabilia items, including some original Soviet emblems, not unusual today in museums on the other side of the Iron Curtain (see for instance here), but hard to find in the UK.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

An adjoining room reproduces the environment where the ROC would have worked in case of a drill or real nuclear attack. Among their function was the pinpointing of nuclear explosions. The forecast and monitoring of the fallout is strongly bound to the local weather and winds. This was kept under surveillance through reporting stations scattered on the UK territory (more than 1 thousand), which transmitted information to Hack Green and other RGHQ and UKWMO bunkers (see the York bunker later in this post). They could then coordinate recovery operations, avoiding extreme exposure to radiation of the emergency staff.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Monitoring was through dedicated sensors, and communication through specific transmission gear. Two display cases in the same room feature interesting instruments, training documents, and memorabilia items from the rich history of the ROC, documenting also their activities in WWII.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Ground floor

The Hack Green bunker largely retains its original arrangement. It is composed of a ground and an underground floor. Along the main corridors are interesting examples of the papers produced by the UKWMO, and by the civil defense service during the Cold War. Among them, are leaflets for the population, with best practices in case of a nuclear attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Also interesting are more technical posters from the era, either outlining the role of the public organizations monitoring a potential nuclear apocalypse scenario, or providing technical details on the effects of nuclear weapons – what to expect in terms of damage or health issues, depending on the type and local condition of a nuclear explosion.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

For sure a focal point in the exhibition of Hack Green today is the display of nuclear warheads, and nuclear-related material. Hosted in a room previously employed by emergency staff, the exhibition retraces with original material, mock-ups, rare pictures and videos, the history of the British nuclear arsenal, managed by the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).

The WE177 was designed to constitute the backbone of the air-dropped nuclear deterrent of the UK. Examples of this bomb are on display together with technical material employed to monitor their status and manage launch or drills. In service between the 1960s and the 1990s in association with larger strategic bombers like the Vulcan, or smaller fighter-bombers like some versions of the Harrier or Jaguar, it could be assembled in some different versions, sharing the same baseline construction, but with nominal yields ranging between 10 to 450 kilotons.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Also on display are pictures and mock-ups of the old Polaris warhead, together with the original casing employed to transport this 200 kilotons item! A US design, the Polaris was acquired by the UK in 1963, to supply the Royal Navy and constitute the UK underwater deterrent. The Polaris missile featured a three-warheads fuse, bearing a total yield of 600 kilotons.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A very rare artifact is the warhead of project Chevaline, a British design to improve the potential of the Polaris, which saw limited service with the Royal Navy in the 1980s. The Polaris/Chevaline was replaced by the Trident missile system, still employed today in the nuclear deterrent role.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Besides the central exhibition of nuclear warheads, the display cases in the same room offer a wealth of super-interesting technical gear and memorabilia related to nuclear weapons. These include components and cabinets of radio and radar systems, to be transported on board aircraft or to be employed on the ground. These parts come from different ages, and from several Countries, including the Eastern Bloc – for instance, a very rare Soviet suit to work on high-power radar antennas for maintenance. Powerful radars actually emit rays with a high power-over-volume (power density) ratio especially in the vicinity of the emitting apparatus. This may even turn deadly for humans (roughly like being in a microwave oven would be!), and precautions are needed when working in such environment.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A really unique collection on display is related to Geiger counters and dosimeters. These include environmental and personal use devices, from various ages and nationality.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Two display cases are dedicated to material coming from beyond the Iron Curtain, most notably from the USSR and the GDR! It is really hard to imagine how this material could manage to come to Hack Green.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Part of the display is dedicated to the civil defense corps of different Countries, with helmets, emblems, papers and uniforms, showing how similar actions in preparations for a nuclear war were carried out in many Nations of continental Europe, also in the Eastern Bloc. Actually, a very close relative of the UKWMO RGHQ control center, with a totally similar function, can be found in a perfectly preserved condition in Poland (see this post).

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

More memorabilia items come from the history of civil defense in the UK. Among the most rare artifacts are the only surviving example of the ‘Queen’s telephone’, which was employed for enforcing the Emergency Power Act, which among other things may have transferred power to the Regional Commissioner. There used to be one such phone in each of the RGHQ, but all were destroyed for security reasons following the shut-off of the bunkers, except this one, and the one at the other end of the line – in the Royal residence.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

An adjoining room hosts a reconstruction of the radar screen room from the age Hack Green was employed as a radar station managed by the RAF. All panels are lit, providing a vivid, pure Cold War experience!

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

To the end of the main corridor, you can reach another entrance to the bunker, which is nowadays normally shut. However, this used to be the main entrance, and close to it are the control room of the bunker and the decontamination area.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The control room is not accessible, but the large windows allow to take a glance to its original appearance. It is still employed to control electric power and air conditioning. Manned nuclear-proof bunkers are customarily pressurized, sucking contaminated air from the outside, which is carefully filtered for poisons and radioactive particles, and pumping unfiltered bunker air to the outside (see this post for another example in a Soviet bunker).

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

People entering after work out in the fallout-polluted environment were decontaminated through showers, and used anti-radiation suits were left in an isolated sink still on display.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Before leaving the ground floor, you can find on the ground level the female dorm for the staff of the RGHQ bunker. In the same room, an original system for communicating on the very low frequency bandwidth has been put on display. This Cold War relic could be employed to issue orders to the strategic submarine force. This very cabinet was employed by Prime Minister Thatcher for ordering the attack against the Argentinian ship General Belgrano.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A final room on this floor is the sick bay, sized for the staff of Hack Green only, but equipped to manage health issues resulting from the exposition to a nuclear attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Underground floor

Descending to the underground floor is possible via the original stairs. The first room you meet features an exhibition of original Soviet uniforms, belonging to some high-ranking officials from various branches of the Red Army. Really hard to see in this part of the world, their origin is well documented.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Close by, is a small display of military material from the Soviet bloc, ranging from original weapons, to communication systems, emblems and instructional posters for the troops (similar to what you can find in dedicated museums in former Warsaw Pact Countries, like here or here).

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Nearby is a communication room originally employed by the military staff of the bunker, working in parallel with civil servants in the management of the nuclear emergency. Original radio transmission gear of military standard is still in place.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Before entering the core preserved area of the bunker, i.e. the rooms of the RGHQ, you can find the original water and air supply systems, and the corresponding technical cabinets, in a big room on the underground level.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The rooms of the RGHQ are all interconnected, and located to the side of the corridor on the underground floor. The way they look is from the days of activity of Hack Green as a RGHQ, i.e. the 1980s. Typical Cold War technology from the time is featured in this area.

Firstly, you enter the warning room, which used to be the contact point of the RGHQ with the national surveillance system. By design, the BMEWS at Fylingdales should have picked up an incoming ICBM within 30 seconds from launch, spreading an alert signal at all levels. This would have been received here and by the entire civil defense system within 90 seconds. This would leave roughly 4 minutes (out of a total of around 6 minutes for the missile to come to Britain from the Eastern Bloc) to tell the population of the incoming missile, which would happen through some thousands sirens scattered around the UK. The physical alarm signal management system was called HANDEL, and was employed from the 1960s to 1992. The apparatus on display at Hack Green, a node of HANDEL, is notably still working, albeit disconnected.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The warning room can be accessed directly from the Commissioner’s room, both an office and private room. Original maps and furniture can be found in this room, the only private one in the bunker. Immediately next to it is the cipher office, a communication office connecting – at least in non-emergency conditions – the center with the external world. Ciphered language was employed for safe communication with governmental offices, both domestic and abroad.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Next are a conference room, for meeting within the staff of the RGHQ, and a broadcast studio. The latter was focused on radio broadcast instead of TV, since the latter would not work in case of a nuclear attack. The idea was for the Commissioner to communicate directly with the administrative region, possibly repeating messages of national significance, or instructing about local disaster recovery actions, evacuation operations, etc.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The tour goes on with a very interesting area, stuffed with original electronic and communication material. Communication from the bunker to the other similar bunkers withing the UKWMO was possible through a dedicated system called Emergency Communication Network (ECN). The main function was that of constantly updating the map of the fallout and of the operations taking place at all levels, including all surviving infrastructures. Many maps and teletypewriters, original components of the system, are part of the display.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The ‘brain’ of the system was the Message Switch Exchange (MSX). A top-tier system elaborated by British Telecom in the 1980s, it looks exceptionally complex. The lit cabinets and modules provide a really vivid impression of how it should have looked like back in the Cold War years. The electronic cabinets and wiring driving to the rooftop antenna are still lit as well.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A rare, incredible portable satellite communication antenna is on display. This was employed in peacetime condition, and stored inside the bunker when under attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The screens where the meteorologists and nuclear scientists displayed all the information gathered and prepared forecasts are another unusual Cold War sight.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Perhaps unexpectedly in a 1980s hi-tech environment, a purely analog, wired telephone exchange system is on display. This is original as well, and was kept in service as a ‘last line’ backup system within the ECN until 1992, should the futuristic MSX system fail under an attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A complement to the exhibition of the RGHQ is the fire control room, where a big screen and several communication consoles were employed for directing firefighting actions at a regional level. Following the experience of Nagasaki and the extensive nuclear tests of the 1950s, it is known that fires resulting from the extreme temperature and radiation intensity associated with a nuclear explosion are possibly even more dangerous to buildings and infrastructures than the shock-wave itself.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A display which is not original from Hack Green, but found an ideal home in this bunker, is made of a reconstructed room from the Regional Air Operation Center (UKRAOC), which would gather information from the BMEWS. The material on display used to be at RAF High Wycombe, where the UKRAOC facility was located in the Cold War years.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Fed by the BMEWS early warning station at Fylingdales, the apparatus in this room was constantly updated on the defense situation. A Soviet ICBM attack would be detected here, and from here the alarm signal to the entire national civil and military defense system would be triggered. This really one-of-a-kind reconstruction is really evoking, with the original panels all lit, and a dim light background!

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A final room on the underground floor hosts a reconstruction of a Soviet missile launch room. Perhaps not accurate as a reconstruction, it is however centered on original material and memorabilia items from the Soviet bloc. This area has been employed as a set for movies.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

At the base of a second stair well ascending to the ground floor you can find a reconstruction of one of the more than 1 thousand peripheral posts of the ROC. Such posts, scattered on the UK territory, gathered information for the RGHQ, and constituted the ‘sensors’ of the nuclear attack detection network. The technical gear includes over-pressure and radiation intensity transducers.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Getting there and visiting

The bunker is in a very secluded location, about 25 miles west of Stoke-on-Trent, and roughly 60 miles from Liverpool and Manchester. Very little advertised in the area, and not much known to the general public even in the UK, this hidden gem can be reached very conveniently by car, not much conveniently with public transport. The exact address is French Ln, Nantwich CW5 8BL, United Kingdom.

The bunker was built far from the crowds. Do not be worried as you see the road getting narrower and you feel like your NAV is taking you to nowhere – you are probably on the right path! Once there, you will find a large inside parking, and a top-level management of the entire facility.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Visiting is on a self-guided basis, with tons of explanatory panels and illustrations allowing to make the most out of your visit even if you have just a normal interest and preliminary knowledge of the topic. For a specialist, this super-interesting, one-of-a-kind site may require at least 2 hours for capturing the details, and possibly take pictures. Website with visiting information here.

York Cold War Bunker

Besides the impressive Minster and the beautiful historic town, York has the distinction of being the seat of one of the few Cold War bunkers preserved in the UK. Differently from Hack Green (see above), the bunker in York was installed relatively late in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War. Since then and until the collapse of the USSR, it acted as a node in the UK Warning and Monitoring Organization (UKWMO), collecting information and coordinating emergency actions around York in the event of a nuclear attack. A cluster of reporting points was linked to the bunker in York, which took the name of Headquarters of the N.20 Group within the UKWMO.

An eminently intelligence collection and information relay facility, the bunker was manned by the Royal Observation Corps (ROC), who provided voluntary civilian staff to support the monitoring and communication functions of the bunker in the UKWMO network. The bunker ceased operations and was basically sealed in 1991. Until that time, the ROC ran the facility, carrying out regularly scheduled drills and simulations. The bunker was designed and sized to offer its staff a self-support ability of a few weeks in a nuclear fallout scenario. Besides all supporting facilities, including water tanks, pumps and power generators, the facility was centered on a set of sensors for nuclear blast detection, as well as provision for fallout forecast and monitoring.

The bunker has been taken over by the English Heritage, a structured nationwide historical conservation association, which restored the site and opened it to the public.

The York Cold War Bunker is not far from the historical center, yet in a quiet residential area. Access is from a small parking area among low-rise buildings. The greenish paint of the concrete walls and the tall metal antenna on top cannot be spotted from much farther away than the parking itself. Curiously, the pedestrian door of the bunker stands some feet above the ground, and can be reached via a concrete stairway. Then once on top and inside, you need to descend some flights of stairs to get underground.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

Compared to the Hack Green bunker, the York group headquarter is more cramped, with smaller rooms, lower ceilings and narrower corridors.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The first part of the visit covers the supporting facilities. These include a ventilation system, which as customary for nuclear-proof bunkers (but the same is true for older bunkers dating from WWII) filtered the incoming air and ejected the inside air, basically pressurizing the bunker environment with respect to the outside atmospheric pressure. This avoided passive ingestion of contaminated air from the outside.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

A power generator and a water pumping system are also visible. A control panel for all the plants has been preserved, similar to the machinery in this area, dating from the time of construction.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The centerpiece of the visit is of course the reporting room. The reason for putting a headquarters in relatively low-sized York was the presence in the area of significant food production industries, as well as of a major railway node in Northern England. Furthermore, military facilities like the only BMEWS station in the UK happened to be in Fylingdales, northern Yorkshire. These features would make York a valuable strategic target for an attacking enemy. The main function of the bunker within the UKWMO was that of ascertaining the position and intensity of a nuclear explosion on the territory covered by its jurisdiction.

Anticipated by the early warning ballistic missile detection system protecting the UK, the hit could be recorded by the sensors available in the bunker or in other reporting points scattered around in the country. The bunker would then try to predict and follow the evolution of the fallout. This would allow coordinating emergency and recovery actions including fire suppression, medical evacuation, water and food transport and supply, etc.

The central reporting room looks mostly like an operations room in a military headquarter. It is structured on two levels, with large maps and boards for visually updating the situation and writing information. Batteries of telephones and teletypewriters allowed obtaining communications and sending updated information to allow emergency services as well as decision centers to carry out post-attack operations. This system was not dissimilar from the counterpart beyond the Iron Curtain (see for instance this center in Poland).

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

Nearby the reporting room, the components of the sensor suite allowing to detect the position and intensity of a nuclear explosion are on display.

The first is the bomb-power indicator (BPI). The working principle is that of reading the over-pressure caused by the shock-wave invariably produced by an explosion, and particularly intense for a nuclear explosion, releasing an immense amount of energy in a small volume and within a very short time. The supersonic traveling shock-wave is responsible for the mechanical breaking of building and superstructures, like antennas, suspended power lines, bridges, piers, etc. Being a wave of pressure, its intensity can be measured by pressure transducers, which for the BPI show the reading on a simple analog dial.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The transducer, seen handing from the ceiling in the exhibition, would stand on the rooftop of the bunker, exposed to the explosion. This type of sensor was also installed in smaller reporting points scattered over the territory of the UK.

A second sensor was the ground zero indicator (GZI). Here the working principle was also very simple. The main element in the GZI is a metal drum with a small hole in the side, and a piece of photographic paper covering the inside surface of the cylinder. An explosion would send a high-energy light beam through the hole, producing an impression on a precise point on the paper. By positioning in a very accurate way the drum on its pedestal on top of the bunker, according to a precise fine-tuning, it was possible to retrieve the direction of the incoming beam. By composing the reading of more than one precisely-located drum, it was possible to pinpoint the position of the explosion by triangulation, both in terms of geographical position and altitude. The latter is a very relevant practical information, since for instance the quality and hazard of the fallout are strongly related to the proximity of the explosion to the ground.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The GZI, a purely analog sensor, had the odd feature of requiring collection of the photographic paper by venturing outside of the bunker after and explosion, i.e. facing the fallout.

The third and most evolved system on display is an AWDREY computer. The name stands for Atomic Weapon Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield. This artifact is very rare to see, and a quite refined piece of engineering for the time. It was supplied to 12 headquarter bunkers of the UKWMO, including York, and was operative from the early 1970s. The computer is the computational part of the system, whereas the detection system was based on a sophisticated transducer put outside, on top of the bunker. The working principle was much more sophisticated here, and related to the evolution of the intensity of the radiation coming from the core of the explosions in the first instants of the detonation process. Several stages of a nuclear explosions happen in a row on a scale of a few millionths of a second. These include a predictable oscillation of the intensity of radiation. The exact features of this oscillation are correlated to the yield of the explosion. The ability of AWDREY to collect and interpret data from the early stage of the explosion would allow it to reconstruct the position and yield of the explosion at once.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

Tuned on experimental data from nuclear testing in the field, this system delivered good general performance, with some inaccuracy in case of intense atmospheric phenomena taking place – or during fireworks, when the York system was apparently misled in one occasion, interpreting it as a Soviet attack!

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The tour is completed with a view of the dorm for the civil servants of the ROC, and with a short exhibition on some historical and political aspects of the Cold War.

Getting there and visiting

The York Cold War Bunker is professionally managed by the English Heritage. Visiting is only possible with a guide. Please note that as of 2022, pre-booking is strictly necessary, since there is no ticket office on site. The guided tour lasts about 45 minutes, including a well-crafted introductory video. At the time of writing, only the first underground floor is open for a visit, but plans for an expansion of the visible part of the facility are being drafted.

The tour is very interesting and detailed, with some educated humor to make it more enjoyable! For specialists, it will be too quick, especially if you like to take pictures. However, the site indeed deserves a careful look also for the more technically-minded people, especially considering the little number of similar facilities open in Europe – and of course in the UK, where it is a one-of-a-kind destination, and a true must for Cold War historians.

The location is about two miles west of York Minster. Convenient to reach by car, several public parking lots are available in front of the gate or in the neighborhood. The exact address is Monument Cl, Holgate, York YO24 4HT, United Kingdom. Website with full information here.

Herdla Torpedo Battery – Defending Bergen in WWII and the Cold War

January 28, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

Despite overshadowed by the natural beauties of Norway, the heritage of the rich war history of this Country would really deserve a dedicated trip. Thanks to its geographical location, this Scandinavian Nation had a primary strategic role both in WWII and the Cold War.

Hitler’s Third Reich military forces conquered Norway early in WWII (Spring 1940), gaining an effective stronghold for launching sea and air patrolling missions over the Norwegian Sea and the northern Atlantic. The long coastline stretching from the Skagerrak strait up to North Cape was made impenetrable to enemy invasion, building anew a capillary network of fortifications – the Atlantic Wall. This masterpiece of military engineering was based on an extensive catalog of reinforced concrete standard elements (Regelbau in German), ranging from fortified casemates to radar towers, to observation and target range finding stations, to bunkerized gun batteries, etc. These elements were assembled in larger fortified compounds, placed in key strategic locations along the coast or in the narrow firths reaching to major ports and towns, like Bergen or Trondheim.

Typically run by the Kriegsmarine (Navy) or Luftwaffe (Air Force), these forts may comprise measuring stations, anti-shipping guns, anti-aircraft cannons, plus barracks, services, ammo storages, and even airfields in some cases. They were built not only in Norway, but having been originally planned by the Third Reich to protect the entire coast of conquered continental Europe, they were erected along the shoreline also from Denmark down to France.

As a matter of fact, many of the Norwegian fortresses of the Atlantic Wall rank today among the most massive and well-preserved of the entire line (see here for some highlights).

But the war history of Norway, and of its mighty military infrastructure, didn’t stop with the end of WWII. With the start of the Cold War, Norway became a NATO founding member, and once again of great strategic value. It found itself in close proximity to the USSR, and with a long coastline facing the sea corridor taking from the highly-militarized Murmansk and Kola Peninsula (see here) to the northern Atlantic.

Most of the Atlantic Wall forts, especially anti-shipping and anti-aircraft gun batteries, were obsolete by the 1950s, and were soon deactivated. Some were abandoned or, when retained by the Norwegian military, they were modified to cover new functions.

In a few cases, the original mission of the site by the Third Reich was retained by NATO forces in the Cold War. This is the case of the torpedo battery in Herdla.

The fortress of Herdla was a major strategic fort in the Atlantic Wall, allowing to keep a watch on the entry point to the inner waters leading to the large industrial and military port of Bergen. Thanks to the morphology of the area, featuring a rare spot of flat land nearby a steep and rocky cliff, an airfield was installed by the Third Reich besides a set of bunkers, effectively hidden in the rocks. A land-based torpedo battery, consisting of a range-finding and aiming station and torpedo-firing tubes, was part of the fort.

During the Cold War, it was decided that the torpedo battery could be still a valuable asset, and Herdla was retained by the Norwegian military – by comparison, the airfield, too short for the requirements of the jet-era, was not. Over the years, the torpedo battery was potentiated to keep up-to-date against the technological offensive capabilities of the Eastern Bloc, and to exploit the most modern identification and surveillance techniques.

The torpedo battery was part of a larger naval fort, which controlled also the barrier of sea mines implemented to stop a sea-based intrusion towards Bergen.

As a matter of fact, the area control functions and the offensive capability of Herdla were retained until the early-2000s, when the fortress was deactivated following the end of the Cold War and defense budget cuts.

Luckily however, the often neglected Cold War chapter of warfare history has in Herdla a valuable asset – an accurately preserved fortress regularly open for a visit. A modern visitor center welcomes the more curious travelers, leaving Bergen towards the remoteness of the coast. It retraces the WWII heritage of the Herdla site, thanks to an exhibition centered around an original Focke-Wulf FW190, recently salvaged from the bottom of the sea, and with a special history to tell. Then a visit to the battery, looking like it had just been left by the military staff, is a unique emotion for both the specialized war technology enthusiasts and the general public as well.

The following report and photos is from a visit taken in Summer 2022.

Sights

As outlined in the overview, the Herdla site today is centered on two major highlights. One is the visitor center, with the preserved relic of a unique Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf FW190. The other is the former torpedo battery and Navy area command bunker, Norwegian facilities installed during the Cold War in bunkers dating to the Third Reich era.

Visitor center & Focke-Wulf FW190 exhibition

The relic of a Focke-Wulf FW190 A-3 German fighter from WWII is hosted in a dedicated room, where a scenic lighting makes this impressive exhibit literally shine.

This exemplar of the iconic Third Reich fighter, produced in some thousands examples, and now almost impossible to find especially in Europe, is ‘Gelbe 16’ (which can be translated in ‘Yellow 16’) of 12./JG5, and its history is deeply related to Herdla.

It took off on December 15th, 1943, from the airfield the Luftwaffe had established on the flat area now lying ahead of the visitor center, at the time a very active German airbase.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Following troubles with the engine, it ditched in the cold inner water near the island of Misje, some ten miles south of Herdla, the pilot being able to abandon the doomed aircraft, and being saved by local fishermen – and returned to the Luftwaffe, who had a Norwegian resistance prisoner released in acknowledgment.

The aircraft sank to the bottom of the sea, but its memory was not lost by some of the locals, who clearly remembered the events. The Focke-Wulf remained there for 63 years, but it was finally located and pinpointed by the Norwegian Navy, instigated by local interest, in 2005. After preparatory work – including exploration dives, to assess the condition and to set-up recovery operations – the fairly well-preserved wreck was lifted to the surface on November 1st, 2006, and loaded on a tug. Conservative restoration work then took place in Bergen.

Instrumentation and the machine guns were all recovered, together with many further fragments of equipment. Interestingly, evidence of repaint was found during conservation, retracing some previous assignments. Yet the history of this very exemplar remains difficult to write in its entirety.

Finally, following completion of conservation works, a new home for the aircraft was prepared in Herdla, where a hangar was built anew – and this is where you can see it today.

FW-190 Restored – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The aircraft is in an exceptional state of conservation, considering it spent 63 years in sea water. The fuselage, wings and tail are not significantly damaged, with just some paneling having disappeared on tail control surfaces, due to corrosion. The swastika on the vertical stabilizer is still perfectly evident, like other painted details.

FW-190 Restored – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The propeller blades are all bent downstream, as typical for an emergency landing carried out without the landing gear and the engine still running. The tail wheel is there with its original tire, the emblem of the German brand ‘Continental’, still in business today, being clearly noticeable.

FW-190 Restored – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The instrumentation from the pilot’s control panel has been put on display separately. Also a gyroscope has been found. Everything is only slightly damaged. Similarly, the two machine guns, dismounted prior to lifting the aircraft from the sea, are little damaged, and displayed with some ammo.

FW-190 Restored – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Complementing the exhibition are a few other pieces from other wrecks, as well as some quality scale models and dioramas portraying Herdla in the days of Third Reich tenancy.

FW-190 Restored – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Torpedo Battery

Access to the torpedo battery, which was built in WWII just above sea level, is from a gate on the land side. From outside, the bunkers in the fortress of Herdla appear especially well-deceived in the rocks of the cliff.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

What is seen today inside, however, dates to the years of Norwegian tenancy. The facility was updated in several instances during the Cold War, the last in the 1990s. Immediately past the gate, you get access to a modern and neat mechanics shop, where a partly dismounted torpedo allows to have a suggestive look inside this marvelous weapon.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Interestingly, Norway inherited and went on operating a significant number of German G7a (TI) torpedoes. This was the standard torpedo employed by the Kriegsmarine since 1934, and with some modifications (‘TI’ standing for ‘first variant’, the later variants bearing other codes), for the full span of WWII.

Propulsion power for this torpedo was from a piston engine, fed by high-pressure vapor obtained by the combustion of Decaline with compressed air stored onboard, mixed in a heater (i.e. a combustion chamber) with fresh water, similarly stored in a tank. The resulting mixture fed a 4-cylinder radial piston engine, driving two counter-rotating propellers. The exhaust in the water produced a distinctive contrail of bubbles, and the presence of a high-frequency moving mechanism had the side-effect of a significant noise emission. The head of the cylinders can be clearly seen in the dismounted exemplar.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Guidance was provided by rudder steering controlled with the help of gyros, whereas depth was controlled via a mechanical depth sensor. The torpedo could stay close to the surface or keep an assigned depth. In WWII the torpedo had no homing device – i.e. it was ‘blind’, thus requiring carefully putting it on a target-intercept trajectory. It could however cover pre-determined trajectories of some sophistication. The set-point selection for guidance and the yaw regulation gyro assembly have been taken out of the torpedo, and can be checked out in detail.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The range could be selected before launching, and was traded off with speed. It could be between 5.500 and 13.200 yards, and the speed ranged between 44 kn and 30 kn correspondingly. The German origin of the torpedo on display is betrayed by the writings in German on some parts.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Leaving the workshop through a gate towards the inner part of the bunker, a roomy supply storage area can be found, with some interesting material including torpedo parts, as well as a torpedo launching cannon.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

This item represents the primary way of launching torpedoes in the early Cold War from land-based batteries or ship decks. This was a technology inherited from WWII, when coastal batteries of the Atlantic Wall ejected torpedoes from slots in the bunker wall, shortly above the surface of the water, employing cannons similar to this one (which dates from the Cold War period), thanks to a burst of compressed air. This cheaper, but less ‘stealthy’ and accurate launching procedure, was replaced by underwater launching tubes only over the years of the Cold War, featuring an increase in the level of sophistication of warfare. Correspondingly, the slots in the side of the torpedo battery bunker facing the water were bricked up, and torpedo cannons were retained mostly for use from the deck of warships.

From the storage room you get access to the core area of the battery. This is through a decontamination lock, with gear for anti-contamination testing, including paper strips for checking contamination from poisonous gas.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The battery features two diesel generators for electric power, employed in case of disconnection from the regional grid.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Less usual – for a military facility – is the presence of two air compressors. Compressed air is relevant for torpedo operation, being employed for the launch burst from the torpedo tube, as well as for propulsion and gyros in the G7a torpedo. The air compressors in Herdla are made by Junkers, solid German technology from 1961!

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

A few bunkerized resting rooms for the staff manning the battery can be found in the same area, besides the power/compressed air supply room and the torpedo room. The resting rooms are minimal as usual, with suspended berths, and much personal military equipment on display – coats, blankets, medical kits, and more technical material.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Finally, the core of the battery is the torpedo room. This is much longer than wider, access is via the short side. In the Third Reich years, the launching slot was on the short side to the opposite end of the room, right above the water. Today, this slot has been bricked up, and there is no window at all.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The torpedoes are aligned on racks along the long sides of the room. The launching system is via two underwater tubes, which are accessed via obliquely mounted hatches, one to each side of the room at the level of the floor. The section of the racks closer to the entrance door is actually a pivoting slide. The slide could be pitched down, thus allowing the torpedo to slip through the hatch in the firing tube. The original launch control console can be found to the right of the access door – in a mint condition, it looks really like it had just been put in standby following a drill!

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Over the years, the stockpile of G7a TI torpedoes was upgraded especially in terms of guidance. The major modification was the adoption of wired control. This is based on a thin electric cable unwinding as the torpedo proceeds along its trajectory, keeping it linked with the launching battery. This upgraded model is called G7a TI mod 1. Control via a steering joystick and trajectory monitoring system could provide manual guidance to the torpedo, thus sharply increasing the chance of target interception. This technology is still in use today. Wire tubes can be found on top of the rudder of torpedoes.

Besides the G7a, Herdla battery received the TP613 torpedo, a weapon developed in Sweden in the early 1980s from previous designs. Exemplars of this torpedo, still in use, are visible in the torpedo room. In terms of mechanics, the piston engine of this torpedo is powered by the reaction of alcohol and Hydrogen-peroxide. In terms of guidance, this torpedo features improved wired communication for guidance and power setting (i.e. changing torpedo speed during the run), as well as passive sonar homing. A dismounted section exposing the engine can be found on display.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The wire tube installation on top of the rudder is featured also on this model, and examples of the wire are on display.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The original guidance console, made by Decca, with a prominent joystick on it, is on display as well!

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Training and proficiency checks are typically carried out without a warhead, but with an instructional head. Distinctively painted in shocking red, and with powerful lights in them – to show their position to simulated targets during training exercises, when needed – these are on display in a number. Since the torpedoes, just like missiles, are very expensive, a way of recovering them after instructional use has been envisioned, in the form of inflating bags coming out of the head, increasing the buoyancy of the emptied torpedo and forcing it to surface when reactants tanks are empty and power is off.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Offensive warheads can be exchanged with dummy ones for training, bolting them to the body of the torpedo, which remains totally unchanged. A warhead with a 600 lbs explosive load, triggered by a proximity pistol, was typically put on G7a torpedoes. The proximity pistol was made of four petals, which on contact with the target were bent towards a conductive metal ring around the nose cone of the torpedo, closing an electric circuit and triggering the explosion.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Leaving the torpedo room and the bunker is via the same way you came in.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Sea Mines & Area Control Center

But your visit is not over. As mentioned, the Herdla coastal battery hosts an area control center, with provision to manage target detection facilities and the minefields in the waters around Bergen.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

This part was built in a facility strongly potentiated with tight doors, typical to the shockwave-proof military construction syllabus of the Cold War. A sequence of roomy vaults carved in the rock hides a number of containerized modules, together with an exhibition of sea mines and related apparatus.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Most notably, an L-type Mk 2 moored mine and a Mk 51 bottom mine are on display, with a understated control panel. The latter is actually a portable controller for triggering the mines. Already before WWII, sea mines were often put on the bottom of the sea in shallow waters, or moored in deeper waters, to control access inner waters, firths, ports, etc. The Germans made extensive use of this technique in Norway, and following WWII this strategy was inherited by Norway to protect its waters from (primarily) Soviet intrusion.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Despite contact mines were still popular in WWII, they have been surpassed and gradually replaced already in that age by proximity mines, based on noise and – especially – magnetic sensors. Today, proximity fuses activated by the magnetic field of ships or submarines passing nearby are standard technology. Onboard electronics allows to distinguish between the magnetic signature (i.e. fingerprint) of different ships, thus avoiding any issue for civilian or friendly traffic, and activating only against enemy shipping. Degaussing techniques – i.e. the ability of military ships to hide their signature – have forced to improve detection technology, which is today extremely sophisticated.

Furthermore, for the protection of ports and friendly waters, sea mines are typically controlled and triggered by hand, upon detection and localization of enemy shipping, by means of dedicated detection facilities on land or water. This improves precision and allows more flexible defensive-offensive tactics, since a human chain of command has control on the minefield, instead of a pre-determined computer program.

To trigger the mines, consoles like that on display are employed, where a trigger for each mine allows precise control over the minefield.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

The first containerized control center hosts a similar, yet much more modern, dedicated console. Everything in this movable control center is very neat, and really looking like reactivation might take place in just moments! Of interest is also the situation map, covering the area around Herdla and the water inlet to Bergen.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

A nearby container reveals berths and a small living area for stationing staff.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

Yet another container hosts a complete situation room covering the area. Similar to the coastal battery in Stevnsfort, Denmark (see here), a careful eye was constantly overlooking the shipping in the area.

Cold War Coastal Torpedo Battery – Command and Control – Operations room – Atlantic Wall – Herdla Fort – Bergen – Norway

In the same container, a console for steering torpedoes, more modern than that previously seen in the torpedo battery, is on display.

All in all, Herdla is a one-of-a-kind destination, of primary interest for those interested in Cold War military history, enjoyable and easy to visit. Totally recommended for everybody with an interest in history, with much to see and learn for the kids as well.

Getting there & Visiting

Herdla fortress features an official visitor center with a large parking area, and amenities including a small restaurant and a shop. The official website is here. It can be reached about 27 miles north of central Bergen, roughly 45 minutes by car. The address is Herdla Museum, Herdla Fort, 5315 Herdla.

The torpedo battery and control bunker can be visited only on a guided tour. Visiting from abroad, we scheduled an appointment, and were shown around by the very knowledgeable guide Lars Ågren, a retired officer of the Royal Norwegian Navy. He joined the Navy in the late 1970s, in time to gain a substantial, hands-on Cold War experience during the final, high-tech part of that confrontation. He was promoted to tasks in the NATO headquarters in Belgium, later returning to Norway, and totaling more than 37 years in service. He is strongly involved in the management of the Herdla site. Chance is for you to embark on a visit with this guide, or other very competent guides who will satisfy the appetites of more committed war technicians and engineers, being capable of entertaining also the younger public as well.

A visit to the torpedo battery and control center may last about 1 hour. Seasonal changes to opening times may apply, as common in Northern Countries, therefore carefully check the website.

Traces of World War II in Norway – Highlights

September 25, 2022September 3, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

War actions in Scandinavia constitute a crucial stage in the unfolding of WWII events in Europe. The strategic position of the Scandinavian peninsula was not overlooked by strategists in the Third Reich and the USSR, and by the Western Allies. As a matter of fact, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway took place as early as the Spring of 1940, starting just weeks before the invasion of Holland, Belgium and France.

History & Remains – A Quick Summary

For Germany in WWII, the long and impervious coast of Norway constituted an ideal strong point to carry out raids over the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, the northern Atlantic and the Barents Sea, interfering with resupply convoys from Britain and the US. Especially after the start of the war against the USSR in 1941, the polar routes going to Murmansk – the only non-freezing port on the northern coast of the USSR – were within range of German warships and aircraft operating from the north of Norway. Control over Norway and Denmark meant total control on the access to the Baltic Sea, thus protecting the northern coast of Germany from direct attack by the Western Allies, allowing unimpeded action against the Soviet Union on that sea. Of the greatest importance in the northern European territory was also the abundance of raw materials – mainly metals for industrial production – so desperately needed by the Third Reich.

For the Allies, keeping Scandinavia was an objective of great relevance in the early stages of the war, since this territory could be a convenient springboard to launch attacks against the flat and easy coast of Germany. In the rapidly changing complex alliances and diplomatic relationships of the early stage of WWII (1939-40), Norway and Sweden tried to keep out of the war. Finland fought the Winter War against the USSR (itself one of the results of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, albeit not to the knowledge of the Finns), loosing part of its territory and strengthening its link with Germany for some years to come (see this post). The Third Reich attacked Norway by air and sea in April 1940, and help was sought especially in Britain. King Haakon VII of Norway left for exile in England, and the initial battles of WWII between the Reich and the UK were fought – mainly at sea – in proximity of Norwegian ports.

The Atlantic Wall

Possibly the most impressive military trace of WWII in Europe, the Atlantic Wall – a defense line stretching from France to northern Norway – was designed and built in Denmark and Germany, immediately following the successful push of the Third Reich into these Countries. Actually, those are the Countries where the most relevant remains of this interesting trace of war can be found today. A very ambitious project both in purpose and required resources, the Atlantic Wall never reached completion. Despite that, the geography of Norway, with a coastline featuring only limited access to the inland area, allowed to create an effective barrier against a potential enemy landing. Hundreds of gun batteries, complemented with anti-aircraft artillery and radars, constituted a powerful deterrent against any invasion. As a matter of fact, after the unique episode of the Battle of Narvik in the early stages of WWII, no Allied forces ever landed in Norway from the sea for the rest of the war.

A complete visit to all sites of the Atlantic Wall in Norway is a really immense task, due to the number of installations and their geographical remoteness. However, a few impressive highlights can be found in convenient locations, and can be easily visited by everybody. In this post some of them are presented – the colossal battery ‘Vara’, the southern fortified area of Lista, the forts of Fjell and Tellevik near Bergen, and the massive cannons of Austratt.

War Museums

But other fragments of the rich legacy of WWII in Norway can be retraced also away from the preserved installations of the Atlantic Wall. An interesting page is that of naval warfare deployed by the Navy of the Third Reich – the Kriegsmarine – to counter Allied shipping activities. Names like Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are frequently found in history books as well as in movies or scale model shops, and they are just a few of the mighty vessels linked to the Scandinavian war theater. Dedicated exhibitions can be found in little but impressively rich museums on these topics. In this post, the Tirpitz Museum in Alta, the War Museum of Narvik and the exhibition in the visitor center of North Cape are covered.

Special interest sites

Heroic actions involving the Norwegian resistance organization are proudly remembered all over the Nation. A particularly interesting location being the Rjukan hydroelectric power-plant, which produced heavy water, a key-component in the research leading to the preparation of fissile material. This strategic asset was highly needed by the German nuclear program. On the other hand, its possession by the Third Reich was seen as a clear and present danger by the Allies, who tried to have the plant destroyed in several instances. The Norwegian resistance was clearly much involved in sabotage missions, due to the difficulty in targeting the place through air bombing raids. The power-plant is today a nice museum, covered in this post.

Photographs in this chapter were collected on a visit in August 2022.

Sights

The map below shows the location of the sites mentioned in this chapter. Their listing in the descriptions roughly follows a clockwise sense, starting from the southernmost point of Kristiansand (Vara battery). Red items are in disrepair, whereas blue ones are official tourist destinations.

Vara Battery – Kristiansand

The Vara battery was built as the core of the strongly fortified area around Kristiansand. Thanks to its position close to the southernmost tip of the Norwegian territory, this port town is still today very busy with passenger and freight traffic from nearby Denmark.

The Third Reich military started to lay sea mines as soon as it gained control of both sides of the Skagerrak strait. The coast around Kristiansand was reinforced with several coastal artillery pieces, and production of a set of special 38 cm caliber guns – called Siegfried -was started by the Krupp ironworks in Essen in 1940. The aim was that of controlling access to the Baltic sea by means of two batteries of long-range naval guns, one to the south in Denmark (Hanstholm, see here), and one to the north in Kristiansand.

The cannons should be capable of revolving by 360 degrees, and special concrete rotundas were prepared for the scope in a location called Møvik, on the southwestern end of the gulf of Kristiansand. The complex morphology of the terrain in this site led to a smaller than desirable area for the battery, where all technical buildings – including ammo storages – had to be built relatively close to one another. These massive constructions alone, built by the same ‘Organisation Todt’ responsible for the implementation of the coastal defense positions all over Europe, make for a remarkable work of engineering, carried out with the help of local builders, working relentlessly around the clock to have these emplacements ready as soon as possible.

In the event, only three of the four Siegfried cannons made their way to the battery in Kristiansand, one being apparently lost when the transport ship carrying it was sunk on the Baltic Sea. Transporting these 110 ton, around 60 ft long barrels by rail from Germany into the narrow valleys of Scandinavia was not an easy task. However, two cannons were test-fired in May 1942, and the third in November the same year.

The battery received the name ‘Vara’, after a high-ranking official killed in Guernsey in 1941.

Battery Vara went through the war without seeing an involvement in any major war action, and was mainly test-fired only. The whole installation, comprising target detection points, analog computers for target aiming, ammo storages – including more than 1.400 shells! – and many other service buildings, was inherited intact by the Norwegian Armed Forces in 1945, similar to many other installations along the coast of the Skagerrak and the North Sea. It was incorporated in the Norwegian coastal artillery between 1946 and 1954, being later placed in reserve having by then become obsolete for Cold War warfare standards. Two cannons were scrapped, whereas one – the only entirely surviving battery Nr. 2 – was luckily kept. The site survived subsequent stages of demolition works over the next decades, but in the early 1990s it was finally re-opened as a museum.

Cannon Nr. 2

Today, the centerpiece of the visit is constituted by a walk around the perfectly preserved building of cannon Nr.2. This bunkerized building is composed of a set of technical rooms, for ammo assembly and storage, as well as for services like Diesel power generators, and an adjoining rotunda, where the big cannon revolved around a pinion, and could be pointed to its target, following instructions from the battery control center. The latter elaborated target data from detection, identification, measuring and range-finding positions scattered around the battery perimeter.

Access to the back of the concrete building is via the original hatch, closed by iron doors. You can see the narrow-gauge railway track leading in. This linked the cannon buildings with the ammo storages around, and allowed to supply the cannon with ammo parts (the explosive cartridge and the shell are not assembled in a single unity for larger cannons, unlike for lighter weapons). The hatch drives you into a long corridor, the backbone of the bunkerized quarters behind the cannon rotunda. Here some shells have been put on the original railway trolley for display.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The cannon building hosted a permanent watch of a few men, which manned it permanently in shifts. A living room with some berths is the only one offering some comfort in the building.

A number of rooms in the bunker are dedicated to the power generator plant. A primary and a back-up generator share the same room. Of special interest are the labels on all machines and mechanisms, proudly made in Germany – in some cases, by brands still existing today.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Electric power was required for the motion of the cannon, besides for smaller appliances like lights and radios. The cannons could make use of the regional grid, but since an unstable supply might have damaged the cannon motors, aiming operations were often carried out on the controlled internal power grid, fed by the generators, and producing an optimal output.

Beside the generator room, the air conditioning plant (not for comfort, but to slightly pressurize the bunker in order to repel and pump-out poisonous or exhaust gas), the Diesel tank and the water tank for cooling the generator can be seen in adjoining rooms.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

To the far end of the corridor, a radio room was used to maintain a link with the battery command post, located more than 1 mile away from Vara battery. Actually, by design the electric signals to orient the cannon could be given by the control post, and the radio communication system was there for backup.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

On the other side of the corridor with respect to the generator rooms – i.e. towards the cannon rotunda – are four adjoining rooms, used to store the components of the explosive cartridges and shells. The shells and cartridges prepared for firing were moved via a crane to a tray, and from there sent side-wards to the rotunda, where they were loaded on a trolley. The cranes, trays and slots linking these rooms to the rotunda can be found around the area of the bunker closer to the rotunda.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The cranes moved along tracks hanging from the ceiling. These tracks had some switch points, allowing to allow the crane to move across different rooms in the bunker.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Inside these rooms, today you can find much original material of special interest. Specimens of high-explosive (yellow) and armor-piercing (blue) shells are displayed. The weight of the shells was around 800 kg, where the cartridge could feature different weights, roughly from 100 to 200 kg.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The top range of these cannons and shells was around 43 km. Smaller 500 kg shells could alternatively be fired by Siegfried cannons, with a longer range of 55 km. Furthermore, the cannon could be test-fired during drills with smaller caliber shots, by reducing the bore of the cannon. This was a very useful feature, since the estimated loss of barrel metal due to attrition was a staggering 0.25 kg per shot, implying a life of the barrel of only around 250-300 shots, firing with sufficient accuracy. Shooting smaller shells allowed to spare barrel wear and extend the time between overhauls of the cannon.

The sealed canisters for the explosive cartridges, with original markings in German, can still be seen piled in a room!

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

More material on display includes a rare example of fire direction computer. Actually, that on display is smaller than the one originally used for the long-range cannons of Vara battery, but it provides a good idea of the level of sophistication of this mechanism. Data like target distance, velocity, orientation, wind speed and direction, etc. were set as input to this analog computer, producing fire direction variables to point the cannon. An incredible masterpiece of engineering and craftsmanship, this type of computer is difficult to find in museums, and allows to appreciate the level of development of warfare back in the 1940s.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Data including range of the target was found with the help of special instrumentation. A stereoscopic range-finder was installed in the battery command post, with an arm of 12 m, which allowed good accuracy for very distant targets – required for the long range of the cannons of Vara battery. Smaller instruments with the same principle are displayed in one of the rooms.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Among the special features of this bunkerized building are the restored, original writings from German times, as well as a one-of-a-kind painting made by a Soviet prisoner of war.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

From the bunkerized room, you can get access to the rotunda. Cartridges put on trolleys moved along a circular railway track all around the rotunda. This way, cartridges could be taken to the cannon whatever the direction it was pointing. Once to the base of the cannon turret, the explosive charge and the shell were lifted separately by means of two special elevators, up to the level of the gun shutter.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

An impressive feature of the rotunda is the ring cover for the circular railway. In order to protect the railway passage from above, while allowing the cannon to rotate, a roof made of thick metal scales was implemented. When revolving around the pinion, the cannon turret would automatically lift the scales on its passage. The sound of the scales being lifted and released while the cannon body was revolving must have been really an experience!

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Pictures can hardly tell how big the cannon turret is!

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Following an exploration from beneath, you can exit the bunker building, climb up to the level of the barrel, and finally enter the turret.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Here the back of the barrel dominates the relatively large firing chamber. The shutter has been left open, so you can see the sunlight through the barrel.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The shell and explosive charge were received from the two elevators on a special tray, and here they were finally aligned one before the other. Somewhat in contrast to the top-notch technology level of the installation, the cartridge had to be pushed from the back into the barrel by hand. A long wooden stick was used for the task. Actually, it was so long that it protruded from the back of the cannon turret, thus requiring a small hatch to be pierced in the metal armor correspondingly. On one side of the barrel, instrumentation for measuring the pointing direction is still in place.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Air-pumping mechanisms can be clearly seen, similarly to communication phones to the back and top of the room.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Cannon Nr. 1

The position of cannon Nr.1 was prepared unusually close to that of Nr.2. As said, this was due to the limited available area on the uneven coast section where the battery was put in place. However, Nr.1 never received a cannon. Conversely, it was modified later in the war, when experimenting with cannon protection from air-dropped high-yield bombs. The rotunda was capped with a very thick concrete roof, sustained by sidewalls which limited the side-wards rotation of the cannon to 120 degrees.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The rotunda can be walked freely. The central pinion is still in place. Inside, the ceiling is covered in original metal panels. The round corridor for the trolleys can still be seen, but there is no access left to the bunkerized part.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The firing position can be climbed, and from the elevated top you get a great view of the battery and of the area ahead of it.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Other buildings

Following the railway around the site is a great way to find what remains today of the original installation. There are two bulky ammo storages. These were reportedly more thickly armored than usual, in view of a higher risk of getting hit, due to the unusual proximity with the cannons – designated targets for the enemy.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Furthermore, other smaller buildings are scattered around, which may have served as storage for lighter weapons.

The positions of cannons Nr. 3 and Nr. 4 have been largely demolished, and access is permanently shut to the bunkerized part. However, you can easily climb to the top level, to get a nice view of the rotunda.

Vara Battery Kristiansand Movik – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Visiting

Vara is in the top-five list of the most famous surviving installations of the Atlantic Wall in Europe, and a visit to this destination is in itself a good reason for a detour to Norway for war historians and like-minded people. Due to its proximity to the port of Kristiansand, just minutes apart by car, and the relatively easy-to-reach location in the most populated part of Norway, it is also a top destination for any tourist in the area. As a matter of fact, the place is run as a top-level museum, with great reception capability, and is visited by thousands of visitors per year.

Visiting can be performed on a self-guided basis, with an explanation leaflet which allows to get much from your visit, especially if you are not new to installations of the Atlantic Wall (which are mostly standardized, despite Vara having really oversized guns!). A tour of the main features – cannon Nr.2 and the building of Nr.1 – may take 1 hour at least, for an averagely interested person. For an in-depth visit and a quick tour of the premises including other remains, more than 2 hours are needed. Thanks to the exceptional level of conservation and the explanation of whatever is on display, the visit is not boring and may be very rewarding even for younger people.

Large parking on site, picnic tables and warm reception are available – as usual in Norway! Website with full information here.

Nordberg & Marka Batteries – Farsund

Located in the southwestern corner of the Norwegian territory, about 100 miles south of the port of Stavanger, the municipality of Farsund encompasses a number of small coastal villages, around the landmark represented by the lighthouse of Lista.

Two batteries were set up by the German occupation forces as part of the Atlantic wall, both fully operative by 1942. The northern one is called Nordberg fort, where the southern one, very close to the shore line, is known as Marka fort. Between the two, the Germans installed a full-scale airbase, with a runway of roughly 1.5 km, complemented by hangars and shelters largely standing today. Following the end of WWII and the withdrawal of the German military, all these installations were converted for military use by the Norwegian armed forces, which also developed the original airfield into a more modern airbase by stretching the runway.

Today, Nordberg fort is a museum. The German Navy was in charge of the station, which had as centerpieces three 150 mm cannons, with a range of around 23 km. The cannons have been scrapped (with the exception of a lighter piece of Russian make). However, the firing positions are still there, linked by a semi-interred trench.

Nordberg Battery Lista Farsund – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

You can see also the original control point for the battery, developed by the Norwegians more recently, and the concrete base for a radar antenna originally on site.

Nordberg Battery Lista Farsund – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Several original buildings for services – canteen, hospital,… – are still there, making for a an interesting opportunity to see how this installation looked like back in the 1940s.

Nordberg Battery Lista Farsund – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The Marka fort was assembled around six 150 mm guns, located very close to the sea, grouped in two batteries of three firing positions each. A huge bunkerized command post was built in the premises of the fort. Today, after the Norwegian military left at the end of the Cold War, the Marka battery is basically a ghost site, despite being still in a relatively good shape.

The control bunker is especially interesting, since you can access the top level and watch the sea from the very same room and windows originally used by the German Navy troops! The general arrangement of the bunker is similar to other command posts you can find on the Atlantic Wall – especially in Denmark (see here).

Marka Battery Lista Farsund – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The positions for the coastal guns can be reached close to the control bunker. They are uncovered round areas, slightly below the level of the ground, framed by a circular reinforced sidewall.

Marka Battery Lista Farsund – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

More Atlantic Wall remains, like bunkers, foundations for radar stations, or emplacements for lighter guns, can be be found scattered in the area of Farsund – which kept its military site status well after the Germans had left.

Marka Battery Lista Farsund – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Visiting

The museum of Nordberg keeps some of the buildings on the respective site open. However, the majority of the site is open 24 hours, and can be walked freely. A visit may take about 1 hour. A convenient parking can be found right ahead of the modern and welcoming visitor center, from where you can effortlessly reach most of the points of interest in this installation. Website with full information here.

The site of Marka – not part of any museum – can be approached at any time with some walking in the rural area along the coast line. A good starting point for an exploration is here, where you can leave your car and move along an easy trail to the command bunker and the gun rotundas about 0.5 miles west.

Fjell Fortress – Bergen

Bergen was a strategic base of the German Navy, which received a fortified submarine deck among the largest, most active and longest lasting in the history of WWII. The complex morphology of the territory around this port town allowed to effectively protect the access by means of a network of nine firing emplacements. One of them – Fjell – was of exceptional power and range.

It was built between 1942-43 diverting one of the batteries of battleship Gneisenau, which had been damaged beyond repair by an air raid while in port at Kiel (Germany). The battery was composed of three 28 cm guns in a single turret. The latter was very compact in design, a real masterpiece of naval engineering, but nonetheless it featured a rather tall substructure, with all that was needed to operate the guns – protruding from the relatively sleek top of the turret, surfacing on the ground.

Placing this special battery in Fjell required carving the rocky coast, creating a cylindrical underground pit, inside coated with concrete, to host the turret. The turret, an assembly of around 1.000 tonnes with the guns on top, was then transported up to this elevated site, and lowered into the pit. The battery was test fired in the mid of 1943. It acted as an effective deterrent, and reportedly never used in combat.

The battery was incorporated in the Norwegian coastal defense after WWII, and sadly scrapped in 1968, since by then obsolete, but not yet considered an historical landmark.

Clearly, the battery was in the middle of an off-limits military area in wartime, where bunkers for several services and for the the troops, at least two radar antennas and many emplacements for lighter defensive weapons were installed to protect the battery from ground and air attacks.

Today, the bunker-pit where the turret used to rest is the centerpiece of a visit to the site. Starting from the visitor center on top, where the guns used to be, you can descend to the base of the cylindrical pit – roughly 30 ft in diameter and 75 in depth! Here you can see the rooms originally employed for storing the explosive cartridges and the shells for the cannons. These were supplied on trolleys and slides, and sent inside the metal turret, to be lifted up to the level of the cannons for firing.

Fjell Battery Bergen – Gneisenau – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Most of the original German mechanical and electrical systems is still there to see, including wiring, phones, cranes, trolleys, and examples of shells and cartridges.

Fjell Battery Bergen – Gneisenau – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Back then, you got access to these storage areas from an entrance on the same level (i.e. not from the top of the turret, but from the base). You can see this entrance, as well as the curved corridor leading from the gate to the ammo storage area. Here, examples of sea mines and other war material can be found. The corridor has narrow-gauge railway track, which was used for resupplying the ammo storage from outside.

Fjell Battery Bergen – Gneisenau – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The corridor is curved, and firing positions are strategically placed to cover it, in order to counter enemy intrusion.

The bunker gives access to the living quarters for the troops. These are well preserved, and feature brick walls to help insulating the inside from the wet rock of the walls and ceilings.

Fjell Battery Bergen – Gneisenau – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Services, like toilets, sauna, washing machines and more, are original from the German tenancy. Especially the water basins appear very stylish, a good example of German design from the era.

Besides the main turret bunker, as said the Fjell site offers other constructions on a vast area, which can be checked out from the outside – also since the premises are at least formally military grounds still today.

Fjell Battery Bergen – Gneisenau – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The road reaching the site from the parking, gently climbing uphill, is reportedly the original main access to the Third Reich site. An interesting tank-stopping device can be seen to the lower end of the road – heavy stones on top of light pillars on the sides of the road. The pillars could be blown, and the stones would fall cutting the road, in case of a potential intrusion.

Fjell Battery Bergen – Gneisenau – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Visiting

The fort of Fjell, about 15 miles west of central Bergen, is professionally run as a museum. Parking is only possible to the base of the cliff where the turret used to stand. From there, a 0.8 miles road climbs to the entrance. The scenic location and the nice rural area around make for an enjoyable walk. Visiting inside is only possibly on guided tours, offered also in English (an possibly other languages). A small restaurant can be found on top, where an observation deck has been built in place of the battery.

The location of the parking is here. A visit may take around 45 minutes, excluding the time needed to climb uphill and descend to the parking. Website with full information here.

Tellevik Fort – Bergen

The coastal fort of Tellevik, on the eastern head of the Norhordland Bridge, 15 miles north of Bergen, was part of the lighter defense artillery put in place by the German military to defend any access by water to Bergen. The battery was built by order of the Third Reich, profiting from the forced labor of Soviet prisoners of war.

Lighter howitzers were enough to cover the narrow water passages in proximity of the town. The elevation of the emplacement is low, slightly above the water surface.

The battery of Tellevik was centered on two such howitzers, placed on open-top positions. The two guns can be seen still today, on round concrete firing positions. The giant bridge today largely obstructing the field of sight was not there at the time of the German occupation.

Tellevik Battery Bergen – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The site displays also a concrete trench, connecting the firing positions with a command post for the battery.

Tellevik Battery Bergen – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

A monument to Norwegian seamen victims to sea mines laid by the German to protect the access to Bergen is concurrently located on the site of the Tellevik battery.

Tellevik Battery Bergen – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Visiting

Tellevik is an open air memorial, which can be walked freely 24/7. It can be reached by inputting these coordinates to a GPS navigation app.

A visit may take about 15 minutes, a nice detour from exceptionally crowded downtown Bergen.

Austrått Fortress – Austrått

Similar to Bergen, the major port of Trondheim was a strategic base for the German Navy. Protected by a long firth, the port was an ideal base for submarines and warships, to intercept convoys in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. Correspondingly, a number of coastal forts was prepared by the German occupation forces to counter any unauthorized access to the waterways leading to Trondheim.

The most powerful and impressive of these batteries is the Austratt Fort. Similar to the fortress of Fjell near Bergen (see above), Austratt received one of the turrets of the ill-fated battleship Gneisenau, damaged while moored in Kiel, in February 1942. A control and aiming position was put in place a few miles apart along the coast, whereas the battery was surrounded by an off-limits area, stuffed with bunkers for the troops, ammo storage bunkers, and lighter guns for protection against an attack by land.

A major difference between the two ‘sister sites’ of Fjell and Austratt is that in the latter the cannons are still there!

Following the installation of the turret, test fired in September 1943, the fort saw little action, acting as a deterrent, and effectively preventing any serious intrusion by the Allies towards Trondheim from the sea. After the demise of the Third Reich, the fort was taken over by the Norwegian coastal defense, stricken off in 1968, and restored as a museum in the early 1990s.

The cannons are on top of a hill. From the outside, the massive three-barreled turret is really impressive in size!

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The barrels can be seen besides the original range-finder – with its impressive arm, granting good measuring accuracy even at a large distance from the target. This item, with its bell-shaped cover, was originally part of the control point, located southwest of the battery, in a location currently very close to an active base of the Norwegian Air Force (Orland).

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Despite access to the the firing chamber being possible through a hatch to the back of the turret, the tour follows the way a shell would travel from storage to firing. Hence you start your tour from an entrance to the side of the hill, at the same level of the bottom of the cylindrical tower supporting the guns. This metal tower was taken from the Gneisenau together with the cannons, and put in a pit carved in the rock for the purpose in Austratt.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Access through the side of the hill is protected by a smaller gun. Once inside, you find yourself in a curvy corridor, with a narrow-gauge railway track for the trolleys needed to carry the shells and cartridges inside. A firing position behind an embrassure points against the entrance, for further protection of the site against an intrusion.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The bunker in Austratt – but the same happened to many installations of the Atlantic Wall in Norway – was plagued with severe humidity problems. Immediately besides the entrance, a room with a water basin is fed by natural water dripping from the ceiling and from the rocky walls around.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Original machines for tooling, put in place for maintenance purposes back in the Third Reich years, are still there and working. Similarly, a primary and a backup Diesel generators supplying the fort are still in place, with all ancillary plants, like big Diesel and water tanks for cooling. This is original machinery too, as witnessed by the tags of the mechanical components, all made in Germany.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Living quarters were at the bottom level too. Trying to supply some comfort, the rocky walls were covered with bricks and wood, especially against humidity. These rooms have been partly refurbished with a good resemblance to the original ones. They include the kitchen and some of the sleeping quarters for the troops. However, since humidity was really extreme, troops spent limited time here especially for sleeping, and provisional barracks were built outside of the installation instead.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Hygienic services were reportedly extremely advanced compared to Norwegian standards of the time. Fully working toilets, lavatories and showers were taken as a blueprint by the Norwegian Army after the war. The electric water heater put in place in the Austratt battery was apparently among the first installed in the whole Country – it can still be seen.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Explosive cartridges, fuses and shells arriving from the bunker entry you have walked through at the beginning of your tour would be eventually lifted upstairs. Shells, either high-yield explosive or armor-piercing, would be stored in a chamber featuring cranes hanging from the ceiling, used to put the shells on trolleys. These trolleys transported the shells to the lower level of the turret. The chamber where the shells were stored is physically separated by the turret by means of a concrete wall.

Tight compartments are often found in war bunkers of the Atlantic Wall, and this can be explained by the fact that the deadliest effect of an enemy shot (either a cannon shell from a warship, or an air-dropped bomb) would be that of an overpressure wave (shockwave), capable of killing many in just moments. Overpressure effects can be effectively reduced by putting physical obstacles on the way the shockwave would travel – walls, tight doors, etc. – or by forcing it into smaller passages, like hatches or smaller doors and windows. Therefore, bunkers like Austratt are built in rather small rooms, connected only through narrow hatches and doors.

Again in the storage chamber for the shells, extensive writing in German can be found on many of the mechanisms and electric plants. Everything is original and exceptionally well conserved, just like the Germans had just left!

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

The lowest level of the turret, where the shells would arrive from the storage chamber to be loaded on elevators going to the upper levels, is a masterpiece of engineering. The technical problem here was that of connecting the slides from the storage chamber, which are anchored to the ground, to the receiving slides on the turret, which could pivot around 360 degrees. The designer of the turret solved the issue by placing an intermediate ring, revolving independently, and capable of connecting the fixed slides from the storage chamber to the revolving platform on the turret. The extremely compact size of the overall design, originally prepared for fitting into a warship, and the elegance and precision of the mechanism resemble those of a pocket watch from the 1920s more than a cannon!

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

On the turret, you can see three elevators for the three barrels, which were therefore fed independently.

Going upstairs, you meet the storage room for the explosive cartridges. These used to be stored in sealed canisters on display, original from the time. This storage room is placed to the side of the corresponding level in the turret, in a similar fashion to the shells storage below.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Climbing up one more level inside the turret, you reach a platform with the motors for moving the battery around its vertical axis, and for lifting or lowering the three monster barrels. The motion involved high-pressure mechanisms, rather complex and requiring many valves and extensive piping.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

To the back of each of the barrels, you can see a large empty volume for recoil. The battery rested on a ball bearing – one of the pretty sizable metal balls is on display.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Finally, the firing chamber can be found on the top level in the turret. Here the shells and cartridges were received, aligned and loaded from the back into the barrels by a pushing mechanical arm. Three independent mechanisms were put in place for the scope in the firing chamber.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

To the front of the battery, instrumentation for aiming can be found, with writing in German. Also radio positions are there.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

Battery fire could be triggered by a single man, sitting to the back of the turret in front of a control panel with three independent triggers.

Austratt Battery Trondheim – Atlantic Wall – WWII – Norway

You can exit the turret from the hatch to the back of the turret, concluding your tour. In the video below you can see a portrait of the battery from the air, made with a drone.

All in all, similar to the Vara battery (see above), Austratt is in an exceptional state of conservation in the Norwegian and European panorama of artillery engineering from WWII, and a visit may be super-interesting for any public.

Visiting

Despite being relatively close to Trondheim on a map, as usual in Norway, Austratt is a more than two hours drive from the town, and reaching requires taking at least one ferry. However, as noted, this location is a pinnacle in the Atlantic Wall, and surely deserves a visit for technicians and non-technical public as well, and of course for the kids.

Access to the exterior is possible at any time, but visiting inside is only possible on guided tours. The guide is very knowledgeable and makes the visit interesting also for a technically-minded public. The visit inside may take around 1 hour, more if you make questions and show some interest. Convenient parking by the gate of the fort, easy access to the area around the battery. Moving inside can be requiring for non-fit people.

Website with full information here.

Arctic Circle & North Cape

As pointed out in the introduction to this chapter, Norway is rich of memorials from WWII. Even close to some of the attractions in this wonderful Country which are must-see stops for other reasons, features recalling memories from war actions are offered to a curious eye.

Two notable examples are the visitor center of the Arctic Circle along the E6, as well as that of North Cape.

Scandinavia has been a bloody and extremely active theater of war all along WWII, and Norway was directly involved in significant war actions since the first year of the conflict. As a matter of fact, most of the impressive line of fortifications constituting the Atlantic Wall was erected by deploying forced laborers, typically prisoners of war from the Eastern Front, primarily including Russians, other people from the USSR, and Balkan prisoners.

Soviet troops attacked the northernmost German-occupied region from the North, together with the Finns, after the latter negotiated a separate peace with the USSR in late 1944. The retreating Germans opposed a fierce resistance, and it was in this latest stage of the war that most physical damage to towns and installations was caused in Norway, since German troops were ordered to burn up all positions they had to leave.

These facts explain the many Soviet monuments and war cemeteries scattered especially in the northern part of Norway still today – commemorating Soviet soldiers fallen either in war actions or as prisoners of war in the harsh conditions of northern Norway.

One such monument, albeit overlooked, is prominently placed besides the visitor center of the Arctic Circle.

Soviet Memorial – Arctic Circle Visitor Center – WWII – Norway

The interest of Germany for Norway was primarily for its strategic position, which became an asset of special value after the start of the war against the USSR in mid-1941. The convoys feeding vital material to the USSR from Britain and the US had to go to Murmansk (see here) and the Kola Peninsula, i.e. over the Barents Sea. This was conveniently controlled by the German occupants, operating from the Norwegian coast.

In the visitor center of North Cape some panels are dedicated to this topic, showing an impression of the structure and routes followed by Allied convoys going to the USSR.

Polar Convoys to the USSR & Scharnhorst Exhibition – North Cape – Nordkapp – WWII – Norway

Detailed panels with maps and pictures recall the last battle of the German battleship Scharnhorst, which was confronted by the group of the British battleship HMS Duke of York, in an epic battle relatively close to North Cape. The massive German battleship, deployed to Norway with Tirpitz (a sister ship of the famous Bismarck) to block the resupply traffic to the USSR, was hit several times and finally sunk in the freezing last days of 1943. The battle was posthumously named ‘Battle of North Cape’. A detailed scaled model of the German battleship is similarly on display in the visitor center.

Polar Convoys to the USSR & Scharnhorst Exhibition – North Cape – Nordkapp – WWII – Norway

Visiting

The visitor center of the Arctic Circle on the road E6, with a small Soviet monument, can be found here. The monument is open 24/7.

The visitor center of North Cape is… at North Cape! The inside can be accessed during opening times, and the tables with information on WWII convoys and battles are on an underground mezzanine. Website with full information here.

War Museum – Narvik

The port town of Narvik was founded in the 19th century as a commercial base for exporting iron ore from Sweden. A small town by the sea, surrounded by steep-climbing mountains, and in a remote location well north of the Arctic Circle, Narvik was turned for about two months into a though theater of war for the Germans, following their occupation of Norway.

It was here that the British started a battle to stop the German push to the north, as soon as the 10th of April 1940, basically at the same time as the Germans had reached the town during their conquering campaign.

What resulted was a complex, multi-stage operation, lasting until early June 1940.

At first, the British fleet mounted a naval attack, carried out with a flotilla of five destroyers. This force clashed with the local German complement of ten destroyers. The British operation met with mixed success, and was finally repelled by the German navy operating in the narrow waters around Narvik, at the price of two destroyers on each side – plus several cargo ships destroyed in the battle. Three days later, on the 13th of April, a new force, composed of the British battleship HMS Warspite and 9 destroyers, launched another assault, resulting in the complete loss of the German destroyers fleet in the region – German warships were either sunk or scuttled.

The Germans however kept control of the town. A mixed force of British, Polish and French troops, together with the Norwegians, started an operation to conquer the town by land. The operation was successful, and the German troops had to retreat along the coast, away from Narvik. However, the start of the Battle of France – the invasion of France by the Third Reich – on the 10th of May, 1940, resulted in a rapid loss of priority of Narvik as a strategic target for the Allies. It was decided in Britain to withdraw from Norway, and to evacuate all previously landed military forces from Narvik. The town fell under German control on June 8th, basically concluding the conquer of Norway by the Third Reich.

The Allied landings around Narvik in 1940 where the first on the European continent in WWII, carried out without the participation of the US, more than three years before operations in southern Italy or Normandy.

The town of Narvik is still today an active commercial port of primary relevance in the region. The heritage of war actions is preserved in a purpose-installed museum, modernly designed and easy to visit.

On a first floor, the naval operations around Narvik are described by means of technological 3D board with virtual projections – very nice and lively. Around the board, memorabilia from the British and German warships taking part to the operations back in the Spring of 1940 have been put on display.

War Museum Narvik – WWII – Norway

They include an original Nazi eagle from one of the ships. Since the campaign around Narvik included also air and land operations, war traces including parts of aircraft, guns, mortars, machine guns, first-aid kits and many uniforms are also on display.

Uniforms are from the many corps which took part to those actions – they are British, German, Polish and even French.

War Museum Narvik – WWII – Norway

On a second floor, you are offered displays of artifacts retracing other aspects of WWII in Norway. These include land mines – put in place by the Germans along the coast, similar to Denmark, to impede Allied landings – an Enigma coding machine, Third Reich memorabilia, a section of the Tirpitz armored hull, radio machinery supplied to the resistance, as well as personal items belonging to former prisoners of war.

War Museum Narvik – WWII – Norway

Finally, on the last floor heavier weapons are put on display, including torpedoes, light armored vehicles and more, even for post-WWII times.

War Museum Narvik – WWII – Norway

Visiting

The battle of Narvik is one of the best known from WWII in Norway, and the little museum in the town center duly retraces its timeline, through an elegant exhibition, sufficiently rich to satisfy even the most exigent experts, but not so extensive to be boring for the general public. A really well designed museum, surely worth a visit, which may last from 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on your level of interest.

The location is right besides the town hall, and can be found here. Parking opportunities on the street nearby. Website with information here.

Tirpitz Museum – Alta

The German battleship Tirpitz was laid down as the only sister ship to the well-known Bismark. Eventually, she underwent developments which made her the heaviest battleship built in Europe. Her actions were concentrated along a limited time frame, between January 1942 and November 1944, when she was finally sunk by British Lancaster bombers, making use of Tallboy high-yield bombs.

She spent her operative life along the coasts of Norway, where she constituted an effective deterrent against a sea-launched Allied invasion, and was employed tactically against resupply convoys going to the USSR.

Tirpitz was a strategic target for the Allies, which tried to get rid of her by no less than seven war operations, meeting with limited success until the last one.

With an armor more than 30 cm thick, Tirpitz was marginally maneuverable especially at lower speed, but the hull was very difficult to penetrate, and the four turrets and eight 38 cm barrels, plus twelve side-shooting 15 cm barrels, complemented by many more defensive weapons, made it a dangerous asset against land and sea targets.

The ship capsized and sunk in shallow water in the bay of Tromso, and following the end of the war, she was largely dismantled. Original pieces of the ship could be collected, as well as some personal belongings from the crew. Some more were taken out from the water over the years.

The museum in Alta is dedicated to the memory of the ship, and offers an extremely rich collection of items connected with Tirpitz. Furthermore, by means of memorabilia items, it retraces the history of the war years in the northernmost region of Norway – Finnmark. The reason for installing the Tirpitz Museum in Kåfjord, near Alta, is bound to the fact that the battleship was based here for a period, as witnessed by some historical pictures. The museum has a rich guestbook, which includes top-ranking military staff from several Countries.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

The small museum is home to some of the finest and largest scales models portraying Tirpitz. The level of detail and the accuracy of the reconstruction is really stunning.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

Some smaller diorama models portray scenes from the life onboard, or details of special interest. An unusual one portrays the capsized hull of the ship, following the sinking!

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

Besides the scale models, original instrumentation, shells, wooden slabs from the deck, and more parts of the ship are put on display.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

A room is dedicated to the operations carried out against the battleship. The ship was reportedly attacked several times without substantial damage. One of the attacks was carried out by the British, recurring to mini-submarines. Among the artifacts on display are the decorations to the men involved in these operations.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

Extremely interesting artifacts in the museum include material from the crew, taken away after the sinking over the years – sometimes found in the area as recently as the year 2000.

These include typewriters, cutlery with swastika emblems, musical instruments, sport suits with prominent Third Reich insignia, and many personal belongings.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

In one case, the cabinet or wallet of a crewman revealed cash and stamps from the time.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

Among the countless items in this exhibition are original material – including radio stations – employed by the resistance movements in Norway, as well as light weapons, uniforms and decorations of the Soviet troops who operated in the Finnmark region, helping in repelling the Germans in the last stages of WWII.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

On the outside, the anchor and parts of the armor of Tirpitz can be seen, together with an official memorial stone.

Tirpitz Battleship Museum Alta – WWII – Norway

Visiting

The museum is located some five miles from Alta, in the small settlement of Kåfjord. It is hosted in a single, small wooden building – possibly a former canteen – to be found here, with a small parking nearby. A website with full visiting information is here.

Visiting the museum may take from 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on your level of interest.

Vemork Hydroelectric Power Plant & Heavy Water Facility – Rjukan

The nuclear program of the Third Reich is still today a matter for researchers, since – mysteriously enough – most documentation disappeared by the end of the war. Among the ascertained facts were the excellence of nuclear scientist in Germany at the time on the one hand, and the total lack of adequate quantities of raw material, or plants for processing it, to actually build real nuclear weapons on the other.

The latter is witnessed by the great strategic value attributed to the plant in Rjukan, hidden in a scenic deep valley in the region of Telemark, in southern Norway, about three hours by car from Oslo. A hydroelectric plant there – the exact name is Vemork power-plant – was employed to produce heavy water through a dedicated electrolysis separation process, which requires huge amounts of energy. Heavy water is a key component for the production of Plutonium – in turn required for atomic weapons – in heavy-water reactors.

Also the Norwegians understood the value of the plant. As soon as the winds of war started blowing from Germany in early 1940, heavy water then in storage was taken away to France, and later to Britain following the invasion of France by the Third Reich.

After Norway had been occupied by the Reich, the plant was at the center of three sabotage operations. Extremely risky and partly ending in disaster, these operations were carried out both by Norwegian and British staff, parachuted from Britain.

It took until 1944 to mortally hit the plant, well protected by its own natural setting. Two dedicated bombing raids carried out by US bombers damaged the plant beyond repair – at least in the late war scenario, when the Third Reich reaction capacity was weakening every day. The final act in the Norwegian heavy water saga was the sinking of the small boat – named Hydro – loaded with the reserve of heavy water from Vemork, having just started its trip to Germany on Lake Tinn.

The plant was again in business in the years after the war, and remained operative until the early 1990s, involved in production of various chemicals.

Vemork Power Plant Heavy Water Rjukan – WWII – Norway

Today, it is a much visited museum. Actually, the most impressive part of the plant is that of the hydroelectric turbines. Aligned in a single immense hangar, these now silent giant machinery send glimpses of the original, fashionable early-1900 industrial style.

Vemork Power Plant Heavy Water Rjukan – WWII – Norway

Some of the turbines and generator assemblies – manufactured by AEG, as witnessed by the labels – are really huge.

Vemork Power Plant Heavy Water Rjukan – WWII – Norway

A suspended platform allows to capture with a bird’s eye the entire hall. Here you can see also completely analog control panels, again in a very elegant style from the era.

Vemork Power Plant Heavy Water Rjukan – WWII – Norway

Visiting

The museum in Vemork can be reached in less than 3 hours driving from central Oslo. The power-plant can be approached walking from the parking (here) over a suspended bridge crossing the deep valley. The area is very scenic. The highlight of the show is the hall with the power turbines. A visit may take from a few minutes to more than 1 hour for more interested subjects.

A website with full information can be found here.

Soviet Nuclear Bunkers in the Czech Republic

September 4, 2022 CarloRLeave a comment

History – In brief

After the end of WWII and the collapse of the Third Reich, the territory now belonging to the Czech Republic fell on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain. Together with today’s Slovakia, it formed the now disappeared unitary state of Czechoslovakia. Despite laying right on the border with the West – including Bavaria, which was part of West Germany and NATO – communist Czechoslovakia enjoyed a relative autonomy from the USSR, until the announced liberally-oriented reforms of the local communist leader Dubcek in the spring of 1968 triggered a violent reaction by the Soviet leader of the time, Leonid Brezhnev (see here). About 250’000 troops from the Warsaw Pact, including the USSR, landed in the Country. As a result, the Soviets established a more hardcore and USSR-compliant local communist regime, and largely increased their military presence.

Similar to the German Democratic Republic (see here for instance), Hungary (see here) or Poland (see here), since then also in Czechoslovakia the local national Army was flanked by a significant contingent of Soviet troops, who left only after the entire Soviet-fueled communist empire started to crumble, at the beginning of the 1990s.

Consequently, for the last two decades of the Cold War, Czechoslovakia was a highly militarized country similar to other ones in the Warsaw Pact (see here). Its geographical position on the border with the West meant it received supply for a high-technology anti-aircraft barrier (see here). Two major airbases in Czechoslovakia were taken over for use by the Soviets and strongly potentiated (see here).

Soviet Nuclear Depots in Czechoslovakia

Beside conventional forces, also nuclear warheads were part of the arsenal deployed in this Country. Where in the late 1960s Soviet strategic nuclear forces were already mostly based on submarine-launched missiles and ICBMs ground-launched from within the USSR’s borders, tactical forces were forward-deployed to satellite countries, to be readily operative in case of war in Europe. Missile systems like the SCUD, Luna (NATO: Frog) and Tochka (NATO: Scarab) were deployed to the Warsaw Pact, supplying either the local Armies or the Soviet forces on site. Typically armed with conventional warheads, these systems were compatible with nuclear warheads too, making them more versatile, and of great use in case of a war against NATO forces in central and western Europe (see here).

Irrespective of their employment by a local national Army or a Soviet missile force, nuclear warheads were kept separated from the rest of the missile system for security, and invariably under strict and exclusive Soviet control. Bunker sites were purpose built in all components of the Warsaw Pact for storing nuclear warheads – see page 46 of this CIA document, showing with some accuracy the location of the corresponding bases.

Granit– and Basalt-type bunkers were typically prepared on airfields or artillery bases, for short-term storage of soon-to-be-launched nuclear weapons. Instead, top-security Monolith-type bunkers (the triangles on the map in the CIA document) were intended for long-term storage of nuclear ordnance.

Monolith-type bunkers were built by local companies on a standard design in the Soviet military inventory, and were implemented in satellite Countries in the late 1960s. Czechoslovakia received three such sites, which took the names Javor 50, by the town of Bílina, Javor 51, close to Míšov, and Javor 52, close to the town of Bělá pod Bezdězem. All three locations are in the north-western regions of today’s Czech Republic.

The Soviet military started withdrawing the nuclear warheads from satellite Countries in 1989, months before the collapse of the wall in Berlin. As for Czechoslovakia, by 1990 all nuclear forces had been moved back to the USSR. Following the end of the Cold War, Monolith-bunkers – similar to most of the colossal inventory of forward-deployed military installations formerly set up by the Soviet Union – were declared surplus by the Countries where they had been implemented.

These primary relics of the Cold War have known since then different destinies. Some of them have been hastily demolished, and together with their associated fragments of recent history, they have almost completely disappeared into oblivion. Luckily, a few are currently still in private hands, and still in existence (see here and here) – specimens of recent military technology, and a vivid memento from recent history, when the map of Europe looked very different from now. Two can be visited, of which one is Javor 51, in the Czech Republic, the main topic of this post. This has been turned into the ‘Atom Museum’, which has the distinction of being the only Monolith-type site in the world offering visits on a regular schedule (the other open site is Podborsko, in Poland, covered here, which is open by appointment).

Also displayed in the following are some pictures of the now inaccessible site Javor 52 in former Czechoslovakia. Photographs were taken in 2020 (Javor 52) and 2022 (Javor 51).

Sights

Javor 51 – The Atom Museum, Míšov

An exceptionally well preserved and high-profile witness of the Cold War, the nuclear depot Javor 51 is a good example of a Monolith-type installation. These bases were centered around two identical semi-interred bunkers for nuclear warheads.

When starting a visit, you will soon make your way to the unloading platform of bunker Nr.1. The shape of the metal canopy, and the small control booth with glass windows overlooking the platform are pretty unique to this site. The metal wall fencing the unloading area is still in its camo coat outside, and greenish paint inside. Caution writings in Russian are still clearly visible. Concrete slabs clearly bear the date of manufacture – 1968. This site was reportedly activated on the 26th of December, 1968.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Even the lamps look original. Some of the – likely – tons of material left by the Soviets on the premises of this site has been put on display ahead of the massive bunker door.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The opening mechanism of the latter is a nice work of mechanics. Four plugs actually lock or unlock the door. They can be moved by means of a manual crank, or likely in the past via an electric mechanism (some wiring is still visible). The thickness of the doors is really impressive (look for the cap of my wide lens on the ground in a picture below for comparison!).

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Each bunker had two ground-level entrances to the opposite ends, each with two blast-proof doors in a sequence. Warheads were transported by truck, unloaded beside the entrance of one of the two bunkers, and carried inside through the two doors, which constituted an air-tight airlock.

Today, you can see the inside main hall of the bunkers from the outside during a visit. This was likely not the case in the days of operation. The opening procedure required a request signal to travel all the way to Moscow, and a trigger signal traveling in the opposite direction. Once past the first (external) door with the warhead trolley, that door was shut, and the procedure was repeated for the second door, giving access to the inside of the bunker.

A security trigger told Moscow when the door was open. It can still be seen hanging from top of the door frame.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Once inside, you find yourself on a suspended concrete platform. The warhead trolley had to be lowered via a crane – still in place – to the bottom of the cellar ahead, i.e. to the underground level. The stairs now greatly facilitating visitor’s motion around the bunker were not in place back then, and descending to the underground level for the technicians was via a hatch in the floor of the suspended platform, and a ladder close to the side wall.

On the platform, an original Soviet-made air conditioning system can be seen – with original labeling – and signs in Russian are on display on the walls.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The platform is also a vantage point to see the extensive array of heat-exchangers put along a sidewall of the central hall – atmosphere control was of primary importance for the relatively delicate nuclear warheads. Each of them traveled and was kept in a pressurized canister. However, also the storage site was under careful atmospheric control.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

To the opposite end of the bunker, the inner tight door of the second entrance can be clearly seen, ahead of another suspended platform. The warheads left the bunker for maintenance (they might have left also for use, but this never happened, except possibly on drills) from that entrance, which had a loading platform outside for putting the warheads on trucks (this can be better seen in other Monolith sites, like Urkut in Hungary, or Stolzenhain in Germany).

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Down on the lower level, the main bunker hall gives access to one side to four big cellars, where the warheads spent their time in storage, and to the other sides to technical rooms. The pavement in the storage cellars features the original metal strongpoints, used to anchor the trolleys for the warheads to the ground. This was in case of a shockwave investing the site in an attack, to avoid the trolleys moving and crashing against one another. The original hooks with spherical joints to link the trolley to the strongpoints are also on display.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The storage cellars today have been used to display informative panels, with many interesting pictures and schemes. These include some from major sites connected with the history of nuclear weaponry in the Soviet Union (like from the test site of Semipalatinsk) and the US (like the Titan Museum near Tucson, AZ, covered in this post).

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

A few former technical rooms are used to store much original technical gear. This ranges from spare parts, tools and personal gear like working suits left by the Soviets (most with signs in Russian), to items ‘Made in Czechoslovakia’ or even radiation detectors from Britain and the West, gathered here for display and comparison.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Some of these spare parts are wrapped and sealed in Russian, looking like they were cataloged back in the time of operations.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

In the main hall, many rare vintage pictures retrace the presence of Soviet military forces on this site as well as others in Czechoslovakia. Magnified copies of rare pictures portray the trucks, canisters and the very warheads likely involved in transport and storage in Javor 51. Actually, much mystery exists around the deployment of nuclear ordnance by the USSR outside its borders (not only to Czechoslovakia). Historical and technical information today made available, even to a dedicated public, is very limited, making this chapter of Cold War history even more intriguing.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Again in the central hall, cabinets for monitoring the nuclear warheads can be seen hanging from the walls, painted in blue. Each warhead used to be stored in a canister, which was periodically linked to these cabinets to check the inner atmosphere, temperature, etc., in order to monitor the health of its very sensitive content.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

A large part of the technical/living rooms has been preserved in its original appearance. You can see parts of an air conditioning system, a big water tank, a toilet, a now empty bedroom for the troops. The bunker was constantly manned inside by typically six people, who operated in shifts. They did not sleep there, nor used the toilet much due to poor drainage. However, these facilities were used in drills, and were intended for the case of real war operations, when the bunker might have been sealed from the outside.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The electric cabinets take a dedicated room, like the huge air filters and pumps (Soviet made), installed to grant survival of the people inside the bunker in case of an attack with nuclear weapons or other special warfare. Clearly, the level of safety in the design of the bunker stemmed from the fact that it was considered by the Soviet as a a strategic target for NATO forces.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The last technical rooms host a big Diesel generator, supplied with air from the outside, and a big fuel tank in an adjoining room. Many labels bear writings in Russian, but the generator appears to be made in Czechoslovakia. The bunker was linked to the usual electric power grid of the region, and the generator was intended for emergency operations, in case the grid was lost or the bunker was isolated.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

From the technical area, it was possible to access or exit the bunker, via a human-size airlock. The innermost tight door can be seen painted in yellow, with a locking mechanism resembling that of the major tight doors for the missile warheads. Outside the airlock, climbing three levels of ladders was required to get to the surface. This was the normal access to the bunker for the military technical staff, except when warheads arrived or left the storage (this was made via the major entrances, as explained).

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Back outside, the second bunker, Nr.2, can be found at a short distance from the former. Nr.2 is being prepared for an exhibition on technology. At the time of writing, it can be toured except for the technical/living rooms. It is in a very good condition, and allows to get similar details as the previous Nr.1 on the construction of this type of facility – including the heating/air conditioning system.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The blue cabinets for plugging the canister for routine status checking and maintenance can be found also in Nr.2 in good shape.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Clearly visible here are the doors closing the technical areas and the warhead cellars. The latter were monitored for security just like the external airtight doors of the bunker, each with a sensor telling controllers whether the cellar was locked or not.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The airlock is covered in soot, possibly the result of a fire. Ahead of the entrance, the unloading platform is very interesting, having a unique set of light doors which had to be opened to allow trucks to come in. The concrete part of the platform appears slightly off-standard, with a short lateral concrete ramp, giving access to the main platform from one side. Parts of missiles – original – are being gathered in this area for display.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Monolith sites include two bunkers, which are the core of a strongly defended fenced area. In Javor 51, fences except the external one have been removed for the safety of visitors (rusty barbed wire can be very dangerous). These can still be found in other similar installations (see here). Similarly, the troops and technicians working on site lived in purpose-built housing, segregated from local communities. In Javor 51, this housing still exists, but cannot be visited.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

Leaving the place, you can visit the nice visitor/gathering center, and even find some interesting souvenirs!

Getting there and visiting

All in all, the Atom Museum prepared at Javor 51 is a top destination for everybody interested in the history of the Cold War, nuclear warfare, Soviet history, military history, etc.

Credit goes to the owner of the place, Dr. Vaclav Vitovec, who is leading this remarkable preservation effort, and is a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide to the site for those visiting. Dr. Vitovec is also the owner of the border museum in Rozvadov, covered in this post.

The Javor 51 site is actually fairly well known at least to a dedicated public, having been visited by historians, scientists and notable figures – including Francis Gary Powers, Jr., who is very active in preserving the history of the Cold War.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The commitment of the museum’s managers is witnessed also by the nice website (also in English), where you can sign-up for a visit on pre-arranged days – as of 2022, all Saturdays in the warm season – or contact the staff for setting up a personalized visit. It is nice to see a good involvement by the local population (the great majority of visitors on regular visits are Czech), including many from younger generations. The exhibits tell much on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and this is a major topic in the guided tour in Czech. Actually, the Czech Republic has a strong nuclear tradition, with many power plants in use, and a commitment for the development of nuclear energy in the future.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 51 – Atom Museum

The location is around 25 miles southeast of Plzen, or 60 miles southwest of Prague. Easy to reach by car. The exact address is Míšov 51, 33563 Míšov, Czechia. Full info on their website. Visiting on a normal scheduled visit is on a partly-guided basis, meaning that you will get an intro (in Czech) of around 40 minutes, than you will be allowed to access the bunkers and visit on your own, for all the time you like. You might end up spending more than 2 hours checking out the site and everything is in it, if you have a special interest for the topic. Dr. Vitovec is fluent in English, and can provide much information upon request.

Javor 52 – Bělá pod Bezdězem

The Monolith-type site Javor 52 has been willingly demolished, likely by the Government of the Czech Republic, as it was the case for most other similar (or more in general, Soviet-related) sites in Poland and Germany.

However, it was hard to get completely rid of any trace of an installation so bulky and reinforced. Therefore, some remains can still be found and explored.

Some technical buildings still in use close to the bunkers may have been there from the days of operation.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 52 – Abandoned

Getting close to the bunker area, traces of the multiple fences originally around the site can be found, either in the trees or in the vicinity of unmaintained roads. Wooden or concrete posts with fragments of barbed wire are clearly visible. Also reinforced concrete shooting points can be spotted in the wild vegetation.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 52 – Abandoned

As typical, two bunkers were erected on site, and similarly to Javor 51 (see above), in Javor 52 they are aligned, with the entrances all along the same ideal orientation.

The bunkers in Javor 52 have been interred, so that they are now hardly noticeable from the outside, except to a careful eye. Looking inside the eastern one, it is possible to get a view of the open doors of the main airlock, providing a distant view of the inner main hall.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 52 – Abandoned

Descending through the lateral human-sized airlock is not possible except for a short length, from a concrete manhole on top of the bunker.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 52 – Abandoned

The western bunker is in a better general condition, and the main hall still retains a pretty unique writing in Russian. The ladder descending from the suspended platform has been substituted with a posthumous, regular ladder. Much metalwork has disappeared though, including the heat exchangers, the crane, and the tight doors.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 52 – Abandoned

Between the bunkers, a concrete pool can be found – still watertight! – with a function which is hard to guess. A pool for civil use was installed in Stolzenhain (and reportedly also in Javor 52, but I had not the time to watch out for it), but this was in the low-security of the site, far from the bunkers.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 52 – Abandoned

Getting there and moving around

Access to this place is possible without violating any property sign, but is clearly not encouraged. Going unnoticed is made tricky by the presence of a public facility nearby – a shelter for foreigners and some education activity. Parking out of sight is possible along the road 27235, north of the complex and to the west of the road – trailheads and corresponding parking areas can be found there. Check out some satellite map to find a way to the exact location of the bunkers – their respective entrances are approximately here (eastern bunker) and here (western bunker).

I visited the site in 2020, and the entrances appeared very dangerous and easy to seal in a permanent way. I do not have any further update, but would suggest to go prepared to find definitively interred and totally inaccessible bunkers.

Javor 50 – Bílina – Quick note

As of 2020, the site of Javor 50 is in a peculiar state of ‘conservation’. The place is closed to the public, but entering would be basically unimpeded, since the external fence to the former military base is mostly collapsed and interrupted. The Soviet quarters insider still have much to offer – including writing in Russian, a scheme of the base, and much more. Likely, the bunkers are also still in a relatively good shape.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Czech Republic – Javor 50 – Abandoned

Much surprisingly though, somebody is living there with watchdogs, in miserable conditions, keeping visitors out. It is likely that an official visit may be booked by getting in touch with the municipality, since it appears that the site is not used for anything. However I was not successful in connecting with anybody there, therefore I have no suggestion on this point. The of the main entrance is here.

Soviet ‘Monolith’ Nuclear Bunkers in Poland – Survivors & Ghosts

November 18, 2020November 19, 2020 CarloR1 Comment

Since the beginning caught in the storm of WWII, Poland saw its border changed again in 1945 by the Western Allies and the USSR – the lack of natural borders meant that fate for this Country several times over the centuries. Furthermore, as a massive flow of Soviet forces had been pivotal in repelling Hitler’s forces, similar to other nations sharing a border with the USSR, Poland found itself deep in the sphere of influence of Stalin’s Soviet Union. A communist dictatorship was installed starting 1945, due to last until the end of communism in Europe in 1989.

As a matter of fact, Poland turned out to be by far the most populated and largest of Eastern Bloc countries. Strategically placed in the middle between the USSR and free Western Europe, with a wide section of the Baltic shoreline and a huge, mostly flat territory, similar to the German Democratic Republic nearby, Poland was the theater of a significant militarization effort by the Soviets. Not only the Polish army received Soviet war material in large stocks over the full span of the Cold War, but the Red Army also actually had significant assets scattered over Polish territory – its huge Northern Group of Forces being stationed there, with tanks, aircraft, dedicated bases, firing ranges, as well as several tens of thousand troops and their families, making for a kind of military colony of the USSR.

What is possibly less known is that also Soviet nuclear weapons were stationed in some satellites of the USSR, like the GDR (see this and this chapters, for instance), Hungary (see this chapter), and of course Poland.

Some elements of the global picture have been introduced in another chapter, dealing among other things with a Basalt-type bunker built for storing air-launched nuclear systems, on the premises of the Soviet airbase of Wiechlice (Szprotawa). Yet as can be argued from the general map of of nuclear depots known to Western intelligence, dating from 1979 (‘Warsaw Pact Forces Opposite NATO’, Vol.I-II, CREST record number 0005517771, declassified and released in 2010, here), there were also three major depots of the Monolith-type in Poland. Similar to Stolzenhain and Lychen in the former GDR (see this post), these depots were larger, multi-chamber storage facilities, intended to store primarily missile warheads for longer periods, for instance to complement the SCUD launch system for theater missiles.

The uniqueness of Poland in the panorama of Cold War archaeology lies in a generally positive attitude towards preserving some traces of this dramatic piece of recent history, when the map of Europe was markedly different from now, and the western world found itself multiple times on the verge of a nuclear confrontation, to be fought on the very territory of now wealthy Core Europe. As a result, an impressive number of war museums putting on display military stuff from all the 20th century can be found scattered over the broad territory of today’s Poland.

Even more important, a certain number of former Soviet military installations are being either actively preserved, or at least not condemned through demolition works or re-assignment to improbable new uses. This is despite a totally justified negative attitude towards the Soviet occupation forces and communist dictatorship. This attitude marks an unusual difference between the cultural attitude of the fierce Polish people towards recent military history and Soviet occupation, with respect for instance to Germany or Hungary, where the comprehensible dislike for the Soviets has taken a shape in leaving behind – i.e. more or less demolishing – every trace of a Soviet military presence, and especially in the former, reducing military museums to a minimum.

Among the most prominent Cold War relics you can find in Poland are the three Monolith-type nuclear warhead bunkers mentioned above. One of them – the Podborsko site – has been restored with 90% original material, and makes for a world-class, top-tier museum in the panorama of Cold War military history. The other two, Brzeznica-Kolonia and Templewo, have been left to nature and have now become ‘Soviet ghosts’, but they are advertised with panels, providing some info, and while access is not encouraged, a quick look inside the bunkers, as well as freely walking in the former premises of these bases, is of course possible.

This post covers these three Monolith-type sites, with a focus on the unique preserved Podborsko site, which needs to be on the shortlist of everyone with an interest in Cold War technology, as well as in the history of the nuclear stockpile. All sites were visited, and all photographs taken, on a trip to western Poland in summer 2020.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Podborsko – Objekt 3001
Brzeznica-Kolonia – Objekt 3002
Templewo – Objekt 3003

Sights

All three sites are in northwestern Poland. GPS coordinates are provided in the respective sections. Despite being not too much afar from each other, due the relatively slow connection roads in the area, visiting all three places in one day is not possible. Furthermore, the area is quite dense in both general interest and Cold War related destinations, so I would advise planning a trip to this region of Poland and listing these sites among other destinations.

Podborsko Site – Objekt 3001

A good specimen of a Monolith site, Podborsko – or Objekt 3001, as per the official military listing of the Cold War years – was centered on two large half-interred bunker, each with two big side-wards opening tight doors at ground level, providing access to the interior with the trolleys used to move the nuclear warheads from the transport trucks to the cellars.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

For an increased protection in case of an attack to the site – likely listed among targets of strategic value by Western Countries – a second tight door was put immediately next to the external one, creating a tight, blast resisting and insulated airlock between the interior of the bunker and the outside world.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Both doors to the two ends of the airlock can be – and are – opened via a manual crank system. Two men are needed to actually move the doors however – they are really heavy! A servo-assisted system was in place originally.

An interesting detail is the original sensor for the door status, part of a security system of the base.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Similar to their US counterparts, the Soviets took the problem of security of the nuclear arsenal pretty seriously. Each door on the path followed by the warhead from the outside to the cellar, including the airlock doors as well as the cellar doors inside the bunker, were associated to a trigger. When the corresponding door was opened, the trigger sent a signal via a dedicated cable link to the headquarters of a dedicated branch of the Red Army offices in Moscow, Russia, which was kept constantly updated on the status of each critical door in the depot. The link was via purpose-designed vacuum-protected cables – the actual wiring ran along a vacuum manifold, so that in case of the cable was bitten and the vacuum manifold collapsed, an emergency signal was immediately sent to the nearest nodes of the network, allowing surveillance staff to intervene promptly.

The opening of and closing procedure of the airlock doors involved communication with a post in Moscow too, which started with the local guards communicating their intention to open the doors via a system housed in a blue cabinet besides the tight door. As the signal traveled from the bunker to the headquarters and back, the opening of an airlock was not a quick operation! Original writings in pencil can still be found in the cabinet.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Past the airlock, you land on an elevated concrete platform. From here the warheads were moved to the underground floor via a mechanical crane. This is still standing today, with limit indications in Russian.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

From the platform you get an excellent lookout of the bunker structure. You can see a twin suspended platform to the opposite end of the underground floor, with a tight door shut closed. Along the long sides of the main hall, on the underground level you see several doors. On the right hand side, big sliding doors painted in white give access to the cellars, where the warheads spent most of their time in rest. On the opposite side are smaller man-sized doors, giving access to the technical area, with provision for the men of the permanent bunker watch.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

The stairs leading downstairs are among the few complements to the original structure – they have been put in place to ease visiting. Originally, the underground floor could be reached from the suspended platform only via a lateral manhole with a vertical metal latter.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

The warheads are long gone today – the site was built in the late 1960s, and was emptied of its strategically relevant content in the late 1980s, to be finally ceded back to the Polish government after the withdrawal of all Russian forces from Europe. The cellars today are mainly empty, and used to showcase interesting items related to the site.

First, you can see a scale model of the entire site. In Soviet times, the place was a full scale military base. It included a separated area with living facilities for the troops and their families, who ran the base with both technical and surveillance tasks. Today, this area has been taken over by the government, and used as a prison – Podborsko is rather secluded and far from populated areas on the Baltic coast. Furthermore, as said there used to be two twin bunkers. Today only one has been restored, whereas the other is sealed and waiting for reuse. Between the sectors of the base multiple fences with barbed wire, concrete walls, foxholes and other deterring/defense devices and systems were in place, making the innermost part of the base with the bunkers rather inaccessible.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

An original armored cabinet from the time of operation is still in the corner of a cellar, its original use is uncertain.

In another cellar you can find everyday items and relics from Soviet presence in the area. These range from toothpaste to children’s toys. Also more military-related items, like cartridge boxes and even original Soviet military dog tags have been found scattered over the area!

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

You can also find weapons, a scheme of the base in Russian, anti-radiation suits, and parts of the body, control and guidance systems of a Soviet SCUD theater missile – the corresponding warheads being the main business in Podborsko. There is also a copy of the plan of an attack scenario for Western Europe, showing some targets on the respective sides of the Iron Curtain.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

One of the cellars has been left empty, with a mock-up of a warhead, resting on one of the original trolleys. This is particularly evoking, despite being just one out of the high number of warheads usually stored in a cellar. The actual number of warheads residing in each Soviet storage over the years is still today not totally clear. However, reportedly former Soviet staff support there was in a single Monolith bunker in Poland enough nuclear material for the whole attack plan over Europe, meaning a number of several tens warheads per site.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

The trolley is original as said, and it shows the function of the slots on the ground of each cellar, which allowed anchoring the trolley firmly in position. This was possibly needed also in the extreme case of a blast hitting the bunker, so as to avoid any unwanted displacement of the trolleys.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

A fourth cellar displays a set of panels, outlining the history of the Cold War.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

As said, the security triggers telling the status of the door can be found close also to each of the sliding doors of the cellars.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Before moving to the technical area on the other side of the bunker, a look to the central hall reveals a number of original material. In particular, you can find an interesting set of instruments, handles and gauges packed together in a metal cabinet. Their function was that of monitoring the state of each warhead. Nuclear material needs to be stored in precise conservation conditions, so warheads were kept in dedicated cases. These were inspected regularly by connecting them to the monitoring system and recording the corresponding gauge readings. Traces of the positioning markers for an inspected trolley can be found close to the cabinet, painted on the ground.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Another conspicuous sight in the main hall is the heating system, needed to keep the inside atmosphere at a constant assigned temperature and humidity level, to guarantee the health of nuclear material. A big array of heat exchangers takes the top part of a side wall in the main hall.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

The technical part is made of two main parts, and is accessible on the long side of the hall opposite to the cellars. One part is made of a blind sequence of three narrow compartments. Here you can find a case for manipulating dangerous chemicals, with protection gloves once protruding inside. Nearby, a sink and some cabinets recall a medical room.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

This area was designed to manipulate and check the triggers of nuclear weapons in use at the time of construction of the Monolith bunkers (late 1960s). These made use of reactive materials, thus requiring some precautions and a complex maintenance procedure. They were phased out soon after the construction of the site though, so this part of the bunker was basically unused since that time. A tight door connects this area to the main hall.

The second part of the technical area is arranged along a U-shaped corridor, starting and ending in the main hall. Similar to the previous technical part, a small sealed door connects the corridor to the main hall.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

The first technical rooms you meet are related to climate control.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Next you find a big water tank. Close by there is a single toilet. This was reportedly seldom used, as drainage did not work properly due to the underground placement. Watchmen during their shifts in the bunker went out for their physiological needs.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Going in and out for pedestrians was made possible through a man-sized airlock. This is perfectly preserved in Podborsko, similar to the passage leading up, by means of very steep metal ladders.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Another interesting sight in the technical area is the air filtering room, which is close to the small living area for the watch staff. In case of an attack to the facility, making the area poisonous possibly also due to fallout, this huge filtering system allowed the troops inside to survive for some time.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

The electric control room is in almost mint condition. Only the major connections to the external power lines – not there any more – have been cut. Same electric connections still bear their original hand written identifiers!

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

An original – and rare – handbook with some illustration of standard trolleys is among the artifacts to be found in this incredible exhibition.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Concluding the technical part, a massive Diesel power generator, with its ancillary air pumping and exhaust expulsion systems, is still there in a rather good state.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Back outside, the Podborsko site features also a Granit-type bunker, perfectly preserved with its metal doors – seldom found elsewhere. Granit bunkers were much softer in construction than the Monolith-type, and they might be used for storing assembled missiles, command posts and more. The one in Podborsko is another Soviet mystery – it is hard to tell to what purpose it was built, probably in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

The second bunker, very similar inside to the main one, is sealed and waiting for restoration. You can walk the exterior, where some remains of the truck loading/unloading platforms can be found. Traces of a fence line can be seen to the back.

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Getting there and moving around

The Podborsko site is a branch of the ‘Muzeum Oreza Polskiego w Kolobrzegu’, called ‘Cold War Museum Podborsko 3001’ (‘Muzeum Zimnej Wojny Podborsko 3001’ in Polish). The town of Kolobrzeg is on the Baltic coast, roughly a one hour drive from this bunker, and hosts other branches of this nice museum (a tank and artillery collection, a marine branch,…). The dedicated website of Podborsko is here, to be Google-translated from Polish. The Podborsko site is open on a regular basis at least in summer, and also by appointment. I guess the visit may take about 1 hour once on site.

My visit was a special one though, as I had the chance to join in for a special thorough visit of the site, prepared for Dr. Reiner Helling, a nuclear scientist from Germany, and one of the most knowledgeable historians in the field of Soviet military presence and nuclear assets in Europe. Dr. Helling extended the invitation to me, so I had the unique chance to take a private, tour with the local curators of the branch, Mr. Mieczysław Żuk and Mr. Pawel Urbaniak. We spent some hours touring the site inside and out – special thanks to all three for an unforgettable experience!

Podborsko Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War Museum

Getting to the bunker is easy by car. Driving will be along an original Soviet service road, which can be faced with a regular city car. You may park once on the spot once there.

Brzeznica Kolonia – Objekt 3002

The site in Brzeznica Kolonia can be found close to the former Soviet village of Klomino – pretty famous in its heyday among the urbex community – and in the vicinity of the airport of Nadarzyce, still active today.

The site has been largely wiped out, but the bunkers and a little more hardware survive, in a ghost condition. However, the site is advertised with some explanatory panels, and it is also quite popular among the locals, which come here to take a couple of pics in a weird scenery.

One of the most portrayed items on the premises of this site is the Granit bunker, which is today lacking its original metal door. Similar to Podborsko, this ‘soft’ bunker was added at a later stage, and its function is to be guessed. Interestingly, some painted stripes can be found on the pavement, possibly marking the position of some trailer or gear.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Similar to Podborsko, the two major Monolith bunkers are arranged with their respective axes crossed. The eastern one can be accessed from its southern door pretty easily. Inside, it reveals its similarity with Podborsko, except for having being spoiled of any metal part – from the doors to the heat exchangers – and having hosted a wildfire or similar, as can be guessed from the sooth on the walls and ceiling.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Getting to the underground level from the suspended platform is not safe if you are going alone, like me, as the original metal ladders have been taken away. However, hard spoiling has to be expected also in the technical rooms.

Walking on top of the bunker, you find traces of the man-sized side entrance, completely interred.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Ahead of the bunker and to the back, traces of the loading/unloading platforms for trucks can be still recognized.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

The westernmost bunker is easy to access from the eastern gate. Inside, it has been spoiled of any metal, similar to its twin brother. It is in a generally better shape though, without sooth on the inside walls.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

In both bunkers, traces of original painting can be found.

In between the two bunkers, a number of smaller buildings are still to be found, including – apparently – a water tank, and some sentry boxes.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Also, more than in Podborsko you can appreciate a network of foxholes, which despite fading in nature, can be clearly noticed departing from the main roads once crossing this military installation.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Back to Nadarzyce nearby, you can get access to the former ghost town of Klomino. The majority of the original Soviet blocks have been wiped out, but most incredibly some of them have been restored and are today inhabited. This, and the very bad access road, make this place worth a visit only for completing the tour of this once big Soviet installation, without adding much. There is really not much left to see in Klomino.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Getting there and moving around

As said, the bunkers are pretty popular among the locals, who go there by mountain bike or car. The site can be accessed via an unpaved service road, totally safe also for a standard car, taking south from Nadarzyce. The parking point is here 53°25’51.0″N 16°34’43.6″E. There are also some picnic tables, an explanatory panel and some warning signs.

Brzeznica Kolonia Klomino Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Templewo – Objekt 3003

Similar to Brzeznica Kolonia, the Templewo site has been largely reclaimed, and is now partly preserved as an unusual spot in the wilderness. The base has completely gone, but the the monolith bunkers are still there.

They can be found following an original Soviet paved road.

Templewo Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

Both Monolith-type bunkers can be accessed with little difficulty, despite the gates having being mostly interred, like for Objekt 3002.

Templewo Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Warhead WMD Monolith Depot Poland Cold War

World War II and the Cold War

Traces in Sweden

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Sights

Aeroseum – former Säve Air Force Base – Göteborg

Getting there and visiting

Maritiman – Göteborg

Getting there and visiting

Share this:

Sights

Seelow

Getting there and visiting

Lebus

Getting there and visiting

Baruth

Getting there and visiting

Share this:

Sights

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker

History

A tour of the bunker

Ground floor

Underground floor

Getting there and visiting

York Cold War Bunker

Getting there and visiting

Share this:

Sights

Visitor center & Focke-Wulf FW190 exhibition

Torpedo Battery

Sea Mines & Area Control Center

Getting there & Visiting

Share this:

History & Remains – A Quick Summary

The Atlantic Wall

War Museums

Special interest sites

Sights

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Vara Battery – Kristiansand

Cannon Nr. 2

Nordberg & Marka Batteries – Farsund

Fjell Fortress – Bergen

Tellevik Fort – Bergen

Austrått Fortress – Austrått

Visiting

Arctic Circle & North Cape

War Museum – Narvik

Tirpitz Museum – Alta

Vemork Hydroelectric Power Plant & Heavy Water Facility – Rjukan

Share this:

History – In brief

Soviet Nuclear Depots in Czechoslovakia

Sights

Javor 51 – The Atom Museum, Míšov

Getting there and visiting

Javor 52 – Bělá pod Bezdězem

Getting there and moving around

Javor 50 – Bílina – Quick note

Share this:

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Sights

Podborsko Site – Objekt 3001

Getting there and moving around

Brzeznica Kolonia – Objekt 3002

Getting there and moving around

Templewo – Objekt 3003