Tag: mig 21

Military Collections in Sweden – Third Chapter

CarloRLeave a comment

The rich military tradition of Sweden can be retraced by means of many interesting dedicated collections. Many of them are scattered in the nice southernmost country regions of the Scandinavian peninsula, and make for an interesting detour from the most popular touristic destinations.

As reported in the previous two chapters on the topic (see here and here), the neutrality of Sweden in the major confrontations taking place during the 20th century allowed this northern Country to operate in a unique and original way, especially in terms of military procurement. Besides picking what was actually deemed suitable for their internal needs especially from the West, Sweden managed develop a strong domestic design and manufacturing capability, such to fulfill its own self-defense role in a cost-effective and credible way.

The defense of neutrality was carried out in the air by a strong Air Force, often updated over the years. With the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the major threat in the Baltic area came to an end as well, resulting in a major scale-down of this defense force and the disbandment of many military organizations. Correspondingly, memorial museums can be found often close to former airbases. One of them, dedicated to the ‘Scania’ wing F10, in operation since WWII to the early 2000s, is covered in this chapter.

A rather complete collection of aircraft from the entire span of the Cold War can be found in the unusual frame of a private museum, established in the 1960s from the will of the founder to display primarily his own collection of cars. The mix is particularly interesting, witnessing also the close link between Sweden and the vehicle industry of the US, possibly the tightest among all Countries in Europe.

Of course, in the theater of WWII Sweden was politically and geographically in an interesting position as well as later in the Cold War. Its relative proximity to the Third Reich meant it was often overflown by bombers on their way back from missions over mainland Germany. Dogfights and bomber chase missions reached the airspace of Sweden, sometimes ending with either German or Allied aircraft crashing on Swedish territory. An interesting museum covered in this chapter is fully dedicated to the topic.

Photographs in this chapter were taken in the summer of 2024.

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Sights

Ängelholms Flight Museum, Ängelholm

This nice collection of military aviation can be found on the former premises of the air base of Barkåkra (today Helsingborg airport), which has been the home of the 10th Wing ‘Scania’ (aka. F10 or ‘Ängelholm Wing’) between 1945 until the disbandment of the latter in 2002. Established during WWII, the illustrious history of the F10 wing spanned the entire Cold War, reaching into the 21st century. Correspondingly, the Scania Wing was supplied over the years with a rich inventory of aircraft models, ranging from classic fighters of WWII to the more recent SAAB Viggen and Gripen.

The structure of the exhibition, rather compact in size, is composed of two major areas.

In the first, the history of F10 is retraced especially by means of interesting photographs and memorabilia items. Among the pictures, some portray American bomber crews as well as German fighters landed on Swedish territory, which remained neutral during WWII.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

In this area are also a few dioramas and reconstructions of typical military scenes, including a medical room, from the earlier days of operation of the Scania Wing. Everyday items, as well as military training and illustrative material, is presented in display cases.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The second major area is where most hardware of the collection can be found – aircraft, engines, vehicles, and much gear from the days of operation of the F10 wing. Among the earliest models acquired by F10 back in the WWII years was – rather interestingly – an Italian fighter, the Reggiane Re-2000 Falco, a batch of which was obtained from Italy in a supply shortage scenario, where especially the US had halted material export to non-allied countries. Pressed into service with the Air Force of Sweden (and specifically also with the F10 wing) as an interceptor with the locally attributed code of J20, this generally adequate machine was powered by a Piaggio P.XI 14-cylinders radial engine (which according to Roman numbering then often employed in Italy translates into P.11), a 1.040 hp model license-made in Italy, and originally a French design by Gnome-Rhone. A Re-2000 is not on display, but a Piaggio P.XI is! This engine has been quite popular in those years in Sweden, ending up also as an interim power plant for the Swedish own SAAB B17C single-engine light bomber/diver (not to be confounded with the homonym American Flying Fortress).

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Close by the P.XI is the oldest aircraft on display belonging to the F10, in the form of a FFVS J22. The company FFVS was actually a Swedish state-managed entity, borne in the years of WWII to cope with the wartime supply requirements on one side and the overbooking of the SAAB plants on the other. Introduced during WWII, this rugged fighter was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830, the ubiquitous Twin Wasp, license-built in Sweden by Svenska Flygmotor. The Scania Wing received the J22 model only in 1945, the last propeller-driven aircraft in its inventory. The exemplar on display looks under maintenance, and is possibly in airworthy conditions.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Next on display is a SAAB J29 Tunnan, with its distinctive barrel-shaped fuselage enshrouding the single, centrifugal flow jet engine. The F10 wing transitioned to jets in 1946 with the early SAAB J21R and the British-supplied DeHavilland DH100 Vampire (named J28R in Sweden). The Tunnan was provided to the F10 wing in 1953, and there it remained until 1963, while more advanced models were becoming available. The engine of the J29 was a DeHavilland Ghost, manufactured under licence in Sweden by Svenska Flygmotor under the name RM2B – an example is on display.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Close to the tail cone of the Tunnan is also a DeHavilland Goblin engine, originally employed on the Vampire.

The longest-lasting workhorse in F10 service has been the SAAB J35 Draken. An exemplar of the J version, the most updated and last (with the actual modification taking place in the late 1980s), is on display. The distinctive bulge for the IR seeker under the fuselage, appearing from the modern F version on, can be checked out from very close.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Interestingly, the Draken is presented with an exemplar of the Rb-28 missile hanging from an underwing pylon. This is a SAAB-modified version of the US-designed Hughes AIM-4D Falcon, an air-to-air missile conceived as an anti-bomber weapon, but hastily pressed into service against Vietnamese MiGs during the Vietnam war, under the wings of the Phantom, and proving very ineffective in the dogfighting role. For the Soviet bomber interdiction role of the Draken, this missile platform was deemed more effective, and it was retained for service for decades in Sweden.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Other missiles, rockets and guns (including a dismounted Aden 30 mm cannon) pertaining to the warload of the Draken are on display as well, together with an interesting console for missile signal testing.

Ahead of the Draken is a memorial wall, and ahead of it is a Rolls-Royce Avon jet engine, displayed as an instructional cutaway – including both the turbomachinery and the afterburning component. License-built in Sweden by Svenska Flygmotor as RM6C, this was the engine of the Draken.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The F10 wing received the SAAB J37 Viggen only after the collapse of the USSR in 1993, marking the beginning of the last, post-Cold War chapter in the history of the unit. Quite elusive due to its adoption only by Sweden, albeit rather successful in its intended roles, an exemplar of this machine can be found in this collection. Specifically, this is a photo reconnaissance version named SF37. Lacking a radar, this model typically operated on reconnaissance missions in a flight of two, together with a radar-supplied SH37 variant.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The Viggen can be neared and checked out entirely with ease, thanks to its positioning on a pedestal. The photo-reconnaissance payload is on display. Under the left wing is a SAAB Rb-04 anti-ship missile. This Swedish own design was conceived for countering invasion starting from the sea. With a radius of 25 km and active radar homing, its warhead was sufficient for knocking out an enemy cruiser with a single hit.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

The collection of the Scania Wing also includes the SAAB SK60 trainer, a successful trainer employed for decades, and inducted into the F10 inventory during the 1990s, when the wing took over the basic training role from the F5 wing. Similarly, an ubiquitous Bell 204 (Hkp 3B according to Swedish naming) can be found on display, as it was employed within the F10 for rescue and logistics/transport duties.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Close to the Viggen are further interesting exhibits. One is on the wartime bases (krigsflygbaser, see this post), with models and original signs from one of them.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Another is about weather forecasting within F10. It includes electronic hardware, an entire room with original consoles, and weather balloons, still today employed to carry atmospheric sounds.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

A display is dedicated to pilot’s protection helmets, survival kits and ejection seats. Not only in Sweden, the latter have been in the focus of a major technological development over the years of the Cold War. Ejecting from a fast jet in the 1950s was reportedly a highly-risky business, since even when the maneuver was technically successful – i.e. such to take the pilot out of the aircraft alive – the ejection-induced acceleration alone was more than enough to cause serious injury, usually to the spine. Over the years, multi-stage ejection was implemented, allowing for a more gradual maneuver, which albeit remaining lightning-fast, does not inflict so harsh a treatment to the pilot’s body as in the past.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

A top exhibit on display is an original cockpit from a SAAB J35 Draken, employed for training purposes. The cockpit is very well preserved, thoroughly described by explanatory panels nearby, and it can be boarded to give you a feeling of the functionality of the onboard systems, as well as of the ergonomics of the cockpit.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Two more training aircraft are included in the exhibition, a SK61 and SK50, both single-propeller machines employed for basic training.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Additionally, the last type in service with the F10 has been the SAAB JAS39 Gripen (from 1999 until disbandment), which is here represented by means of the first serial production machine of the first version (‘A’). This exemplar was actually never pressed in air force service, but it was employed as a test bed for multiple operations, including test firing of missile ordnance in the early 2000s.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Additional dioramas in this compact but rich collection include op-rooms from various ages.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

An interesting exhibit is a relatively well-preserved Rolls-Royce Merlin piston enigine, originally powering a British Avro Lancaster bomber which sank south of Trelleborg in the Baltic Sea, presumably early in 1945 after a bombing run over Germany.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden
Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Finally, on the outside it is possible to find a British Bristol Bloodhound Mk II missile. This SAM supplied a squadron of F10 wing, complementing the air defense role in proximity to the airbase.

Ängelholms Flight Museum – F10 Wing Scania – Helsingborg, Sweden

Getting there and visiting

The name of the museum in the local language is Ängelholms Flygmuseum, which translates into Ängelholm Flight Museum. It is located on the southwestern border of the former airbase of Ängelholm, easily reachable at the address Drakenvägen 5, 26274 Ängelholm. This town is 15 mi north of Helsingborg along the E6 highway.

Large parking ahead of the entrance. Nice shop with books, toys and gadgets by the ticket office. The museum facility is rather compact, yet a visit may easily take 1.5 hours for an interested subject, when carefully checking out all items on display and taking pictures. Descriptions are in double language, Swedish/English, allowing for an informative visit even if you are from abroad.

Professional website with full information here.

Museum of Forced Landings, Morup

The Museum of Forced Landings (in Swedish language the museum is named in a rather different way, ‘Morups Samtidsmuseum’) is a one-of-a-kind collection of remains and traces from air crashes or forced landings taking place during WWII in Sweden. Run by a lively group of dedicated enthusiasts, the display is extremely well-crafted, offering not just an array of many and diverse relics from aircraft wrecks, but for each of them a complete synopsis of the story behind that specific flight – and the crewmen who were on board.

Furthermore, in my case I was accompanied by a very knowledgeable English-speaking gentleman for the entire duration of my visit, making the experience even more engaging.

The exhibition starts with a display of general maps of the crash or forced landing sites. A sharp increase towards the end of the war is evident, due to the increase in the number of bombing raids over the center of the Third Reich. The crashed aircraft are mostly from the US and Britain. When hit over Germany but still airworthy, Allied crews attempted an escape to neutral Sweden, to avoid capture by the Germans.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Of course, Sweden was a neutral country, hence all grounded crews, irrespective of their nationality, were interned, albeit in more than decent conditions, especially compared to German or Soviet prison camps.

A map of the internment location in Sweden is presented as well. Clearly, also German aircraft crash-landed in Sweden. Crews of opposing nationalities were interned in totally different locations. Rare photographs from these sites are on display.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Then, one by one, the display cases describe each a notable forced landing, retracing its timeline, and showing some relics from the wreckage, as well as personal items belonging to the crew. Nice detailed scaled models and dioramas of the accident complete the reconstruction.

Among them are a German Messerschmitt Bf110 attack aircraft, with a fragment of the canopy as well as other parts on display, Norwegian training aircraft, a German Junkers Ju-52 transport, with an entire control column put as an exhibit.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

The bombsight, radio and other instrument goggles belong to a German Heinkel He-111 bomber landed on ice.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

One of the plots documented in the deepest detail is that involving Lt Edward E. Phillips, of USAAF 354th fighter group, which flew escort missions over Germany from Baxton, England, with North American P-51 Mustang fighters. On the 15th of April 1944, on return from a mostly failed bombing mission over Germany in bad weather, Lt. Phillips aircraft was chased north by a Bf109. He was hit over southern Sweden, bailed out but the parachute failed to deploy. He was killed instantly, and his aircraft impacted soft terrain and sank so deeply due to its own energy that it almost disappeared into the ground – and there it remained for 40 years. In the 1990s an excavation attempt was carried out by the future crew of the museum, uncovering substantial remains of the aircraft, including many parts, cockpit gauges, machine guns, an entire landing gear leg, and more.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

A link was established by the local crew with the former wife of the man in the US, and the story hit the news. A memorial was inaugurated on the location of the crash.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Another American aircraft with a story to tell is a Consolidated B-24 Liberator. This time the aircraft managed to crash land under control, and the entire crew of 10 was saved and interned. Sgt Robert C. Birmingham, part of the crew, visited the locations of his adventure in Sweden more than once with his family.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

More accidents described in the display involve British and German aircraft.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

In an adjoining room, an impressive collection of quality scale models reconstruct many of the aircraft in service within the Air Force in Sweden, including details such as different celebration markings and camo coats. Among the artifacts and memorabilia items on display in this part is an autographed photo of WWII German ace Günther Rall.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

In another small hangar is an interesting addition to the collection, mostly centered on aircraft engines. Engines from crash-landed aircraft, significantly damaged but undergoing a display-oriented cleaning and refurbishment, make for an unusual and interesting sight.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Outside is also a small collection of classic cars in pristine conditions.

Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden
Museum of Forced Landings – Morup – WWII Aircraft Relics – Sweden

Getting there and visiting

The museum is called ‘Morups Samtidsmuseum’ in Swedish language. It can be found right along the road N.768 about 6 miles north of the coastal town of Falkenberg, 0.25 miles north of the small town of Morup. The exact address is X9MP+84 Morup.

A visit may take about 1 hour, more when stimulating further telling by the very enthusiastic crew of the association running the museum.

Please note that no credit cards are accepted, only cash is – unless you are entitled to employ electronic payment methods allowed for citizens or residents of Sweden.

The website, partially under construction as of spring 2025, can be found here.

Credit for directing me to this hidden gem goes to Martin Steffen, from Sweden.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum, Ugglarp

This unusual exhibition originates from the own collection of Lennart Svedfelt, a prominent Swedish stage and TV entertainer borne in 1924 and known as ‘Svedino’. The man started purchasing cars and planes for the purpose of collecting them, in an era when a similar activity was hardly heard of. In 1961 he opened his collection as a permanent display, the first museum dedicated to cars in Sweden. Over the years, and even following his passing, the museum continued to grow, reaching more than 100 cars and 40 aircraft on display today!

Even though this is not an eminently military museum, despite the cars being beautiful civilian cars, most aircraft on display are military machines, including some remarkable items – therefore, Svedino’s perfectly fits within this chapter!

The cars on display make for a really unique collection, in and out of Sweden. A remarkable feature is especially the number and uniqueness of US-made cars from the inter-war period between WWI and WWII. In a first building, these include models by Chevrolet, Buick, Dodge, Nash, Oldsmobile, and more!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Also some classic models from European manufacturers, like Opel, are on display. A special rarity is an Adler Trumpf from 1934. Adler, a German company from the 19th century active in the manufacture of petrol engines, operated in the car market for a relatively short time, roughly coincident with the Third Reich period. They made cars in the intermediate price segment, with good success. The company changed business following WWII, making Adler cars interesting collectible items representing car-making from a specific era.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

As expected from a Swedish museum, a full array of classic Volvo is on display! These include small trucks and saloons, and interesting models like the PV36 from the inter-war period. Similar to the PV830 and the iconic PV444 from the immediate post-WWII years, an influence of the contemporary American designs is undeniable in all these models.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Also on display are more modern vehicles employed as state cars. An interesting item is a very old Gräf & Stift, an Austrian luxury sedan from before WWI, salvaged from the bottom of a Swedish lake after spending there more than 40 years, and acquired by the museum.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Two interesting cars on display are personal designs from the early 1950s. In Sweden it was possible at that time to introduce privately-built cars, provided they could sustain a compliance check. An example of a fantasy car, with a rather aggressive design and physically assembled from parts of other cars, is on display. It was never completed nor allowed on the road. Another example, designed and made by the son of the industrialist Wennberg, reportedly roamed around all over the 1950s! This unique exemplar is on display with ‘factory markings’ HW.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

In a second adjoining building, a really valuable collection of even older cars, dating from earlier than 1930, is on display. Also here most items in the collection are from the US, a really rare sight on this side of the ocean! Looking at the elaborated labels of these oldies, made by Ford, Anderson, Seneca, and thinking of the craftsmen who personally assembled them back in the America of the early 1900s is really thought-provoking!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Among the most unique cars on display is a Pierce-Arrow from 1918, sitting alongside a Haynes from the same year.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Moving on to another adjoining hall, here cars are on display alongside a few classic planes from the first half of the 20th century. A DeHavilland Moth, a Götaverken GV-38 seaplane (a licence-built Rearwin Sportster, a US design), as well as a German Klemm Kl-35 and a Focke-Wulf FW-44 designs, are on the list together with more light airplanes and a few engines.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

The latter include an original Rolls-Royce Goblin and Avon, respectively from a DeHavilland Vampire and a SAAB Draken, both in service with the Air Force of Sweden during the Cold War.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A focus of the exhibition is on the memory of a pioneer of Swedish aviation industry, Enoch Tulin, who is the author of many ‘firsts’ in the aeronautical history of this Country – the largest aviation workshop to date before WWI (with 900 employees), the first air mail service, the first air rescue mission, and more. A graduated engineer, flight instructor and early aerobatic pilot, Tulin died in an airplane crash in 1919, after gaining unquestioned prominence in many fields of aeronautical industry and operation in his era.

A final adjoining hall concludes the oldest part of the exhibition premises. Here the spotlight is on a few fighters from the Cold War era, namely a SAAB J29 Tunnan, two DeHavilland Vampire, and even a SAAB J35 Draken.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

The latter is really a unique exemplar. As can be guessed by the monstrous red and white spine on the nose cone, typical to experimental aircraft and not a feature of the production machine, the one on display is actually the first prototype!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Another curious item is a Soviet-made Kamov Ka-26 helicopter. Alongside the helicopter is a vintage advertisement from 1975, written in Swedish, and made by Aviaexport, a Soviet agency for the commercialization of Soviet aeronautical products abroad. Borne as an import-export, Aviaexport acted also as a recipient of foreign certification rules, spreading the growing body of western aeronautical regulation within the Soviet design bureaus, to the aim of keeping the quality standard to a level sufficient for commercialization in foreign countries. Actually, thanks to Aviaexport the Kamov Ka-26 received a type certification in Sweden, which allowed its commercialization and regular employment there. Aviaexport is still existent in today’s Russia.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Interspersed between closely-packed aircraft are more cars, including a beautiful Jaguar Mk V and an East-German Trabant, as well as aircraft engines.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A massive Wright Cyclone R-3350 is among them – the power plant of the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-7, often considered the pinnacle and swansong of American piston power, this massive 1.2 tons, 18 cylinders engine produced 3.700 hp of shaft power!

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Svedino’s aircraft collection is mostly hosted in a modern hall added more recently beside the original museum’s building. The first item on display is an original Junkers Ju-52! This aircraft is among those license-built in Spain. It operated for some time as far as in California in the 1970s, being later transferred to Ireland, and finally here. The camouflage and markings reenact those of a Third Reich’s Luftwaffe machine force-landed in Sweden during WWII. The cockpit of the Ju-52 has been reproduced separately, to allow checking it without boarding this precious aircraft.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

As expected for a Swedish aircraft collection, the most prominent models which have served in the local Air Force are represented. These include a SAAB J32B Lansen, a Cold War attack aircraft from the 1950s, a SAAB SK60 trainer, and a SAAB J35 Draken – a production machine, not a prototype like in the previous hall.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

These aircraft are presented alongside their engines. The Swedish licence-built version of the Rolls-Royce Avon, named RM6A, powered the Lansen and later the Draken.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

The latest addition to the SAAB heritage on display is the J37 Viggen, here presented in the nice and distinctive camo coat of the Air Force of Sweden. This is presented alongside its mighty engine, the RM8A, a modified version of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Additionally, a display of an open nose cone allows to see the arrangement of the radar antenna of the Viggen.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

An interesting display case hosts the instrument panels, radar and reconnaissance gear of the Lansen, Draken and Viggen, as well as a collection of flight helmets and pilot’s gear, showing the evolution of this technical material over time.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

But the collection of Svedino’s is not limited to aircraft in service in Sweden. A Lockheed F-104 Starfighter from the Air Force of Denmark is on display, next to a Gloster Meteor early twin jet. The blue exemplar on display is a former factory demonstrator originally employed by Gloster, and later sold to Sweden for target towing (in a batch of seven aircraft).

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A rarity to be found close by is a Percival P.66 Pembroke, a twin-engined multi-purpose transport from the early 1950s, employed for training and passenger transport within the Air Force. Manufactured in Britain in just 128 exemplars, this type was mostly sold abroad to Western-European Countries and in Africa. Sweden originally got a batch of 16.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Another British type on display is a Hawker Hunter, which was actually employed by Sweden as a stop-gap model in the late 1950s, waiting for the completion of the design and the entrance into service of the J35 Draken.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Another Soviet addition to the collection is a MiG-21. A Cold War veteran, this exemplar is Soviet-built, and served in Hungary until 1982 and later in the Latvian SSR.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A recent addition to the exhibition is a Douglas Skyraider! Possibly overshadowed by the illustrious career the type enjoyed in the US Armed Forces, a part of the history of this massive attack aircraft is about Sweden. Some 13 exemplars were actually purchased by Sweden for target towing in the mid 1960 from Britain, which had got a larger batch from the US. The exemplar on display is an AD-4W, the early warning version of the Skyraider. It is currently (2024) being refurbished.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Among the biggest additions to the aircraft collection is actually an English Electric Canberra. As typical to this type, employed by the British for the first, high risk overflights of the Countries of the Soviet bloc before the high-performing Skunk Works aircraft became available, the Canberra (including its modified Martin version in the US) was employed for quintessentially Cold War signal intelligence missions opposite the Soviet Union. Two exemplars were employed also in Sweden from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s, and one of them is that on display.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

A curious item also on display is a one-off design which won a competitive call of the Aviation Engineering Association in Stockholm in 1988, and which was later actually built by its designers. Unfortunately, it was eventually never tested due to one of the owners need to quit for health issues when the aircraft was undergoing a certification test for obtaining airworthiness. The name of the prototype is LLS-1.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Scattered among the aircraft are more engines, radars, consoles, simulators, and more aircraft than described, making for an overall very rich and interesting visit.

Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden
Svedino’s Automobile and Aviation Museum – Ugglarp – Sweden

Getting there and visiting

Svedinos Bil & Flygmuseum – this is the name of the museum in the local language – can be found in a nice countryside 15 miles north of the port town of Halmstad. The exact address is SE-311 69 Ugglarp.

The premises are rather compact, with a large parking ahead of the entrance. Fresh cookies, homemade sandwiches and cakes are available for a light lunch in the exotic lobby, matching in style with this unusual collection.

A visit may take 2 hours for an interested subject. Most items are described with modern panels in double language Swedish/English, making the visit very informative. The website with logistical information is here.

Military Collections in Sweden – First Chapter

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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.

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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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – 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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Aeroseum Air Force Bunker Base Air Museum – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
Maritiman Museum Swedish Navy Småland Nordkaparen Hugin – Göteborg Gothenburg – Sweden
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.

The Cold War in Hungary – Military Collections, Leftovers & More

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Many traces of the communist dictatorship can be found in today’s modern and thriving Hungary. The most visited ones, like Memento Park or Terror Haza in capital city Budapest, tell about the inhumane and pervasive aspect of propaganda and political repression. However, the history of this country in the second half of the 20th century is closely bound to the Soviet-backed communist seizure of power, and this has left traces also elsewhere, especially in terms of military leftovers. As a matter of fact, the Soviet Red Army was directly present in Hungary, to keep the status quo and to to be closer to the border with the West in case of an attack – and this of course left traces.

You can find a significant deal of material concerning more urbex-connected destinations in Hungary in another post.

In this one, you will find a mainly pictorial portrait of some of the best known attractions related to the Cold War period in Hungary, as well as some well accessible but less known ones, especially considering the general public visiting from abroad. As usual on this website, a good share of these sites is aviation-themed!

Photographs were taken in August 2020.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Sights

Iron Curtain Museum, Felsocsatar

The Iron Curtain Museum has been created soon after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989 on the sight of a former small sector of the state border between communist Hungary and free Austria.

The site is mainly the result of the effort of a man, Sandor Gojak, a former border guard in the 1960s, who dedicated this permanent exhibition to those who attempted escaping the repressive communist regime in Hungary towards Austria and the West – both those who succeeded and those who did not, hence facing arrest or losing their lives due to the minefields prepared along the border line.

The site features three examples of the border line placed in the area over the years. They are look less impenetrable than those created between Eastern and Western Germany (see this post), yet they were similarly deadly in scope and facts.

The first is basically a simple line of barbed wire with wooden poles, and it was put in place soon after WWII. Mines were placed in close vicinity to the line. After wooden poles started to rot around the mid-1950s, mines were removed, a dangerous job which cost the health of some border guards, who were severely injured due to accidental explosions.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

For a short while at that time, the border was free of mines, and about 300’000 people managed to leave the ‘paradise of workers’!

Soon after the anti-communist uprising in 1956, suffocated with violence by the Soviets, the border was further fortified with concrete poles, and the mine strip was increased in width.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

Only at the end of the 1960s the mines were removed, after multiple accidents involving Austrian citizens, when the mines slipped into a creek near the border due to a flood, injuring many who touched them incautiously. This time the border security system was strongly potentiated, with the adoption of an electrified system for the immediate detection of proximity, linked to signal collection centers dislocated along the line. This system had been implemented by the USSR on the Pakistani border. Something similar can be found also on the border between Czechoslovakia and West Germany (see here).

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

The exhibition is completed by an example of a wooden turret, as well as a more modern fence – a specimen of the one put in place in 2015 between today’s Hungary and neighbor Serbia and Croatia, when a wave of migrants from the Middle East swept the Balkans.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

The museum is full of vivid testimonies, thanks to the many historical pictures and artifacts on display, and to the fact that the founder is actually the man who runs the museum! – he is totally available to answer your questions.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border
Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

Getting there and visiting

The museum can be reached here: 47.20376801287036, 16.429799972912328, on the border between Hungary and Austria, not far from Szombathely. The coordinates point to a convenient parking. The site is operated as an open-air museum, with opening times and an entrance fee. Moderate climbing is required, as the museum area is on the slope of a nice hill. Only cash accepted. Visiting may take about 45 minutes. Website here.

Military Park, Zanka

This small military park is a nice and cared for exhibition of Soviet-made weapons, located ahead of a resort which used to be an exclusive destination for vacation on the coast of Lake Balaton.

You can find here a couple of Mil helicopters – including the legendary Mil-24 in all its ‘beauty’! – in the colors of the Hungarian Air Force.

Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary

There is a MiG-21, also formerly of the Hungarian Air Force, a T-64 tank, a howitzer, a military snow blower, an amphibious truck and more light trailers.

Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary

Perhaps the most striking sight in this collection is the surface-to-air missile (SAM) SA-2, aka S-75 Dvina in the Soviet codification. A rather basic but powerful – and successful – missile from the 1950s, sold by the Soviets to many satellite Countries and clients over the world.

Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary
Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary

A revolving antenna can be seen on top of a truck. This is an example of the target acquisition antenna for the SA-2 system, code-named Spoon Rest by NATO, and known as P18 in Soviet codification. This radar system had a range of approximately 170 miles, and was an improvement of the previous P12 design. The launch site of SA-2 SAMs was always complemented by a set of antennas, including a Spoon Rest system. Actually, P18 could be coupled with the launch system of more advanced SAMs too.

All items in the collection here are pretty well preserved, making the visit an enjoyable stop along the exploration of the Balaton coastline.

Getting there and moving around

The park can be found here: 46.881838498667996, 17.7098619193198. The site can be visited in 10-30 minutes depending on your level of interest. This is an open-air museum, with ticket and opening times. Website (referral) with some information here.

Komarom Monostor Fort & Soviet Weapons Collection

An incredible, perfectly preserved military fort from the years of the Austrian Empire, Monostor Fort in Komarom can be found on the Danube, marking the border with Slovakia. At the time of construction, the two nations were united in the Austrian Empire, and the fort was erected between 1850-71 as a part of a defense line extending also north in today’s Slovakia.

Despite being extremely interesting for its articulated and complex construction – a brilliant example of military engineering from the time – the fort saw no action in its intended purpose. It was used for training for most of its life, then briefly as a prisoner’s camp in the years of Hitler’s administration, and finally as an immense weapons storage during the Cold War years, when it saw tenancy by the Soviets.

Today, the fort is open as a museum, duly centered on the interesting original construction from the 19th century.

Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary

One cellar has been left as it was in Soviet times, when weapons of all sorts were stored here, moved by means of a dedicated short-gauge railway.

Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary

In a corner of the immense apron, you can find a small collection of Soviet weapons, mainly anti-tank and anti-aircraft cannons. There are also a couple of truck-transported antennas, including a very effective early warning Flat Face radar, aka P19 Danube according to the soviet classification, as well as a PRW-9 Thin Skin target altitude detection radar. Similar platforms are still in use today, and can be coupled with modern SAM launching systems.

Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary
Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The fort is a major attraction in the area. It features a large parking ahead of the entrance, address: 2900 Komárom Duna-part 1. Visiting is on a self-guided basis, with a short paper guide in English distributed at the entrance, and the visit will be extremely interesting for anybody interested in history, military engineering, etc. – not only Cold-War-minded subjects.

Visiting may take 1.5 hours, due to the size of the fort. The place is also used as a venue for theater performances and concerts, so timetables may vary. Some info in English can be found on this website.

Papa Airbase

Papa is today an active base of the Air Force, hence it cannot be accessed. However, with a short adventure drive along an unpaved road, you may reach a part of the former premises of the base – from Soviet times – now lying outside the perimeter.

There you can find a pretty unique array of old abandoned aircraft of Soviet make, in the colors of the Hungarian Air Force.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

They are MiG-21 of many types, and also massive Sukhoi Su-22.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

The state of conservation is not so bad – you can find airframes in worse condition in some museums – but some aircraft are missing some parts, possibly due to spare recycling, or vandalism, even though the place is really secluded, and the proximity with privately owned land and a military base is not ideal for vandals and idiot spoilers.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

Of course, a few more years without any attention to these birds and little will remain of this improvised fleet. Hopefully, at least a share of this mighty force will find a due place in some museum or collection over the next years.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

By the way, the former military area where these planes are sitting was perhaps a place for SAMs, put for protection of the base in the Cold War years.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter
Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter

Getting there and moving around

This is the only item on this post which is not a museum. It’s hard to tell whether these aircraft are lying on private land or not. However, to reach this strange flock of aircraft, you can move with a standard city car to this crossroads: 47.33966571405878, 17.550239693088113.

From here, you need to take north, until you reach this other waypoint: 47.35812676567956, 17.530436267329513. At some point along this path, the road turns unpaved, but the condition is generally manageable. On the latter waypoint you need to turn sharp left. You may notice old concrete posts, from the original soviet fence of the base.

You will finally land here: 47.35812676567956, 17.530436267329513, where you find an asphalted road, in the middle of a former peripheral area of the base. Driving towards the base along this road, you will find the aircraft here: 47.3541655146187, 17.514827811942904.

Visiting is not a long business, cause you should not move around the aircraft, as they are likely on the border of a private lot (fenced). Totally recommended for Cold War aircraft enthusiasts however.

Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum, Dunavarsany

This wonderful military exhibition is the based on the collection of a Hungarian military pilot, Zoltán Néhai Komócsi, nicknamed ‘Komo’, from which came the name of the museum. Unfortunately, the man passed away years ago in a crash. The collection was publicly put on display only more recently.

Items on display include military aircraft and helicopters, military trucks, trucks from the firefighting squad, engines, and more! Some of the exhibit can be boarded, and reportedly some vehicles are still operative.

Most of the exhibits are in very good condition, a few are still awaiting light refurbishment. An old Mil-2 helicopter can be boarded, revealing an old-fashioned cockpit, made more exotic by the Russian inscriptions.

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Also an attack Mil-8 helicopter in Hungarian colors can be checked inside. A Mil-24 is undergoing restoration (as of 2020).

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

The ‘MiG alley’ includes MiG-15, 21 – in various versions – and 23, all in very good condition, refurbished for display.

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Also some trucks can be boarded, revealing once more the excellent state of preservation, as well as abundant Russian signs.

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

To the far end of the collection, an Antonov An-2 utility biplane, an ubiquitous workhorse of the Soviet empire, can be boarded up to the cockpit.

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

You can sit in the pilot’s seat, getting a nice view from the cockpit of this bird.

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Three deployable radar antennas can be seen on their trailers – apparently a not complete P80 Back Net system from the 1960s is the largest one.

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Finally, a MiG-21 in the colors of the Hungarian national flag can be boarded. This is extremely interesting, as it provides a look in the cockpit of this high-performance and successful fighter/interceptor from the Cold War years, when ‘high-performance’ implied ‘high-complexity’ analog cockpits!

Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base - Aviation Collection Budapest - Soviet Aircraft - Hungary
Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The museum can be found at these coordinates, 47.292057190313706, 19.029565655926707, corresponding to a convenient parking. The site is about 30 minutes driving south of central Budapest. It is an open-air museum, with timetables and ticket. Information on their website (in Hungarian). Time required for visiting may range between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours for an interested subject, taking all the pictures.

Komo-Sky Bunker, Dunavarsany

A recent addition by the current managers of the Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum is this fully refurbished Soviet bunker, once used for air traffic control. The place is actually in the vicinity of the former Soviet airbase of Tokol, one of the largest in Hungary in its heyday (see this post).

Today the bunker has been partly restored in look, with some rooms changed into ambiances for interactive experiences, including shooting!

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

Some rooms host interesting collections of artifacts from the everyday life of communist Hungary.

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

Military memorabilia from the Red Army, with conspicuous Russian writings, are scattered everywhere.

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

A room of special interest hosts a collection of militaria from the Eastern Bloc, with artifacts ranging from weapons to flight suits, military decorations to aircraft parts. Really something for everybody!

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary
Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The bunker is a recent (as of 2020) addition to the Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum. No dedicated website available at the time of writing. The place can be reached at the coordinates 47.297663350792774, 19.0351554512774, about 3 minutes driving north of the Air Museum. I visited by invitation of the owner, hence I don’t know about the actual timetable. A website of a hotel nearby – actually on the very same lot of the bunker – is here, with some information on the bunker in Hungarian.

Museum of Military History, House of Terror, Memento Park, Houses of Parliament – Budapest

Budapest is rightly famous for a history spanning many centuries, for its art collections, incredible architectures, thermal baths and many other enjoyable features. However, having been the capital of a communist country in the Eastern Bloc, it also hosted a ‘state security service’, i.e. an agency of the government attempting to control the minds of Hungarian citizens, and keeping everybody’s behavior under strict surveillance. The palace chosen as the seat for this service is named ‘House of Terror’ (‘Terror Haza’ in the local idiom). Here many were kept under arrest, interrogated, and in some instances secretly murdered in the basement.

Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary
Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary

The place is among the most visited museums in Hungary, and can be found right in the city center. Comprehensibly, no photo is allowed in the most sensitive areas of this sad building. Website here.

Another place of Cold War interest, making for a rather popular touristic attraction, is Memento Park. In this small park about 15 minutes driving south of the city center most of the statues and monuments once adorning the capital’s downtown have been collected and put on display.

Some from older times, celebrating the friendship of the Soviet and Hungarian peoples, are unbearably rhetoric.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

Others are more artistically interesting, in the context of official artistic currents authorized by the Communist Party.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

Lenin is of course a favorite subject.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

By the entrance, Marx, Engels and Lenin are kind of ‘gate guardians’.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

In front of the entrance, you can find a reproduction of the base of a statue of Stalin put in place at some point and surviving in pictures, and later dismantled after the death of Stalin. In the basement of the same construction, you can find a weird set of official busts of Lenin and Stalin, as well as a once popular image of Lenin as a child.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary
Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

Close by, a small deposit of statues still waiting to be put on display can be found. Website here.

A less visited museum covering the military history of Hungary over the ages, but especially the 19th and 20th centuries, can be found right in the old district of Buda. The display is rather classical and didactic, but for more military-minded people, or those interested in the recent history of Hungary, it is for sure worth a stop when visiting uptown. Website here.

Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary
Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary

Finally, in the gorgeous building of the Houses of Parliament, you can find interesting info about the changes implemented to the architecture of the building during the communist period.

Parliament Budapest Hungary
Parliament Budapest Hungary
Parliament Budapest Hungary
Parliament Budapest Hungary
Parliament Budapest Hungary
Parliament Budapest Hungary

A unique artifact is the big red star once standing on top of the building, emulating the famous ruby stars placed on top of the towers of the Kremlin in Moscow. Website here.

Secrets of a Soviet Airbase, Berekfurdo

This museum is located in the small town of Berekfurdo, in the eastern region of Hungary, just a few minutes from the former airbase of Kunmadaras, which used to be operated by the Soviets in the Cold War era (see this post for the nuclear storage bunker to be found there).

Unfortunately, I could not visit the museum – it is open only rarely, on a very limited timetable. However, in the courtyard you can easily spot a Mil-24 attack helicopter, as well as a MiG-21. Both have been vividly and freshly refurbished – ready for take-off!

Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary
Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The website of the museum provides good information, and the folks there appear pretty reactive in case you are writing to get more info. It is really a pity they have a timetable so limited. The place can be reached at these coordinates: 47.38366735314769, 20.84155882970934. The museum is made of a small hangar and an outside apron. Considering the size, I guess visiting might take about 1 hour.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum, Szolnok

This is probably the ‘official’ aviation museum in Hungary, at least concerning the military field. It is clearly a well-financed endeavor, with a remarkable collection of aircraft from various ages, helicopters, engines and missiles. Most of the aircraft are preserved outside in an open-air exhibition, the oldest ones having found a place inside a modern and well-designed building. Everything on display has been recently refurbished, hence the collection looks fresh and well cared for.

Two aircraft will likely capture your attention in the main hall, namely a Spitfire in the colors of a Polish squadron fighting with the RAF, facing a Bf 109 in German Luftwaffe colors. The two opponents are displayed besides one another, allowing also for a configuration and size comparison.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Not far is the wreck of an Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik, built in huge numbers by the USSR over the years of the Great Patriotic War.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Interesting specimens in the inside hangar include a Messerschmitt Me-108 trainer, some Soviet trainers, classic Kamov and Mil helicopters.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A Soviet H-29L semi-active laser homing air-to-ground missile for the Sukhoi Su-22, which the Hungarian Air Force owned and operated, is on display.

A very interesting old analog approach simulator is also presented. It is made of a cabin mock-up and a large model of an airport, with cameras mounted on moving trolleys, likely projecting a magnified image of the ‘terrain’ in the cabin.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

You can board a MiG-21, and see the mysterious content of the noses of some fighter aircraft – typically radar antennas of various levels of sophistication.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

An array of engines, from WWII up to our days, are on display on the first floor.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Outside you can find a sample list of virtually all popular MiG models, from MiG-15 to MiG-29.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A colorful example of a MiG-21 will sure capture your eye, similarly to a set of Mil-24 attack helicopters, wrapped in incredible liveries!

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A MiG-21 has been placed in an enclave resembling an aircraft shelter, an example of the care adopted in designing this top-tier museum. An SA-2 Guideline is on display by the entrance, visible also from the parking.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

To the far end of the external apron, you can find a ‘MiG alley’ with several fighters from that design bureau. Also there is a massive Sukhoi Su-22, and two Lockheed F-104 Starfighter – from Turkey and Germany respectively.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

The SAM part is rather interesting. You can see at least two SA-2 (aka S-75 Dvina, according to Soviet nomenclature), on trolleys or on the launch pad, with a distinctive flame deflector.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A P37 Bar Lock early warning and target acquisition radar has been put on top of a mound. This type of radar constituted the first line of border defense of many countries of the Eastern Bloc, against intrusion from the West. It featured a range of approximately 250 miles.

Another radar antenna is the P15 Flat Face low-altitude target acquisition radar. With a range of about 75 miles, this scanner operated typically with the SA-3 Goa anti-aircraft system (aka S-125 Pechora in Soviet nomenclature).

The latter is on display on a movable launcher as well as on a four missile rack, prominently placed on top of a rampart, somehow resembling its typical launching position. A battery of more missiles on the same launching rack is typical of this highly successful missile, sold to many Countries, and easier to operate than its older cousin, the SA-2.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Inside another smaller hangar – apparently a former railway depot – you can find the console for the control of the SA-2 system, together with another example of this SAM.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Getting there and moving around

Really an unmissable sight for aviation enthusiasts, military-minded people or the whole family as well! This very nice collection can be found in Szolnok. Address: Szolnok, Indóház u. 4-6, 5000 Hungary. Large parking ahead, restaurant and gift shop. Website here. You may easily spend a whole morning here, but if you are in a hurry, you can have a quick look in about 1 hour.

Emlekpont, Hódmezővásárhely

A rather unusual collection of soviet ‘authorized’ art can be found in this recently renovated building, which also hosts temporary exhibitions. The central part of the display is basically a single room on two floors, with paintings from the Cold War era.

Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary

A huge statue of a Soviet soldier takes the full height of the room! Some paintings refer to the 1956 uprising, clearly on the side of the rebels, hence they might be from a post-1989 time.

Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary
Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary

Surely worth a stop for those with an interest in Soviet art, like you can find only in Tretjakowsky Gallery in Moscow!

Getting there and moving around

This little museum can be found in Hódmezővásárhely, Andrássy út 34, 6800 Hungary, a few minutes driving from university town Szeged, close to the border with Serbia and Romania. Visiting may take about 30 minutes, more if you know Hungarian. Website here.

Pinter Works Military Park, Kecel

A one-of-a-kind exhibition, this place is hidden deep in the countryside between Balaton and the Serbian border, but it is really worth a detour for anybody interested in Soviet weapons from the Cold War era. It is likely one of the largest displays of heavy military gear you may find in Europe!

The sample list covers anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, field artillery, self-propelled cannons and tanks.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

But you also get special function trucks, moving bridges, transport, trailers, portable radar equipment.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Also SAMs are represented, including the SA-2 Guideline (S-75 Dvina), SA-4 Ganef (2K11 Krug) and the more conspicuous SA-5 Gammon (S-200 Vega). Some of the SAMs feature also transport cartridges on purpose-assembled trucks – some of them on tracks! – which are displayed side by side with field rocket launchers.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

The huge Square Pair radar, used in conjunction with the modern SA-5 Gammon, makes for a really rare and impressive sight – it is tall like a multi-storey building, but it is on a trailer, implying it can be moved. There are two on display!

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Also rather rare is the ST-68U Tin Shield early warning border patrolling radar, still in use today, with its movable trailer.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Even SCUDs surface-to-surface theater missiles can be found. One is located on board its movable launch-pad, similar to what you can see in Bucharest (see here).

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Some of the trailers are open, so you can get a view of the inside – with all equipment apparently in place, including radar scopes and huge consoles, resembling an old-fashioned science fiction!

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Finally, a series of fighter aircraft, including several MiG and Sukhoi models, are on display.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Curiously enough, a SAAB 35 Draken from Sweden found its way to here, whereas a T-72 and a T-34 make for gate guardians, together with an Antonov An-24.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Finally, what looks like a monster-size ballistic missile encapsulated in a canister completes the show…

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary
Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

All in all, as said this is really an impressive collection, both as an ensemble, and for some of the pieces in it. The origin of the collection is rather mysterious – nobody spoke anything except Hungarian there, but if I got it right through much gesticulation, the place is owned by somebody residing in Dallas area, TX. The military park sits in the premises of a metal-recycling company, so maybe there is some connection between the two, even though it does not look like they are fueling recycling with the items on display. Actually, the military park is well maintained and presented as a very nice open-air museum.

Getting there and moving around

The museum is located at the address Kecel, Rákóczi Ferenc u. 177, 6237 Hungary. The website is here, with accurate visiting info. Please note they accept only cash. Visiting may easily take 2 hours for an interested subject, taking all the pictures. For a quick overview, you may spend 30-40 minutes on site.

Taszar Airbase Museum, Taszar

Another unique museum, somewhat far from the major touristic paths in Hungary, can be found on the premises of the currently (as of 2020) inactive military airbase of Taszar, in southwest Hungary. This airbase was operated by the Hungarian Air Force over the years of the Cold War, with training and fighter units flying MiGs of many sorts over the years. Curiously, the base was lent to the US in the 1990s, and was used for attacks over Serbia and more support functions during the Balkan crisis in the late 1990s, and up to the early 2000s. After the American troops left, the base was shut down, and is now waiting for a novel use.

The museum is located in the building of the US chapel, itself in the middle of the now deserted living area of the base.

This museum is the display of a collection of artifacts, put together over many years by a former officer of the Hungarian Air Force, Sandor Kontsagh, who is the owner and who personally runs the place – you are likely to meet him, if you are going to pay a visit! An extremely kind and knowledgeable person, more than available to spend his time showing his collection in detail.

The most massive items on display include several aircraft parts, ranging from canopies, to entire cockpit panels, to parts of the innermost plants onboard Soviet-made fighters, including their electronics. What multiplies the value of this assortment is the fact that every single piece has its own history, as you will be told by Mr. Kontsagh.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

The original survival kit from an early MiG, similar to a soviet flight suit from the 1950s, are among the many invaluable collection items.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Also the machine guns and cannon of a MiG-15 can be found – compare the size to the cap of my wide lens!

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

The panel of a MiG-15 has been refurbished, linking it to electric power to light the electro-optical gunsight – hi-tec from the early Cold War.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Photography is of special relevance to the owner of the museum – he was tasked with technical photography functions during his career, and he has a real thing for this activity. Cameras usually mounted on the gunsight of fighter jets are part of the collection – for the first time, I could carefully look inside what always appears as a bulky black box impeding the pilot’s view on most aircraft from the Cold War period!

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Some of the cameras are accompanied by the their original technical registry, showing annotations from the 1950s – incredible.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Of special interest are also the cathode ray tubes to be found for instance on MiG-21. You would not suspect they are so long, looking at their flat appearance, besides other goggles on the panel of that fighter.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Interesting historical pictures are many. Among them, some are from decoy aircraft – inflatables – to fool enemy analysts watching satellite pictures taken above military bases. Others are from visits of president Clinton and princess Diana to Taszar. You can also find an aerial view of the base from Cold War times.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

In an adjoining room you can find a collection of radio equipment, with very interesting pieces made in the USSR. These include an original wire recorder.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Maps, trophies and models complete this room, together with a unique collection of cameras, from different countries and makes.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Another room hosts mainly uniforms – including the one belonging to Mr. Kontsagh – and flight suits. Also arresting parachute canister of a MiG-21 is on display.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

A corner of the main hall is dedicated to memorabilia from the US tenancy period. These include original uniforms, pictures, papers and even meals, proudly prepared in SC for American troops. By comparison, Hungarian packed meals, also on display, are much heavier!

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

More memorabilia include training progress registries from pilot’s training – in Russian – as well as textbooks from the training group operating on the base.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

All in all, I would say this museum alone is a good reason for a trip to this area!

On the outside, you find yourself in the setting of the old Taszar base, with some gate guardians of Soviet make, and an incredible mural on what was likely an academy building.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Access to the airport is interdicted, as the base is inactive but not abandoned.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Getting there and moving around

When I visited in August 2020, the place was not even pinpointed on Google Maps, but later things have rapidly changed, so you can spot this as an attraction on Google Maps to the west of the airport in Taszar (‘Katonai repulo muzeum’ is the name you find). However, here are the coordinates 46.377887110631455, 17.89899149846632, which take you to a former living area of Taszar airbase, where you can enter with your car. The place is not abandoned, even though most buildings are now unused. The aura is a bit strange, for you have the sensation of intruding into a governmental property – but soon you realize this part of the base is not any more off-limits.

When I visited there was no info about opening timetables whatsoever available in advance, so we just popped up there, finding a closed door with a telephone number. We called and the man – Mr. Kontsagh – told us to wait a few minutes, and came in by foot, opening the place just for us.

I attach the phone number, in case you want to call in advance.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary
Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

There is no website as of 2020, but the place is totally worth the effort of planning a visit anyway! You might spend a time ranging from 30 minutes to some hours, especially if you are interested in the topic of the museum, or you are simply into military aviation with a technical mind, and also have questions for the knowledgeable owner, who will answer in detail. In case you don’t know Hungarian, understanding a little German and a technical preparation will allow you to take much out of your visit (little English spoken, unfortunately, but this is not strange in this part of the world).

The Aeronautical Museum of Belgrade

CarloRLeave a comment

With a few parallels in aviation history, especially in the years immediately following WWII, former Yugoslavia benefited from supplies by a great number of countries. As a matter of fact, the air force of this newborn communist republic was formed at first from leftovers of retreating Germany and conquering Britain, followed by the establishment of a supply line initially from the USSR, and later the US and again Britain.

The special political ability of marshal Tito, who ruled uncontested as a communist dictator since the foundation of Yugoslavia in 1945 until his death in 1980, and the credit he benefited from especially in Britain, allowed him to keep out of the sphere of influence of the USSR since 1948. In a strategic position on the border with NATO countries like Italy and Greece, Tito adopted a detente policy of ‘equal-distance’ between the two opposing blocs over the Cold War period (even though NATO did not trust him fully, as testified by the deployment of a SAM defense line in northeastern Italy, see this post).

Of course, most of the military supply was of Soviet make, especially after the death of Stalin and well until the end of communism in Europe and the bloody fragmentation of the Yugoslav state. However, concerning civil aviation, autonomy from Moscow allowed the adoption of western aircraft, like the French Aerospatiale Caravelle and much of the Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas inventory, in the major national airline JAT – something which happened very rarely anywhere in the communist bloc over the years of the Cold War, another notable instance being Romania, again a ‘semi-autonomous’ communist dictatorship, who refused the Soviet Tupolev Tu-134 in favor of license-built British BAC 1-11s.

Another effect of the autonomy from the USSR was the creation of a national aviation industry, which especially in the case of SOKO, produced military trainers and light attack aircraft of good success, which despite ageing, are still flying today.

More recently, the fierce conflicts raging over the Balkans in the 1990s have created a major active front for modern aviation, where the air force of Serbia – which inherited the geographically central part of Yugoslavia and its capital city, Belgrade – confronted the NATO alliance in an open conflict. The unbalance of forces allowed the western coalition to quickly establish air superiority, which did not come without a few notable material losses however.

A rich display of this peculiar aviation history, actually tracing back to WWI and the early years of aviation, can be found in the Aeronautical Museum of Belgrade, which despite being in today’s Serbia, acts as a kind of Yugoslav Aviation Museum. As a matter of fact, it was founded as such back in the years of Tito, and opened in its current building nearby ‘Nikola Tesla’ civil airport of Belgrade in 1989, when Yugoslavia was still a reality.

This short post provides an outline of what you can find in this museum, with photographs taken on a visit in April 2019.

Sights

The museum occupies a relatively large area in the vicinity of the airport of Belgrade, and is made of an open-air exhibition, open-air storage area, and big mushroom-shaped building hosting an indoor exhibition.

The ‘gate guardian’ is a SOKO J-21 Jastreb, a nice light multi-role aircraft from the 1960s, powered by a British Rolls-Royce Viper jet engine.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Indoor exhibition

The entry hall of the mushroom-shaped building features is a good example of the architectural style from the late communist era. The ground floor hosts a small exhibition about the early days of aviation in the former region of the Balkans, with documents from WWI years. Among the items on display, you can find early pilot’s licenses from notable war pilots, likely granted after training abroad, and actually written in French.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

The main hall of the museum can be found upstairs. This large can be walked on two levels. Most aircraft are to be found on the lower level, but a few are suspended to the glassy circular sidewall of the mushroom, lighted from behind by the sunlight – so that taking pictures is just a nightmare!

The centerpiece of the collection is an exemplar of the SOKO J-22 Orao, a twin-engined – two Rolls-Royce Viper turbofans – light ground-attack and trainer aircraft from the 1970s. Designed jointly by Yugoslavia and Romania, this model equipped the Yugoslav (then Serbian) air force during the 1990s, where a handful exemplars are still flying today.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Indeed a clean design with an interesting performance, this aircraft was possibly the last heir of the Ikarus-then-SOKO lineage, originated back in the years before WWII. In this respect, some unique exemplars of aircraft are preserved in this museum, witnessing the existence of a school of skilled aircraft designers in Serbia, not much known in the western world.

A key figure of the Ikarus design bureau, Dragoljub Beslin led the design of Ikarus S-451, a nice, very small, twin-prop attack aircraft flown in 1951, especially designed to sustain high load factors in maneuvers at high speed.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Another unique specimen is the twin-jet Ikarus 451M, the first jet aircraft built by Yugoslavia. Same designer as the S-451, this unusual jet-engined taildragger flew in 1952, but was soon superseded by more modern models, in those years of quick-paced development of aviation technology. Again, the engines were from the West, in the form of two French Turbomeca Palas turbojets.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Another member of the ‘Ikarus 451’ family – it must be said this Yugoslav one is likely the oddest model numbering systems ever created… –  the T 451 MM Strsljen (Hornet) features a more convincing configuration, resembling the single-engined British BAC Jet Provost and the Italian Macchi MB 326, both rather successful trainers from the late 1950s. On display is actually the ‘Strsljen II’ version, which is a attack/training version with more thrust than the first series aircraft. This model was conceived to operate from unprepared runways, and featured two Turbomeca Marbore II French turbojets. The aircraft flew in 1958, but an air force contract was not granted.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Some functional wind tunnel models of other aircraft, actually never reaching the 1:1 prototype stage, are on display. These include a rare ekranoplane design, the UTVA 754. With a mechanic-monster-like appearance like all ekranoplanes (the most famous being probably the Bertini-Beriev preserved at the Russian Air Force Museum in Monino, see here), this machine was designed in 1982 in the then-Yugoslav town of Zagreb, today the capital city of Croatia.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

A medevac aircraft conceived for easy conversion between floats and wheels, the UTVA 66H can be visited also inside. The indigenous SOKO is represented by a number of models. These include the SOKO G-2 Galeb, a successful trainer/light attack aircraft from the 1950s, built around a single Rolls-Royce Viper turbofan. During its long history it was exported to several international operators, and gave birth to the more recent SOKO J-21 Jastreb. The Galeb was in service with Serbia until 1999.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Another section of the museum features aircraft of foreign make which witness the intricate history of alliances of both the pre-WWII Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the post-WWII communist Yugoslavia. Most remarkably, these include a Messerschmitt Bf-109-G! The history of this particular aircraft is not very clear, some sources stating it was captured from Bulgarian air force. As a matter of fact, Yugoslavia acquired about 70 Bf-109-E from Germany in 1940, which in turn furiously invaded from north in a quick an violent campaign in spring 1941.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Next in line is nothing less than a British Hawker Hurricane! A group of Hurricanes were acquired from Britain in the immediate pre-war years, and even license-built in Belgrade in a small number – Yugoslavia apparently purchased aircraft seamlessly from both opponents at the outbreak of WWII. Later on, Hurricane-equipped squadrons of Yugoslavia fought back on the side of the Allies from bases in southern Italy, finally regaining control over the Balkans.

In a similar fashion, a Supermarine Spitfire Mk.V witnesses the involvement of British-supplied national air force squadrons in the liberation of Yugoslavia from the German invaders.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

In the closing years of WWII, Yugoslavia benefited also from the help of the USSR. This is witnessed by a massive – and pretty rare, out of former soviet republics! – Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik. This big attack aircraft, possibly the most famous Soviet aircraft of WWII, equipped three squadrons in the Yugoslav air force, and helped in the fight on the so-called ‘Srem front’ north of Belgrade. An often overlooked sector of the European front, substantial operations were carried out since late 1944 until April 1945, with the forces of Nazi Germany slowly retreating under the offensive of the Red Army (including Bulgarian divisions) and of Yugoslavia from the south. These operations involved 250’000 troops on either side, thus engaging the Germans and draining resources from mainland defense. At that time, an entire division of the Yugoslav air force were equipped with this aircraft type, kept in service until the 1950s.

Similarly, an elegant WWII Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter of Soviet make can be found nearby in the colors of Yugoslavia.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

After the end of WWII, Tito was determined not to surrender his political and economic independence to Stalin. In this high-stake gamble, he made no secret of his thoughts, and sought international recognition from the west. As expected, Stalin showed no sense of humor in that matter, and as the USSR broke relationships with Yugoslavia, this country faced the risk of isolation and of Soviet invasion in the early stage of the Cold War (late 1940s).

Over the years, the good relationship established with the western Allies during WWII were strengthened further, and most incredibly for a communist country, the US provided aircraft and helicopters, in the form of Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, Republic F-84G Thunderjet and (much later, in the early 1960s) North American F-86D ‘long-nosed’ Sabre.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

The years of Kennedy administration saw a significant improvement of the relationship between Tito and Khrushchev, and this led to a switch to Soviet aircraft in the form of the supersonic MiG-21, which equipped the Yugoslav air force in substantial numbers over the following two decades. An exemplar of this iconic and ubiquitous aircraft, an unquestionably well-performing aircraft in his age, is preserved in the museum. By the way, the early 1960s saw also the widespread adoption of SOKO Galeb trainers and the phase out of older British/US models.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Other peculiar exhibits in the indoor part of the museum are the wrecks resulting from air fight operations during the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s. On the national (Yugoslav) side, the tail cone of a SOKO G-4 Super Galeb – a totally different design from the quasi-homonym G-2 – damaged by a shoulder-launched Stinger missile in 1991.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

But much more material is from NATO countries, resulting from combat during operation ‘Allied Force’ against Serbia in 1999. Most notably, you can see a substantial part of the wing of a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the famous stealth aircraft downed by a vintage Soviet SA-3 Goa surface-to-air missile in March 1999, as well as a landing gear, ejection seat, pilot’s helmet, Vulcan cannon and some smaller parts of a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon downed the following May, again due to an SA-3 missile. The first stage of the missile which hit the Nighthawk is on display too.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

These are basically the only aircraft lost in action over enemy territory during that operation.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

An apparently easier prey, General Atomics RQ-1 Predator UAVs were used in great numbers, some twenty of them being downed. One wrecked example is put on display.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

More items of the kind include parts of NATO missiles, including HARM anti-radiation missiles and cluster-bombs containers.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

On the upper level, you can find a mostly photographic exhibition mainly about the national carrier JAT. Interestingly, not a single Soviet-made model appears in the pictures, whereas you can find Boeing 707s, 727s, 737s, Douglas DC-9s, McDonnell-Douglas DC-10s, Aerospatiale Caravelles and ATR-42/72s – clearly a strong commercial bound with the West, pretty unusual for a communist country!

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Another Yugoslav airline started operations to a later date – Aviogenex. This apparently did use aircraft from the USSR, in particular Tupolev Tu-134s, later flanked by Boeing 737s. Aviogenex ceased operations much later than the end of Yugoslavia, and operated as a Serbian company for some years.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

One of the most iconic brutalist monstrosities in northern Belgrade is the skyscraper which used to host the headquarters of this airline – it looks like a good setting for some ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘Judge Dredd’ movie…

Some more panels include descriptions of airport history and modern operations in the nearby airport of Belgrade. The history line of the national aviation industry is also presented in detail through historical pictures.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Some more aircraft can be found on this level, as well as a SA-3 Goa missile in a non-operative paint scheme, likely for training or telemetry tuning purposes.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Outdoor exhibition

The large area around the building is split between a small outdoor exhibition prepared for the public, and a larger storage area with many more aircraft which can not be neared nor walked around.

The displayed aircraft include an Aerospatiale Caravelle in the colors of JAT. This exemplar was one of three operated by this airline, and was active between 1963 and 1976.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

A much elder transport, a German (French license-built) Junkers 52 with P&W engines represents a fleet of four such aircraft operated by the Yugoslav air force, complementing another group of originally German aircraft captured during the war.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

An aircraft of historical significance is an Ilyushin Il-14 twin-prop transport. This aircraft was a personal goodwill gift from Khrushchev to marshal Tito, and the founding member of Yugoslav presidential fleet.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

A couple of Lisunov Li-2 and some original Douglas C-47 Skytrain, of which the former is a license-built Soviet version, are on display, albeit not all complete. A MiG-21 Fishbed and a Kamov twin-rotor helicopter are also on display.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Another extremely rare item from the post-WWII years, a Short SA.6 Sealand amphibious aircraft of British make has made its way to Belgrade, after years as a transport aircraft in the Yugoslav air force.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

The non-visible part of the museum features a rather impressive collection of MiG-21 in several versions, SOKO J-21 Jastreb and SOKO J-20 Kraguj in a large number, a SA-2 Guideline soviet-made SAM launcher with two missiles, and a number of partly assembled aircraft and wrecks.

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

A mystery item is a part of an allegedly US aircraft, apparently a part of the tail empennage of a bigger transport – any suggestion about this item welcome!

Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbian Aviation
Aeronautical Museum Belgrade Serbia Aviation

Visiting

The museum is located to the northwest of the airport of Belgrade. It can be easily reached by car from the access road going to the main terminal area. Website with info in English here. Parking ahead of the entrance.

The museum can be visited in about 2 hours by an interested subject, much less if you have just a mild interest in aviation. Much paneling is in double Serbian and English language, allowing to get the most from your visit.

Despite being fully operative, the place has a somewhat rotting appearance especially from the outside, as mostly typical to former state-run institutions in former Yugoslavia. Furthermore, some form of protection for the aircraft in the outside exhibition is hopefully to be considered by the management, otherwise the aircraft with literally disintegrate to the action of the elements in a matter of some years.

Cold War Forts and Museums in Denmark

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During the Cold War the condition of Denmark on the international stage was among the most complex. Coming from years of neutrality before WWII, conquered in a matter of days in spring 1940 by neighbor Germany, at that time in the throes of the Nazi fury, it found itself on the front line of the two opposing blocs soon after May 1945.

Having not been occupied by the Soviets during WWII, it could better choose about its future, and in 1949 the mother country of the Vikings joined NATO as a funding member – unlike neighbor Sweden and Finland – thus giving its availability to its Allies to help countering Soviet influence over the territory under its control.

History in brief

Often overlooked when looking at the world map for its relatively small area, at the beginning of the Cold War the geographical position of Denmark nonetheless was – and, to some extent, still is – strategically very relevant. It is right on the inlet of the Baltic Sea, with a proximity to the foreign coasts of Norway and Sweden such to allow easily blocking the marine traffic on the Kattegat strait, when needed, by means of mere cannon fire from the coast. During the Cold War, this meant a virtual control over a sea where the USSR and Eastern Bloc Countries had many industrially relevant and non-freezing ports, as well as navy bases. Furthermore, the islands of Denmark, where large cities like Odense and Copenhagen are, can be found as close as 1.5 hours by boat to the coast of the German Democratic Republic – once one of the most heavily militarized countries on earth, also thanks to a massive Soviet presence. The smaller island of Bornholm, further east, is even closer than that to the coast of Poland.

A curious fact in history demonstrated the proximity of Denmark to the communist sphere of influence, shaking the minds of top ranking Soviet military. On March 5th, 1953, on the very same day of Stalin’s death, the first defection of a jet fighter from the Eastern Bloc took place, when a Polish MiG-15 on a routine flight along the Baltic Coast suddenly left his mates and rushed to Bornholm, where it landed on a field, leaving the aircraft in almost pristine conditions.

The cautious reaction of the Danish government and military forces reflects the position of the country at the time – they had identified the USSR and their satellites as a clear and present threat, and consequently they had taken the side of the West. Yet Denmark knew it could not withstand a direct military hit by the Soviets for more than a few hours, therefore as a form of self-protection, any form of provocation, at least in the early 1950s, was carefully avoided. While the pilot of the MiG was allowed to escape to the UK and then the US, the aircraft was quietly ceded to the US military for technical inspection in the FRG, but then re-mounted and returned to Poland. Other examples of a policy of constant detente with the Soviet Union are represented by the refusal to have NATO bases on its territory, or despite the adoption of the Nike missile system for the airspace protection, the missed deployment of the corresponding tactical nuclear warheads.

Of course, in recognition of the strategic relevance of this pleasant country, plans for a Soviet invasion which would strike in northern Europe, with the objective of reaching to the ports of the North Sea in less than a week from Eastern Germany, included as a major target the quick occupation of the Jutland peninsula, and of the islands of Denmark as well. This had to be done by marching fast through the northern regions of the Federal Republic of Germany, and simultaneously landing troops on the Danish islands.

About this post

Albeit not enough populated to sustain an army capable of resisting the eastern opponents on the other side of the Iron Curtain, thanks to its position on the map, Denmark took over seriously a fundamental border monitoring and interdiction task in favor of all NATO forces. Two tangible witnesses of this are the military bases of Stevnsfort and Langelandsfort, both located on the southern coasts of the islands, overlooking key sea straits, and pointing south to the East German coast. Both have been shut down after the end of the Cold War, and now they can be visited as top-tier military museums.

Further souvenirs from the Cold War era can be found in the Defense and Garrison Museum in Aalborg, a wide-spectrum military museum with a focus on WWII and the Cold War, and in the Danish Museum of Flight, where exemplars from the heterogeneous wings of the Danish Air Force are displayed, together with unique specimens of Danish aircraft production from the inter-war and early Cold War period.

This post covers all these four sites, visited in summer 2019. Presentation doesn’t follow any special order.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Sights

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort

This museum on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand (the same of Copenhagen) is actually a former Cold War military fort, operative from the early 1950s to the year 2000. It was re-opened as a museum in 2008, carefully preserved in most part in the forms it had in the 1980s, the most technologically advanced years of the Cold War.

By the entrance to the museum area you can see three surface-to-air missile, namely an old Nike-Ajax, and a much more performing – and bigger – Nike-Hercules. Both were part of the US Nike airspace protection system, which was deployed in Denmark around Copenhagen. The missiles are from the Cold War years, but were not originally present on Stevnsfort.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Strictly speaking, Stevnsfort is not the part of the installation you access first. The area you meet when getting in from the parking used to be a missile base in charge of the Danish Air Force. It was built for the Hawk system, another US interdiction surface-to-air missile system, the heir of the Nike system. Actually, Nike Hercules batteries in Denmark were withdrawn from use – as elsewhere, see this post – in the 1980s. Their role was taken over by Hawk missile batteries, gradually entering service since the 1960s, and operated till 2005 in Denmark.

Differently from its predecessor, the radar-based Hawk system was entirely movable, making it more flexible and less vulnerable. As a result, there are basically no bunkers in this area, and all constructions here are ‘soft’. Target designation and tracking was demanded to three sub-systems, namely a radar-pulse antenna for target individuation, an interrogation friend-or-foe (IFF) and a target-tracking/homing antenna.

Two radar-pulse antennas are displayed. The aerial emerges from a tent, which covers the electronics and motor of the system. Both are mounted on a truck trailer, which is actually totally movable. The range of the radar scanner was about 75 miles.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The IFF antenna is a smaller barrel-shaped device coupled with systems on-board aircraft, needed to distinguish between an enemy aircraft and a friend or ally. The target-tracking/homing antenna, with its distinctive two radar dishes, shares the installation setup with radar-pulse antennas – it sits on top of a trailer, covered in a green tent.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Close by, trucks and special moving cranes to mount the missiles on their launch gantries are displayed. Also containers for the missiles are shown, together with an example of the Hawk missile itself. The launch order could arrive only from the central Air Force command, except in case of a communication breakdown, when each missile base could decide on its own – at the high risk of making a mistake!

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Farther on, power trucks and other launch systems are displayed besides batteries of Hawk missiles. The launch gantry is smaller in size compared to that of Nike-Hercules, but each gantry launches three missiles instead of only one. The gantry is anchored to the ground, and when inactive it is shrouded in a peculiar rubber-coated eyelid-like bubble, which can be quickly lowered to let the missiles out.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

On the far end of the missile area, you can see an old-fashioned coastal cannon, part of the original fort, used as an illumination cannon in support of larger cannons in the battery.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

One of the naval gun batteries is the first item you meet when entering the actual Stevnsfort fort. The fort was built between 1952 and 1955 for use by the Navy, and is the oldest part of the installation. Together with the Langelandsfort gun battery and command post (see below), it was tasked with monitoring marine traffic along the straits giving access to the Kattegat and the North Sea from the inner Baltic. For the purpose, it was supplied with a huge underground bunker, its most distinctive feature, as well as batteries of naval guns.

The 150 mm guns have an intriguing history. They were made in Nazi Germany early during WWII, for the Kriegsmarine ship ‘Gneisenau’. This was damaged when still in the dockyard, and the guns were re-designated to be placed on the Danish island of Fano on the North Sea coast, as part of the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall. Following the end of WWII in May 1945, the guns were captured and finally found their way to Stevnsfort.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The two-guns batteries were capable of 4-6 shells per minute per barrel, and could reach to the coast of Sweden, thus effectively closing the Oresund strait between Denmark and Sweden if needed. While primarily an anti-ship battery, the swiveling turret could be used to cover the coast, in case of an amphibious attack.

Firing direction was by means of a primary radar station on site, which is still in use, complemented by five other stations along the coast. The shells were loaded with an elevator from the bunker underneath. The guns were temporarily deactivated – but not dismantled – in the 1980s, when Stevnsfort assumed the role of main control and communication post for the southern district of the Danish Navy. Joint exercises with the military forces of the FRG were carried out also here in the final years of the Cold War.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

By the entrance to the underground bunker you can spot several air hatches emerging from the ground, and an example of sea mine. The latter was the primary weapon to interdict traffic on the strait, with gun battery fire being mainly directed against enemy mine-sweepers.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Past the entrance, you need to descend a long stair into the bunker. At the base of the stair is an airlock with facilities for decontamination. The Stevnsfort bunker was most notably the first structure in Denmark to be built to withstand a nuclear attack.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The bunker is not excessively big, with about twenty reinforced-concrete-padded rooms connected by tunnels carved in the rock.

One of the highlights of this installation is the communication bunker, operative since 1984 in an area formerly hosting a hospital, then shut down when the naval batteries were deactivated. This used to be a highly inaccessible facility during the Cold War. Thanks to a careful preservation, the room looks like it was still in use! Batteries of telex and other communication machines originally in place, monitors and modern imaging technology from the Eighties, together with examples of ciphered messages are all on display.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Next to the communication room, the operation room is even more impressive. Similar to the former, it was constantly manned, and totally inaccessible for non-authorized personnel. The radar monitors can be seen towering over the consoles! Military staff on duty identified and followed all marine traffic in the assigned district, both civilian and military, friends and potential enemies.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Catalogs of existing ships are on display. Several thousands ships were identified and observed from this facility in the days of operation. It is reported that patrol ships from the USSR approached the coast under surveillance about 30 times per year, tasked with familiarizing troops with local geography…

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Another highlight of the visit is the ammo storage for the gun battery previously visited. In the storage, explosive cartridges are placed separately from the shells themselves. There were four types of shells, recognized through a color code – grey for armor-piercing, orange for explosive, green for illuminating and blue for inert.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

The almost-100 pounds cartridges were loaded on an elevator, and lifted up to the battery. A ladder provided direct access from the bunker to the cannons, serving also as an emergency exit.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Other rooms you can visit are sleeping quarters for the 250 men which stationed inside the bunker, until the guns were deactivated in 1981. The fort was capable of sustaining prolonged isolation in case of crisis or war. During the Cuban missile crisis, the Stevnsfort bunker was put on maximum alert for a week, with all men living underground, all accesses sealed.

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark - Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center
Cold War Museum Stevnsfort Denmark – Cannons, Bunker and Operations Center

Getting there and moving around

The Cold War Museum Stevnsfort is an international-level museum, to be found 1 hour driving south of central Copenhagen. The official website with directions and opening times is here. Visiting inside the gun battery and the bunker is possible only on a guided tour, where you are given an audio guide in English (also German and possibly other languages) if you can’t follow the Danish-speaking human guide. The guided tour includes also a visit of the missile battery, but this part can be toured also on your own. The guided visit lasts about 1.5 hours, and may turn a little boring in some parts (as usual, the human guide speaks longer than your audio-guide), but it is needed to get access to the most unique parts of the museum. I suggest visiting relatively early in the day, allowing some spare time after the guided tour and before closure to tour the missile part on your own. Free parking ahead of the installation, nice military-themed shop.

Cold War Museum Langelandsfort

This museum has been opened on the premises of a former naval gun installation from the same years of Stevnsfort (see above). Located on the southern island of Langeland, at the inlet of the Belt channel giving access to the Kattegat from the Baltic, it was in a good position to monitor all marine traffic in its sector, as well as for blocking the channel. As a matter of fact, similarly to Stevnsfort, the main target of the naval guns here were minesweepers, for the channel was completely covered with Danish remotely-controlled sea mines, and action of enemy minesweepers would have been necessary before any attack by the bulk of navy forces.

The main naval force in Langelandsfort was constituted of four naval guns, mounted on swiveling turrets, and a fire control bunker which in non-crisis time was used to keep trace of all marine traffic in the sector. The fort was complemented with anti-aircraft defensive positions, a bunkerized power station, and ‘softer buildings’, including barracks. Except for the latter, everything has been restored and can be visited. One of the naval batteries has been restored completely to its original form including the mechanisms underneath, whereas at the base of the other three batteries you can find exhibitions about various aspects of the Cold War – they are all pretty well studied, rich and interesting.

The command bunker is the first construction you meet. The building is from the 1950s, and it shares many aspects with Stevnsfort, though this is much smaller. You can see sleeping quarters and a kitchen, which would be used especially in case the fort was sealed, i.e. in case of high alert or war.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The control rooms are three. Two are for tracking marine traffic in the marine district of the Belt, and also for coordinating air operations from other military installations in Denmark. A radar antenna and an observation tower outside, likely complemented by similar gear in the area, provided a complete real-time picture of the civilian and military traffic in the sector. It is reported that ships going to Cuba with SS-4 nuclear missiles and related supplies were spotted in these rooms months before that material was photographed by the US, when the crisis broke out.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The third control room is the fire control room for the whole fort, coordinating fire from all four gun batteries. Fire control was by means of a very interesting piece of machinery, a fully mechanical computer, taking in atmospheric data like temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed, and target data. No electricity was needed except for lighting the goggles of this analog computer! A similar item was present in Stevnsfort, but I could not see it during my guided visit.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

In an adjoining room you can see a perfectly restored communication facility, with ciphered messages hanging on the walls, as well as original transmission machines and early computers. There is also a personal study room for the commander of the post.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Besides the control bunker you can find an anti-aircraft position, centered on a four-barreled anti-aircraft gun. Similar to all others, the small bunker underneath could be manned and sealed in case of war.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The cannon battery closest to the control bunker has been restored completely, including the bunker underneath. The 150 mm guns, one per battery, were made in the final years of WWII by Skoda works in Plzen, in the then-Nazi occupied territory of Czechia. They were originally intended by the Wehrmacht for the Atlantic Wall in Denmark, but they never became operative there. Instead, they ended up to be installed by Denmark to counter a Soviet threat on the Baltic.

The mechanism for supplying cartridges to the cannon is similar to that in Stevnsfort, with an elevator lifting the explosive charge and the shell separately to the level of the gun. However, here the storage bunker is just beneath the cannon, and the lift does not carry the cartridge directly inside the turret, but to a hatch in the reinforced wall besides the cannon – something similar to some of the smaller cannon batteries of the Atlantic Wall built by the Germans.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Inside the bunker you can see the ammo storage, as well as a sleeping compartment for the 15-men crew needed to operate the cannon.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Some example shells have been preserved, with colors corresponding to different functions of the shell (see Stevnsfort above).

The cartridge elevator room is very small, and access is from both sides. Explosive and shell came from opposite directions, each from the corresponding storage room.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The bunker under the next cannon battery has been dedicated to the analysis of the threat from the Danish perspective. Here you see copies of the Soviet plans to invade Denmark, as part of an operation to conquer central and northern Europe lightning-fast in case of an open war against the West. Among the most striking items, you can see detailed Soviet maps covering all regions of Denmark – with city names and all writing in Cyrillic!

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

There is also a nice collection of ordinary weapons and military supply from the Eastern Bloc, and especially from the neighboring German Democratic Republic. A very special feature is an example of the ‘Blücher decoration for valor’, a medal created by the GDR to be attributed to individuals for actions of exceptional courage in the defense of the GDR, and to be assigned only in case of war – thanks to the Cold War never turning ‘hot’ for the GDR, nobody could be awarded this decoration.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The next battery is dedicated to espionage and spy gear, with many examples of James-Bond-like trinkets, actually used by both enemy and Danish spies. Machinery for ciphered communication, once considered hi-tech, is also on display, together with maps used by a Danish spy visiting the Polish coast, and satellite imagery of East German/Soviet airbases.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The exhibition in the last battery is about the Cold War and society, and is full of old photographs of pro-Soviet protesters in Denmark, spies, famous characters of the Cold War, momentous events taking place in Denmark during the Cold War and so on. Most notably, there are also many artifacts from both Denmark, the Eastern Bloc and the USSR, including medals, posters, portraits and much more.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Similar to the control bunker, the power station has been preserved in its original condition. Three diesel engines could provide power to all bunkers in case of war or failure of the grid for whatever reason. Immediately outside the entrance to the power station bunker there are apparently some suspended showers…

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The large area of Langelandsfort has been selected also for the exhibition of a submarine, a mine-sweeper and two aircraft! The submarine ‘Springeren’ was used by Denmark in the 1990s and early 2000s, but it was built much earlier and operated by the Norwegian Navy. Sadly, after the retirement of ‘Springeren’, the Danish Navy shut off completely its underwater branch. The ship is a small conventionally powered attack submarine. The interior is apparently pretty modern with respect to older German or US WWII U-boats.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The submarine features six torpedo tubes.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The mine-sweeper has the appearance of a small conventional boat, but with room for a crew of several men. It is hosted in a hangar together with examples of sea mines – apparently US models.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The two aircraft are a SAAB Draken of Denmark and a MiG-23 of Poland. They represent some of the most advanced aircraft of these opposing countries at the height of the Cold War. Both exemplars are well preserved inside hangars protecting them from the weather and sunlight.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Another interesting sight is a reconstruction of a civil defense bunker, with much original material, including packs of ration cards already prepared for the population in case of war. In an adjoining room you can see a reconstruction of a bunkerized broadcasting studio – the national TV channels were tasked with providing updates to the population in case of an attack, hence a similar facility was prepared in the basement of the TV headquarters.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Close to the ticket office, you are offered a very well-designed exhibition tracing the timeline of the Cold War, with some clever text and many pictures, some of which rather uncommon – really worth spending some time on, before or after visiting the museum.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

There is also room for temporary exhibitions, in a hangar which includes an original section of the Berlin Wall.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

The building of the ticket office is also interesting. From the back of it you can get access to a smaller exhibition about travels to the DDR (the native acronym for the GDR), with everyday items, old Interflug boarding passes, and some incredible postcards – apparently, modern Soviet-style housing and heads of Marx were the items that GDR postcard-designers liked most… Fragments of the Berlin Wall are also on display.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Ahead of the entrance there is an old and pretty big hammer and sickle, originally from a Soviet ship. The commander threw it outboard when the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist. It was collected by a Danish sailor and ended up here. Nearby you can see a reconstruction of the Berlin Wall, and an original Trabant crossing it.

Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop - Cold War Museum Denmark - Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center
Koldkrigsmuseum Langelandsfort, Bagenkop – Cold War Museum Denmark – Cannon Battery, Bunker and Operations Center

Getting there and moving around

The Cold War Museum Langelandsfort is located close to the southern tip of the island of Langeland, which is connected with bridges to the major island of Fyn, where Odense can be found about 1-hour north of the museum by car. You can move around the museum on your own, there are several panels with explanations. Most panels have at least a quick translation in German and English. All presentations are very well designed and maintained. Visiting may take at least 2 hours for an interested subject, and even more especially if you are taking pictures. Free parking ahead of the entrance, and picnic area nearby. Official website here.

Aalborg Defense and Garrison Museum

This museum was opened in the year 2002, in the hangar of a seaplane base constituted by the occupying German forces in 1940. The base was potentiated in more instances during WWII, and a half-interred command bunker similar to those of the Atlantic Wall was added.

Aalborg has been a military post for centuries, therefore the museum is centered on several aspects of war and military life. Of course, the majority of the artifacts on display date from WWII and the Cold War period.

The hangar hosts a small collection of aircraft, which capture your sight when you get in. Most notably, there are a venerable F-84, an F-86, and somewhat older T-33 and Gloster Meteor.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Close by, you can find a more modern F-104. Jet engines of American make from some of these aircraft have been taken out of the airframes, and put on display separately.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Again in the center of the hangar you can see a Hawk missile system, including the missile battery and movable power and control trucks. Also anti-aircraft guns and searchlights from various ages are on display.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Items from WWII include a nice exhibition of locally-collected gear used by the Danish resistance movements. Supplied by the Allies from the air, they managed to build several types of bombs, mines, and so on, made to disturb and damage enemy transports, or to kill enemy staff in well programmed para-military actions.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Memorabilia include the engine of an US B-17 bomber, sadly downed over the Baltic during the crew’s final mission, the original Luftwaffe eagle once standing on the building of the local German air command, and a Nazi flag weaving on some public building in town in the years of the German occupation.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

There are also many photographs from the area from the war years, and reproductions of German maps and local newspapers. The latter tell about relevant facts taking place during the war, as reported by the local media. There are also diplomas of merit issued by the US and Britain in favor of a local citizen, member of the resistance.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

A part of the exhibition is about civil defense. Similar to the US, Britain and other countries during the Cold War, this service was activated to prepare the population to a nuclear war scenario, and to provide shelter and a chance of survival, by means of bunkers and deposits of supplies. Here you can see a reconstruction of such a shelter, and items which used to be stored in preparation for survival in the nuclear winter.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

There is also a nice collection of light weapons from local firms, uniforms and communication rigs.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

A few uniforms and technical gear from the current supplies of the Danish military are on display as well.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

In a room to the side of the central hall, you can find uniforms dating from WWII, including German stuff. The story of a Dane coming to the US and fighting for the US Army is also told in a corner, also through some memorabilia.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

On an elevated platform you can find an exhibition about the Cold War. This is mostly made by panels retracing the history of that confrontation over the decades. Among the most peculiar items on display, a copy of the invasion plan studied by the Soviet in case of a sudden war with the West. That plan included the rapid conquer of Denmark, due to its strategically relevant position. A copy of a Soviet-made map of Aalborg in Russian, needed in case of war, is another example of the unique artifacts on display.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

This special Cold War exhibition is completed with a set of field and anti-aircraft weapons from various ages of the confrontation.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Other rooms around the main hall display modern uniforms, NATO-related material, military supply from various ages and even a throne used by the Queen of Denmark on an official visit.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

In an adjoining smaller hangar you can find a rich collection of trucks and weapons with various – not only military – functions.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Outside, a highlight of the museum is the former air command bunker built by the Germans. This has been filled with memorabilia from the Nazi occupation period. An unusual and little-known story is told here, about the German refugees from Eastern Prussia, a region loosely coincident today with the part of Russia around the town of Kaliningrad (ex-Konigsberg). This area used to be part of Germany since before WWI, and it remained under the Weimar Republic, even though separated from German mainland. Neighboring Lithuania was annexed to the Third Reich before WWII – similar to Sudetenland – on account of the proximity to that region, with the excuse of a significant German group living in Lithuania. In 1939 the Germans re-gained control over northern Poland, and the two regions of Prussia were reunited in the Reich.

Following the victories of the Soviets in 1944 and the ensuing landslide-march towards Berlin, Eastern Prussia was lost to the enemy. Refugees escaped to mainland Germany, and the administration of the Reich sent these folks in several areas relatively far from the front – including a significant number to occupied Denmark, and especially in the hangars in Aalborg, where the museum is today. So the hangar acted as a hospitality center for the refugees. This was something strange though, for the refugees were not local nationals, but instead enemies. This led to a controversy soon after, when the war ended. In the event, most of the refugees returned to their land of origin, only to find it permanently occupied by the Soviets. Some handmade artifacts of these German refugees can be seen on display in the bunker.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark

Finally, a very good collection of tanks, field guns and movable howitzers from various countries including the Eastern Bloc and mainly from the various ages of the Cold War can be admired on the museum apron. For the most part, these are reportedly kept in working condition.

Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum - Defense and Garrison Museum - WWII and Cold War Weapons - Denmark
Aalborg Forsvars- og Garnisonsmuseum – Defense and Garrison Museum – WWII and Cold War Weapons – Denmark