Bornholm – Military History of a Contended Danish Island

The small island of Bornholm is today a popular destination for vacation time. Especially in the summer, the small and picturesque towns along the coast, as well as the curvy roads unwinding over the gentle slopes in the countryside, become increasingly crowded with cars, motorbikes, campers and bicycles – however, without reaching the point where a tourist who is looking for relaxation may feel uncomfortable.

The quiet and relaxed aura of this enjoyable piece of land, halfway between the German-Polish coast and that of Sweden – and nonetheless part of Denmark – hides a history pointed of battles and turmoil, lasting from the early era of the vikings until the Cold War.

Quick historical facts

Between the medieval times and the 17th century, the island was often seized by the Hanseatic League, binding together coastal towns in the Baltic and protecting trading routes. During the 17th century, Sweden became a major player in the area, and wars between Denmark and Sweden meant the island changing landlord more than once, with the locals always playing militarily in favor of a union with Denmark, to an extent made possible by their own forces, yet meeting with final success.

A largely forgotten war between Britain and Denmark, taking place in the years of total confusion brought about by Napoleon’s endeavors all over Europe, meant that Bornholm was attacked by the British fleet in more instance between 1808 and 1810, basically without any success.

World War II

The invasion of Denmark by the Third Reich and the capitulation of the Danish government, militarily unable to counter the irresistible march of Hitler’s military forces in April 1940, resulted in Bornholm being occupied by the Germans. The local Danish commander annotated the order not to resist the German take-over with disappointment, feeling that a firmer military response to the invaders was indeed possible. The island was fairly well organized and armed against an air-launched invasion.

The capitulation of Denmark without engaging in a military struggle allowed to obtain less harsh conditions from the occupants, including a limited independent military activity for the first years of WWII. However, a strong anti-German feeling fueled the growth of a resistance movement, including locally in Bornholm.

Similar to what happened to the Danish mainland (see this post), the military planners of the Third Reich included Bornholm in the coastal defense structure on the outer border of the newly acquired German territory – the so-called Atlantic Wall. In particular, construction of a fortress for four 38 cm cannons started on the south-eastern corner of the island, in Dueodde (similar to that in Hanstholm, Denmark, of Vara, Norway). The very efficient Organisation Todt had the first two emplacement largely complete by April 1941. By the attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 however, and with the rapid expansion of the Third Reich to the east, the fortress in Dueodde was deemed of little use. In the event, construction works never reached completion.

Further significant war-related construction projects on Bornholm included observation posts and several radar stations (Würzburg and Freya types), which could profit from the location of the island on the route taken by bomber groups on their way back to Britain from raids over Berlin or the surrounding region. The proximity with respect to the facility for the development of experimental weapons at Peenemünde (see here) made of Borhnolm a natural place for the installation of measuring equipment. Furthermore, the main coastal town of Rønne – still today the largest center of the island, where most of the commercial and ferry sea traffic goes through – was largely employed as a base for the Kriegsmarine. Actually, more than 600 different German submarine units called this port during the war years, about one half of the entire German submarine fleet!

Diplomatic relations between the Third Reich and Denmark deteriorated rapidly in August 1943, when the Germans – now at a turning point of the war – launched operation Safari, trying to capture all assets of whatever military value from Denmark, thus also destroying its military capability. As a response, Denmark scuttled 32 of its own vessels, and sent a handful to Swedish or to even more distant friendly ports. In Borhnolm all Danish troops were disarmed and taken away from the island.

Somewhat paradoxically, the most tragic events of the war struck Borhnolm at the very end, when the island found itself off the coast of Poland, now taken over by the Soviet Red Army advancing from the east towards Berlin (see this post). As the fear of defeat and imprisonment grew among the ranks of Third Reich forces, following the heavy losses on the eastern front in Spring 1945, many German troops reached Bornholm to prepare for an escape further west, or north to neutral Sweden. This presence was noticed by Soviet intelligence, who intercepted communications mentioning several thousands of German military troops on the island – their actual number has been estimated at around 20’000 by May 1945. The war officially ended in Denmark on May 5th, 1945. However, at that time the chain of command and the communication system in the Third Reich had collapsed, and the local German commanders on Bornholm still retained the order to repel the Soviets with any possible means, without permission to surrender. As a result, the Soviets bombed the island twice, severely damaging Rønne and the port town of Nexø, unharmed up to that point, on May 7th and 8th, 1945.

Soviet Occupation

Following the two Soviet bombing raids, a group of six Soviet torpedo boats sailed from Kolberg, Poland (now Kolobrzeg, see this post), landed and reclaimed control of the island of Bornholm on April 9th, 1945. At that time, about 16’000 German troops and refugees were still on the island, trying to flee to the West or to Sweden by any possible means. Reportedly 700 boats of any kind were involved in this desperate evacuation operation, and about 5’000 Germans (military and civilian) had fled by sea just the day before the Soviet landing.

The anti-German resistance movement on Bornholm joined forces with the Soviets, trying to search for trapped German troops and prevent their escape to the West. The airfield in Rønne was captured on May 9th in one of these joint actions – specifically stopping a German aircraft already taxiing for take-off, after some others had already successfully got airborne! These operations went on until May 20th, and due to the very significant number of German troops still on site, they required drafting people in the Soviet-backed group of ‘freedom fighters’, which afterwards remained the only official local para-military group on the island, besides the Red Army (conversely, members of the the original voluntary resistance movement soon returned to their pre-war civilian occupation).

The Soviet presence on Bornholm constituted a potentially explosive problem. The agreement at Yalta between the US, Britain and the USSR in February 1945, months before the actual capitulation of the Third Reich, had defined that Denmark would remain independent, and specifically not within the Soviet-controlled territories in Europe. The British government, at that time still led by Churchill, was extremely worried by the Soviet capture of Bornholm, and after unofficially questioning the Soviets, the answer was even more appalling – according to Soviet diplomats, the island had to stay under Soviet control indefinitely, through the support of a military contingent of 9’000, soon to reach those already on site!

This led to the beginning of a peculiar page in the history of Bornholm, and of the diplomatic relations between the USSR and the West, which would soon get worse on a global scale, leading to the Cold War. Relations between the local Danish government and the Soviets were generally good at an official level, thanks to the skills of the local leading figure on the Danish side, von Stemann. To keep the public eye on this unsolved issue, he managed to organize an official visit of the Crown Princess of Denmark, who met the Soviet top staff on Bornholm. The day-by-day coexistence with the Soviets was less idyllic, with increasing incidents due to the misconduct of the bored Soviet troops stationed on the island, and the growing discontent among the locals. Uncertainty about Soviet plans fostered fear over a possible long-term occupation.

Finally in December 1945, Britain officially questioned the Soviet government about the case of Bornholm, and Molotov answered that the Soviet Union did not intend to have any permanent base in Denmark (as per the Yalta accords), yet the island was to be retained by the USSR as a guarantee, due to the presence of British troops on the Danish mainland.

The Danish government reacted preparing to retake full control of its own territory, correspondingly asking all foreign troops – from any nation – out of its borders. In March 1946 it was announced that the Soviet troops would leave the island of Bornholm, as Denmark prepared to install its own military forces back on it. In good order, the Soviets actually left the island, the last ship departing Rønne on April 5th, 1946.

The Cold War

Denmark joined NATO as a founding member in 1949, the result of the action of the then prime minister Hans Hedtoft, a former member of the resistance in Denmark, who had got a clear insight of the line of action followed by the Soviet Union, at that time still led by Stalin.

The support given by Denmark to NATO was not obvious for that country, since the proximity to the Eastern Bloc – especially Bornholm, geographically located close to the (by then) Soviet-controlled Polish coast – made Denmark extremely vulnerable and militarily untenable in case of a potential Soviet attack. The policy adopted by the Danish government over the decades of the Cold War in support of NATO was sincere but always carefully calibrated, to reduce the risk of Soviet intervention, which would possibly result in an extremely dangerous escalation.

Consequently, no international NATO base nor any nuclear warhead was ever permanently based in Denmark. Yet highly defended coastal strongholds were established, which can still be seen today (see this post).

Bornholm hit the headlines in the early phase of the Cold War, when the first-ever jet-propelled fighter from beyond the Iron Curtain defected to the West. This happened on March 5th, 1953, the very same day of Stalin’s death. The Polish pilot, 21 years old Franciszek Jarecki, had departed Slupsk airbase in northern Poland on a training mission, when he suddenly left his group and flew as fast and low as he could to Rønne, where he safely landed his aircraft, asking for asylum. The aircraft was a MiG-15, and that was the first time this new type of aircraft, which played havoc against propeller-driven machines in the early phase of the Korean War, could be inspected by Western powers.

The case was treated very carefully from a diplomatic standpoint by Denmark, to avoid provoking a violent reaction on the Soviet side. A technical inspection was carried out in a well-coordinated, highly secretive mission set up by the British and the US, ending with the restitution of the reassembled machine to Poland. Finally, the pilot was granted asylum in the US, where he had a remarkable military career (his flight suit from the defection mission ending up in the Smithsonian collection, at Udvar-Hazy Center, close to Dulles airport in Washington, D.C.). This topic is well covered in the excellent book ‘The secret MiGs of Bornholm‘ by Dick van der Aart (see the bookshop section).

Jarecki’s escape was not an isolated case, since in 1953 and 1956 two more Polish fighter pilots successfully landed (or crash-landed) their aircraft on Bornholm (while another made it all the way to Sweden). Then the Soviets had Polish fighter units relocated further south, where Bornholm was out of range, and took over control of the northernmost bases.

Defection to Borhnolm by air on a jet fighter was rare compared to the overall cases of people reaching Bornholm to flee either communist Poland or the GDR, similarly close to the island. For all the years of the Cold War, Bornholm constituted the goal of dozens of escape attempts, some of them successful, carried out mostly by sea.

The location well within the Soviet area of influence was exploited with the construction of a prominent intelligence base by Denmark, to the advantage of NATO forces. This was again in the Dueodde. The base was very effective and was updated to keep up with upgrades in electronic communication technology over the years until the end of the Cold War. It was later kept in service, and shut off only in 2012.

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A visit to Bornholm today will likely be for relaxation and for enjoying this nice country. However, for those with an interest for its peculiar history there are some very interesting collections and rare sites to visit. They allow to retrace in particular the rich military history of the island, without much effort and with great satisfaction for either researchers or the general public. This post covers five of them, four of which are museums. They were all visited in the summer of 2024, and all photographs were taken in that occasion.

Sights

Bornholm’s Defence Museum, Rønne

A good place to start the exploration of the military history of Bornholm, the Defence Museum (Bornholms Forsvarsmuseum in the local idiom) is located to the south of the town center of Rønne, the busiest seaport and the capital city of the island.

The museum is hosted in two old military buildings, including the local kastellet, a massive tower with a round base, built for coastal defense.

The collection is housed in the courtyard and on the two levels of the first building. For the relatively little area it covers, this collection is extremely rich and informative, with panels covering in depth some specific events, offered in multiple languages including English.

On the ground floor, an interesting exhibition on the evolution of the artillery in Bornholm starts with a display of very old cannons – including possibly the oldest preserved exemplars of some types – and insignia dating from the wars against Sweden.

Then more modern exemplars from the 19th century, and reaching to an American type 105 from WWII, employed on Bornholm in the Cold War period, allow to follow the evolution of this type of weapon.

For more curious visitors, little artifacts interspersed between the larger exhibits on display add much value to the collection. Training material for anti-aircraft artillery from the WWII era, including down-scaled fake aircraft targets, as well as various types of grenades and shells employed with the artillery pieces stationed on the island can be found on display between the big guns on the ground floor.

An original German aiming device has been positioned such to be still usable – you can see outside through the optical system. Note the eagle and swastika marking on the label.

A particularly interesting item, not easy to find in a museum, is a complete launching device for the Stinger missile. This type of ground-to-air anti-aircraft missile, albeit rather rudimentary compared to other offensive missile platforms, has turned out very effective in actual war scenarios, especially against slow-moving aircraft or helicopters. The compact launchpad, operable by a single gunner, features two launching tubes. Aiming is via a visor, and the trigger is placed on two pistol-like grips.

Many radio transmitters and receivers, including a sizable console with stacks mostly made in the US (look at the labels and tags!), are on display together with a rare computer, a Compucorp 625 Mark II, a standalone machine which was employed from the late 1970s to run a software for ballistic computations.

On the top floor of the same building, an exhibition covering some specific military episodes from the 19th century serves as an introduction to the rich collection of memorabilia from WWII and the Cold War.

Decorations from the Third Reich, as well as insignia, uniforms and personal everyday items belonging to the Wehrmacht troops, or to some specific people in the German staff living on the island, are on display, in most cases along with explanatory panels telling their peculiar stories.

Unusual items include a table with mottoes in German, an embroidered napkin with emblems from the winning powers of WWII.

As said in the introduction, Bornholm found itself on the trajectory of allied bombers returning from raids on today’s northeastern Germany (including Berlin). In more instances, bombers damaged by flak fire or by German fighter aircraft, hence unable to make their way home, were forced to crash-land on Bornholm. The detailed history of two of these bombers and their corresponding crews is told in a dedicated set of display cases, showing even the track followed by each of the crew members as they tried to flee Bornholm (occupied by the Germans). Some interesting memorabilia items are on display from those episodes, including personal belongings of the crew members, and cash notes in diverse currencies, with their names written on them. These notes were given specifically to crew members, to help them in case of landing in a foreign country in Europe.

From the same era is a perfectly preserved Enigma machine. This is presented together with a detailed story, which could be retraced by war historians in Bornholm. Actually, this specific machine was made in 1937 and largely employed on the Eastern front in the actions against the Soviet Union. When German troops were fleeing the northern coast of Poland and Germany in the last days of the war (May 1945), the machine arrived to Bornholm, where it was little employed, since the chain of command of the German Army had collapsed by that time. The machine was ditched in the water by the surrendering troops, but it was soon to be found, taken to a private house, and largely forgotten afterwards. Finally, it was donated to the museum decades later.

Another unusual display is about the relics of German experimental weapons landing in Bornholm, and the espionage operations related to their find. Due to the proximity with the island of Usedom and the research center of Wehrner von Braun in Peenemünde, launches from the polygon where V-1 and V-2 were being tested could be spotted sometimes from Bornholm. Actually, early exemplars of a Fieseler Fi-103, aka V-1, first stranded on Bornholm in July and August 1943. They were first discovered by two local Danish citizens belonging to the police, who took quick sketches and pictures, and passed them to the British through the anti-German resistance links. These turned out to be the first photographs of that new weapon to reach the western Allies. The two were captured and imprisoned by the German occupants, but eventually they managed to flee to Sweden.

Some relics of the V-1 crashed on Bornholm are on display, as well as memorabilia items belonging to the two Danes who found the relic. The latter include a British decoration presented for their service.

Additionally, interesting pictures show the contrail of a V-2 photographed over Bornholm, and the picture of another V-2 crashed in Sweden!

Further remains from the era include gauges from the cockpit of German fighter aircraft, captured by the Soviets as they were trying to takeoff from Bornholm and escape, and a ribbon from the ill-fated German passenger ship Wilhelm Gustloff. She was sank by a Soviet submarine roughly 60 miles east of Bornholm in January 1945, while enroute to mainland Germany from former possessions of the Third Reich in nowadays Poland, lost to the advancing Red Army. Losses are estimated in the range of 10’000, making this largely forgotten episode by far the worst-ever naval disaster in history.

Another rich section documents the presence of the Soviets on the island. Artifacts on display range from flags and direction signs for the stationing troops, written in Russian, to many personal items left behind by the Soviets.

Typical propaganda posters are on display as well, similar to more official and non-public items, like transcripts of communications between the local Danish and Soviet commanders from the age of the Soviet occupation of Bornholm in 1945-46.

Many evocative pictures are on display from that time as well, and similarly from the Cold War. Among them, pictures of the Polish MiGs landed on Bornholm, of the many ELINT and COMINT centers put on Bornholm during the decades of the Cold War (including the tower in Nexø, see here), and copy of the Soviet attack plan in case of war against NATO.

A final chapter documented in this nice museum is the service of the Danish Armed Forces within the UN in Cyprus. Tasked with border surveillance between the two regions on the island, Danish forces were involved in action – with some casualties – at the time of the Turkish attack in 1970. They only left the island in the early 1990s.

The kastellet is today mostly empty, and once inside, it is possible to appreciate the original architecture of this bastion, which saw action against the many attempts by foreign attackers to land on Bornholm.

On the outside and in a small depot on the side of the inner courtyard, further items are on display. Propellers from the WWII aircraft crashed in the area represent both the German Luftwaffe (Do-17 bomber) and the Western Allies (B-24 and Halifax bombers).

A Chaffee-type small tank and two armored vehicles are on display, together with naval guns, radar antennas, land robots and artillery aiming gear.

A peculiar sight is one of the observation turrets originally scattered on the territory of the island, for spotting aircraft or other flying stuff and promptly report it.

On display are also sea mines, sonobuoys, radar scopes and parts of torpedoes, some of them interesting Soviet models, likely recovered from the Baltic Sea during the Cold War.

Ahead of the entrance to the museum, a memorial stone has been put more recently by an association of veterans.

Getting there and visiting

The museum is located close to Rønne downtown, from where it can be reached with a short walk (about .3 miles south from the central touristic area). The address is Arsenalvej 8 – 3700 Rønne. There is a little parking area on site. The museum is professionally run, and it has its own dedicated website here (also available in English).

Visiting is strongly recommended as a first stop for an exploration of the military history of Bornholm. For war buffs, WWII and Cold War historians, this place has much in store, and a visit may easily take 2 hours. Less is required for a more basic visit, made easy also by the compactness of the display.

Bornholm’s Museum, Rønne

Bornholm’s Museum is the main facility dedicated to the history of the island. Located in a former hospital, you can immediately notice the presence of a bombing raid shelter in the courtyard. This is an original relic from WWII.

The museum takes all floors of a small building, and it is dedicated to the history of the island in all its aspects, and with artifacts from all ages, including Roman coins and viking accessories.

Of particular interest from the time of the vikings is a collection of golden plates. They are smaller than a human fingernail, and decorated with human figures and other subjects. Plus, they are really many! They are of special interest also due to the fact that nobody knows what they are. Archaeologists found them mostly on Bornholm, and in a much lower quantity elsewhere in Scandinavia.

Fast forward to the 20th century, the museum has on display interesting memorabilia from WWII and from the era of the Soviet occupation.

Among them are original decorations, documents and photographs, from both the German and Soviet sides.

From the early Cold War period, a small piece from Jarecki’s MiG-15 is preserved in a display case, with a picture of President Eisenhower receiving at the White House the first pilot defecting from Eastern Europe (apparently, a young John F. Kennedy appears to stand behind them).

Shop signs and indication signs in Russian, the original working desk of the Danish governor of the island at the time of the Soviet occupation, and everyday working tools belonging to the Soviet staff are among the displays in this museum.

A – perhaps – non-permanent exhibition is dedicated to the Soviets on the island, including the two air bombing raids they carried out in the closing days of WWII, which caused much destruction.

An interesting exhibition on the Cold War in Bornholm examines it from different perspectives. Among them, it is shown how preparations for a nuclear attack included the institution of a civil defense system, similar to most western Countries.

Similarly, the conspicuous wave of defections, of both military staff and civilians, from beyond the Iron Curtain to Bornholm is fully documented. Being located relatively close to the GDR and Poland, Bornholm was a natural target destination for those trying to leave the Baltic coast by sea. On display are documents of seamen asking for asylum, as well as a small dinghy employed for a successful escape attempt. A rather impressive full list of the successful and unsuccessful escape attempts towards Bornholm from the communist world is provided.

In another part of the museum, dedicated to everyday items and business activities, it is possible to find toys and other common tools from the Cold War era, as well as beautiful models of several vessels in service at that time – as well as today.

Getting there and visiting

The museum is one of the major attractions in Rønne, the capital city of the island. It is located within the perimeter of the historical center of the town, and you will be probably visiting it if you are interested in any aspect of the history of Bornholm. The address is Sankt Mortens Gade 29 – 3700 Rønne.

For those with an interest for the military history of the 20th century, the collection of this museum makes for a nice complement to that to be found in the Defence Museum (see above).

For a complete visit, 1 to 2 hours are likely enough. Less than 1 hour is needed if you are mostly interested to the WWII and Cold War part, including the nice exhibition on the Soviet presence.

The museum has regular opening times and a fully documented website here (also available in English).

Bornholm’s Tower, Nexø

The tower is an authentic relic from the Cold War. The intelligence site in Dueodde (close to the major town of Nexø, itself close to the southeastern corner of Bornholm) was originally established in 1958, in the facilities of an old lighthouse from 1876, which is still standing besides the new tower.

The task was that of intercepting communications from Soviet channels, primarily to the aim of knowing of any potentially offensive maneuver against Denmark or NATO in advance. The geographical location of Bornholm made it ideal for installing such a plant, since this territory is significantly farther east than the Danish mainland, hence closer to the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union.

Soon after the take over of the lighthouse by the Danish intelligence and the installation of the first technical gear, continuous improvement started around that facility, leading to the construction of a dedicated tower, which stood until the mid 1980s, and was extensively employed for gathering useful intelligence. Among the most notable information obtained in favor of NATO forces were the reports witnessing the preparation of an attack by the Warsaw Pact forces on Czechoslovakia, at the time of Dubcek’s attempted reformation of the communist system in 1968 – an invasion which eventually took place, tragically putting an end to a new political course in that Country.

The relevance of the site in Dueodde in the panorama of NATO intelligence is further shown by the decision to substantially upgrade the technical installation, demolishing the existing infrastructure and building anew a more modern and massive tower in 1986.

The new tower was operated continuously until 2012, when the installation was finally shut down, and the facility was partly demolished and sold. It is since then privately owned, and it has now reopened for visitors.

A visit allows to explore the foundations of the tower, where cables and pipelines – including compressed air and coolant fluid – can still be seen. Compressed air was employed for keeping in shape the special ‘shells’ where the technical stuff used to be put.

These shells were arranged hanging vertically from the concrete tower, which is the only part remaining today (the shells are gone, you can see two of the original platforms in the courtyard, close to the original cooling station). Coolant fluid was employed for the big servers which hosted and processed data. A wind monitoring cabinet – made in USA – can be found at the ground level of the tower.

By taking the original elevator, it is possible to climb to the top, where the view ranges in all directions, and allows to see the beautiful white dunes for which this area is mostly famous.

Inside the facility, mostly empty today, it is possible to see some remnants of the server rooms. Most of the empty rooms have been employed for a display of electronic cabinets and communication gear. A reconstruction of some of original technical rooms has been attempted, and the display is completed with historical pictures of the site.

Server rooms are among the preserved original parts of the tower.

Further rooms host displays related at large to WWII and the Cold War.

An interesting addition to the visit is an original MiG-15, presented in the colors of the Polish Air Force, and resembling those which fled from Poland to Bornholm, at the commands of brave early Cold War defectors. Photographs and copies of newspapers documenting those episodes are on display.

Interestingly, what appears to be a control surface or the part of a wing of an authentic Soviet aircraft can be seen on the side of the display, likely only provisionally.

Scattered along the walls in the exhibition are original pictures, with close-ups of intercepted aircraft from the Soviet bloc.

Getting there and visiting

The tower (Bornholmertarnet in the local idiom) is located close to the white dunes of the strand of Dueodde, on the very southeastern tip of the island, about 4 miles south of the major town of Nexø. The exact formal address is Strandmarksvejen 2 – 3730 Nexø. Large parking on site.

Visiting may take about 1 hour for the interested visitor. The tower can be climbed to the top with an elevator. Visiting the facility and exhibitions does not take much, since most rooms are basically empty.

The official website of this installation is here (multiple translations available).

Bornholm’s Technical Collection, Allinge

This incredible museum has been constituted through the merge of several private collections. In most cases they are very specialized selections of technical items. These range from tractors to airport vehicles, from pocket lighters to radios, from personal computers to naval radar scopes, and much more!

Besides well-stuffed collections, which strike for their size and range, there are also some specialties, like unusual items – typically relics or one-of-a-kind exemplars. Especially the latter include some items from the Cold War chapter of the history of Bornholm.

Actually, possibly the biggest item on display is a SAAB Draken aircraft. This excellent Swedish-made attack aircraft used to fly in the colors of the Danish Air Force (see this post). The exemplar on display comes with some of the accessories, including wing pods, the parachute for brake assistance, etc.

Close by the Draken, it is possible to find several aviation-related displays, like jet engines, optical gear, radar-receiving consoles. There is also the map of the scenic flights offered from an airport which does not exist any more, and which used to be close to the northern coast of the island (the only airport is today that in Rønne).

One of the jet engines looks like an evidence from an aircraft accident, involving a Learjet business jet crash-landed on Bornholm.

Not far from the Draken, another rare aircraft on display is a SAI KZIII, designed and manufactured in Denmark in 1946.

Further finds in the museum are a stop light, which was employed for stopping road traffic on local roads close to the runway, when an aircraft in need of a shallow approach path was landing in Rønne, and the doors originally in an airport building, with stickers of flight associations from all over the world.

A military trailer with radio communication gear is on display, as well as an old truck, which happens to be the very same truck seen boarded by young Soviet soldiers, at the time of the Soviet occupation of Bornholm!

A little collection is made of GDR-made items.

A small room is dedicated to marine detection gear and the corresponding scopes.

Bulky elements on display include a one-of-a-kind locally assembled truck, a monster roadworks machine made in the Third Reich and which never returned to Germany, and trucks for removing snow from the road. They have two engines, one moving the truck, the other moving the spool. The arrangement is rather involved, with an articulated (angled!) shaft carrying mechanical power from the engine to the spool.

Airport gear includes a SAAB car with a runway friction tester in the back, and a truck for spreading anti-ice fluid.

Other rich hi-tech collections include one with radio receivers, another with cameras and video-recorders.

Even one centered on personal computer consoles can be found.

The collection of tractors on display is really impressive, with machines coming from diverse nations and makers.

Other parts of the museum are basically old shops moved in, and in some cases with fully working machinery (like the blacksmith).

The list of collections is really huge! There is surely something for everybody on display.

Getting there and visiting

The museum can be found in the countryside, on the road 159 connecting Rønne to Allinge-Sandvig, one of the biggest settlements on the northern coast, about 1.5 miles from the latter. The exact address is Borrelyngvej 48, 3770 Allinge-Sandvig. Large parking on the premises.

The museum is very peculiar, it features rich collections and it is run by knowledgeable people who are willing to provide descriptions and information also in English. A visit may appeal to everybody including children, and not only to war historians. However, it is duly listed here especially for the war- and aviation-related collections in it. A visit to the entire museum may easily take about 2 hours, especially when talking with the locals. Much less is needed for a quick look at just some parts of it.

The website can be found here.

Soviet War Cemetery, Allinge-Sandvig

Even though Stalin’s USSR finally withdrew from the occupied territory of Bornholm, the conquer of the island by the Soviets in 1945-46 meant the construction of a Soviet war cemetery, similar to those to be found scattered on the territory of the former countries of the Eastern bloc.

A very unassuming and rather intimate monument was inaugurated close to the local Danish graveyard in Allinge-Sandvig. By agreement with the local government, the cemetery is still maintained today.

A central obelisk, with prominent emblems and writings in both Russian and Danish, is placed ahead of a large memorial stone, with the names of fallen Soviet soldiers on it.

Getting there and visiting

The cemetery can be conveniently reached uphill of the village of Allinge-Sandvig. The exact address is Pilegade 18A, 3770 Allinge-Sandvig. Parking is possible on the road in the immediate vicinity of the cemetery. The site is open-air and not fenced, therefore it can be accessed 24/7. Visiting may take 15 minutes.

German coastal gun site, Dueodde

The coastal guns in Dueodde, close to the southeastern corner of the island and the Cold War tower (see above), are not open as a museum, yet they are fairly easily accessible to the general public. They are the most sizable remains of the planned installation for four 38 cm coastal guns, part of the ambitious coastal defense program of the Third Reich known as Atlantic Wall. This particular fortress became pointless after the break-out of hostilities between Hitler’s Germany and the USSR in 1941, since the line of the front shifted significantly towards the east, far away from Bornholm. Since construction works were correspondingly halted, only the unfinished emplacements of two of the cannons remain today, respectively Nr.3 and Nr.4.

The emplacement Nr.3 is easily accessible from the road. You can see the large round base prepared for the revolving gun. The central pinion is still there (note the big diameter of the metal screws, compared with the cover of my wide lens!).

The circular corridor for moving the shells and taking them to the gun can be easily walked.

The construction to the north was planned to shelter the troops manning the station, as well as with a technical part for storing the shells and the explosive cartridges. Many rooms can be accessed – albeit a torchlight is mandatory in this area. However, they are completely empty, and there is nothing more than bare concrete.

The second site, Nr.4, is more secluded within a group of private homes. However, it can be accessed fairly easily by walking. It is basically a twin of the other emplacement, and the state of conservation (including, unfortunately, tons of stupid graffiti) is the same.

Getting there and moving around

The two emplacements are geographically extremely close to the Cold War tower described above. It is possible to park at the tower, in the large parking areas closer to the white dunes strand, or along the road in proximity to these installations.

The coordinates for parking and getting a quick access are for Nr.3: 55.00058432993301, 15.080803777073971, and for Nr.4: 55.00255210231893, 15.084640862385443.

Both sites are not fenced and accessible 24/7. Visiting may take 15 minutes for each of the emplacements – the condition is unfortunately not ideal, with many graffiti likely such to spoil your pictures.

The Wollenberg Bunker – Linking East Germany and the USSR

Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024

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The events taking place on the geopolitical stage during the last decade of the Cold War – the 1980s – gave little indication of the imminent collapse of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc (1989-1991). Correspondingly, looking at the amount of technology developed and deployed in the military field during the late, hi-tech stage of the Cold War, it is easy to notice that opponents on both sides of the Iron Curtain dedicated a significant (and even increasing) budget in preparation for a possible total confrontation. Reading papers and specialized books from the time, the outbreak of an open conflict, such to put a violent and abrupt end to years of opposition between the two opposing systems by recurring to nuclear warfare over the territories of Western Europe (most of them belonging to the NATO alliance, and all being substantially more militarized than today), was not deemed just likely, but more as a matter of time.

The БАРС system – The tropospheric network of the Warsaw Pact

In that era of extreme tension, it is not surprising that one of the most sophisticated and expensive assets developed and deployed jointly by all Nations in the Warsaw Pact, of course led by the USSR, came alive. History would cut its life short though, and as soon as the Warsaw Pact disintegrated, as a result of the opt-out from communist dictatorship of all Countries in Eastern Europe, this asset was decommissioned. This system was the tropospheric communication system ‘БАРС’, a Russian word reading ‘BARS’ and meaning ‘snow leopard’. The name stands as an acronym for four words in Russian, which translate into something like ‘Sheltered autonomous radio communication system’.

The idea put forward by the Soviet top-ranking military staff in the early 1980s (prior to the onset of Gorbachev administration) was that of a system capable of transmitting complex orders (not just simple signals, like for opening a bunker door or silo, but articulated messages) in a safe encrypted way, at a long distance and minimizing the chance of a complete breakdown even in case of an enemy nuclear attack. Despite being not new, the concept of a resilient and reliable system, such to allow exchanging significant amount of data without relying on cables, had been tested in earlier stages of the Cold War only for short-radius operations. Mobile transmitters/receivers, loaded on purpose-designed trucks, allowed for a reduction of the risk of a direct hit from an attacker, and for a quick redeployment in case of need. However, for the amount of data and range required for the coordination of a war scenario, involving many different Countries, and geographically encompassing an entire continent, a different system was required, capable of transmitting more massive data flows on longer distances, with a reduced risk of a sudden or complete interruption.

The БАРС system was based on a certain number of stations, scattered over the territory of the Countries of the Warsaw Pact. Each node was built as a bunkerized, manned military installation, featuring high-power, high-frequency fixed antennas emerging from the ground, and an underground shelter protecting all the technical gear required for manipulating the data to be sent or received, interfacing with the other existing local (i.e. national) networks for military and executive governmental communication, and of course managing the tremendous amount of energy required to pump a long-reaching signal into the ether.

Laying on the front line with the West, hosting a Soviet contingent of some hundred thousands troops (see here and links therein), aircraft (see here), missiles (see here) and nuclear warheads (see here), and being a key-ally of the USSR in case of the outbreak of an open war (at least until late 1989), the German Democratic Republic (or GDR, or DDR in German) was clearly included in the БАРС network from the initial drafting phase. Similarly, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, and of course the Soviet Union (which included Belarus and the Baltics, and stretched west to Kaliningrad), all had БАРС stations on their territory. Stations were located at a range of a few hundred miles from one another, thus within the range required for each of them to communicate with one or more of the other nodes. Data (e.g. orders, reports or authorizations) input locally could be relayed along the network through intermediate nodes, down to the intended destination node. There were 26 nodes in total, of which four were in the USSR.

The Wollenberg site – Bunker 301 ‘Tushurka’

The GDR in particular had three stations built, all along the border with Poland, and located east of Berlin – namely Station 301 in Wollenberg, at the same latitude of Berlin, Station 302 in Langsdorf, towards the Baltic coast, and Station 303 in Röhrsdorf (near Königsbruck), not far from Dresden in the southeast of the GDR territory. The first among them, the Wollenberg site (codenamed ‘Tushurka’) could communicate with the other two national stations, as well as with Station 207 in Poland, from where data would be transmitted further down the network, towards the USSR.

The site was built by the GDR state, with technical hardware coming from several Countries within the Warsaw Pact, and most of the military hi-tech components manufactured in the USSR. The actual site (similar to its sister sites) was built in the frame of a highly secretive operation. The staff comprised about 60-70 men, the majority of which were military, where about 15% were civil technicians. Maximum security clearance was required, due to the top-secret nature of the installation and of the overall БАРС system. The bunkerized part of the installation was only a component of the larger premises of the base, camouflaged within the trees on the side of low-rising hill.

As pointed out, the immense spending required for setting up this multi-national hi-tech military communication system, which was extensively tested and completely commissioned (as a network) by 1987, did not save it from a quick demise and disappearance. In particular, Station 301 went definitively offline as early as August 1990.

However, the fate of the Wollenberg site was not so sad as that of many former Soviet or NVA (i.e. the East German Army) installations in the GDR. The high-power antennas were torn down, but except from that, little material damage was inflicted to the buildings and bunker on site. The place was basically shut-off and left dormant, until when a society of technically very competent local enthusiasts started a plan to preserve and open it to visitors, as a memorial specimen of the technology of the Cold War years.

A visit to the Wollenberg bunker site reveals a tremendous deal of interesting details, very uncommon to find elsewhere in the panorama of Cold War relics around Europe. Thanks to a careful preservation and restoration work, the bunker has most of its original systems still plugged to the grid and lit-up – some of them are reportedly still working! Even though the communication networks have been severed, the experience in the bunker is really evoking, and the atmosphere – with all the lit-up cabinets, lights, CCTV cameras, 1980-style screens, etc. – closely resembles that of the bygone era when БАРС was operative!

This report and photographs were taken during a private visit to the bunker, carried out in the Summer of 2023.

Sights

A visit to the the installation in Wollenberg starts from the original high-security access gate. As you may quickly notice when passing through it and getting a first view of the site, the state of preservation is exceptional. Except for the lack of military staff around, everything looks mostly like in the years of operation.

A group of soft-construction service buildings and a reinforced multi-entry garage constitute the first – and visible – nucleus of the installation. All buildings are painted in a camo coat.

A former building for the on-site staff has been turned into a permanent exhibition, with memorabilia items from the Cold War years, when the Nationale Volksarmee (or NVA, the Armed forces of the GDR) cooperated with the Soviet Red Army and the national Armed forces of other Countries in the Warsaw Pact.

A meeting room, now employed also for small gatherings, is especially rich of interesting and diverse items, including emblems, books, memorial plates and pennants, as well as TV screens, hi-fi systems and and beamers from the era.

Another room has been set-up as a control center for the base, with an original console and regional maps.

Compared to military bases (for aircraft or tanks), the Wollenberg installation is rather compact, with a main road giving access to most of the (not many) buildings on site, as well as the bunker. Actually, the bunkerized part was built under a low-rising hill, with the antennas originally standing on top of it. Access to the bunker is possible either by climbing uphill on the main road, or through a suggestive original pedestrian tunnel. The latter starts from within the service building itself, and – somewhat unexpectedly, for an underground installation – it climbs uphill, while keeping beneath the surface of the hill side slope. The lower end is guarded by an original CCTV camera.

At the top end of the tunnel you can find the actual access to the bunker. The design and reinforcement level conferred grade ‘D’ protection according to the military standard in use at the time, with grade ‘A’ being the strongest. Access is through an airlock, constituted by two tight doors at the opposite ends of a small vestibule built in concrete. This design allowed protection from the blast of a nuclear device.

Notably, the locking mechanism of the tight doors is Soviet military standard, which can be found in high-value installations like nuclear depots elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc (see for instance here in Poland, and here in Czechoslovakia).

To the visitor with some experience of Cold War installations, it will be apparent from the very start of the tour that the state of conservation of the bunker, including the systems in it, is exceptional, similar to the rest of the Wollenberg site. The original warning lights and the CC-TV camera for identifying people at the entrance are still in place.

Next to the entrance, a control room with technical gear for checking-in can be found – including original dosimeters for radiation and chemicals, mostly Soviet-made. Looking inside these devices is possible, and reveals a great deal of sophistication in the design and realization of the military-grade material from the time.

Showers and sinks for washing, as well as canister for disposing of contaminated clothes, are located in the same area.

Upon getting access to the sealed area of the bunker and passing by the decontamination facility, you find yourself on the top floor of the underground bunker. The high-technology gear required for the transmission/reception of data on the БАРС network, as well as the interface with other national communication systems, required for receiving data, issuing orders, etc. over the territory of the GDR, were located on this floor.

Two symmetrically placed rooms host two twin transmission centers for the БАРС system. A single manned console can be found in each of them, surrounded by electronic cabinets and switches. At a closer look, all the material herein is Soviet made, and labeled in Russian only.

On the wall ahead of the console station is a set of cables, communicating with the antenna and allowing to set the orientation and monitoring its status.

The actual signals transmitted to the antenna, or received from it, traveled along special hollow ducts, with an almost rectangular section. Bundles of these ducts can be found in the ‘Sender’ (which means ‘transmitter’ in English) room, immediately next to the room where the manned console is.

The modulation and demodulation of the signals going out and coming in respectively through the antenna on top of the bunker required some special pieces of electronics, which included the Soviet-designed KY-374 klystron (codenamed ‘Viola’), a component to be found in the cabinets of the ‘Sender’ room.

Following the hollow ducts, it is possible to find where they finally exit the usually manned part of the bunker, bending into receptacles and leading outside. Piping related to other systems, including air conditioning, can be seen as well crossing or running in the same narrow technical corridors.

Beside the consoles monitoring the antenna and the data flowing through it, a kind of operative room for communication can be found, where consoles allowing to receive and forward data and communication to/from all systems are on display. This largely original room features consoles of different levels of technology.

Original explanatory schemes showing the basic features of the БАРС system are on display in that area – in Russian!

An adjoining room features the cabinets required for making all these system work. The cabinets are really many, with a significant share of material manufactured in the USSR. The sight of all these cabinets together is really impressive, and tangibly provides the feeling of a high technology, sophisticated and expensive design. It compares well, but in a largely up-scaled fashion, to the electronics to be found in some special communication bunkers on the western side of the Iron Curtain (see here).

Interspersed with the original arrangement of the cabinets and consoles are some displays of original material. These include specimens of different types of cables for signal transmission – some of them hollow and pressurized, others featuring impressive bundles of thinner wires – the KY-374 klystron, and other once top-secret core components of the БАРС transmission system. Also on display is one of the few remaining parts of the original system of antennas, once on top of the bunker. The antennas were the only part to be physically torn down when the system was decommissioned, upon the demise of the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Cold War.

The bunker was manned by military and technical staff 24/7. Furthermore, as typical for bunkers from the Cold War era, provision was made at a design level to allow the staff to live isolated within the bunker for an extended period of time, in view of the eventuality to face a nuclear fallout scenario.

On the same floor as the technical rooms, the commander of the station had his own private room. This is still adorned with typical Soviet iconography, as well as everyday material from the age when the bunker was operative.

A small canteen, with a kitchen and a modest living room, can be found at the same level. An original storage room has been employed to gather examples of everyday products, like soap, skin care cream, etc., as well as canned food, cocoa, and beverages of all sorts.

This represents a very rich catalog of now largely defunct and forgotten labels, from the age and regions of the Eastern Bloc (and especially from within the GDR). Also on display are bottles of spirits, likely still very good!

The visit proceeds then to the lower floor, which can be reached through a flight of metal stairs.

The lower floor host the plants required for the regular operation of the entire bunker, such to guarantee operational ability even in case of an enemy attack carried out with nuclear, chemical or biological warfare. The air filtering and conditioning system is very modern. Beside typical filtering drums for particles, to be found also in other bunkers (see for instance Podborsko here), you can see a bulky filtering and climate conditioning system, neatly arranged within two parallel square-shaped ducts. Filtering against chemicals as well as biologic agents was carried out employing special active filters.

Sensors for the level of contamination of the bunker air can be found in different rooms. Much material here is standard Soviet-made.

Systems for water pumping and compressed air can be found as well, including compressors, pumps and reservoirs. Looking at the always interesting factory labels in this area, it is easy to find export products of Bulgaria, Romania and other communist dictatorships of the era. Of course, much hardware is also manufactured in the GDR.

Electricity was supplied from the outside grid, yet capability for self-sustaining in case of a grid loss (for instance in case of war) was implemented as well. Three big German-made Diesel generators have been put in place, and are still in an apparently good condition.

Another example of the high technological standard reached in the late Cold War era is represented by the control room for the plants within the bunker. A manned control station, with a console and a direct view of lit-up cabinets, reporting the status of the various systems running in the bunker, compares well with control rooms of large industrial plants in operation today.

Carefully kept in its original status, with many of the electric links and cabinets still working, the sight of this room is especially evoking.

Also on the lower floor are the sleeping rooms for off-duty staff. Typically, this was not employed except for drills, when the bunker could be sealed to simulate operations in case of the outbreak of hostilities.

Back to the upper floor, it is possible to exit the bunker via a stairway and through a side gate. You will find yourself on top of the low-rise hill where the bunker has been dug. Here the concrete base of the crane where the БАРС antenna used to sit are still visible. Notably, these antennas were much smaller than the tropospheric antennas employed for the TROPOSCATTER system of NATO. This was the result of a different bandwidth employed for transmissions. Therefore, even in the days of operation, the antennas on top of the bunker were not as sizable as those of TROPOSCATTER installations (which were enormous in size).

Looking closely, in the top area of the installation, the duct for supplying the Diesel oil tank of the bunker can be found, similar to sensors for radiation and other atmospheric parameters (similar to what can be found also in other nuclear-proof bases, for instance here). These allowed to monitor the conditions of the outside air, detect an attack and trigger or manage the sealing of the bunker in case of need, by locking all the tight doors.

This access to the bunker is fenced by the original electrified fence, severing this area from the rest of the installation through a further layer of security.

All in all, a visit to the Wollenberg bunker offers an incredible insight in a fascinating and crucial field of warfare – data and communication exchange – as well as a lively and evocative display of a late Cold War hi-tech installation from the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain!

Getting there & Visiting

The German name of the Wollenberg bunker is ‘Militärhistorisches Sonderobjekt 301 Wollenberg’. It can be reached very easily with a car. It can be found in the open countryside along the regional road 158, driving about 35 miles (about 1 hour) northeast from downtown Berlin towards Poland. The exact location is between the small village of Höhenland (~4 miles) and the more sizable Bad Freienwalde (~6 miles). There is a large parking area immediately next to the road, giving direct pedestrian access to the premises of the former military installation. Despite being placed very conveniently, the site is rather elusive when passing by, since it is hidden in the trees and not directly visible from the road. The address corresponding to the place in Google Maps is Sternkrug 4, 16259 Höhenland. The inconspicuous village of Wollenberg, giving the name to the installation, is just nearby, but it is not crossed by the regional road, and it should not be employed for pointing this destination with a nav.

The Wollenberg bunker is a listed historical installation. It is perfectly maintained, privately managed, and it can be regularly accessed with guided tours. These are offered typically one day per week in the summer, or by prior arrangement. Possibly the best option for getting the most out of your visit is getting in contact with the group of very knowledgeable enthusiasts running the place. The official website is here (do not be discouraged by the ‘static’ appearance of the website, they are very active, and they shall typically answer your inquire).

My visit was planned by initiative of Dr. Reiner Helling (see also here), and we visited in a group of three, including the guide (Dr. Michael Schoeneck, a former engineer, with a profound knowledge of any technical aspects related to this installation), which happened to be a perfect option for touring also the narrowest receptacles of the bunker. Visiting in groups too big may be not advisable, since the rooms and corridors are rather narrow, and the place may turn overcrowded for interacting with the guide and for taking good pictures. I think the visit – including the technical content – may be tailored to the needs of the audience. For technical-minded subjects, historians and former military, a visit may take about 2-3 hours (the latter was my experience). In my case, the guide could understand but not speak fluent English, yet Dr. Helling could translate with ease all the explanations. Of course, if you have at least a basic knowledge of German and of the technical material you are looking at, this may simplify your visit, which is in any case highly advisable for those interested in military technology and the Cold War.

Heading to Berlin or the former GDR? Looking for traces of the Cold War open for a visit?

A Travel Guide to COLD WAR SITES in EAST GERMANY

Second Edition - 2024

DON'T LEAVE IT AT HOME! AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK or KINDLE from your national Amazon store!
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Preserved Cold War Bunkers in Northern England

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sights

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Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker

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

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

History

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

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

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

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

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

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

A tour of the bunker

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

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

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

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

Ground floor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Underground floor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting there and visiting

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

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

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

York Cold War Bunker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting there and visiting

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

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

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

Aircraft Collections in Norway

The ‘Norwegian chapter’ in the book of aviation history is a peculiar and interesting one. Similarly to virtually every Country in the western world, in the early age of aviation small manufacturing companies appeared also in Norway. Despite meeting with little success in the long run, they contributed in creating momentum around those ‘novel flying machines’. Norway, with a sinuous coastline stretching for some thousands miles from the latitude of England up north to where the European continent ends, and with a land largely covered in snow for many months per year, has been an ideal place for the development of a local air network since the early days of aviation. This created an alternative link between smaller communities and industry centers. As a matter of fact, similarly to Greece, Norway is among the top employers of smaller aircraft for commercial routes in Europe still today.

To the same early era belong the now almost mythological arctic expeditions, carried out also by air – by plane or airship – and almost invariably departing from Norway. The well-known Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was an advocate of air explorations, and his primary contributions to geographical explorations have constituted in some cases milestones in aviation history.

Despite a significant down-scaling of its Armed Forces in the post-Cold War scenario causing a strong reduction of the military presence in the Country, Norway has been in the focus of massive military operations since the 1930s.

In particular, both its geographical position and natural resources met the appetite of the Third Reich, which successfully invaded Norway in a blitzkrieg campaign in late spring 1940. Through an action based strongly on airlift capacity, German cargo planes relocated personnel and material very effectively to Norway. The crown and government were forced into exile in Britain, and with it also the military chain of command. Actually, the air force academy was moved to Toronto area, Ontario, where the military facilities of Norway got the name of ‘Little Norway’. New Norwegian pilots were relentlessly trained there, preparing them to repel the enemy from their Scandinavian motherland.

The Third Reich managed to keep a grip on southern Norway until its collapse and the end of WWII in Europe. Having witnessed the failure of neutrality as a foreign policy, in the rapidly deteriorating post-WWII scenario and the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet-led eastern bloc and the free democracies of the western world, Norway joined NATO as a founding member.

Since then and for more than four decades, Norway was on one of the ‘hot’ fronts of the war, with a border-crossing point with the USSR, and a privileged position to patrol the skies over the shipping routes leading from the highly-militarized Kola peninsula into the Atlantic Ocean (see this post). Keeping a constant watch on the air, surface and submarine movements of the USSR was a task brilliantly covered by the Norwegian Air Force and Navy for the entire duration of the Cold War.

Today, western world issues like climate-related hysteria and hardly shareable, deeply ideological so-called ‘carbon neutrality’ policies promise to definitively clip the wings to sport, private and commercial aviation especially in this Country, through an unprecedented technological leap back. Similarly, the (today, so evidently) short-sighted post-Cold War dismantlement of military power in Europe has impacted military forces also in Norway.

However, the memory of the glorious years when this proud Scandinavian Nation has been on the forefront of aviation technology and in the focus of military action are duly relived in two wonderful aviation collections, celebrating what can be achieved through technical skill, courage and good national ideals.

One of these collections is the Norwegian Aviation Museum, located east of the airport of Bodø, a coastal town on the Norwegian Sea, not far north of the Polar Circle. The other is the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection, located just west of Oslo-Gardermoen Airport, in the south of the Country and close to the capital city. Both museums host world-class collections, really worth a detour for aviation-minded people from whatever continent, and for the general public as well, as can be possibly perceived from the pictures in this post.

Photographs in this post were taken during a visit to both destinations in August 2022.

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Sights

Norwegian Aviation Museum – Bodø

The Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø is located on the northeastern corner of the airport, dominating this coastal town north of the Polar Circle. The airport was founded back in the 1920s, strongly potentiated by the Germans in WWII, and extensively used over the Cold War decades for mixed military and civil use. Today, it is mainly a commercial airport, with some residual military activity. However, the Air Station at Bodø shows evident traces of a military past – aircraft shelters, bunkers and large antenna arrays point the hilly panorama south of the runway.

The museum covers many aspects of the history of aeronautics in Norway. Both civil and military aviation are well represented, the respective collections being hosted in two adjoining large halls, merging into the central atrium – featuring a Northrop F-5 in the colors of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF). This type has been the backbone of the RNoAF in the latter decades of the Cold War years.

Civil aviation hall

The proposed path in the civil aviation hall follows a chronological order, and starts with a display of memorabilia from the early aviation years and from the age of the adventurous polar explorations. The items on display include flags, historical pictures, personal belongings taken by explorers on polar exploration trips and many interesting explanatory panels.

Aircraft on display include rare early seaplanes, employed to establish transport services. These are put side by side with more modern aircraft of the company Widerøe, which today is responsible for most of the short-range high-frequency services linking the scattered settlements in the northern part of Norway – up to North Cape.

Nice advertisement posters are displayed to retrace the history of some classic airlines, including the all-private Braathens, once a major airline from Norway, and telling about the foundation of SAS – which incorporated also Braathens at the turn of the century – which stands for ‘Scandinavian Airlines System’. It is still today a big carrier linking Northern Europe and the world. These companies were among the world first massively flying polar routes, thanks to on-board instrumentation specifically made to tackle the navigation issues showing up when flying close to the poles.

A turning point in the history of Braathens has been the introduction of jets, in the form of the Fokker F.28, for which this airline has been a launch customer. An exemplar of the F.28 is partly preserved in the museum, allowing to check out the fully analog cockpit.

Helicopters, including one with a special pod hosting an entire berth for SAR operations, are also well represented. The Police is clearly using the latest models of rotary wing technology.

A rare aircraft on display is a British-made Britten-Norman Islander, once operating in the colors of the local company Norving. Very evocative pictures show the unusual scenarios often faced by airlines operating in near-polar regions!

Another peculiar mission covered by aircraft in Norway has been that of territory imaging and survey, including for archaeology in the search for ancient viking remains, typically hard to see from ground level. A Cessna 337 Skymaster push-pull originally tasked with this mission is on display. This type is pretty hard to see in Europe, but has enjoyed even a significant military career in the US (see this post).

A big bird on display is a beautiful original Junkers Ju-52 three-props seaplane. This is one of four originally in the fleet of the Norwegian flag carrier ‘Det Norske Luftfartselskap’, established in the 1930s, and operating with a mixed fleet of British, German and American models.

The cockpit of the Junkers has been put in a display case to be admired more easily.

Among the many other items on display in the civil aviation hall, you can find an original wind tunnel model of the Concorde, aircraft remains from an accident, and some unusual or one-off aircraft models.

Military aviation hall

The hall dedicated to military aviation starts again following the timeline of aviation history. The early-age manufacturers appearing in Norway when aircraft were still a totally new technological novelty are represented with dioramas of technical shops, scale models and historical pictures. Some aircraft dating to the pre-WWII years are also on display.

However, a major subject covered in the display is that of WWII. Norway was conquered by the invading German forces in a short and aggressive campaign in Spring 1940. Well planned from a strategic viewpoint, this operation included the capture of the airport of Oslo – the old field of Oslo-Fornebu – on the 9th of April, which was then used as a major base for landing transport aircraft, unloading military staff and material in the most populated area of the Country.

The landslide Third Reich invasion forced the government and the military chain of command to withdraw to Britain. An agreement was then settled to establish a military flight academy near Toronto, Ontario, to supply the Norwegian armed forces with new pilots, to carry out offensive operations from Britain.

The collection features many interesting items from WWII period. From a balcony you are offered a view of the collection, and a vantage view on the relic of a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88, transported to the museum after recovery.

The air operations in the invasion of Spring 1940 are documented with interesting scale models and dioramas, as well as much technical material retrieved from the days of German occupation. This includes cameras for photo reconnaissance, Third Reich military maps of the region, flags, aircraft engines, and many historical pictures.

From the same era, the cockpit of a Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik, documents of the air actions against the Third Reich occupants, and others concerning the history of ‘Little Norway’ – the Norwegian military training facilities in Canada – are also on display.

Aircraft displayed in this area include restored or partly reconstructed examples of a De Havilland Mosquito, a Supermarine Spitfire, as well as a Focke-Wulf FW190 and a Messerschmitt BF-109 on the German side.

All these birds together make for a really unusual and evocative sight today! Especially the German fighters are really rare to find, and their condition and presentation is really eye-catching.

Further aircraft from the time include a North American Harvard trainer, and a big Consolidated PBY Catalina seaplane used for patrol. The latter looks really massive hosted indoor, compared to smaller fighter aircraft!

Anti-aircraft guns and a pretty unusual radio emitter/transmission station, employed as beacons for helping instrumental navigation in the war years, are also part of this interesting display.

Next to the WWII area is the Cold War section of the display. Following the bad WWII experience with a policy of international neutrality, resulting in an invasion by a powerful enemy force, following the escalating divergence between the western Allies and the USSR, Norway opted for joining NATO as a founding member.

The alliance with the US and Britain, similar to other NATO Countries, meant a substantial supply of American and (at least in the beginning) British military supply. A North American F-86 Sabre and a Republic F-84 Thunderjet are two beautiful representatives from the early Cold War era. Similarly, a De Havilland Vampire is hanging from the ceiling.

A slightly more modern item is a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. Not much employed in the US, it covered the interceptor role along the border with the Eastern Bloc in Norway, Federal Germany and Italy for many years.

Historical pictures tell – among many interesting subjects – about other aircraft, like the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, as well as the F-104 and the F-5 involved in interception and escort flights, shadowing Tupolev Tu-95, Antonov An-12 and other USSR machines flying over international waters or scraping the border of Scandinavian airspaces – quintessential Cold War memories!

Possibly a reason for Bodø having grown to further fame in the aviation community of Western Countries is the presence here of a real Lockheed U-2 spy plane. This aircraft can be found in Europe only at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Britain, and here. Actually, a curious fact about Bodø is that it was a designated destination or an alternate (emergency) airfield for the perilous overflights of the USSR, carried out with the Lockheed U-2, and later with the Mach 3+ Lockheed SR-71. Actually, the latter landed here in one occasion, whereas the ill-fated mission of Francis Gary Powers, downed by Soviet SAMs while en-route north of Kazakhstan from Peshawar, Pakistan, had Bodø as a destination (see this post for pictures of the relic in Moscow).

The U-2 is displayed so that it is possible to both appreciate its slim shape and large wing span, and also get near to its cockpit. However, its installation and lighting inside the hall – and the fact that it is black… – make it a rather difficult target for photographs. Next to the aircraft, historical pictures and schemes tell about the mission of Francis Gary Powers. Interesting tables for the interpretation of photo intelligence are also on display.

Still in the Cold War part of the museum, a very unusual and interesting section is centered on the facilities and technical gear for the detection and monitoring of airspace intrusion, for early warning and for alerting the air defenses of the National airspace.

This secretive and little publicized branch of the military kept its ears and eyes constantly pointed on the moves of the colossal Soviet neighbor, recording every single movement – look for the super-interesting registry of USSR aircraft movements! – and constantly updating the situation, in order to be ready to counter a sudden ‘turn for the worst’, in case of an actual attack.

Interestingly, much of the electronics here is US made, as can be seen looking at the product tags.

The arsenal that could be employed to counter an air attack included the Nike-Ajax and later Nike-Hercules surface to air missiles, deployed along the border with the Eastern Bloc also in Denmark, Germany and Italy (see here and here).

Just to complete this incredible Cold War exhibition, an interesting and pretty unique air-dropped WE-177 nuclear bomb case is on display!

More modern addition to the aircraft collection include a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and some helicopters.

A latter interesting part of the military exhibition showcases an array of aircraft-mounted cannons from various ages, showing their precision and their effect on the same target. You can appreciate the effects of the technical evolution of these weapons.

Examples of air-launched missiles and sonobuoys, and a fine array of flight suits showing the evolution of their design, conclude this exceptional museum.

As a plus, the old control tower of the military air station has been turned into a panorama point, where you can watch air operation on the actual airport, and also listen to air traffic frequencies!

The gate guardians include a Bell helicopter and an old glorious Hawker Hurricane from WWII.

Visiting

The museum is located at Bodø airport, and can be spotted pretty easily when entering the town. Bodø can be included – or considered as a starting point – in many tours of Northern Norway. The museum offers a large and convenient parking. It can be toured in not less than 2 hours for aviation-minded people. The website is here.

Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection – Oslo-Gardermoen

Coherently with its name, this wonderful collection is focused on military aviation in Norway. Most aircraft having served in the RNoAF at some point in history are represented, as well as some from WWII – not only from the Allied side, but most notably some rare exemplars from the Third Reich.

A great feature of this museum is also the architecture of the display. Put in a U-shaped building to the southwest of Oslo-Gardermoen airport, the aircraft are in most cases sufficiently far from one another to allow moving around freely, getting an unobstructed view from different angles. Furthermore, the natural lighting from the top windows is ideal for pictures (similar to the solution adopted in the Estonian Aviation Museum, see here).

Late 20th century

The display starts with the Northrop F-5, which is represented by three exemplars, interspersed with a single example of a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon – currently in use with the RNoAF, to be replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The Freedom Fighter has been the backbone of the RNoAF for the latter years of the Cold War, being flanked and substituted by the Fighting Falcon, and now by the Lightning II.

The aircraft on display are two F-5 Freedom Fighter, i.e. the light fighter version – one in a distinctive tiger painting – and one RF-5 Tigereye, which has been developed from the original design into a capable photo reconnaissance aircraft.

Walking beneath the F-5 reveals many details, for instance the landing gear mechanism, the missile pylons and anchoring system, and JATO bottles for reducing the take-off distance.

A J85 jet engine – there were two for each F-5 – is on display, with the afterburner pipe mounted past the turbine exhaust. A choice of missiles and pods can be seen close to the ‘tiger painted’ exemplar. The latter can be boarded. The fully analog cockpit shows much standard instrumentation for flight control, navigation and engine management, but also an armament panel with weapons selection and activation switches. Also interesting are the parachute deployment lever, for the arresting parachute, or the underwing load jettison system.

The RF-4 reconnaissance aircraft features a nose camera, with a prominent lens which can be easily checked out. Similarly, the hatch of the port 20-mm cannon has been left open, showing the cannon body, barrel and the very neat ammo supply system.

Next to these aircraft are a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter in a two-seats trainer configuration, and the front section of another exemplar with the original cockpit, which can be boarded. The J79 engine of the Starfighter, apparently originally from Canada judging from the Orenda labels on some components, has been taken out of the fuselage and can be appreciated in all its length (with the afterburner pipe to the back).

The cockpit of the Starfighter is cramped, with little legroom and a very limited front visibility. It is fully analog, similar to the F-5.

In a corner of the hall, an original simulator – apparently for an F-16 – has found a new collocation, possibly from a military aviation academy.

Early Cold War

The next part of the display offers the sight of a full array of fascinating, well-preserved aircraft from the early Cold War period. The first is a North American F-86 Sabre, with an attractive golden front intake decoration. Walking around and looking closely, many particular features can be spotted, including the leading edge slats. A ‘used’ Martin Baker ejection seat shows the little damage resulting from actual employment in case of emergency.

Next is an improved version of the Sabre (F-86K), which features a very different intake, such to accommodate in the bulbous nose a powerful radar antenna. The latter could work in conjunction with a computer, and offered a substantial help in increasing the offensive capability of this fighter, which could also be operated in all weather conditions.

A nice gem of the collection is an original portable cabinet for testing the General Electric J47 engine. This cabinet looks like a suitcase, but it could be positioned standing on its legs, linked with connectors to the on-board systems, and could show the working condition of the engine in a mounted configuration. The monitoring instrumentation is fully analog. It would make for a great item for collectors of Cold War technical gear!

Then follows an Republic F-84 Thunderjet early jet fighter, with its neat lines, wing tip tanks, and an under-fuselage spoiler in a deflected position.

Nearby, the rather different – despite the similar code – Republic RF-84F Thunderflash photo reconnaissance aircraft prominently displays its big-diameter optics in the nose.

The really elegant design of a Lockheed T-33 can be appreciated next. The air intakes are really works of art, and the bare metal color just adds to the vintage line of this early design.

Similarly graceful is the iconic De Havilland Vampire, the only British addition to this US-dominated aircraft display from the Cold War era. With its distinctive twin-boom tail, the typical De Havilland vertical fins dating back to the pre-WWII propeller-driven examples, the shrouded jet engine totally disappearing in the body of the aircraft, with small, fenced intakes on the leading edges of the wing, this aircraft looks like a really good balance between engineering-driven design choices and pure elegance.

WWII aircraft

A central section of the exhibition is centered on WWII-era aircraft, starting with two Supermarine Spitfire, one hanging from the ceiling, and one sitting on its wheels, in a greenish color and RNoAF emblems.

What follows is a pretty unique US-made aircraft, a Northrop N-3PB seaplane, ordered as a sea patrolling aircraft by Norway, but not reaching Scandinavia in time before the German invasion. It was then employed as a sea patrol from Iceland by the Norwegian forces in exile. Possibly looking not so conspicuous in pictures, it is a rather massive bird. It shows an interesting floatplane design, where floats are anchored to the wings through aerodynamically profiled struts, so as to reduce drag as much as possible.

Walking around it, you can notice the relatively light weaponry hanging from the fuselage bottom, the down-firing back cannon for defense, and the detachable wheels to pull the aircraft ashore.

Then a very rare bird follows – a German Heinkel He-111 bomber from WWII! Restored in a mint-looking condition, this aircraft makes for a unique sight in the panorama of aviation collections.

This iconic aircraft from the Third Reich, much known to aviation-minded people especially in connection with the early landslide campaigns of the Third Reich in Europe and for the Battle of Britain, can be examined from very close and beneath, unveiling some interesting peculiar features. For example, the bomb bay features vertical square-section separated ‘blisters’, a totally different solution with respect to larger US bombers from the age.

The underbelly shooting pod allowed the cannon operator to ‘rest’ in a laid down position. The front cannon is clearly asymmetrically placed with respect to the aircraft centerline, following a side curvature of the nose cone such to increase pilot’s visibility.

Close by is another incredibly well-preserved addition from the Third Reich’s Luftwaffe, a Junkers Ju-52 transport in fashionable military colors.

The Ju-52 and He-111 were the main characters involved in the blitzkrieg attack to Oslo-Fornebu, the now bygone airport of central Oslo, which was the stage of a massive air-launched German attack in April 1940, a substantial contribution and a prelude to the complete invasion of Norway. Both aircraft are surrounded by a set of accessories from the time, including searchlights, fuel tanks, spare parts, anti-aircraft guns and even service trolleys with skis to be used on snowy aprons! The ensemble is really quite a sight.

From roughly the same age is also a perfectly preserved Douglas C-47 Skytrain – a true war veteran! Preserved in the colors of the RNoAF, it was originally incorporated in the USAAF and employed in action in Europe since mid-1944. It flew during the Berlin Airlift, operating in and out West Berlin transporting goods during Stalin’s blockade of the town in 1948-49 (see this chapter). It later joined the RNoAF and was employed for radar tuning and for transport until the mid-1970s.

The color scheme of the RNoAF looks great on this C-47, and the presentation among some airport service vehicles from the time adds to the display.

Further recent aircraft

Approaching the extremity of the U-shaped building, you can find a De Havilland Twin Otter with skis, some classic helicopters, some aircraft undergoing restoration – including substantial remains of a Junkers Ju-88 bomber from the Third Reich! – and a massive Lockheed C-130 Hercules.

The latter is possibly the aircraft in the collection having been retired most recently. It has been deprived of its vertical fin, which simply couldn’t fit inside the building, but the rest is almost complete. The engine pods are opened, so that you can see inside. An array of JATO bottles to enhance take-off performance has been anchored to the side of the fuselage.

The aircraft is on display with the back and side doors opened, so that boarding its preserved interior and cockpit is indeed possible.

Inside the cockpit, chance is you meet a living legend, the flight engineer of the RNoAF Mons Nygård, who will explain you the features and operations of his aircraft! The man joined the Armed Forces in the late 1950s until the 1990s, with a military career spanning a big part of the Cold War. He flew extensively the Hercules, as well as other aircraft including the Lockheed P-3 Orion, logging a staggering  more-than-17’000 hours in flight!

We could interview him about his career, which unfolded several nice anecdotes and memories from the Cold War years, and a real passion for his super-reliable aircraft and for his job. It’s no wonder the Hercules, being designed in the 1950s, is still in service with many Armed Forces of the world.

Anti-aircraft defense system

Finally, the exhibition includes Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft missiles (SAM). Installed in batteries against an attack from the USSR also in Norway (see for instance this preserved battery in Italy, this in Denmark, or this ghost one in former Federal Germany), these nuclear-capable massive missiles were in service typically between the 1950s and the early 1980s, becoming by then obsolete.

Of great interest for technically-minded people are some of the inside components of these missiles, including components of the guidance system and some electronics, which can be seen in display cases, as well as technical vehicles for launch control, radar operation etc.

Other lighter anti-aircraft weapons from the Cold War era are displayed nearby, thus covering also this interesting subject in good detail.

Balcony

The visit may be concluded with a walk along the inside balcony, from which a good view of all the aircraft just mentioned is obtained.

On the same balcony, you can find also many trainers once used for teaching young pilots the basics of flight. Some are classic models belonging to the era of Little Norway and WWII, when training for freshly recruited pilots was carried out in Ontario, Canada.

The gate guardians for this beautiful collection are an F-5 and an F-104, the latter in the greenish colorway seen also in the collection in Bodø.

Visiting

This fantastic collection can be found in the southwestern corner of the premises of Oslo-Gardermoen airport, the main airport serving the Norwegian capital city.

The museum is administrated by the Armed Forces.

Visiting for the aircraft enthusiast may be very rewarding and may take more than 2 hours, since the exceptional state of preservation of the artifacts and the many details you can explore through a walk around very close to the aircraft invite to spend time inside. You have also chance to speak with former military crew, which adds much to the experience. Very good photo opportunities for an indoor collection.

Large free parking ahead of the entrance, with picnic facilities. Nice model shop by the ticket office.

The museum is normally open on weekends, but further visits may be scheduled out of these opening slot. Please check the info on their website here.

Traces of World War II in Norway – Highlights

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

History & Remains – A Quick Summary

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

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

The Atlantic Wall

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

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

War Museums

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

Special interest sites

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

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

Sights

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

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Vara Battery – Kristiansand

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cannon Nr. 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pictures can hardly tell how big the cannon turret is!

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

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

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

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

Cannon Nr. 1

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

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

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

Other buildings

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

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

Nordberg & Marka Batteries – Farsund

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

Fjell Fortress – Bergen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

Tellevik Fort – Bergen

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

Austrått Fortress – Austrått

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

Website with full information here.

Arctic Circle & North Cape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

War Museum – Narvik

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

Tirpitz Museum – Alta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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