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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

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

Vemork Hydroelectric Power Plant & Heavy Water Facility – Rjukan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visiting

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

A website with full information can be found here.

Missiles in Germany – The Live Exhibition of the Society of Military History in Demen

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

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The armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), named NVA (‘Nationalen Volksarmee’, or National People’s Army), and the Western Group of Forces of the USSR coexisted on the territory of the communist-led GDR for the entire duration of the Cold War. They were basically independent from one another at least in terms of organization. The NVA was sized according to the interests of a highly militarized, but relatively small country in the core of Europe, and its vocation was mainly tactical. Nonetheless, the NVA boasted several branches, and in particular a land army, an air force and a navy.

Actually, the attack plan of the USSR in Europe – constantly updated over the years – foresaw a total, ‘one-shot’ massive attack aimed at reaching the North Sea coast in the shortest time possible, starting from the border with the West, thus primarily from the GDR, and making use of tactical nuclear weapons on key-targets in Western Europe. An involvement of all Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact – beside the Soviet Red Army – was part of the plan, and as a result especially the good level of the military supply of the GDR was always a concern in the eyes of war planners in the Eastern Bloc.

When thinking of missiles and the Cold War, images of the parades on the Red Square in Moscow typically come to one’s mind. However, local national Armies of nations in the Warsaw Pact indeed had armed forces on their own, and usually also missile brigades incorporated in them.

This is the case of the NVA, which was fed by the USSR with the most advanced rocket technology, as soon as missiles grew in size and reliability to become significant warfare items. An excellence of Soviet rocket warfare has been the great care for the advanced deployment and ease of transportation of any assets, partly dictated by the infrastructural difficulties of a country so huge and so extreme in terms of terrain conditions and seasonal changes as the USSR. Actually, Soviet transport vehicles for missiles since the early 1960s matched missiles of virtually any sizes, of course including those for theater operations, which are intermediately compact and lightweight, especially when compared to larger, heavier and longer-range strategic missiles.

The arsenal of the NVA in terms of missiles was kept up to date between the early 1960s – as said, the beginning of serious rocket-based warfare and correspondingly war action plans, also in the West – and the end of the Cold War. Following bilateral Soviet-US disarmament treaties in the late 1980s, a transition period was started, obviously influenced by the 1989 anti-communist revolution and the starting of the German reunification process. The NVA was dissolved and its assets incorporated in the armed forces of Federal Germany in 1990. Due to the changed global relationships following the collapse of the USSR, most rocket forces in Europe, originally intended to fight a war on the continent, were significantly reduced or totally disbanded.

In its heyday, the missile forces of the NVA totaled two regular Brigades, incorporated in the land forces of the NVA, and eleven independent Brigades. They were supplied over the years with SCUD-A/B, Luna and Oka missile and corresponding transport/launch vehicles in various versions. The warheads supplied to the NVA were usually conventional. However provision was made for nuclear warheads, which were always kept under the direct control of the Soviets in two purpose-built nuclear depots (see this post).

An excerpt of the rich history of the rocket forces of the NVA can be reviewed visiting the nice exhibition of the ‘Militärhistorischer Verein Demen’, which translates into ‘Society of Military History of Demen’, located in the homonym village in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the northernmost district of the former GDR. It is easily reachable less than one hour driving inland from Lübeck or Rostock on the Baltic Coast. The display of this society of enthusiasts reaches even further, documenting the presence of missile forces of the US and within the Bundeswehr of Federal Germany, supplied with American material during the Cold War.

This post covers this very nice and lively collection, really special both in terms of items on display, and for the fact that most vehicles there are still in working order – when visiting, you will have good chances to see them moving around!

Photographs were taken in 2021.

Sights

The base in Demen became active between 1975 and 1977, when the 5th Mobile Rocket Technical Base (BRTB-5) and later the 5th Rocket Brigade (5. RBr) of the NVA moved in with all their assets. The 5. RBr had been originally formed in 1962 with another name (Autonomous Artillery Brigade sABr-2), and supplied with SCUD-A missiles. In 1964 it converted to SCUD-B theater missiles. It was re-founded as the 5. RBr only in 1967.

In 1985 it was resupplied with the SS-23 Spider (aka Oka, or 9M714 in Soviet coding). The INF treaty signed in 1987 by President Reagan and Secretary Gorbachev targeted that type of missile, which was therefore short-lived, and disposed of as soon as 1990 in the NVA (later Bundeswehr).

The exhibition in Demen offers an insight in the missile types in use by the NVA. They have been placed inside a building of the former NVA military base on site, which following disbandment of the NVA has been converted into a multi-functional facility, with local companies and diverse businesses taking over the hangars, warehouses and residential buildings.

A complete 9P113 Soviet-made launcher for the old Luna (NATO: Frog) missile is on display, with the missile on top of it.

Right besides is a cutaway exemplar of the highly-successful Soviet BTR-60 armored personnel transport vehicle. The twin-engined propulsion system is clearly visible.

The collection in Demen is unique in having some fully working vehicles on display.

The bulkiest and most impressive is surely the movable launcher 9P71 for the Oka missile. This eight-wheeled truck can be seen in the pictures sheltered in a hangar, or moving around the premises of the former NVA base!

In this video you can see the vehicle displaying the movable crane – still perfectly operative – for maneuvering the missile.

In this other video you can see the launcher carefully coming back into the hangar, following a live display.

Another vehicle from the Eastern Bloc and still in fully working condition is this technical van UAZ-452. Not only it can move on its wheels and engine, but it looks still perfectly equipped!

The collection in Demen is not exclusively devoted to the Eastern Bloc or the GDR either. Instead, you can find both static and ‘live’ items on display from the NATO side of the Iron Curtain. The latter include a M752 amphibious vehicle for transporting the Lance missile.

This vehicle with tracks was highly popular in the US and many NATO countries, including Federal Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Another unusual living exemplar is that of a Swedish Hägglunds Bandvagn BV-206, aka SUSV in the US Army. A very versatile tracked vehicle with a trailer made for the snowy terrains of Scandinavia and the Polar continents as well, today running around the former NVA base in Demen!

Three warheads from US missiles deployed on the territory of the FRG are on static display, allowing for a nice size and shape comparison. They are a Pershing, Honest John and Sergeant warheads, all theater missiles from different stages of the Cold War. On the outside, a fully assembled Honest John is similarly on display.

The Soviet-made missiles on display are a Luna, an Oka and a SCUD. The Luna, painted in gray, is partly cut to show the inside mechanisms and arrangement. Also the corresponding warhead has been cut to show the inside structure.

The pretty rare Oka missile has not been cut – a true icon from the Cold War in the mid-1980s!

The SCUD has been separated from its warhead, and partly cut and cleverly lighted to show the inside plants and arrangement.

Besides the SCUD also some original parts of the guidance system have been put on display, together with some technical testing/monitoring material of Soviet or East-German make – note the writing in Cyrillic.

Display cases all around host original technical material, many fantastic models mainly from the arsenal of the NVA and Red Army during the Cold War, as well as exceptionally detailed and informative panels concerning the history of the missile forces of the NVA (as well as specifically on some of the missile systems on display).

Many evocative photographs and videos from the days of operation complete the display in the hangar.

Some very rare artifacts are from the early stage of rocketry, and include components of von Braun’s first works – most notably the V2 – from the Third Reich era.

A second branch of the exhibition, physically hosted in another building of the complex, is composed of the two rooms packed with memorabilia items mainly from the history of the 5. RBr

These include books, photographs, and beautiful memorial crests, especially from joint exercises carried out with the Red Army with live firing of the missiles in a dedicated polygon in Kapustin Yar. People taking part to these exercises – held back in the 1980s – are now volunteering in the Society, and you may be so lucky to meet them for a nice talk and for getting a more lively insight on the history of the NVA rocket Brigades. Staff from the 5. RBr deployed to the polygon by land, and the original map retracing their movements across the USSR is on display.

Also on display are original technical boards displaying some operating concepts for the Oka missile – in Russian, a one-of-a-kind relic of the Cold War years!

Getting there & Visiting

The small village of Demen is located in the northeastern quarter of Germany, about 25 miles from the Baltic shoreline, 45 miles from Rostock and 55 miles from Lübeck, both port towns on the Baltic sea. You can reach the display by car here. Access to the former NVA complex, now called Evita complex, is via the road L091, to the west of Demen.

One of the many hangars in the Evita complex hosts the collection, and the memorabilia rooms are in an adjoining building. Opening times are very limited (basically in the weekends), but this is due to the fact that they coincide with volunteers’ gatherings. On the plus side, you are likely to see at some vehicles running.

For interested subjects a time of 1 hour may be the minimum for a visit to the static display, if no vehicles are moving around. If there are live displays, or volunteers to interview, you may spend there 2 hours or more.

German is obviously the main language spoken (and often times the only option in this part of Germany), but English is nonetheless understood and spoken by some of the volunteers. Website here.

Belgrade War Heritage – From WWII to the Yugoslav Wars

Belgrade, the capital city of today’s Serbia, with a population of 1.3 millions, boasts traces of dating back to the Roman Empire. Strategically located on the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, through the ages it grew to become a major military and trading post.

A city at war – brief historical perspective

In the 19th century, with the foundation of a Kingdom of Serbia free from the Ottoman rule, Belgrade became a capital city of an independent power, right at the geographical center of the Balkan region.

In 1914, tense relations with the better established and more powerful Austrian Empire triggered WWI, where Serbia fought on the side of the winners, gaining territories extending to the Adriatic Sea from the dismembered Austrian empire. These regions were encapsulated in an unprecedented entity, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where Belgrade played again as capital city.

Soon after, WWII saw a bloody and rather unsung front opening in the Balkans, conquered from the north by Hitler’s Wehrmacht, and from the south by fascist Italy. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ceased to exist, and Belgrade – initially the target of massive air attacks by Germany – was made for a while the capital of a kind of German protectorate. It was in the final years of WWII that communist-led resistance para-military corps led by Marshal Tito, secretly supported by the Western Allies, started operating massively against the Axis. Tito was backed especially by the British, who provided war materiel, staff for tactical decisions and political support.

When Serbia was liberated, with the help of the Red Army attacking from southern Ukraine through today’s Romania on Serbia’s eastern border, Tito raised to power, re-founding Yugoslavia as a communist country extending from Greece to Austria and Italy, and with borders with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria – all the latter three being communist countries, deeply entangled with the Soviet Union. Belgrade was again the capital city of a powerful and strategically relevant state.

Quite oddly from Stalin’s perspective, Tito did not capitulate the sovereignty of Yugoslavia to the USSR – unlike most states in Eastern Europe. This again was possible likely through the support of the West, in the quickly evolving geo-political situation soon after WWII leading to the Cold War, where former allies split on the two sides of the Iron Curtain. As a matter of fact, no Soviet military bases were ever placed in Yugoslavia, a communist country which until the Fifties even obtained war material from the West!

Tito managed to keep his post on the international scene and internally until his death in 1980. Soon after, the artificial ties between the many nations united in Yugoslavia began to crack, and almost at the same time of the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the country literally fell apart. As of now the bloodiest conflicts in post-WWII Europe, the Yugoslavian Wars saw the secession of several new national entities from one another and from Serbia. Belgrade is now the capital city of the Republic of Serbia.

War heritage in Belgrade – What is covered in this chapter

The troubled history of Belgrade as a capital city has left permanent traces in the fort, one of the oldest and most prominent highlights in town. The foundations bear traces of the ancient Roman fort, but a defense bunker dug underground within its premises is a witness of the role of this old part of the town in more recent years.

An ideal setting for a weapons display, the fort is also where the museum of military history can be found. Dating from Tito’s era, this place boasts a remarkable collection of war material from all ages, including WWII, the Cold War and the 1990s. It stands as a perfect counterpart for the air museum, covered in this chapter. Further items of interest include one-of-a-kind memorabilia items belonging to Marshal Tito.

Being Tito’s Yugoslavia capital city, it is no surprise the founder of postwar Yugoslavia was buried here. An extremely interesting purpose-built museum – a major relic of the Cold War era – surrounds the mausoleum. There you can find a massive documentation on the dictator, including signed photographs and gifts from prominent western political leaders – including virtually every US President in office during Tito’s many decades in charge! This witnesses the special status of Marshal Tito in the eyes of western powers.

Another characteristic sight is the ‘Genex Tower’, a unique skyscraper of American size, with a style resembling ‘Blade Runner’ motion picture’s set. A real punch in the eye in the landscape, this is tower is of course another witness of how private enterprises – this time, the Yugoslavian tourism group Genex – could get a prominent status in communist Yugoslavia, differently from Soviet-style fully centralized economies. It is also an example of an original architectural style from the Cold War era, showing the great care given to art and architecture by the communist party of Yugoslavia – another prominent example being ‘spomeniks’, monuments scattered over the entire former territory of the country (see this dedicated chapter).

Similarly interesting is ‘Avala Tower’, a TV tower with an elevated panorama platform from the 1960s. Besides the architectural interest, it is worth mentioning this tower was targeted by NATO air raids in 1999, and completely demolished. It was rebuilt in an identical shape and re-opened only recently.

The oddest among war-connected items in town is the former building of the ministry of defense, close to today’s capital directional center. Having being targeted by NATO bombing raids in 1999 and severely damaged, it was left for years damaged and derelict, a memento for the attack by NATO forces, and the focus of much controversy.

Photographs of these sites are from a visit in Spring 2019.

Map

The sites covered in this chapter can be found on the map below.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Sights

Military Museum of Belgrade

When getting access to the beautiful historical fort of Belgrade, a vantage point to watch the oldest districts and the rivers, you will hardly miss an impressive array of cannons, howitzers, tanks and missile batteries from earlier than Napoleon to the Cold War.

This rich collection is the outside part of the Military Museum of Belgrade. Founded back in Tito’s era, this museums offers an overview of the war history of this war-battered part of the world, since ancient times to the latest Yugoslavian Wars of the 1990s.

The collection features interesting items especially from WWII, including pieces of German make, as well as from the Cold War period, like Soviet-made ‘Katyusha’ launchers and SAM batteries.

Despite the initial struggle with Stalin, after the latter’s death, relations with the USSR improved. Since then, military supply for Yugoslavia mainly came from the USSR, flanked by a non-negligible domestic production.

The indoor collection starts from much back in time, with weapons dating from the centuries of the struggle against the Ottoman rule. A major section is dedicated to the 19th century, when the Kingdom of Serbia was founded. As known, the spark for WWI came from the Balkans. Serbia took part to the war on the side of the Entente. As a result, after WWI the Kingdom of Serbia increased its territory and became known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia since the late 1920s.

Resulting from the political union of peoples of diverse ethnicity, religion, language and commercial vocation, this kingdom never experienced much stability. As a matter of fact, king Alexander I was murdered on a visit to France by Macedonian fighters for independence. The blood stained shirt of the king following the assassination – notably the first such event to be video recorded, albeit in 1934 quality – is preserved in the museum.

Like elsewhere in Europe, WWII years saw the suppression of the existing institutions. In 1941 Yugoslavia was invaded by neighboring Hitler’s Germany (which at that time was a single entity with Austria). The Nazi rule was implemented in the region of today’s Serbia, administrated by a German-backed local government. Items from this era are abundant, and include maps, weaponry and uniforms.

Of special interest are also the double-language notices – in German and Serbian – produced by Nazi Germany, with the distinctive eagle and swastika (similar to what you can find in the occupied territories of the USSR, see for instance here).

Also interesting are the bounty signs about Tito and other ‘comrades’ – the resistance movements were well organized and supplied, with the backing of Western Allies operating from Greece and southern Italy in the latter years of the war, thus creating real troubles to the invading powers.

Despite that, also improvised weapons were used, presented in the museum. Being an installation from Tito’s time, the operations of the communist-led resistance para-military units is showcased with flags, banners, uniforms and weapons.

A true relic in the museum is made of a small collection of Marshal Tito’s own uniforms and everyday items. These include some field items – torchlight, map magnifier – as well as more personal belongings – glasses, a USSR souvenir, apparently a pencil case, and more.

Some interesting photographs include portraits of US staff and aircraft operating from Yugoslavia, as well as a copy of the declaration of support to Tito’s army from the participants to the Tehran conference – Churchill, Stalin and president Roosevelt.

A very Soviet-style part of the museum is a kind of memorial, with a statue of Tito and a myriad of banners from various military groups – a kind of homage – completed by a massive engraved metal map of communist Yugoslavia.

A significant part of the museum deals with the 1990s wars. These include the early secession war mainly opposing Croatia, but deeply involving Bosnia-Herzegovina. Weapons of the Croatian army are on display.

A latter part is devoted to the war with Kosovo, which resulted in an open, mainly air-fought conflict against overwhelming NATO forces. From the fierce and polemical titles of the display cases in this latest part of the museum, it is clear that this fragment of history is still an open wound in the collective memory of Serbia. Maps of NATO bombing incursions have been created, and curiously translated into English, for the eyes of western visitors.

More substantial remains from this relatively recent struggle can be found at the air museum of Belgrade, covered in this post, in the form of wrecks of downed aircraft and western missile bodies.

Visiting

The museum is a major attraction among those scattered over the premises of the fort. Access to the outdoor part, surely deserving a walk-through also for those not particularly interested in history, is free of charge, and may be very appealing for the kids. The indoor collection is extremely interesting for war historians or history-minded people, but the exhibition may be hard for children. Most items are labeled also in English, making the visit interesting. Visiting the inside part may take from .5 to more than 1 hour, depending on your level of interest. A photo permit is required to take pictures inside. Website with info here.

Mystery Bunker in the Fort of Belgrade

This bunker is poorly advertised, and only scarce on-site descriptions are provided. It is basically made of a tunnel built close to a the most panoramic corner of the fortress. Access is via a narrow stair, giving access to a U-shaped corridor, connecting two double-floor underground circular towers.

On the lower floor of the towers, sleeping rooms for troops can be found, together with water tanks. On the upper floor what appears as an unfinished or lately interred firing position for high-caliber artillery can be found.

Construction is similar to some installations of the Atlantic Wall (see for instance here and here), hence it may date from WWII or soon after.

Due to the (strangely) scant description, it is hard to tell the history of this mystery bunker, and I am only guessing its function.

Visiting

The site can be visited with an inexpensive ticket, to be purchased (cash only) by the entrance to the helical pit, a much more advertised attraction nearby. To be honest, nobody checked my ticket once by the entrance to the bunker, which at a first glance can be confused with a backyard deposit (it is really not much celebrated as an attraction). Anyway, I came across a Serbian-speaking small guided group on my visit, so there must be chance of getting inside like that, enjoying some better explanation. Visiting alone may take 15 minutes. A little info on the site of the Fortress, here.

Marshal Tito’s Mausoleum and Memorabilia Museum

This installation lies to the back of the older building of the Museum of Yugoslavia, dating from Tito’s era and currently closed for renovation (2020). The neighborhood is very nice, with buildings of many embassies. The mausoleum and the annexed museum are part of a nice ensemble, surrounded by a garden. A very modern entrance hall with shop and services has been prepared at the entrance.

The burial place of Marshal Tito is in a greenhouse-like building, pretty nice and peaceful. The tomb is definitely plain and not bombastic, nothing you would expect from a dictator. Tito’s wife is buried nearby.

To the sides of the building you can find a well designed exhibition including personal belongings of Tito, parts of his office furniture, as well as pictures – including a magnified one with dignitaries attending his funeral ceremony in 1980.

A small excerpt of the huge collection of scepters, a traditional gift offered to Tito by every group or local society on his domestic visits, can be visioned here. Some of these are really nicely crafted, some are funny – some are really kitschy and caricatural.

A second part of the installation is hosted in a small, separate building. Here an incredible collection of gifts, personal belongings, photographs, authentic papers from the fund of the Museum of History about momentous events in Yugoslavian history, autographs and scepters can be found.

Of special interest are the official portraits – often signed – of presidents, dignitaries, kings and queens from various ages and from all over the world. This collection witnesses the relative popularity of Marshal Tito in the West, even though NATO forces never trusted him fully – the missile defense system placed in northeastern Italy in the 1960s and 1970s is a clear memory of that (see this post).

Similar to Ceausescu’s house in Bucharest (see here), the items on display make for a very vivid memory of Marshal Tito life and actions, and really bring back the man from history. Really an evoking place those interested in the Cold War can’t miss out!

Visiting

This attraction can be easily reached by car, a few minutes from central Belgrade, in a nice and safe neighborhood (see map). The local name is ‘Kuca Cveca’. As a branch of the Museum of Yugoslavia, it is modernly managed and has been recently revamped, making the visit enjoyable and interesting. For those with an interest in the Cold War era or Tito’s life and legacy, a visit to this site may easily take 1-1.5 hours on a self-guided basis, despite the place being relatively small and easy to tour. Guided tours are possible as well, info on the official website (in English) here.

Genex Tower

An internationally known piece of contemporary architecture, this strange looking massive skyscraper can be clearly spotted from the fortressof Belgrade, looking west towards ‘Nikola Tesla’ airport. It was built between 1977 and 1980, and is made of two bodies connected at the top through an elevated platform.

The name Genex Tower comes from the legacy Genex company, a large tour operator from the Yugoslavian era, operating even an independent airline, Aviogenex, flying mainly touristic routes conveying visitors from western Europe to the beautiful coast of Dalmatia. This openness of Yugoslavia to western tourism has been an uncommon characteristic in the panorama of communist-led countries. Overt trade relations with the West contributed to a higher standard of living of Yugoslav population, compared to the USSR-controlled Eastern Bloc neighbors.

The tower is today partly a relic. The half once hosting the offices of Genex and its subsidiaries is mostly empty, even though not abandoned – there is a porter apparently living there, and willing to answer your questions on the history of the place! Going beyond the entry hall is not possible, but the hall itself deserves a glance – built with style, it is much more pleasant than the outside of the building!

The atmosphere is really evocative of the Cold War era. Like other buildings – mainly hotels – in former Yugoslavia, the style of the interior somehow recalls the old-fashioned luxury of some older James Bond movie setting!

The residential part is still inhabited as a high-rise condominium. The entrance is via a small door, but despite the derelict appearance of the small square ahead of the building, it looks normally cared for.

The circular platform on top of the tower used to host a panorama restaurant, today long gone.

The view of the platform from between the two main bodies from the base makes for a peculiar photographic set – as a matter of fact, professional photographers were taking pictures  from that spot for a fashion review!

Visiting

The tower can be reached by car, a few minutes north of the city center. This is basically a non-public building, so while visiting is not possible, the open, unfenced premises at the base of the tower allow walking freely around the tower. The neighborhood is densely populated and safe, despite the base of the tower not looking good, due to disrepair. Parking opportunities all around. A walk around the base may take 15 minutes. If you like to get inside the hall of the largely unused (as of 2020) commercial building, you may also have a chat with the porter about the history of the place. The visit won’t be much longer, anyway.

Avala Tower

This tower is located south of Belgrade, and is a vantage point for observing the town and the countryside around. The original tower was completed between 1961 and 1964, entering the world’s top-ten list of tallest buildings at the height of the Cold War era. That tower was targeted by NATO bombing in 1999 and destroyed. It was rebuilt between 2007 and 2009, mostly identical to the original design.

It is today a renowned tourist attraction. A remarkable engineering and design masterpiece, the tower boasts an uncommon three-leg base, giving a shape well fitting in the years of the space age when it was designed – despite the inspiration being reportedly from a three-legged Serbian traditional chair.

The platform on top can be reached via a fast elevator. Strange massive condominiums in the southern outskirts of Belgrade can be clearly spotted from here, but the most striking feature is the wild countryside surrounding Belgrade, really a spot in the green.

Not far from the tower, the interesting Monument to the Unknown Soldier from the 1930s is a remarkable national shrine from the years of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Visiting

The Avala Tower can be reached by car in about 45 minutes from central Belgrade – mainly due to traffic, since it is not geographically far (see map). Parking on site. The place is managed as a modern large scale attraction, website here.

The Monument to the Unknown Soldier is open 24/7, a quick and interesting detour from the tower, with a dedicated small parking close to a fashionable ‘old-Europe’ vintage hotel. Explanatory panels nearby.

Ruins of the Ministry of Defense

The building of the ministry of defense was targeted during a bombing raid in April 1999, and severely damaged. An administrative building right in today’s administrative district of downtown Belgrade, it has been left mostly untouched for years now, as a memento of the war against the NATO alliance.

Two buildings can be seen cross the street. Part of the corresponding blocks are still in use, and for safety reasons portions of the damaged buildings have been finally demolished in recent years. More and more plans to convert this very central area to something else have been elaborated, as memory of the troubled 1990s is slowly fading.

Visiting

The place can be reached easily with a walk from the historical and shopping districts of Belgrade (see map). The buildings are inaccessible, and can be seen from the outside. A 5 minutes stop along your walk may suffice to check this item.

Soviet and East German Relics North of Berlin

For the full span of the Cold War, the communist German Democratic Republic has been a highly militarized region.

Due to its position right on the European border between NATO countries and the USSR-led eastern bloc, this relatively small state was kept in high consideration by the Soviet military staff in Moscow. In the re-organization of Soviet forces following the end of the Great Patriotic War (i.e. WWII), of the four Soviet groups of forces stationed in all satellite countries outside the Soviet border, one was specifically named ‘Group of Soviet Forces in Germany’. This group was headquartered in Wünsdorf, the former location of the German OKW south of Berlin (see this post), and had under its command a force of some hundred thousands troops, divided in two tank armies, an entire air army, three mixed armies and a supplementary artillery division. Supplies were in no shortage either, with some tens of fully operational airbases/tank polygons, academies and housing for all the troops and respective families.

Despite the very significant Soviet presence, the GDR invested a huge capital of its own in the development of a full-scale military strength. The East-German National People’s Army (NVA) received top-tier technology from the USSR, and did of course manufacture military supply of all sorts. Sustaining this army, together with the enormous para-military organization of the internal Ministry of Security – the ill-famed STASI – and other governmental organizations, military expenses undoubtedly contributed to the economical crisis hitting the GDR in the 1980s, setting the scene for its final demise.

The region north of Berlin was particularly rich in military and governmental installations, some of them highly classified, their history shrouded into mystery. You can find some information in dedicated posts on this website (see this post, also here and here).

In this chapter, some more items of interest are featured. Four of them are abandoned tokens from Soviet occupation. A nice belle-epoque villa on the shore of the Röblingsee in Fürstenberg, where the headquarters of the 2nd Guard Tank Army was headquartered since Stalin’s era to the withdrawal of Soviet forces in the 1990s, is the first of them. The second is a unique, forgotten Soviet monument, to be found less than two miles south of Fürstenberg. Two more are memorials and cemeteries, for Soviet troops who perished in the last stage of the Great Patriotic War (WWII) around Berlin.

Other three points of interest are instead GDR-related. The first is the former academy for future leaders of the communist party, established in Wandlitz in the years of Stalin, and initially led by Erich Honecker, later to become the omnipotent leader of the GDR for two decades. In the same area north of Berlin – and precisely in Waldsiedlung, today a nice clinical campus in the countryside – are the former private houses of the members of the central committee of the communist party of the DDR – personalities like Walter Ulbricht, Erich Honecker, Erich Mielke and Egon Krenz lived here with their families. Finally, you will find a glimpse from the so-called ‘Honecker bunker’ in Prenden. This big and highly classified installation was prepared in case of war, to protect the leadership of the GDR and ensure safe communication with Moscow.

Photographs were taken in summer 2019 and 2021.

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Sights

Soviet 2nd Guard Tank Army Headquarters, Fürstenberg/Havel

Among the Soviet forces permanently stationed in the GDR in case of war, there used to be two entire tank armies, the 1st and 2nd. The former was headquartered in Dresden, whereas the 2nd – named ‘Red Banner’ – in Fürstenberg/Havel.

The headquarter in Fürstenberg is basically an old villa, possibly dating to the late 19th century or a slightly more recent time. The villa is somewhat unusual in the panorama of todays Fürstenberg. This is a nice and lively touristic town, where many Berliners come to find a retreat in nature, less than 1 hour driving from home. Thanks to tourism-related activities, the area has got rid of the Soviet/East German grayness, and is now a typical village in the German countryside, graced with a creek and a small lake, where canoes and small boats are always roaming around.

In stark contrast with this, the villa is today completely abandoned, with overgrown vegetation almost hiding it from the main road. Access to the premises is easier from the back, where you first meet a typical Soviet prefabricated wall, and service buildings with evidence of a communist design – the usual yellow paint and railings on the windows with the stylized ‘radiant dawn of communist revolution’.

Getting closer to the house, you meet an access door, possibly going to a bunkerized area underneath. The house is in a really bad shape, with rotting walls, plants growing on the balconies and roof. The inside has been made completely inaccessible. A typical East German light is still hanging from the back wall.

To the front, a temple-like decoration contours the main door. It is difficult to say whether this decoration was there since the beginning, since it appears rather different in style from the rest of the villa.

A highlight of this site is the statue of Lenin still standing ahead of the front facade. The statue is in a relatively good shape. It looks like the man was portrayed during a discussion.

The concrete sculpture was accurately made, as witnessed by the facial expression and details in the embroidery of the tie.

On the front side, the villa used to be reachable with a large flight of steps climbing uphill, with Lenin on top. Today this perspective is gone, for vegetation has totally invaded the steps, and the front of the house is not visible from the street.

Getting there and moving around

The villa is located in central Fürstenberg on Steinförder Strasse (possibly) 44, on the southern side of the road. The house and its large garden estate are abandoned, but all other houses around are not. Getting closer without being spotted is easier from the backstreet. Technically speaking, the latter is accessible for residents only, so you may park somewhere else and come closer by foot. Visiting may take about 30 minutes with time for the pictures, for the house is not accessible inside.

It should be remarked that this site is probably not public, and at an unpredictable time it may be either restored or demolished – so checking it out may be not possible for long.

Soviet Monument, Fürstenberg/Havel

A rare example of Soviet commemoration monument can be found very close to Fürstenberg. Apart from the monumental sites in Berlin (see here), a number of smaller Soviet monuments are to be found around the GDR – impressive ghosts of a bygone era.

Among the best preserved are that in the former tank base of Zeithain (see this post), and this one in Fürstenberg.

The monument is composed of two parts, basically two concrete curtains facing each other on the sides of a small apron.

The smaller panel to the south is the most intriguing. It is apparently a celebration of an economic plan of the Soviet Union. It is all about the growth in production in several areas of industry and farming, likely resulting from careful planning by the top of the Soviet government.

Between a citation from Lenin and a stylized image of the Kremlin, several panels cite one by one the increases in production of anything from oil to weapons, from milk to corn.

To the back of the monument, the only remaining feature is a remarkable head of Lenin, with yet another citation. It is likely that other features have been removed by vandals, as empty frames can be seen aligned along this face of the monument.

The larger panel to the north is a celebration of the march to Berlin during the Great Patriotic War, likely related to specific actions of the Guard Tank Armies. The central slab features an image of the Soviet monument in Treptower Park, Berlin – one the most famous commemorative monuments in the Soviet Union, as witnessed by numerous images to be found still today in many museums in the former USSR (see for instance here).

Close by, reproductions of decorations and captions of what happened on some days of 1944 and 1945 are reported.

On the left panel you can see a reproduction of the march to Berlin, from the battlegrounds in the USSR, through central Europe and Germany. It is likely that some metal parts of the monument once used to connect the ‘points of interest’, but these have disappeared due to vandalism.

On the right wing of the monument the names of Heroes of the Soviet Union possibly from the Guard Tank Armies are cited one by one. Close by, the image of the ‘Soviet Motherland Calling’, pretty usual in Soviet war iconography, can be found together with other typical emblems.

Getting there and moving around

This monument is not maintained nor protected. It is open air, unfenced and freely accessible. It will be hopefully restored or moved to a museum, as the weather and vandals are taking their tolls. It can be reached along the road 96 about 1 mile south of Fürstenberg, immediately to the west of the road. A small unofficial parking area can be found ahead of it, making a quick visit really easy.

Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Rathenow

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The Soviet memorial in Rathenow is one of a number of smaller military cemeteries for Soviet troops in the region around Berlin. Soviet soldiers perished in the area in the thousands in the final stage of WWII (1945), when the Red Army entered the northeastern part of todays Germany from Poland, pushing towards Berlin and fighting against the agonizing but still fierce German Wehrmacht.

Apart from the gigantic and formal monuments in Berlin (see this chapter), more modest shrines are scattered around the German capital city, all built roughly in the same period, between the end of the war in Europe and 1950, in the years of Stalin.

The Rathenow site is a small town cemetery, a proportionate, down-scaled version of its larger counterparts in Berlin – especially Schönholzer Heide (see here) – and can be found in the center of the sleepy town of Rathenow. A central obelisk with a commemoration plaque is topped by a golden five-pointed star, the symbol of the Red Army.

A number of soberly designed grave stones for as many Soviet troops are aligned in rows, creating an elegant perspective. Most of the graves bear complete names, as well as the birth and death years. Similar to the war cemeteries dating also from WWI (see for instance here and here), the very young age of most of the troops in the final struggle around Berlin is readily apparent.

Despite being fenced and of course not left in a state of disrepair, the green areas immediately outside of the perimeter of the monument in Rathenow are somewhat neglected, perhaps reflecting a fading interest for this monument.

Getting there and moving around

The Soviet monument in Rathenow can be reached at the crossing of Ferdinand Lassalle Str. with Friedrich Ebert Ring, in central Rathenow. The monument is very compact and can be toured in a few minutes.

Soviet Memorial and Cemetery, Blumberg

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The monument in Blumberg, in the northern outskirts of Berlin and really close to town, is smaller than the one in Rathenow (see above), but shares the general arrangement with it.

A central pillar with a commemoration slab is surmounted in this case by a statue of a Soviet soldier, holding a Red Banner flag.

Ahead and around the pillar, gravestones put flat on the ground are aligned in a perspective. However, the overgrown vegetation is basically hiding these lines of tombs, so that even from a small distance the central monument appears as an isolated item, put in the middle of a grassy area.

Actually, the major difference with other monuments of the kind lies in the rather remoteness of the one in Blumberg. It is a listed historical landmark, and therefore at least minimally cared for, but on the other hand, it is located relatively far from todays nearest settlement, hidden in the trees, and out of sight for anybody except people going there specifically for it. This makes it rather mysterious, a silent memento of old memories.

Getting there and moving around

The monument is conveniently located just out of the A10 highway (the external ring of Berlin), in the settlement of Ahrensfelde. You may reach Chausseedreieck and drive to its western dead end, where you can conveniently park. From there a grassy path points south into the trees, and in less than 150 yards you will find the monument. The size of the monument is small, hence no further walking is needed. A mosquito repellent is highly recommended in the warm season.

Free German Youth Academy & Joseph Goebbels Manor, Wandlitz

Deep in the countryside about 25 miles north of Berlin, about 3 miles from the small touristic village of Wandlitz, you can find a couple of highlights from the troublesome past of Germany, sitting side by side, close to the small Bogensee lake.

The first is the country estate of Joseph Goebbels, the famous minister for education and propaganda in the years of the Nazi dictatorship. This villa has been built in the war years, and often used by its owner, also for receiving guests. Goebbels obtained the estate as a birthday present from the Nazi Party.

Incredibly, the manor, built in a typical German country style, was not demolished after the war – so unlike other residences belonging to Hitler or his fellows, it is still there to see. It survived denazification, Soviet occupation and 40 years in the GDR as part of a school (see below).

The outside is the only part you can see. The appearance is sober, with simple lines and not much vertical elevation – it nicely integrates in the natural setting.

Access to the courtyard is from a small road, now part of the inner network of the larger complex surrounding the manor.

This complex is actually the other peculiar item you can find in Wandlitz. This enormous academy was built in 1951, on behalf of the Free German Youth (FDJ), a youth-training organization founded and originally run by Erich Honecker, later to become the general secretary of the communist party of the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s.

The academy was designed by Hermann Henselmann the same architect who designed Karl-Marx-Allee in the Soviet sector of Berlin – one of the most iconic ‘Stalin’s-style’ perspectives in the world. The complex is composed of two large opposing buildings, on the short sides of an internal courtyard. These hosted common areas, lecture rooms and a theater.

Along the longer sides of the courtyard are buildings with bedrooms and services for around 500 students.

The academy was for the future staff of the communist party, and in later years of the Cold War it was attended also by international students from communism-leaning nations, or sometimes even from NATO countries.

Following the collapse of the GDR, the building went on hosting educational institutions until the early 2000s, owned by the regional government. It was then mostly shut off, with some ancillary buildings still hosting institutions connected with the administration of the natural preserve around. It was put up for sale, for a while, but all potential customers failed to present satisfactory conversion plans. An expensive and inconvenient ghost from a forgotten era, as of 2019 its fate has not been sealed yet.

Today the place is not completely abandoned. Basic preservation works are being carried out, thus avoiding the roof to collapse or the walls to rotten. The names of the blocks are likely not from the GDR years. Similarly, a board with notices and maps dating from later than 1989 can still be seen, a witness of the post-GDR activity.

The garden is not growing totally wild, and some architectural addition must have been tried in a recent past – like a small modern fountain ahead of the common building to the southwest of the complex. The buildings are still supplied with electrical power – there are lit lights above some doors – and it is discretely guarded to avoid vandalism.

Getting there and moving around

Accessing the area is possible following the L29 from Wandlitz. About 1 mile from the village, the road changes its name to Wandlitzer Strasse. There is a local road with limited access taking to the east. You may park there, and proceed along the road by foot for about .5 miles to reach the heart of the complex. This is surrounded by private houses. There is no fence, but there are proximity sensors which trigger an inspection. I was reached by a warden on a car soon after my arrival. He spotted me, but did not come close, likely noticing I was just taking pictures outside.

The site is rather mysterious and well worth a quick visit for interested subjects. Touring the site will not take more than 45 minutes, taking all the pictures.

Private Homes of the Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the GDR, Waldsiedlung

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Similar to other top-ranking figures in the Soviet chain of command – like Stalin and others in his communist entourage, who did not spend much of their time in public or close to crowded places in central Moscow – the masters of the communist party in the GDR had their homes in the trees north of Berlin, relatively far from the city center and from the governmental buildings.

Actually, many of them lived together in a rather compact residential district, called Waldsiedlung. Access to the area was obviously controlled, but once inside the place was somewhat similar to a holiday settlement, with smaller single or two-family houses located along quiet alleys in a rural setting. The architecture is far from lavish – all houses are very similar to one another, and are designed in a plain typically East-German style from the post-WWII era.

Today, the settlement in Waldsiedlung has been converted into a campus for clinical studies. However, the original architecture of the place has been left mostly untouched, and explanatory panels telling quick information about the history of the residence have been planted ahead of most of the housing once occupied by old communist big brasses.

The office by the gate, and the metal gate itself, are totally original, as can be seen from historical pictures.

Among the first buildings past the gate is a former congress center/clubhouse/gathering facility for the inhabitants of the residence.

Moving on to the northern part of the settlement, the modest house of Erich Honecker and his wife Margot can be easily found. The two-storey construction has a patio on the backyard. A mystery wooden hut can be found next to the latter.

The Honeckers were forced to leave this house in the turmoil following the collapse of the wall and the starting of the reunification process. Honecker fled to the Soviet Union in seek for protection, quickly departing from the Soviet base in Sperenberg (see here). He was trialed in absentia, in connection to the order issued to the GDR border guards to used deadly force against people trying to pass the ‘anti-fascist wall’, and the ensuing deaths. He remained in the USSR until also that dictatorship collapsed, and he was forced to escape to South America, where he died soon after.

To the far end of the same alley is the house of Walter Ulbricht and his wife Lotte. Somewhat larger than Honecker’s house, it is however not much more evolved in adornments or architectural fantasy.

On another alley, parallel to the previous one, is also the house of Erich Mielke, the uncontested head of the ill-famed STASI, since its early years to the end.

The man was captured and trialed for an old case of homicide, after the shut-off of the STASI monstrous machine. He died soon after.

Today even these smaller buildings have been converted for a new function in the clinical campus. Therefore, they cannot be toured inside. However, strolling in this inconspicuous, quiet village where a huge concentration of power used to be seated, provides a strange feeling.

Getting there and moving around

The Brandenburg Clinic, which has now taken over the Waldsiedlung residence for the members of the GDR government, is on the road N.273, between Bernau and Wandlitz. The clinic in Waldsiedlung is rather busy, and the parking ahead of it may be crowded. However, since the place is guarded and access regulated, that is the only credible parking option also for a historically-themed visit. You can access the area by foot undisturbed, and take photographs of the exteriors. There are explanatory panels ahead of many of the former residential homes.

Honecker Bunker, Prenden

Geographically very close to the academy in Wandlitz (see above) – less than 1 straight mile away – the bunker in Prenden is the central piece of a network of bunkers and military hardware, designed an built on behalf of the National Defense Council (NVR) of the GDR from 1973 onward, and named ‘komplex 5000’. The purpose was protection of the leadership of the GDR in case of a crisis or attack from the West.

The bunker is Prenden, technically listed as ’17/5001′, was a control center of incredible sophistication, designed to withstand nuclear blasts, and with direct communication with other sub-nodes of a larger communication network, thus granting safe communication and broadcasting ability, allowing to lead the country in case of a crisis. The bunker was intended to host the general secretary of the communist party, i.e. Erich Honecker, when the bunker was commissioned in 1983 – hence the unofficial name ‘Honecker bunker’.

The premises of Prenden are now largely in private hands, but some parts are apparently publicly accessible – the original fence has been completely torn down. The bunker itself is sealed, and can be accessed only on a few days per year with a guide.

The official entrance to the area is through the original GDR-made gate. This is closed however, for it is now the entrance to a small private industrial complex.

Traces of the original fence, as well as piping and vents for underground rooms, can be found around the hill on top of which the installation is standing.

Some service buildings in typical communist style can be still found, despite demolition works having taken place. Proximity sensors and signs delimit the private property area.

The three-storey building on the southwestern corner of the complex used to be the ‘front office’ of the bunker. Today, it is in a really bad shape.

Inside, traces of the original furniture and services can still be found, albeit much deteriorated.

Access to the bunker is on the underground floor. You may notice the prison-like railings ahead of the access stairs. A feature that might make you jump when you are exploring alone – if walking in a forgotten communist government building, deep in the silent German countryside, was not enough… – is the lit bulb hanging over the entrance to the bunker – really unexpected!

Besides the building, a shelter-garage for trucks and cars is still in a relatively good shape.

Getting there and moving around

The Prenden bunker is not publicized, but it can be neared easily with a car, about 1 mile south of the small village of Prenden, along Utzdorfer Strasse. The gate can be clearly spotted, but it will be likely closed, and there are obvious ‘no trespassing’ signs and labels of private companies. You may park outside and proceed along the side of the property to the back of it, where the abandoned building mentioned above can be found. Whether this is still on private land or not is not very clear. There are proximity sensors between the abandoned building and the rest of the complex, likely to trigger inspection if you get too close to the (surely) private part of the complex.

Venturing in the building is definitely not safe, and the bunker entrance is usually closed. Official visits to the bunker are possible on guided tours arranged irregularly about once per month (please browse the internet for more info on visiting, cause I could not find an official site of the place to link here).

Cold War Forts and Museums in Denmark

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

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

History in brief

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sights

Cold War Museum Stevnsfort

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting there and moving around

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

Cold War Museum Langelandsfort

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The submarine features six torpedo tubes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting there and moving around

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

Aalborg Defense and Garrison Museum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting there and moving around

The museum is located close to central Aalborg, on the waterfront. You can visit it totally on your own. Some of the exhibitions are described in more languages, but some parts are in Danish only. Nonetheless, the visit can be very rewarding for experts and for the kids as well, thanks to the chance to touch many of the artifacts on display. A two-hours time may be enough for having a look, more time is required for a more in-depth visit or if you want to take pictures.

Convenient parking just ahead of the entrance. Website with full information here.

Danish Museum of Flight

This fantastic collection of aircraft can be found next to Stauning Airport, on the west coast of Jutland, at the level of the Ringkobing firth. This is by far the largest aircraft collection in Denmark, and the reference air museum in this country.

The exhibition is well designed and rich, and it covers both the civil and military branches of aviation. Furthermore, a good half of the aircraft appear in fully airworthy conditions.

There are three thematic hangars. In the first you can find civilian aircraft from various ages, smaller sport aircraft and military trainers mainly from the inter-war period or the late 1940s. Some of them appear airworthy.

Most notably, there is the front part of the fuselage of a Douglas DC-7, formerly in service with the national carrier SAS, still on business today. The cockpit and the crew compartment are well preserved. The analog instrumentation adopted on this plane, which dates from 1957 and represents the last and most advanced of the Douglas propliners, is abundant and remarkably sophisticated.

Another unique aircraft on display is an Aerospatiale Corvette, an executive jet by the same French airframer who participated in the Concorde project. You can also board the plane.

Similarly rare today is the DeHavilland Dove, a British-made short range liner from the early Cold War period. Similar aircraft, cheap to operate, went on flying well into the 1970s in many countries. Here you see an exemplar in the colors of Cimber Air.

Among the trainers, you can find a DeHavilland Tiger Moth and a Chipmunk from the same manufacturer. Less common aircraft include a DeHavilland Hornet Moth, which apparently spent most of its flying time in Kuala Lumpur, and a nice Bucker Bestmann, a German trainer adopted and license-built also in Sweden.

Despite never adopted by the Danish military, a V-tailed Fouga Magister French trainer apparently found its way to here. It was reportedly flown in private hands by a Danish professor, before being donated to the museum.

In the first hangar are also examples of Danish aircraft production, including the reconstruction of an early prototype by a local pioneer. Propellers and dismounted engines and systems, likely used for training purposes in the past, are an interesting part of the exhibition too.

A huge collection of model engines, some air traffic control consoles and airport trucks complete the exhibition in the first hangar.

The second hangar is mainly devoted to aircraft manufactured in Denmark. Most notably, the Skandinavisk Aero Industri – abbreviated in SAI – specialized in trainers and small transport in the inter-war and WWII period, and knew a good national and local international success between 1937 and 1954, when it disappeared – and with it basically also the Danish aeronautical industry.

Some of the aircraft on display are unique exemplars, the last witnesses of this interesting story. Not all aircraft here are from this manufacturer though – an ubiquitous Piper Cub in its distinctive yellow colorway can be found as well, together with a Supermarine Spitfire. Also here, most aircraft appear to be in airworthy conditions.

In the last hangar, which despite being the largest one, is the most crumpled, you can find military aircraft retracing the history of the Danish Air Force supply. The aircraft here are all from the Cold War period, hence giving to this hangar a historical connotation. This part of the exhibition is also particularly nice, as you can walk close and beneath the aircraft, an ideal setting for getting pictures of smaller particular features.

The variety of present aircraft is very interesting, and reflects the close bounds of Denmark with the US and Britain. Aircraft from the early Cold War include Lockheed T-33, a North American F-86, and two different versions of the Republic F-84.

An exemplar of the latter is supplemented with JATO – Jet Assisted Take-Off – bottles under the fuselage. The mountings of the underwing rockets on the F-84 and of the belly rockets on the F-86 are really unique examples of Cold War technology!

A big Consolidated Catalina amphibious aircraft towers on all others in the hall, while a Douglas C-47 transport in excellent conditions is preserved in a corner, with an interesting ski system mounted on the landing gears.

British aircraft from the same early era include a Gloster Meteor and what appears to be a pretty rare Fairey Firefly. Another US design is a T-6 trainer, to be found under the wing of the Catalina.

More recent designs still from the Cold War include a Lockheed F-104, a British Hawker Hunter and a Swedish SAAB Draken.

Especially the configuration of the latter – both the general configuration and the arrangement of the landing gear and wing pylons – is really unique, reflecting a different yet interesting school of aircraft design.

Rather uncommon out of the US, a North American F-100 Super Sabre is also on display, with a foldable Pitot boom.

Finally there are a Hawk missile battery, a movable command center and service trucks.

Modern aircraft are represented here by an F-16. There are also two helicopters of US make, closing the collection.

Getting there and moving around

The museum is located between Stauning and Velling, two small villages on the inner coast of the Ringkobing firth, western Jutland. The facility is modern, with a large free parking and a picnic area. It is located on the border of a local airport, immersed in nature – a very pleasant location. The museum requires about 2 hours for an interested subject, 2.5 if you want to take pictures. Website with full information here.

Soviet Depots for Nuclear Warheads in the GDR

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Despite their great destructive potential and strategic relevance, nuclear assets were deployed far from the ‘centers of power’ in Moscow and Washington by both the USSR and the US. As the front of the Cold War was especially ‘hot’ along the border between the Warsaw Pact and NATO Countries in central Europe, large arsenals of nuclear weapons were deployed to the area, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and in several instances over time.

On the western side this was not hidden and led often times to protests in Countries like the UK, West Germany and Italy, so that the history of the presence of a nuclear arsenal in those Countries can be traced with some accuracy, albeit not easily. Conversely, much less is known about the deployment of Soviet nuclear arsenals over the territory of the former Eastern Bloc, making this segment of Cold War history especially mysterious.

History – in brief

In this Cold War scenario, the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or DDR in German) received special consideration by the Soviets. Thanks to its advanced position in Europe and the local, much trusted ‘hardcore’ communist regime, the USSR planned the deployment of early strategic missiles – SS-3 Shyster and SS-4 Sandal – starting already in the late Fifties, the years of Khrushchev. Traces of an actual deployment exist in Vogelsang and Furstenberg, about one hour driving north of Berlin (see this post about Vogelsang, and this about the mysterious deployment of missiles in the area).

Later on, in the early years of Brezhnev as leader of the USSR, it was decided that for a prompter and more flexible response in case of an attack, nuclear warfare especially for tactical use should be deployed outside of the USSR borders, to Countries in close proximity with the West. On the other hand, strategic warheads and missile systems could be withdrawn to within the USSR, as more technologically advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles had become available, making a hit of a foreign objective possible even from deep inside the Soviet borders.

Consequently, deployment of air launched nuclear warfare started in selected Soviet airbases, which were really not in any shortage in the GDR – considering both the national air force (NVA) and the Soviet aviation, the DDR used to be one of the world’s top countries in terms of airbases per square mile, or per resident. You can see several posts on former Soviet bases in the GDR on this website (look here, here and here).

For military corps not operating from airbases – especially missile brigades – the headquarters of the Red Army in Moscow deemed necessary the deployment to the GDR of nuclear warheads for tactical or theater missiles.

Two depots were built anew in dedicated installations specifically for hosting such warheads. One was in Stolzenhain, codenamed ‘Objekt 4000’ and sometimes referred to as Linda (the name of a village nearby), close to the highly-militarized area of Juterbog (see this post) and Kloster Zinna, about one hour driving south of Berlin. The other was again close to Furstenberg, and named Lychen-2, and codenamed ‘Objekt 4001’.

The nuclear bunkers in Stolzenhain and Lychen were payed for by the GDR – through a governmental agreement with the USSR – which always detained official property of the facilities, and were built by German workers, around the year 1967. Once ready, in 1968 the bunkers were handed over to Soviet staff, and the corresponding areas totally closed to non-Soviets. The bunkers, as other similar facilities in other Countries of the Warsaw Pact, communicated directly with Moscow, as similarly to the US, only the top of the command chain could authorize the use of nuclear forces.

The facilities were kept running until the end of the Cold War. Control was officially given back to the agonizing GDR in 1990, the Soviets having transferred all valuable material to the (agonizing) USSR.

Here the story splits for the two installations. While the Lychen bunker has been selected for interment, the installation largely being demolished around 2015, forgotten and reclaimed by nature, as of 2019 the Stolzenhain bunker is in a far better condition, apparently in private hands, and albeit plans for it are sadly similar to Lychen, it may be still in time to be turned into a unique, world-class museum.

About this post

This post covers both Lychen-2 and Stolzenhain bunkers. The former was explored in the summer of 2019. The latter was explored a first time in 2019, and in a second instance with the guidance of its owner Manfred van Heerde and the nuclear scientist and historian Reiner Helling in 2021. As the Stolzenhain installation is still in a relatively good shape, you can also get an understanding of what the inside of these bunkers looks like, their design and specific features. Pictures of this installation from above can be found in another chapter (see here).

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Sights

Objekt 4000 – Stolzenhain

The Stolzenhain bunker, aka ‘bunker Linda’, due to the name of a nearby village, is a perfect specimen of this type of construction (codenamed Monolith-type – see also this post for similar sites in nearby Poland, including one open as a museum). It is composed of two adjoining sub-parts – an area with larger barracks and ‘soft’ constructions, and a larger area were two twin bunkers for warheads are located, together with smaller service buildings and smaller service quarters for the troops. The two areas are arranged along a north-south direction, with the bunker area north of the barracks area.

Today, access to the barracks area is mostly interdicted – you may venture in by foot, but there is a gate which does not allow getting in by car, despite the relatively good condition of the road. The premises are in private hands, and some demolition/reconstruction/conversion works are being carried out here. There is also a service building, looking like a private residence, built in recent times.

Main Gate and Outer Buildings

The main access road features typical prefabricated concrete slabs, found in most Soviet/communist installations everywhere in eastern Europe. Halfway between the external gate and the barracks area, traces of an external wall can be found, with a couple of ‘welcome stones’.

A closer look to the slabs reveal a rather poor quality material used for manufacture. Writings are excerpts of the Soviet constitution, presented as mottoes in Russian, with some communist symbols.

The barracks and some softer constructions date from the Seventies – the frieze on the sidewalls of the buildings tells it quite clearly. The area is protected by a concrete wall, bearing a probably original greenish camouflage.

In the years of operation, there used to be four large apartment blocks aligned in a row, just ahead of the entrance to the area of the barracks. These buildings were for the officials and their families. While still inside the external fence of the base, these apartments allowed more privacy and convenience, forming a de facto little Soviet village in the GDR, segregated from the surrounding German community. This housing has been completely demolished today. However, some trace of correlated ‘civilian’ facilities can be found to the south of the barracks area.

In particular, a swimming pool was built at a certain point in the history of the base, and it is still in a relatively good shape. Changing rooms for men and women are still there. A tall springboard and starting blocks still face the pool, which is apparently watertight, despite the greenish water not being really attractive!

The pool features an outer fence, with a service gate bearing a characteristic Soviet ‘diverging rays’ motif.

Another facility put specifically for comfort in this area is a sauna/bathing house, a widespread Russian tradition. The sauna building in Stolzenhain features several smaller adjoining rooms, with pools, sauna/Turkish bath areas, a central heater, as well as more general purpose sitting rooms with fireplaces. A video studio was also featured in this multi-functional building.

An interesting specimen of Soviet naive art, some frescoes adorn the walls of some of the rooms, with subjects ranging from sea life to women performing ‘spa activities’.

Still outside of the innermost military part, yet inside the external fence of the base, a training ground is to be found to the east of the military area, not too far from the spa building. A walk in the trees along the inner perimeter of the wall of the base is needed to reach this part. A control building with an observation post on top features plenty of instructions for tasks to be performed in a training exercise – in Russian!

Close by, a shooting range for light weapons (rifles, guns) can be found, again with precise indications on the distances to be taken from the target, marked by colored lines on the ground.

Back to the gate to the military barracks area and stepping inside, among the few surviving buildings is a former gym. Despite used as a storage today, the larger hall is clearly a former volleyball/basketball court. A referee chair is still hanging from the sidewall, and sport-themed frescoes decorate the walls.

Former hangars for trucks or technical vehicles can be found in the eastern part of the former barracks area, similar to traces of a fuel pump. As said, most of the former buildings here are now gone.

A special feature in the barracks area is a manhole with traces of a set of cables, pointing towards the highly secretive and guarded bunker area. Communication is of paramount importance for military practice. In the case of nuclear depots so far away from Moscow, a cable connection was implemented not to loose contact under any circumstances between the Soviet headquarters and this peripheral, yet so valuable facility. Pressurized cables were used, such that when an attempt to severe or intercept cable signals was carried out by the enemy cutting the cable, the external jacket was pierced, a loss of pressure was sensed, and an alarm was triggered immediately. Similarly, in the case of an accidental degeneration of the ground where the cable ran, the pressurized jacket was pierced triggering an alarm, allowing the technicians to repair the cable and restore contact.

An old and forgotten Soviet standard service container, typically transported by truck, can be found close to the manhole totally invaded by vegetation. From here, a view to the perimeter concrete wall around the innermost part of the site can be easily seen, with clear traces of camo paint.

Bunker Area

The area of the bunkers is fortified with a concrete wall with barbed wire on top running along all its perimeter. The size of the bunker is immediately apparent from above – you can look at some aerial pictures from a dedicated flight over the area, see this report. There is a gate connecting it to the barracks area. The only other gate to the bunker area, located north on the other end of the complex, opposite to the first gate, is partially obstructed.

For its entire length, the external wall of the bunker area is almost perfectly preserved, and abundant traces of camouflage can be easily spotted all along.

Inside the wall, you soon find a fence of barbed wire with concrete posts, again standard for Soviet military installations. Some sections of the barbed wire are very well preserved, albeit rusty. The overgrown vegetation looks like the only difference between now and the years when the bunker was in operation!

Inside the barbed wire fence, you find traces of an exceptional system of trenches and turrets, which should have granted protection to the innermost part of the complex – the storage bunkers. There are turrets of many kinds, including one which looks like the dome of a tank, re-used for the purpose – a feature also of the Atlantic Wall and the Salpa Line (see here). Such a degree of protection is extraordinary also with respect to other military installations. Abundant traces of barbed wire-holders along the tranches can be easily spotted. The site was clearly considered as an objective of special value, to be seriously defended in case of an attack from the West.

Close to the center of the large fenced area, you soon reach the bunkers (there are a western and an eastern bunker, described below), which despite being mostly underground, feature a small mound on top which allow spotting them from the distance.

Western Nuclear Storage Bunker

Access for the warheads is at the level of the ground. There are two large tight doors corresponding to the two ends of the main hall of the bunker. Below you can see a 3D sketch of the bunker, from a placard found close to Objekt 4001 (the Lychen bunker), describing the inner layout.

By one of the entrances to the bunker is a small loading/unloading platform for two trucks. The apron connecting the platform to the bunker door used to be covered by prefabricated roof tiles – rich in asbestos – and covered with artificial vegetation, of which some traces remain.

The area is overlooked by a firing turret, seating above the front of the bunker.

The external tight door gives access to an airlock, a small square compartment closed to the opposite end by another identical door. This is explained in view of the need to protect the innermost part of the bunker from attacks by means of high-yield weapons. A similar architecture can be found in a Soviet nuclear depot in Szprotawa, Poland (see this post).

From the airlock you get access to a suspended platform, from which you can appreciate the storage facilities of the bunker. There is a main hall, where the warheads were lowered by means of a motorized crane from the suspended platform down to the underground level. From there, they were moved to one of the four long storage chamber, all accessible on the same side of the main hall.

Temperature and humidity of the main hall and storage rooms were perfectly controlled. Ventilation pipes and an impressive array of hangers for heat exchangers can be seen in the main hall.

Access to the underground floor from the suspended platform is only possible with a ladder, passing through a narrow hatch – as usual, it’s hard to understand why the Russians (or the Germans in this case) built passages so narrow and uncomfortable, considering they are not among the shortest human types on Earth… – see this post for another brilliant example…

The storage rooms are very long, and traces of strongpoints for anchoring the warheads safely on ground can be seen surfacing on the floor. The doors between the main hall and the storage rooms, where present, don’t appear to be tight. Most writing is in Russian, but some labels are in German. This can be explained with the bunkers being realized by GDR personnel, upon requirements by the Soviets.

The blue cabinets and piping in the pictures are part of the warhead monitoring plant. Each warhead – the actual number is part of the mystery, but there used to be several tens of them in each of the two bunkers on site! – was kept in a sealed shell, to keep sensitive nuclear material precisely in the required climatic condition. Constantly checking the condition of the warheads was part of the duty of the bunker personnel. For the task, each warhead was moved to the hall and connected to the piping, to take measurements of temperature, pressure, atmospheric composition and similar parameters. In case of an anomaly, the warhead was resent to a major technical facility in the USSR (in particular, in Belarus for the Stolzenhain warheads), for fixing.

To the opposite end of the main hall from the entrance is another identical entrance, with a suspended platform and an airlock. In the case of this bunker, the most external tight door to the far end has been taken off its hinges and put on the floor, whereas that between the airlock and the main hall has been permanently shut.

Back to the main hall, on the opposite side of the storage rooms on the underground floor, it is possible to access a service area, with several smaller rooms connected by a narrow corridor. The function of each room is not difficult to argue, and looking at some details it is possible to make some easy hypothesis.

Electric actuation for the ventilation system may be the function of a first room.

What looks like a kind of hydraulic pumping/water filtering system is located next door, split over three adjoining rooms. The system has been pulled down to the ground, but it is not severely damaged.

Next you can find a reservoir for water, placed in a room close by, painted in green and highly damaged.

Going further along the corridor, you can find a toilet. Poor drainage – don’t forget this floor is entirely underground – meant that the troops spending their shift in the bunker did not use the toilet much, and climbed out of the bunker for their necessities.

Further on, you can see a room which is probably a sleeping room for the troops stationed inside the bunker. A heat exchanger and traces of a sink on the wall may support this theory. Air ducts leading to the surface can be found in recesses close by.

A room with traces of electric material and an electric panel outside may have been an electric power control facility, maybe even a cable communication facility.

Further on, you get access to a power station, where clear traces of a diesel system for supplying electric energy to the bunker can be found. A big reservoir painted in yellow may have been the diesel fuel tank. A stator of an electrical generator can be seen on the floor. Parts of a diesel engine can be found, and what may have been tanks for lubrication oil can be seen on the walls. As it often happens with defense bunkers – even for larger defensive forts since before WWII – the installation was usually powered from the outside grid in peacetime, but it had to be capable of staying active in case of an attack and failure of the external grid. Hence backup generators can be found in most underground bunkers since the 20th century. Especially in the atomic age, when a nuclear attack on the installation was considered a potential scenario, a stress was put on this type of countermeasure.

The diesel engine is earmarked with a Soviet label, witnessing its origin! Similarly, electric motors and components scattered on ground – part of the ventilation system – are ‘made in CCCP’.

Traces of lubrication oil can be found on panels on the floor. Between the power station and the main corridor, a side door gives access to a ladder going up. This was likely the ‘normal’ pedestrian access to the bunker.

A few more service rooms can be accessed from the main underground hall, through doors on its short sides, under the suspended balconies. There were mechanical workshops, but also facilities for dealing with contaminated or poisonous material, in particular that of nuclear warhead triggers. This is further witnessed by traces in the eastern bunker (see below), and by special valves installed on the ventilation system in those rooms.

Getting out and climbing on top of the bunker, it is possible to spot several air hatches for the ventilation system (including that of the power station), as well as a metal cabin covering the ladder giving access to the service rooms in the bunker – the ‘normal’ pedestrian access cited above.

A loading/unloading facility, larger than the one on the other side and with platforms of different sizes numbered from 1 to 4, can found also by the other gate of the bunker, which as noted is sealed.

Also here, an asbestos-rich roof can be found in the truck docking area, but there is no superstructure covering the apron leading to the door of the bunker.

Eastern Nuclear Storage Bunker

A large concrete road forms an ‘8’ around the two nuclear storage bunkers. The bunkers are identical, but for protection the eastern bunker was built tilted by 90° with respect to the western one – this way, it was not possible with a single attacking wave to hit the entrance gates of both bunkers.

The gate on one end of the bunker has been partially interred. The large apron leading to the truck loading facility is not covered. Traces of a fire emergency system can be found. Many hatches can be seen on top of the bunker, not all well conserved. One of them carries the curious inscription ‘Baku’, the capital city of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, written in Russian – as elsewhere in Soviet military installations, maybe the troops stationed here marked the place with the name of their city of origin (see this post).

The bunker is slightly better preserved than the western one. The motorized cranes can be see on top of the main hall – nominal capacity is 32 tonnes.

The array of heat exchangers for temperature control on the side of the hall is clearly visible. A pressure gauge dates back to 1967. The storage rooms keep trace of a ventilation system, yet today humidity is damaging the inside of the bunker.

An exploration of the service rooms, accessible from the main hall opposite the storage rooms, reveals a water pumping/filtering system and a water tank in their original positions.

The toilet, complete of toilet brush, is placed on top of a platform – the composition is so perfect that it looks like a weird ‘monument to a toilet’!

Here the air pumps are better preserved than the in the western bunker, with fans still in place and air ducts pointing upwards to the roof of the installation.

A room possibly for the shift on duty, with a heat exchanger and sink, features a supporting structure possibly made for beds. The electric panels in the adjoining room confirm its function as a control center for electric supply.

Before reaching the power station at the far end of the service corridor, a side passage gives access to a room with bulky air filters. This looks very similar to the filtering system of other military installations elsewhere – see this post for instance. Big greenish canisters are still there with writings in Russian. These were needed for survival inside the bunker, in case of an attack with nuclear or chemical weapons, which would have made outer air poisonous.

The area of the power station is similar to that in the other bunker, except the diesel engine, which is somewhat in a better shape. A big radiator, looking from an old-style truck, has been put alongside a large fan. More radiators can be found in the room, which is also stuffed with air ducts in a bad shape and tanks.

The smaller service rooms accessible from below the suspended platforms are basically empty, except one with a transparent case, likely for manipulating poisonous material. This was required for older-style nuclear bomb triggers. Soon after the bunker was built, triggers were redesigned, and this room with its facilities was no longer needed. Holes for thick rubber gloves, and even remains of the gloves themselves, can be clearly spotted. The ventilation system in this room features particular valves.

Outside on the far end you can find a docking station for trucks. This has been used more recently as a deposit for asbestos tiles, and venturing should be avoided. On top of the bunker, the metal case with the ladder descending into the underground part, as well as the ladder itself, have been demolished to hamper access.

Other Buildings

In the premises of the fortified bunker area are also other smaller service buildings. Their function is hard to guess at a first glance. Most of them display writings in Cyrillic.

One of these smaller constructions contained ‘poisoning charges’. These were special ‘weapons’ which could be put on the shell of the warhead and, when triggered, were capable of making it totally inert and ineffective. This was an extreme emergency move, in case a capture of the nuclear warheads was deemed possible due to enemy action. The name of the person responsible for this special action is painted on the gate of the storage.

A low-profile building with a curved roof, not far from a softer construction dating to the 1970s, looks larger and with a mainly pedestrian access. This was a storage for light weapons.

Turrets and defensive buildings are abundant, and all are connected by concrete roads which look pretty good in spite of the decades of disrepair.

Closer to the wall of the inner part, hatches giving access to underground bunkers can be spotted, when exploring with accuracy. These underground bunkers, service rooms or resting rooms for the many troops constantly guarding this installation, are of different size.

A first one, rather convenient, is made of concrete. Nothing remains inside, except traces of a Soviet-style electric plant, made with a questionable safety standard…

Another is made of prefabricated corrugated tubes, with a sealed entry hatch. This is rather well-preserved, with berths, a stove and a small living area, all accessible via a corridor from the outside.

Finally, close to the barracks area described above, but still inside of the innermost part of the installation, is the access to another underground bunker. Here many smaller rooms, including communication rooms of great importance for triggering actions in the bunker area, are located along a straight tunnel. In the origin, the tunnel went all the way to the barracks area, passing under the fences and wall separating it from the innermost bunker area. The outer entrance was clearly deceived for improved safety, and today it is totally gone.

Getting there & moving around

As the place is private property, no detail will be provided concerning access. Moving around the area is dangerous, due to difficulty of access, proximity with local activities and residents, bad phone signal for emergency, plus tons of rusting material, barbed wire, pits, pierces in the ground, asbestos, slippery soil, etc. scattered over the area. The bunkers are wet and completely dark inside. Obviously, the fact that nuclear ordnance and diesel fuel used to be stored there does not help making the place healthier.

That said, the place is in a fairly good shape for the age and vicissitudes, and hopefully it will be at least partly restored and opened to the public in the future, once suitably sanitized.

If you are interested in a legit visit of a Monolith-type bunker, you may consider going to Podborsko in nearby Poland. See this post for pictures and info.

Objekt 4001 – Lychen-2

The Lychen bunker was built on a design basically identical to that of Objekt 4000. The only difference was the orientation, this time along an almost east-western direction, with the ‘softer part’ towards the east and the bunkers to the west.

Historical pictures – actually, even from the early 2010s, when the installation was still mostly untouched – show a very peculiar monument with the head of Lenin and other emblems, marking the entrance to the bunker area.

Today this installation has been completely wiped out. All soft constructions have been demolished, and the ground has been leveled – there is basically no trace of them at all. The monument is gone too. The turrets and protection systems have totally disappeared, similarly to the truck loading and unloading stations.

Even more surprising is the great care taken to make all walls and fences disappear completely. There are no walls, nor barbed wire fences. What you can still – barely – spot is where the external wall and inner fence used to be, as vegetation has not yet covered the perimeter.

Looking with great care, and knowing where it used to be, if you are lucky you may find scant remains of barbed wire on the ground.

Instead, the concrete access road and inner service roads are still there. In the middle of the ‘8’ shaped road around the two bunkers, a placard with information has been put by the regional administration. The placard concludes saying that being there should ‘provoke thoughts’ – for instance, why wasn’t this installation preserved somehow for posterity, instead of leaving it slip into oblivion?

The bunkers, made to withstand a nuclear blast, are too expensive to be demolished. However, the doors have been completely sealed and covered with land and concrete. The camouflaged concrete fronts of the bunkers are the most visible trace of Objekt 4001.

On top of the bunkers some metal ventilation hatches appear to have resisted the demolition works. More interestingly, the metal cabin with the ladder for pedestrian access has been demolished, and access blocked with a concrete slab in both bunkers. In the southern bunker the concrete slab has been broken recently, and maybe a difficult access re-opened. However, this is not practicable if you are traveling alone – and is extremely dangerous in all other cases.

Getting there & moving around

Going to Lychen-2 is easy from the small nice town of Himmelpfort, about 1 hour driving north of downtown Berlin, in the heart of the natural preserve and nice tourist district of Oberhavel.

An access road is marked on the map attached to this post. You may see the Lychen-2 bunker from the satellite map, just north of the road, at the level of the launch platform for the SS-4 Sandal marked as ‘Furstenberg’. The latter post lists also several other Soviet-related destinations in the area, which may be more rewarding than Lychen-2. The (once) prominent secret Soviet base of Vogelsang (see this post) is also a highlight of the area, despite significant demolition works having taken place also recently, pushing also that part of the story towards oblivion.

Berlin Airlift 70th Anniversary Celebrations in Schleswig-Jagel

The blockade imposed by Stalin on the jointly administrated city of Berlin in the spring of 1948 dissipated any doubts on the post-WWII attitude of the Soviet Union towards their former allies in the west. The ensuing joint effort to support the trapped population of Berlin resulted in one of the major airlift operations in history – the Berlin Airlift, or Luftbrücke in German language. In June 2019, 70 years after the end of the blockade, Germany hosted a great celebration for the anniversary of this vital operation.

History – in Brief

The blockade started slowly, with trains crossing the Soviet occupied territory – soon to become administrated as a new state, the communist German Democratic Republic – between Berlin and western Germany forced to stop and go back, truck routes closed, increased controls at border checkpoints. In early summer, the city was completely isolated from the west.

The Soviets tried to motivate the move with treaty violations by the western forces, but this did not receive much credit by the administration of President Truman in the US, nor in Britain, France, or the occupied territories of western Germany. To mitigate the lack of coal, food, drugs and other goods of primary use for the local population, the joint forces of the United States, Britain, France, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand set up a massive airlift under the coordination of the US military.

Over roughly a year more than 275’000 flights were carried out, mainly between three airfields in the territory of western Germany – Jagel, Fassberg and Wiesbaden – occupied by the western Allies, to Berlin Tempelhof downtown airport (see this post), as well as other land and water bases in the cut-off urban area. These were operated with a variety of transport aircraft, including Douglas C-47 and C-54 twin and four-propeller cargo planes manufactured in the US, as well as several British models, including some Shorts seaplanes.

Stalin opted to avoid an escalation. The blockade was finally lifted by the Soviets on May 12, 1949. The situation was stabilized with the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany in the west, and of the opposing German Democratic Republic in the east, later the same year. The western sectors of Berlin were to remain an enclave of the free world deep in the communist bloc for slightly more than another 40 years, when the GDR – aka DDR in German language – finally ceased to exist, and the re-unification started.

A great museum tracing the history of the presence of the western Allies in Berlin, telling the history of the Airlift in great detail, is the Allied Museum (website here) in the former US sector of Berlin-Zehlendorf.

70th Anniversary Celebrations in Germany

In 2019 the 70th year since the end of the blockade, lifted as a result of the airlift effectively sustaining the population of Berlin for an entire year, was celebrated with the patronage of the German government with a series of unique aircraft-related events. The most prominent were a few formation flights of an incredible group of historical aircraft, between the airfields formerly used as supply bases for the airlift.

One of these, the still-active military airfield of Jagel, in Schleswig-Holstein some 60 miles north of Hamburg, hosted a ‘spotter day’ on June 13th, 2019, when a few hundreds photographers were admitted for the whole day on the premises of the airbase, to assist to the landing, departure and flypast of a fleet of nine Douglas C-47, a major workhorse in the days of the airlift.

This marked possibly the largest grouping of such historic aircraft in Europe since many years. But what made the event even more unique – besides the weather, incredibly mild for the region… – was the origin of the aircraft, which except for one are all based in the US. They crossed the Atlantic once more to parade in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day in Normandy, attended also by President Trump and Charles, Prince of Wales. A few days after, they toured Germany for the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.

Besides the commemoration flight, normal flying activity was carried out during the spotter day around the airbase, so this was a good chance to assist to flight operations by Tornados and Typhoons of the German Air Force, as well as other military aircraft.

Historical Flight – Fly-in

A single C-47 arrived earlier than all others, anticipating the massive fly-in of the full wing of Douglas C-47 twin-prop liners. Later on, a flypast all Skytrains to take part in the event started from the east of the field. The aircraft then landed one by one, taxied ahead of the photographers and after a stop of a few hours, took off in a row for another location in Germany.

US Air Force C-47A/DC-3C ‘Miss Virginia’

The first aircraft to come was ex-USAAF 43-30655, built in 1943 as a military C-47A. The aircraft fell in private hands in the 1970s, after yeast stored in Arizona, when it was converted into an DC-3C, an energized version of the original 1930s design. It spent the 1980s in Colombia, then returned to the US as a utility aircraft. It was finally acquired for restoration and given the nice US Air Mobility Command colors it bears today. It flies with the civilian registration N47E.

Golden Age Tours C-41A

This incredible aircraft, now in civilian hands since long, is a unique example of an executive version of the original 1935 DC-3. Built in 1938, it entered military service soon after as a private flight for Maj. General Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold – an instrumental figure in the reorganization of the US military forces upon the early 1940s. It went on keeping its original executive configuration, and today it is lent out for special flights and for filming purposes from its base near San Francisco, CA. It bears the civilian registration N341A.

USAAF C-47A 43-30647 ‘Virginia Ann’

This aircraft was in service with the USAAF since 1943. It took part to the D-Day operations with the name ‘Virginia Ann’, but was put on storage soon after WWII. It later went to private owners and was based in many domestic locations, including being part of the famous Planes of Fame collection in Chino, CA (see this post). Today it is still based on the West Coast, with the registration N62CC.

Chalair C-47B

This C-47B was built among the latest in May 1945. It was surplus for the USAAF soon after WWII, so it joined the Royal Air Force inventory, and from there it left for Canada, where it enjoyed many years of service as a VIP transport in the Royal Canadian Air Force until the 1970s. It reportedly served as a Royal Flight for the Queen of England during a visit to Canada. After withdrawal from active service and changing hands several times in Canada, it was finally acquired in France and totally restored in the late 2000s. It flies with the registration F-AZOX.

Johnson Flying Service, Inc. C-47 ‘Miss Montana’

This incredible aircraft was built soon after the WWII, and as many other surplus C-47, it moved to the civilian market. This aircraft was used in firefighting operations over the Northern Rockies, and was even involved in a tragic accident, crashing in the water causing fatalities. It was drawn back to a second life through the effort of the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula, Montana, where it is based now, with the registration N24320.

Legend Airways C-47D/DC-3C ‘Liberty’

A true combat veteran of WWII, this aircraft was pressed into service with the USAAF in mid-1943, and took part in operations in Algeria and the Mediterranean, as well as the D-Day in Normandy, where it sustained direct hits from German anti-aircraft guns. Soon after the turbulent war years, after returning to the US it fell into private hands in the south as a corporate transport. It kept the role, undergoing several upgrades, until it was finally acquired for a lavish restoration and cabin refurbishment, which gave it its current appearance. It is based in Colorado, where it is being operated for pleasure flights and filming, with the registration N25641.

Pan American Airways System C-47B/DC-3

This aircraft had an adventurous history between its entry into service in 1944 and the early 1950s. It was originally allocated to the Chinese National Aviation Corporation, which in the war years carried out covert flights over a route known as the ‘hump’. These allowed resupply of Chinese forces from the British Empire in India, through resupply flights over the high peaks of western Tibet. This aircraft flew on that very dangerous route, until the breakdown of the Japanese forces and the end of WWII. As the Chinese National Aviation Corporation reverted back to normal operations, this aircraft was turned into a commuter between Hong-Kong and Canton. In the meanwhile, Mao Tse-Tung communist revolution subjugated China overturning the government. The new dictatorship tried to grab as many aircraft as possible, which in the meanwhile tried to escape from the country, assisted by western powers. This very aircraft, after some years on ground in China, was finally allowed to leave for the US, where it arrived in 1953. Since then it was refurbished as a corporate aircraft, and enjoyed a long career, being finally restored with a VIP internal layout and carefully reconstructed 1953 on-board systems. It is registered as N877MG.

USAAF C-47DL 43-15087

The aircraft you see flying is indeed a WWII veteran, but not with the colors you see today. The number 43-15087 on the tail refers to a C-47 which actually took part to the operations over Normandy on June 6th, 1944. But the airframe you actually see entered service with the USAAF as a personnel transport in North Africa and the Middle East in 1943. It then went to the Armee de l’Air in France, then to civilian operators in France and back in the US after the 1960s. There it was later restored and changed livery several times for special occasions, like the 75th anniversary of the D-Day – the ‘9X-P’ designation you see now. It is based in Texas, with the US registration N150D.

USAAF C-47 42-26044 ‘Placid Lassie’

Pressed into service in the summer of 1943, this aircraft is a true combat veteran, having flown on June 6th, 1944 over Normandy, and in September 1944 for several times over Flanders during the ill-fated operation ‘Market Garden’. It then went on as a civilian transport in the continental US. After years spent in disrepair, it was drawn back to life in the 2000s, and is now flown by a foundation dedicated to the crew of ‘1D-N’ during WWII.

German Air Force Aircraft

As the historical flight performed basically a fly-in and fly-out, in the few hours between them the aircraft of the German Air Force – the Luftwaffe – and of the Navy – the Marine – based at Jagel flew for the public. There were also German aircraft taken there in preparation for the day of the Armed Forces – Tag des Bundeswehr – to be celebrated the following week-end with an open day of the base.

Jagel is the home base for the Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 51 ‘Immelmann’, which currently operates the Panavia Tornado. These massive swing-wing aircraft flew in several time slots during the spotter day.

Small formations demonstrated refueling abilities.

Some passages were performed at high speed, with maximum sweep.

One of the aircraft has been painted in a flamboyant celebration livery, with the portrait of Max Immelman, a German WWI ace, on the vertical tail.

Another impressive performance was given by a Eurofighter Typhoon, a massive delta-winged twin-jet with a tail-less, all-moving canard configuration. This compares well in size with the Super Hornet – a pretty massive attack aircraft.

This very aircraft is from the Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 31 ‘Boelcke’, based in Nörvenich.

At some point in the day, there was a flypast of a single Lockheed P-3 Orion, on strength to the German Navy – Marine. On its double passage it was possible to see the large racks for sonobuoys under the belly of this four-propeller aircraft.

There were also exhibitions by some rotorcrafts, including a huge Sikorsky CH-53G, an Airbus H145 and a larger NH-90, the most modern of the three. The very dark camo livery made them pretty difficult to photograph, despite a rather wide zoom lens I was using for the task.

Finally, a pretty rare aircraft, albeit possibly not so eye-catching, a single Dornier Do-28 military light transport landed in the evening.

Visiting Aircraft from Other Countries

Other aircraft landed and departed from the base, some possibly in preparation for the Tag des Bundeswehr to be held a couple of days later. These aircraft were not from Germany.

First, two more Tornadoes of the Italian Air Force landed at some point, and posed for photographers. They belong to the 6° Stormo ‘Diavoli Rossi’, based at Ghedi. A small devil’s face is painted on the vertical tail of these aircraft.

A SAAB JAS-39 Gripen of the Hungarian Air Force, in a twin-seat configuration, landed soon after.

A single Aero L-159 Alca of the Czech Air Force appeared at some point.

An Antonov An-26 of the Hungarian Air Force landed and later departed. An iconic Soviet-made transport, this sturdy workhorse is still flying in many Countries, both for the Armed Forces and for civilian operators as well.

A single Pilatus PC-9 of the private company Qinetiq made an appearance.

Finally, two pretty rare Douglas A4 belonging to the Canadian private training company Jet Aces landed and taxied for the photographers, one of them in a rather eye-catching NATO anniversary commemoration livery.

Final Note

The Marine base of Schleswig-Jagel where this event took place was originally a Luftwaffe airfield, operated by the British military during the Berlin Airlift and until the early Sixties, and later handed over to the Federal Republic of Germany. It is still today an active airbase. There is no public access except on special occasions.

WWI Battlefields – Somme, Arras and Ypres

Historians defined World War I as the first ‘worldwide conflict’. There is probably no better place to appreciate the multi-ethnic provenance of the two opposing formations than in the region between Amiens, France and Ypres, Belgium.

Along this sector of the front, which did not move much between 1914 and 1918, Germany alone fought against the allied forces of France and their mainly African colonies, Belgium and the British Empire, which included Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, India, Bermuda, Rhodesia, New Zealand and Australia. Even the Army of South Africa found its way to the battlefield of the Somme in 1916, and the United States contributed to the last battle of Ypres and to the final rush against the German positions in 1918.

The contributions of all these Nations are remarkably represented by memorials and war cemeteries, which since then point the map of this area remembering the history of those fateful years and the fierce battles which took place – most notably the Battle of the Somme, the three Battles of the Artois with the Battle of the Vimy Ridge, and the five Battles of Ypres.

The fury of the Somme offensive, which took place between July and November 1916 and procured 1.1 million casualties – including more than 300’000 killed – on both sides, meant the region is particularly dense in memorials, which in some instances include little sections of the once extensive labyrinth of trenches. Due to the quality of the soil, these trenches have largely disappeared here, differently from the case of the region of the St. Mihiel salient, south of Verdun (see this post). Besides the overwhelmingly high cost in lives of the few miles of terrain gained by the Entente, this battle is famous also for the first ever use of tanks.

The battles of the Artois for the control of the area north of Arras were fought between 1915 and 1917, and here was recorded one of the top average deaths-per-day rates of the war, in the order of 4’000 on the side of the Entente.

The town of Ypres found itself on the line of the front from the first offensive of the Germans, when they tried – and failed – to reach for the coast of the North Sea in 1914. The region south of there saw continuous action until the final ‘100 days’ campaign of 1918, which actually broke the German lines and convinced the Kaiser to withdraw his troops, putting and end to the war. Ypres is mostly famous for the first ever use of lethal gas to drive enemy soldiers out of the trenches. More than 400’000 soldiers were killed on that sector of the line of the front, during at least five massive operations scattered over four years of war.

This chapter presents some notable war sites in this extensive region, which is easily accessible between Paris and Brussels, and today well prepared for tourism and very nice to visit – a pleasant countryside with many small and picturesque villages. Photographs were taken in 2016, during the first centennial of the Offensive of the Somme.

Map

Instead of looking how to reach for each site listed below in its dedicated section, you can find here a comprehensive map where you can see their respective locations at a glance. None of these sites is difficult to reach, provided you have a car – the most time-effective way to move around in that region. You can find a parking nearby each point of interest.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Sights in the Somme

The battlefield of the Somme Offensive stretches roughly over a triangle between Amiens, Bapaume and Peronne. The offensive took place between July and November 1916, and was conceived to decrease the pressure of the Germans in the area of Verdun further southeast, where the French were facing the mighty blows of the German war machine. This offensive was operated by the British and French on two split parts of the sector.

This battle is among the most famous in WWI due to several reasons. One is the atrocious death toll on both sides in face of the very little motion of the front line, which was pushed some miles towards the east. It was also the first battle where the Kitchener’s Army saw serious combat – this name is attributed to the corps of the British Army formed as a result of the recruiting effort of the ministry of war of the time, Lord Kitchener, soon after the first phases of WWI. These mainly very young, non-professional soldiers participated in the thousands in this bloody offensive.

After the offensive, the front line remained stable roughly until 1918, with hostilities lasting in the area until the end of the war.

There are many commemorative monuments, cemeteries and museums on the area of the battlefield. A nice institutional website made for tourists and listing many sights is here. Further information on the British website here. I suggest devoting at least a full day moving around the area with a car without the need to rush. Most sites are open 24 hours, while museums and documentation sites clearly have opening times. The following are just some major sites which are surely worth visiting in this region.

Museum ‘Somme 1916’, Albert

This is the ideal starting point for the exploration of the battlefield of the Somme. The small town of Albert is just where the line of the front ran at the beginning of the battle of 1916. This proximity meant the village was on the line of fire of the artillery of both Germany and the Entente. As a result the village was largely destroyed during the war. The museum has been built in a tunnel under the local church, rebuilt in the 1920s. The tunnel was dug as an air shelter in the 1930s, in preparation for another war soon to strike in the region…

The exhibition has three highlights. The first is a vivid reconstruction of several portions of the trenches on the sides of the two opponents. Some special features including optical equipment and weapons of the respective formations are displayed. Shelters, medical rooms and firing positions are all part of the tour. Germany and the British Empire are especially represented, for together with the French on a lesser scale, they were the most involved in this bloody battle.

A map of the battle and some ‘war bulletins’ telling the number of shells shot and the number of casualties help understanding the huge cost of every inch of terrain gained by the Entente during the four months of the offensive.

Secondarily, many items left behind from the days of operations have been collected and are showcased. These include many weapons and shells, plus material dug out from the ground, like helmets, knives, pots, buckles, tags and even still branded canned food!

A collection of different fuses illustrates the many possible functions of the shells.

The third interesting feature of this place is of course a very realistic reinstatement – with lights and sounds – of the ‘environment’ of a trench during war operations. This is impossible to capture in pictures, but it is designed very well and makes for a very evocative introduction to a visit of the area.

The museum has its own website here.

Lochnagar Mine Crater, Boisselle

The first and most spectacular phase of the Somme Offensive was probably its very beginning. During the months preceding the attack – starting early in the morning of July 1st, 1916 – the British prepared a series of underground tunnels, coming close to the German positions, and stored a number of colossal mines there. The attack began at 7.00 am, with a shelling over the German positions so intense that it was heard in London. About 30 minutes in this firestorm, 19 mines placed beneath the German lines were detonated within a couple of minutes.

The first of these mines was responsible for the Lochnagar crater, about 450 ft across and 220 ft deep, and obtained firing some 27 tonnes of explosive! At the time it was the most intense and loudest ordnance ever fired. Today you can still appreciate the size of the crater as you walk all around it.

Pozières

A group of interesting memorials is located around the village of Pozières, which was geographically in the center of intense action. A small memorial of New Zealand can be found nearby the former place of observation bunker called ‘Gibraltar’. Only part of the foundations of this observation post can be seen today.

Another sight is the local Australian memorial, and the unusual memorial of the British Tank Corps, with miniature models of the tanks used in the battle.

Only about 30 tanks could take part to the offensive. Used in action nearby here for the first time in history, while possibly not decisive in this particular battle, tanks undeniably confirmed their potential in breaking through the enemy lines, without fearing the barbed wire obstacles and machine gun fire. Tanks were soon to be developed further, and participated in the last offensives of the war in the hundreds.

London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval

This cemetery is mainly dedicated to the British soldiers of the ‘London’ Division, mainly responsible for the conquer of the High Wood, a fiercely contended group of trees placed on top of a low hill, taken and lost several times in the battle of 1916. It is one of the largest among the many war cemeteries in the region.

It is composed of a smaller part built soon after the Somme Offensive, and of an extension added around the original nucleus, for more graves which came later during the war. Looking at the graves it is possible to notice that many of the soldiers buried there are unidentified – ‘A Soldier Known Unto God’ is the inscription you find often times.

The cemetery was enlarged again years later after WWII, as more British soldiers were lost in the war against Hitler’s Germany in the area.

Delville Wood South African National Memorial, Longueval

This memorial has been erected in the 1920s on a land assigned in perpetuity to South Africa by the French government of the time. The memorial is the main WWI monument to the Army of South Africa in Europe, commemorating their service and the death of more than 10’000 throughout the war.

A British cemetery can be found cross the road, facing the South African monument, where a further memorial to the troops of New Zealand can be reached nearby following the local indications.

Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval

The grandest memorial in the battlefield of the Somme, Thiepval was completed in the early 1930s and inaugurated by the Prince of Wales and the president of France to commemorate the soldiers of the British Empire who died in the area and whose burial site is unknown. More than 72’000 names are graven on the sides of the memorial.

The memorial serves as a joint French-British monument, and a number of soldiers of both nationalities are buried nearby.

Close to the memorial there is an interesting documentation site, with a very vivid and modern pictorial reconstruction of the trenches.

The location on top of a hill on the very battlefield of the Somme Offensive makes this place really evocative, notwithstanding the many tourists.

Auchonvillers

Not far from Thiepval it is possible to find the village of Auchonvillers, where on private land – actually in the garden of a local teahouse – there is a small part of a preserved covered trench.

In the vicinity of the village it is easy to spot the Ulster Tower. This was built in the 1920s to commemorate the contribution of the ‘Ulster’ Division of Northern Ireland, and is an almost exact copy of a tower in Bangor, Ulster.

Not far between Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel, one of the countless smaller monuments is a Celtic Cross bearing the inscription ‘Cruachan’, the war cry of the Campbell clan. It commemorates a number of Scottish Divisions fighting in the battle.

The Newfoundland Memorial Park, Beaumont-Hamel

This is one of the largest preserved trenches of the Somme area, and one of the only two Canadian historic landmarks out of mainland Canada. The park has original trenches on display, some of them preserved, some today barely visible. The site commemorates the action of the Newfoundland Regiment, which had one of the highest casualties tolls of the war, being reduced to less than 20% in the first day of combat during the Battle of the Somme – almost 700 casualties.

A 1:1 size statue of a caribou, the mascot of that territory which at the time was not part of Canada, is prominently standing on top of a hill in the park. Scattered around are other monuments, two small cemeteries and the ‘Danger Tree’, a copy of a dead tree originally standing there and helping the German artillery adjusting the sight and better directing their fire, thus causing more casualties in the nearby spot.

Red Baron’s Crash Site, Vaux sur Somme

The site of the crash of Manfred von Richtofen, aka ‘The Red Baron’, is in a field nearby Vaux sur Somme.

There is only a small placard on the road, remembering the fatal crash due to Australian machine gunfire. This happened in April 1918 though, much after the end of the Somme Offensive in summer-fall 1916.

Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux

This is the main commemoration site of the Australian troops in WWI in Europe. It was erected here due to the proximity with the sector of the front assigned to Australia during and after the offensive of 1916. A successful battle was fought there in 1918, in the final months of the war.

It was the last major commemorative monument to be completed in the area, being unveiled in the late 1930s at the presence of King George VI. Also men from the air force are commemorated and buried there. The names of thousands of soldiers without a grave are listed on the sides of the monument.

While the architecture was somewhat contested at the time, the location is gorgeous, overlooking the southern area of the battlefield of the Somme. The monument was hit during WWII, and traces of the bullets can be seen on the side slabs of the monument.

Australian Corps Memorial, Le Hamel

This monument commemorates the effort of the forces of the Entente in the battle taking place here in summer 1918, when the war was still fiercely raging in the area notwithstanding the approaching end. The monument has been erected close to a small section of trenches, of which traces can be seen nearby. Flags of some of the participants to the struggle on the side of the Entente are present.

When I visited there were some poppies in a field nearby the monument. Poppy flowers, rather common in the region, were the only flowers on the devastated no man’s land between the adversary trenches. These flowers came to represent the sacrifice especially of the British soldiers, and the poppy was adopted as an official symbol of war veterans in the 1920s.

Sights in the Artois

The French city Arras in the heart of the region of the Artois found itself on the front line as it got stabilized already in 1914. Three bloody offensives which caused the French huge losses were launched in the region in 1915. The front moved a few miles forth and back, without any decisive breakthrough on either side. In April 1917 a major battle was fought in the area, which led to the conquer of the Vimy Ridge. At that time, the British had taken over responsibility for that sector of the front. The area is especially famous for the underground tunnels, dug by both opponents to place mines and for sheltering and storage purposes, thanks to the soft chalky soil typical of the region.

Wellington Quarry, Arras

These tunnels were carved in central Arras mainly by men of the New Zealand Tunneling Company, who included enlisted natives from the Pacific islands. Works were started from an existing quarry. Some areas are really spacious, while parts of the extensive tunnel network are narrow and made only for trolleys. Original inscriptions can be seen on the walls, as well as everyday items collected by archaeologists.

The quarry is managed by a local society and can be visited on guided tours. Full information here.

Memorial and Commemorative Park, Vimy

This large area, now belonging to Canada, surrounds the Vimy Ridge, where the homonym battle was fought in 1917, leading to the conquer of this piece of territory by the Entente. Actually, the uncontested protagonists of this offensive were the Canadian Divisions. Many soldiers coming from different territories of Canada overwhelmed the German defenses in a well prepared and coordinated attack. Together with the Newfoundland memorial in the Somme (see above), these are the only two Canadian national landmarks outside of mainland Canada. There is a visitor center with Canadian Rangers, offering information and guided tours.

A first part of the site is composed of a preserved group of trenches, which are partly open-air and partly underground. The extensive network of tunnels in the area was prepared in advance, and provided a protected area for billeting troops as well as for storing materials, goods and medical facilities. Visiting the underground part is possible only on guided tours.

Surface trenches are have been refurbished, but the majority of the grounds are preserved in the sense that nobody is allowed to walk on them, also for the very high danger bound to unexploded ordnance – warning signs can be found almost everywhere. You can still see strange grooves in the ground, either grenade craters or trenches.

The most visible part of the site is the Vimy Memorial, built right on top the Vimy Ridge and inaugurated in the mid 1930s by King Edward VIII and the French president. It commemorates the service of the Canadian Divisions in Europe during WWI. Thousands of names of Canadian soldiers lost and whose burial is unknown are listed on the monument, which is a fine example of architecture from the time.

German War Cemetery, Saint-Laurent-Blangy, Arras

Despite the most visited are the war memorials and the annexed cemeteries of the Entente, all along the front are also a number of German war cemeteries. One is located close by a more apparent British cemetery northeast of Arras, along a road called Chemin de Bailleul.

The smaller number of cemeteries and an equal number of soldiers killed meant German war cemeteries are more crowded. In this small cemetery about 22’000 mostly unknown soldiers are buried. Some of the gravestones tell about the Jewish ethnicity of some of these German soldiers.

Sights around Ypres

Moving north from the Somme along the line of the front, passing Arras and crossing the border with Belgium, the very nice and relaxing countryside would not easily recall the deadly battles fought in the area during the full scope of WWI. The city of Ypres was involved in five great offensives between 1914 and 1918 – sometimes associated also to other ‘official names’ by historians – and similarly the salient to the east and south of the town, stretching over the Flanders region to the border with France, was fiercely contended for the duration of the war.

‘In Flanders Fields’ Museum, Ypres

An excellent starting point for the exploration of the WWI sites around Ypres is this modern museum, located in the central square of the beautiful medieval town of Ypres. Actually, the exhibition can be found in a medieval building once hosting a kind of stock exchange, among the oldest in the world.

The museum starts from setting the scene and telling about WWI. Further on, the focus is on the German offensive in Belgium in 1914, and the actions around the town of Ypres, where French, Belgian, British and later American forces were active against the Army of the Kaiser.

The museum is very modern, you are given a special bracelet giving access to multimedia explanations along the self guided tour. Visiting may take more than 1 hour if this is the first site of the kind you are visiting, may be less if you go with some preparation concerning WWI facts in the area. Full information here.

Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres

The Menin Gate was originally one of the gates of the town of Ypres, fortified by Vauban in the 17th century, along the road going to the village of Menen. Incidentally, this was the gate through which many of the soldiers billeted in Ypres and going to the trenches nearby were to walk through. The location was chosen to be transformed into a memorial for the troops of the British Empire. This was unveiled in the 1920s, and more than 54’000 names of soldiers of the British Empire lost in the battles around the Ypres salient without a grave are listed.

A short commemoration ceremony – the ‘Last Post’ ceremony – is celebrated every evening at 8 pm by the gate.

British War Cemeteries, Ypres

Similar to the battlefield of the Somme, many war cemeteries can be found in the region around Ypres. At least one of them can be found in the medieval town, with a scenic view of the moat running around the ancient fort. As typical, some graves belong to unidentified soldiers.

Memorial Museum ‘Passchendaele 1917’, Zonnebeke

The battle of Passchendaele was an offensive carried out by the forces of the British Empire with the support of the French between July and November 1917. Often identified as the Third Battle of Ypres, it turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles on this front, where a gain of around five miles in favor of the Entente was paid with about 520’000 casualties, equally shared between the two opponents.

In the town of Zonnebeke it is possible to find a very well designed museum and memorial of this battle. Besides showing the facts of the battle and the devastating effects in the area, the museum has on display a huge collection of original war equipment, including an incredible collection of different types of shells.

Another uncommon sight is typical WWI gear – gas masks. As a matter of fact, Ypres is associated to the first ever use of poisonous gas in military history. This is not accurate, since poisonous gases had been used in more instances since ages, and actually had been banned by international agreements in the early 20th century. Furthermore, the first irritant gases was used with limited effects by both the French and Germans earlier in 1914. Yet it was during the Second Battle of Ypres in April-May 1915 that the Germans attacked with a specifically designed and mass-scale produced chlorine gas, turning what had been an expedient into a new substantial part of their arsenal. Chlorine gas, with a distinctive brownish appearance, is very effective against the lungs and other mucosa membranes, and being heavier than air it forced men to leave the trenches where it had been poured.

Soon after the introduction of lethal gas by the Germans, the Entente started producing similar weapons. More and more gases were experimented with, but also the corresponding countermeasures. Gas masks became part of the regular equipment of soldiers since the first attacks. These were very effective too, but filters were made to measure with respect to specific gases, so they had to evolve as new gases were used. Furthermore, gas masks were heavy, they limited sight and motion, and made breathing much more difficult. Plus they did not offer protection against skin burning gases. So, while casualties due to gas attacks turned out to be high but not outrageous at least in face of what had been expected by their designers, the use of gas contributed in changing the face of the war, and made things harder especially for the morale of the troops, which started feeling much more vulnerable even when crouched in their trenches.

In the museum you can see a collection of original models of gas masks, and you are provided a description of the appearance, effects and even a reproduction of the smell of the most widespread gases used during WWI. There are also reconstructed dugouts and underground shelters where you can move in, to experience their small size.

The open-air part offers a reconstruction of a section of the original system of trenches, including some typical features like wooden or metal reinforcements. Many interesting technical details are provided during the visit.

There is also an American prefabricated house from the time, representing many similar items which were provided by the US following the end of WWI to help civilians after the devastation brought by the war in the area.

This very nice and modern museum is very easily accessible, full information here.

Tyne Cot War Cemetery, Zonnebeke

This is one of the largest war cemeteries of the British Empire in the world, totaling more 11’900 graves from WWI. The majority of these men were lost during the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917. Before completion of its monumental part, the site was visited by King George V back in the early 1920s.

The walls of the cemetery include two blockhouses, originally parts of the German rear lines and conquered during the actions of 1917. The place is associated also to a small and modern visitor center. Website here.

German Trenches ‘Bayernwald’, Heuvelland

This open-air park is centered on a section of refurbished and preserved trenches of the German Army, originally occupied by the divisions of Bayern. Not far from this site it is possible to see the craters of two German mines.

The site is really interesting to visit. Entrance is at a small fee, but tickets are on sale by the local Tourist Office in the small village of Kemmel, about four miles from the actual site.

Along the road connecting the two, it is possible to spot a memorial for the troops of two American Divisions who fought in this area.

Christmas Truce Memorial, Comines-Warneton

This site is just one of the points where this unique event took place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914. In the days before Christmas, the Germans had started putting candles on the rims of the trenches and singing carols, which were heard by the British, who on their turn started singing similar carols in their language. An unofficial de facto ceasefire became effective, during which soldiers from both sides started fraternizing, taking pictures of each other, exchanging trinkets and even playing football. Some corpses were removed from no man’s land by both opposing formations. There was no artillery fire in many sectors of the front, especially those around Ypres.

This happened only in 1914 though, when it was thought at least among the troops on both parts, that the war would not last long. Later in 1915 actions started getting bloodier and it was realized that the war would cost much more and would last much longer than expected, and even this little shred of humanity was lost in the firestorms.

What you see is just a preserved piece of opposed trenches, really close to each other in this sector, and a British war cemetery nearby.

Ploegsteert Memorial and ‘Plugstreet 14-18 Experience’, Ploegsteert

This nice commemorative monument of the British was built for the more than 11’000 soldiers lost in the nearby sector of the front between 1914 and 1918 whose burial site is unknown. A Last Post ceremony is held here once per week.

Besides the museum there is a small war cemetery and a modern documentation center, mainly centered on multimedia exhibits telling the facts of this sector of the front in WWI, and trying to describe the everyday experience of those fighting in the trenches. Full website here.

Not far north, moving towards the border Ypres, it is possible to spot the Irish Peace Tower of Messines, built close to the homonym ridge where a battle was fought. This tower commemorates the sacrifice of those from the Irish Island in WWI. It was unveiled in 1998 at the presence of the Queen Elizabeth II, the President of Ireland and the King of Belgium. The design recalls that of a round tower, some of which can be found in Ireland. The stones for construction were transported from the ‘Green Island’.

Extra feature: WWI Commemoration Monument, Detmold, Germany

Touring the nice city of Detmold, not far west from Hannover, I could spot a commemorative monument to the local division of the German Army, dedicated to the soldiers killed in action during WWI. Many campaigns named after the homonym sites in northern France and Belgium are listed on the sides of the monument.

Places with a Soviet Flavor in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is one of the two ‘big cities’ in Russia which you’ll likely be touching during your visit to this great Country, and probably among the most tourist-friendly in this part of the world. There are tons of sights to see for anyone with an interest in art, architecture, history, fashion, shopping, dining, nightlife, etc. The city is very large, with a population of about 5 millions, and touring just the most famous places – like the Winter Palace, St. Isaac and the central area along the Nevsky Prospekt, as well as the Peter and Paul Fortress – will take already at least a few days.

What people from abroad – unlike Russians – are sometimes less aware of is that the Revolution in 1917 started and evolved in Saint Petersburg, which at that time was still the capital city of the Russian Empire, where the Tzar and the government resided. Here Lenin and the Bolsheviks worked in the tumultuous moments preceding and after the abdication of Nicholas II, the last of the Tzars, and here the communist-led organization of the ‘Soviet’ imposed its rule, before the governmental body moved its headquarters to Moscow, the ancient capital of Russia, soon in 1918. The prominent role the city had in the Revolution was acknowledged changing its name to Leningrad, the ‘City of Lenin’, which would stay until 1991.

So, besides the countless sites of great historical and artistic value connected with the city’s founder Peter the Great and the Tzars who succeeded to him, there are in Saint Petersburg countless places recalling the Communist Revolution and the Soviet period.

Furthermore, as this city used to be a frontline destination for people traveling for cultural interest from both within the USSR and abroad much before the end of Communism, many interesting museums were established here. Some of them still retain a typical Soviet flavor, in the choice of artifacts, exhibition style and in the management policies – you will be left unscrupulously in a queue in a freezing -20°C winter evening outside of a museum, waiting just for more hangers to be available in the cloakroom, if the rules say so!

This post is about some places in todays Saint Petersburg connected with the Revolution and the Communist era, and some museums still retaining their Soviet style. All photographs, both the good and the bad, are from mine and were taken in early 2017.

Sights

Here is a map of the sites described below. The city is huge, and the coverage of the subway system is by far less developed than that of Moscow, with stops quite afar from each other – so expect to walk really much in Saint Petersburg! You may also elect to take a taxi when needed, for you pay the distance, not the time, and it is much less expensive than in other big cities in Europe.

All attractions in this post – except perhaps the House of Soviets – are fairly central, so even when you need to walk for reaching them, you will never need to be in an unpleasant or dangerous area of the town.

Kirov’s Apartment Museum

This museum, located ten minutes north of the Peter and Paul fortress, is rather deceptive – it is located on the two top floors of a formerly luxurious apartments building from the late 19th or early 20th century, where all other apartments are privately owned today. You will need to go through the foyer of the building, where the stately and elegant appearance of the façade is soon lost to the incredibly shabby, purely Soviet style of the inside, with a small and poorly looking elevator to ease you climbing to the top of the building.

Before the Revolution these apartments, exceptionally large and modern for the time, were property of wealthy businessmen and professionals. Soon after the Revolution, when property was abolished and housing was reassigned, the second floor from the top was given to Sergey Kirov, a top ranking communist leader successfully enforcing Soviet power in Azerbaijan, a great supporter and a close friend of Stalin during his struggle for power after the death of Lenin in 1924, and later to become the leader of the Communist Party in Leningrad and supervisor of industrial production – a prominent figure in his times. Stalin ended up ordering him killed in the early Thirties – although not officially – coincidentally marking the beginning of the harshest period of communist dictatorship in Russia.

The apartment of Kirov has been preserved very well to this day. You can see a studio and living room, with hunting trophies including a polar bear, bookcases and photographs of Stalin and Lenin. The aura of the early years of Stalin has been integrally preserved, and the apartment looks like comrade Kirov had just gone out for a Party meeting! Stalin himself reportedly visited Kirov here more than once.

Other rooms in the living quarters include a dining room, a small living room, a library and a nice bedroom for children. A kitchen – with a General Electric refrigerator! -, a junk room and bathroom complete the main part of the private apartment. Two very large rooms include Kirov’s study and a sort of waiting room today turned into an exhibit of soviet-themed paintings and sculptures, mainly about Kirov. You can easily imagine Kirov receiving delegates from the factories around the smoky Leningrad of the late Twenties in this room, with the portraits of Marx, Lenin and Stalin always carefully listening to the talk!

On the top floor, the museum offers a two-rooms reconstruction of a school, a meeting room of a youth organization, a shared apartment and a children bedroom from the years of Kirov, from the late Twenties to the early Thirties. Many interesting everyday items, as well as communist-themed flags, banners, memorabilia, some paintings and sculptures and much more can be found here.

All in all, this is one of the most evocative exhibitions on communist personalities I’ve ever seen! Visiting in a freezing winter evening also helped to relive the old Soviet atmosphere. Visit is recommended for everybody with an interest in Soviet history, and for those with a thing for living architecture, for this is a good occasion to get an insight on the standard of life of the wealthy class immediately before and after the Revolution in this region. You can take a self-guided tour, and you are given a detailed booklet in English to help yourself along the visit. Visiting may take from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on your level of interest.

Arctic and Antarctic Museum

This nice little museum is interesting both for the pretty unusual subject – polar explorations carried out by Russian and then Soviet expeditions – and for the setting and style of the exhibition. It is hosted in a former church building in a neoclassical style from the 19th century.

The exhibition maybe pretty outdated for modern standards, but it may appeal to you if you are interested in the topic more than in cheesy presentations, and if you want to experience how a Soviet-style museum looks like! The small setting is cluttered with dioramas with stuffed animals, including a polar bear, dim lighted showcases with artifacts and memorabilia from expeditions, plus ship models and some larger artifacts, like tents, polar shelters and instruments for taking measurements.

There are also very interesting frescoes and large paintings, both on the walls and ceiling, all about moments in the history of Soviet polar expeditions. Models, photographs and much more complete the exhibition.

The ground floor is about arctic exploration, which was started in the early history of Russia thanks to the proximity of the Country with the arctic region. The top floor is on antarctic missions, and here the accent is more on international collaboration and permanent missions. Some very nice paintings, rather rare to find elsewhere, can be found here.

All in all, an unusual museum with much to tell on a very specific and not often well-covered chapter of explorations. The place is very popular among Russians, and the exhibition is totally in Russian. There are audio-guides, but I wasn’t offered one during my visit, so maybe there is no chance to get explanations in English – but I’m not sure about this. Of course, you may decide to go with a local guide on a private tour, able to translate the explanations for you. Visiting alone if you are interested in the topic and you have a basic knowledge of the matter may take about 1 hour – even without a guide and with no knowledge of Russian… this is the time needed for looking at the many photographs, paintings and artifacts!

Krassin Icebreaker

This ship, preserved in perfect conditions on the river Neva, has an incredible story. The hull was manufactured under Nicholas II in Britain, but the ship took service under the communist rule. She used to be a steam power ship at that time. She was involved in explorations and arctic missions, including the rescue of the Italian explorer Umberto Nobile, who went down with his airship over the Arctic after reaching the North Pole by air in the late Twenties. Krassin was deployed after the most famous polar explorer from Norway, Roald Amundsen, was lost while on an ill-fated rescue mission by plane.

Later on, the ship was sent to the US during WWII, where she was modified to receive structural reinforcements and defensive weapons in Bremerton, WA. She worked as an escort ship traveling back to Europe via Panama during the Battle of the Atlantic against Nazi Germany, and spent the rest of the war patrolling the northern shores of the USSR, reportedly grounding some German aircraft.

After the war, being part of the arctic fleet and having had a history so glorious, it was refurbished and upgraded with more modern equipment and propulsion system in Germany. It was then constantly improved while in service as a scientific platform, until a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, when it was permanently moored where you find her today.

The restoration work was carried out very well, and the vessel looks like it could sail away at any time! You can visit on guided tours in small groups. The visit includes the living quarters of the captain and crew and of the scientific staff – rather much above the military standard! – a room with technical stuff and the commanding deck. You are offered also a quick intro video in Russian.

I don’t know whether they’re offering tours except in Russian, but there are some explanations in English along the visit. Visiting in winter may add to your photos from the outside if the Neva is covered with ice, but the tour is shorter – about 40 min -, for you can’t see the power plant, as heating is probably absent in that part of the ship.

Absolutely recommended for everybody with an interest in ships, polar explorations, engineering and scientific expeditions! This is good for the kids as well. Be warned, the distance from the closest metro station is about 1 mile, but you may choose to walk along the bank of the river, with a nice view of the Winter Palace and the central district, with many photo opportunities. Rather close to the Krassin there is also the WWII submarine C-189, which I had not the time to visit. This is another entity from the icebreaker, with a separate ticket.

Museum of Artillery

This huge State-owned museum hosts a world-class collection of Russian and Soviet weapons from the middle ages to our days. The building is that of a former large artillery depot from the mid-19th century, in the immediate vicinity of the Peter and Paul Fortress, from which it can be reached in a few minutes. The museum is really a temple of Russian nationalism, and it’s very popular among Russians, whose military battles and victories are celebrated also with banners, uniforms, paintings, and several memorabilia.

There are two main branches inside the U-shaped building, placed in the two wings. In the first there is a collection of ancient swords and armors from the middle ages to roughly the early 18th century and Peter the Great. Next come many cannons and rifles from the 19th century, and more modern weapons, including what appear to be naval cannons from the years of WWI. The collection is really immense, and I had not purchased a photo permit – I had not enough cash! – so unfortunately the quality of the pictures is not very good.

The second branch covers from WWII to the Cold War. In this section there are cannons, howitzers, armored vehicles, and, much incredibly, full-scale tactical and early strategic missiles – which seem really big in the small rooms of a museum! There are also pieces of communication equipment and engineering tools, for the museum is namely also dedicated to the Engineering and Signal Corps.

Two small but interesting separate rooms are dedicated to the guard of Peter the Great and to Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man behind the world-famous attack rifle, who really existed and passed away in 2013 aged 94. Some technical drawings and some exemplars of the rifle – including some special designs – are showcased in this room, together with portraits of the man in various ages, in Soviet and later Russian colors. Unique and extremely interesting.

A good third of the museum’s collections are on the outside, in the front courtyard and to both sides of the building. Most of the items preserved on the outside are too big for being stored inside the building, meaning they are really big! You can find cannons, armored vehicles, SAMs, strategic missiles and their transportation and launch vehicles, special vehicles for snow removal, and much more – all stuff you might spot in the historic video recordings of the countless parades on the Red Square, deep in the years of the Cold War!

To the northern side of the building a battery of older cannons, possibly from the war against Napoleon, is preserved, whereas on the southern side a strategic missile of incomparable size is sitting in his canister on the launching vehicle.

Especially for war historians and military technology enthusiast this museum alone is a good reason for coming to Saint Petersburg! As I wrote, the atmosphere is nostalgic, so go prepared to a very old-style, traditional Soviet exhibition. There is not a word in the whole museum except in Russian. Payment is not possible except cash. I was asked about American citizenship at the cloakroom – not unexpected in the hostile Russia of the closing days of the Obama administration – but did not undergo any special treatment. Great for the kids, visiting the outside may be tough in winter, but surely worth the effort. A visit may easily take 1.5 to 2 hours for an interested person or an expert of the matter.

Museum of the Political History of Russia

Again in the vicinity of the Peter and Paul Fortress, this modern museum is mainly dedicated to a detailed description of the causes and to the timeline of the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, and to the history of the Soviet system.

The main exhibition about the characteristics of the soviet system soon after its inception is rather short in size, but with many details and artifacts, as well as explanatory panels and reconstructions of rooms from various ages of the Soviet era – including shared houses.

Besides the main exhibition there is a constellation of some smaller exhibitions. It is not always easy to put things in the right chronological order, but surely among the most interesting there is one about the timeline of the Revolution of 1917 – extremely complicated – and the ensuing civil war.

The building, once belonging to a famous dancer who fled the country following the early-1917 turmoil, is most notably where Lenin resided from the abdication of the Tzar to the summer of 1917, before the fateful Red October and the Bolsheviks conquering power. The study where Lenin worked and the very balcony from where he addressed the crowds of the Bolsheviks are preserved, and you can see them both for real and in a painting from Soviet times – really impressive!

Another part of the exhibition is about Stalin’s purges and the use he made of the gulag’s system for ‘re-education’. The museum is not nostalgic with respect to soviet times, but rather objective and duly critical concerning Soviet dictatorship. It is well designed to western standards, with many explanations in English, but more popular among Russians. Due to the historical significance of the building in the 1917 revolution, visiting is surely recommended for people with an interest in that part of Russian history. Visiting may take about 1.5-2 hours for an average interested person.

Museum of Cosmonautics and Rocket Technology

The museum is located right inside the Peter and Paul Fortress, but due to its peripheral position it is often overlooked by mainstream visitors. The location, apparently clashing with the historical significance of the surroundings, is instead appropriate, for the State institute responsible for studying and experimenting with rocketry was placed  in the very part of the fortress where the museum is in the years preceding WWII.

The museum is rather small. In an introductory part, scientists from all over the world and from all ages contributing to the history of rocketry are mentioned. In a second part the early designs from the institute are presented, including some real items from the time, like rocket models and engines.

In a final part, more modern big rocket engines from the Vostok and Soyuz missions and a reentry capsule are presented, together with some other artifacts. These include some space-themed Christmas decorations – note the sunny smile of the small Soviet astronauts in the pictures…

Visiting won’t take much time, about 0.5 hours, and is surely recommended especially for the kids if you are already in the fortress.

Cruiser Aurora and Finlandia Station

The very famous Aurora cruiser, marginally involved in the initial phase of the 1917 revolution, is preserved on the bank of the Neva, not far north from the Peter and Paul Fortress. I missed the last entry, so I could see it only from the outside. The ship is very well preserved and constitutes a very good photographic subject.

About 15 minutes walking to the north of the ship you can find the Finlandia railway station, where Lenin arrived in town ready to put his efforts in the 1917 revolution. The station is still in business, and the building has been modernized since the Twenties. The square ahead of it is where one of the surviving statues of Lenin can be found in Saint Petersburg.

On the southern side of the square there is a branch of the Academy of the Russian Army.

Smolny Institute

This area to the east of the city center has its focus in the majestic building of the Smolny Cathedral. What is possibly less known is that the building to the south of the cathedral, hosting the Smolny educational institute until 1917, was chosen for the headquarters of the Bolsheviks soon before the October Revolution. From here Lenin directed the moves against the other revolutionary factions, and the government of the First Soviet was established in this palace in the closing months of 1917 and early 1918, marking the beginning of the Soviet era, before leaving for Moscow.

Today the building still retains an institutional role and cannot be approached freely. In a small building to the opposite of the perspective leading to the façade of the palace you can find plaques and friezes with quotes from Lenin. The British Consulate is located nearby.

A huge area moving from Smolny to the west and the city center is occupied by enormous palaces built mainly in a Soviet brutalist style, now largely unused – up for sale or rent. I don’t know much details about their former function, but this was probably connected with Soviet government or administrative functions. The area features a rather grim aura, with few people around and oversized spaces.

House of Soviets

The area along Moskovsky Prospekt was developed under Stalin’s rule in a style which is more typical to Moscow than Saint Petersburg. Among the highlights, the huge Moscow Square is where the stately building of the House of Soviets was built in the late Thirties. Due to the Nazi attack in 1941 and the siege of Leningrad, the building was converted to a military headquarters of the Red Army. After the war it was handed over to scientific institutions, and now it is a multi-functional executive building.

The frieze with the triumphs of Socialism culminating in the gigantic hammer and sickle emblem on top really recall the Soviet times. Right at the center of the square, very popular among the locals as a gathering place and a hub for public transport services, a very big statue of Lenin still dominates the scene.

The place is very convenient to reach, thanks to a metro station in Moscow Square. The monument commemorating the heroes of the siege is located about 5 minutes south of the square.