Fjell Fortress (Norwegian : Fjell festning) is located on the island of Sotra in the former municipality of Fjell in Vestland county, Norway.
Fjell Fortress (Norwegian : Fjell festning) is located on the island of Sotra in the former municipality of Fjell in Vestland county, Norway.
The fortress was built by the German occupation forces during the Second World War. The construction works were commenced late summer 1942, and completed so far that they could fire the main gun for the first time as early as in June–July 1943. The fort was a significant link in the coastal defence of Norway. Its main commission was to intercept the seaward approach to Bergen.
The main gun was also to a certain extent employed in the interception of foreign aircraft raids against Bergen.
The fortress has areas over and under the ground, with a network of tunnels two miles long on the surface and in the mountains. The fortress area is today the property of the Norwegian Armed Forces, while Stiftelsen Fjell festning are responsible for conducting the preservation and maintenance.
After sending a petition, the municipal authorities was offered by the Norwegian Armed Forces, represented by Skifte Eiendom (the Norwegian Armed Forces's property management), to take possession of the fortress area without compensation. The offer was rejected by the municipal authorities. The future fate of Fjell Fortress thus remains uncertain as of 2008.
To mount the main gun turret at the fortress, it was necessary to dig 17 metres vertically into the mountain. This was considered a time-consuming task, so the main entrance and gun emplacement were constructed as an open ditch, and later covered with concrete, instead of blasting a tunnel into and down in the solid rock. As a result, water entering the tunnel system has been a problem ever since the tunnel was constructed.
The work was mainly carried out by prisoners from eastern Europe, but also Norwegian prisoners participated. 25 prisoners died during the construction works, either as a result of frostbite, exhaustion or execution.
The 28 cm SK C/34 naval gun turret was taken from battery Bruno from the battleship Gneisenau. It had three barrels, 28.3 centimetres each, and a range of 41 kilometres, from Fedje in the north to Stolmen in the south - but this was with the greatest possible charge. Each barrel fired 3 shells at full charge, this caused an earth quake, shattered all windows in Fjell and flattened some barns. The guns were never fired at full charge again, so under a reduced charge the correct range at Fjell would be around 37 km. The guns originally weighed 600 tons, the armour was increased to a total weight of 1,000 metric tons.
Fjell is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Midhordland. The municipality consisted of several islands west of the city of Bergen, the major ones being Litlesotra, the northern part of Store Sotra, Bildøy, Bjorøy, Misje, and Turøy. The administrative centre of Fjell is the village of Straume. Some of the villages in Fjell included Ågotnes, Fjell, Foldnes, Knappskog, Knarrevik, Kolltveit, Landro, and Sekkingstad. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county.
The Kliment Voroshilov tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour protection during the early stages of the war, especially during the first year of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In certain situations, even a single KV-1 or KV-2 supported by infantry could halt German formations. The German Wehrmacht at that time rarely deployed its tanks against KVs, as their own armament was too poor to deal with the "Russischer Koloss" – "Russian Colossus".
Akershus Fortress or Akershus Castle is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress has been the namesake and centre of the main fief and later main county of Akershus, which was originally one of Norway's four main regions and which included most of Eastern Norway. The fortress itself was located within the Akershus main county until 1919, and also within the smaller Akershus sub county until 1842.
Hegra Fortress is a small mountain fortress in the village of Hegra in the municipality of Stjørdal in Trøndelag county, Norway. Originally known as Ingstadkleiven Fort, it was built between 1908–1910 as a border fort as a defence against the perceived threat of a Swedish invasion.
Oscarsborg Fortress is a coastal fortress in the Oslofjord, close to the town of Drøbak in Akershus County, Norway. The best known part is situated on two small islets: Nordre Kaholmen and Søndre Kaholmen. In addition, the main artillery batteries were on the island Håøya and smaller batteries were on the mainland to the west and east of the fjord. The fortress is best known for sinking the German heavy cruiser Blücher on 9 April 1940. The fortress was military territory until 2003 when it was made into a publicly available museum and resort. In 2014, Oscarsborg Fortress was given protected status.
The Scharnhorst class was a class of German battleships built immediately prior to World War II. The first capital ships of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, it comprised two vessels: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Scharnhorst was launched first, and is considered to be the lead ship by some sources; they are also referred to as the Gneisenau class in some other sources, as Gneisenau was the first to be laid down and commissioned. They marked the beginning of German naval rearmament after the Treaty of Versailles. The ships were armed with nine 28 cm (11 in) SK C/34 guns in three triple turrets; plans to replace these with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never realized.
Kristiansten Fortress is located on a hill east of the city of Trondheim in Trøndelag county, Norway, named after Christian V of Denmark-Norway. It was built after the city fire of Trondheim in 1681 to protect the city against attack from the east. Construction was finished in 1685. It fulfilled its purpose in 1718 when Swedish forces laid siege against Trondheim. The fortress was decommissioned in 1816 by King Charles XIV John.
Bergenhus fortress is a fortress located in Bergen, Norway. Located at the entrance of Bergen harbour, the castle is one of the oldest and best preserved stone fortifications in Norway.
The Sotra Bridge is a suspension bridge which crosses Knarreviksundet between Knarrevik in Øygarden Municipality and Drotningsvik on the mainland of Bergen Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It carries two road lanes and two narrow pedestrian paths of National Road 555, providing a fixed link for the archipelago of Sotra. The bridge is 1,236 metres (4,055 ft) long, has a main span of 468 metres (1,535 ft) and a clearance of 50 metres (160 ft). In 2007, on average 25,494 vehicles used it per day.
The Battle of Hegra Fortress was a 25-day engagement in the 1940 Norwegian campaign which saw a small force of Norwegian volunteers fighting numerically superior German forces from a fortified position. After initial fighting around the Meråker Line railway line, the Norwegians pulled back into Hegra Fortress and held off further German attacks before surrendering on 5 May as one of the last Norwegian units active in southern Norway.
The Battle of Drøbak Sound took place in Drøbak Sound, the northernmost part of the outer Oslofjord in southern Norway, on 9 April 1940. It marked the end of the "Phoney War" and the beginning of World War II in Western Europe.
Sotra or Store Sotra is the name of a large island in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway, located just west of the city of Bergen. It is part of a pair of islands called 'Sotra' and 'Litlesotra' that are part of a large archipelago stretching from Fedje southwards along the coast of Norway. The larger of the two islands is Store Sotra, while Litlesotra is smaller and less populated of the two. Roughly 28,700 (2017) people live on the two islands of Sotra, with the larger island having a population of about 19,100 (2017) and 9,589 (2017) living on the smaller island.
Kvarven Fort was a mountain fort strategically located by the main shipping channel of the Byfjorden leading to Bergen, Norway.
Festung Norwegen was the heavy defence and fortification system of Norway during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany in World War II. Some, including Reichskommissar Josef Terboven, thought that these fortifications would serve effectively as a last perimeter of defense for the Third Reich in the event of Allied victory on the continent. This led to German troops being kept away from mainland Europe, which resulted in a quicker end to the war.
The 38 cm SK C/34 naval gun was developed by Germany in the late 1930s. It armed the Bismarck-class battleships and was planned as the armament of the O-class battlecruisers and the re-armed Scharnhorst-class battleships. Six twin-gun mountings were also sold to the Soviet Union and it was planned to use them on the Kronshtadt-class battlecruisers, however, they were never delivered. Spare guns were used as coastal artillery in Denmark, Norway and France. One gun and one barrel is currently on display at respectively Møvig Fortress outside Kristiansand and Bunkermuseum Hanstholm, Denmark.
The Festning Tunnel is a motorway tunnel on European Route E18 in the city center of Oslo, Norway. The tunnel has two tubes, with three lanes in each. It runs from Bjørvika, under Akershus Fortress, The City Hall Square and Vika to Filipstad. The tunnel is 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) and −45 m (−148 ft) elevation at the deepest.
The M-19 Maschinengranatwerfer is a German 50 mm mortar which was used during World War II. The mortar was developed in 1934 for the purpose of defending permanent military bases. It had a maximum rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute and a range of 750 metres.
The 7.5 cm tornpjäs m/57 was developed for the Swedish Coastal Artillery in the 1950s as a light and comparatively cheap gun that would replace a large number of mostly obsolete systems for short-range coastal defense. Eventually, 30 three-gun batteries in three distinct series were built. Sixteen guns were exported to Norway, and a mobile version of the gun called the 7.5/65 was built, making the total number of guns manufactured well over 100.
The Fortress of Mimoyecques is the modern name for a Second World War underground military complex built by the forces of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1944. It was intended to house a battery of fixed V-3 cannons permanently aimed at London, 165 kilometres (103 mi) away. Originally codenamed Wiese ("Meadow") or Bauvorhaben 711, it is located in the commune of Landrethun-le-Nord in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, near the hamlet of Mimoyecques about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Boulogne-sur-Mer. It was constructed by a mostly German workforce recruited from major engineering and mining concerns, augmented by prisoner-of-war slave labour.
Austrått Fort is a disused coastal artillery site located at Austrått in Ørland, Norway. It was constructed in 1942 by the German Wehrmacht to protect the Trondheimsfjord during the German occupation of Norway during World War II. The fort's centrepiece is a triple 28 cm SK C/34 (11-inch) gun turret from the German battleship Gneisenau, which was damaged in Kiel. The three-gun turret weighs 800 tons and was capable of firing 730-pound shells 38 kilometres (24 mi). The last firing took place in 1953 and the fort was decommissioned in 1968. It opened as a museum in 1991.
