| Kvarven Fort | |
|---|---|
| Bergen, Norway | |
 | |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | Norway (1899-1940, 1945-present) Nazi Germany (1940-1945) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1895-1902 |
| In use | 1899-1945 |
| Battles/wars | Operation Weserübung |
Kvarven Fort was a mountain fort strategically located by the main shipping channel of the Byfjorden leading to Bergen, Norway. [1]
In the late 1800s, relations between the two countries in the union between Sweden and Norway had gradually worsened. Norwegians were discontented and wanted independence. In case of a violent dissolution of the union, new coastal defenses were built. In Bergen, several forts were built to defend the harbour and the naval installations at Marineholmen and Wallemsviken from Swedish seaborne attacks. Kvarven fort was one of these, along with Hellen Fort and batteries in Sandviken. [2] [3]
Construction of Kvarven Fort began in 1895. The military bought the nearby farm Bakke in 1898, and turned its stately main building into the commander's quarters. The fort construction was completed in 1899. An additional torpedo battery was in place by 1902. This and the Howitzer L/14 cannons made Kvarven a very modern fort for its time, though it did not have to fulfil its intended use as the union with Sweden dissolved peacefully in 1905. [4]
Norway was a neutral country in World War I. Kvarven Fort had a full complement of soldiers in order to maintain neutrality.
Norway attempted to maintain neutrality during World War II as well, but was invaded by the Germans in their Operation Weserübung on April 9, 1940. The Bergen part of the operation was fronted by cruisers Königsberg and Köln, with a total of 1,900 German soldiers. Kvarven fort was manned by 33 officers and 279 corporals and privates with an average age of around forty. [5] The fort failed to open fire at the first German ships of the invasion force, mistaking the armed trawlers Schiff 9 and Schiff 18 for unarmed merchant ships. When the fort finally opened fire at 3:58 in the morning, it only managed to get off a few shots through the fog at two torpedo boats and the cruiser Köln. The ships did not retaliate, but sent a morse coded message in English saying “stop shooting!“. Only the third wave of German ships were taken under effective fire by Kvarven. The fort first hit Bremse twice, then the MTB mothership Carl Peters [6] once, compelling both ships to break off their attempt to force their way into the harbour. After these ships, the cruiser Königsberg tried to break through and was hit by three shells: one beneath the waterline, one on deck and the third hitting the conning tower. Königsberg was barely saved due to its own counter fire and great technical difficulties up at the fort. [7]
Kvarven surrendered at ca. 07.00 am after a short infantry battle between the German landing forces and Krag–Jørgensen rifle armed gun crews from the fort. Defence by use of torpedoes was also possible, as Kvarven held one of only two land-based torpedo batteries in Norway at the time, and, after the alarm from detection of German attack at Oslo had gone out, a torpedo boat was maneuvering into position nearby. The other land-based torpedo battery, at Oscarsborg Fortress, defended Oslo against the simultaneous German invasion there and featured underwater release of its torpedoes. It was unknown to German military intelligence. Two obsolete torpedoes from the Oscarsborg Fortress fired at 4:34 am [8] finished off gun-damaged German heavy cruiser Blücher, which finally sank at 07:30 am, just a short while after the Karven fort surrendered. The Karven torpedo battery, on the other hand, was designed to launch its torpedoes by torpedo tube from above ground, [9] [10] and presumably the Germans could have known about it and planned countermeasures in some way, and in fact their landings on both sides of Korven were likely part of that. But according to a Norwegian military history website, no torpedoes in the battery could be fired, because all were missing their fuses and gyroscopes. Another nearby line of the torpedo defense was just then available: torpedo boat Brand , with fully functioning torpedoes, had moved into an excellent position in the Gravdalsviken inlet partly defined by Kvarven's peninsula, just past, where it would have a 700-1000 meter firing shot opportunity on passing German ships, and it could likely have sunk one or more German ships. But the boat's commander inexplicably chose not to fire any torpedoes and to abandon the boat, instead. [5] The Brand was used with success by the Germans, with some immunity from air attacks because of confusion on its identity, during the next few days, and also was useful for the duration of their occupation of Norway. [11]
German naval personnel manned the fort for the rest of the war, incorporating it into their Festung Bergen defence. During this period, the fort was extended and modernised. [12]
The fortress was closed for military use in 1961. Kvarven Fort opened in 1993 as a preserved cultural area open to the public. It is a popular area to explore for tourists and locals alike, and the area is also an entry to Lyderhorn and Ørnafjellet for hikers. It is now a recreational area on the shore of Byfjorden.
The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.
The Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. As of 2008, the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 4 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection vessel, 4 support vessels and 2 training vessels. It also includes the Coast Guard.
Drøbak is a town and the centre of the municipality of Frogn, in Viken county, Norway. The city is located along the Oslofjord, and has 13,409 inhabitants.
The German operation for the invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 was code-named Weserübung, or "Weser Exercise." Opposing the invasion were the partially mobilized Norwegian military, and an allied expeditionary force composed of British, French, and Free Polish formations. The following list formed the order of battle for this campaign.
The Norwegian campaign describes the attempt of the Allies to defend northern Norway coupled with Norwegian forces' resistance to the country's invasion by Nazi Germany in World War II.
Oscarsborg Fortress is a coastal fortress in the Oslofjord, close to the small town of Drøbak in Viken county, Norway. The best known part is situated on two small islets. The main artillery batteries are on the island Håøya and smaller batteries on the mainland to the west and east in the fjord and was military territory until 2003 when it was made a publicly available resort island. The fortress is best known for sinking the German heavy cruiser Blücher on 9 April 1940. In 2014, Oscarsborg Fortress was given protected status.
Pol III was a patrol boat of the Royal Norwegian Navy, used for guarding the inlet of the Oslofjord in early April 1940. She was a small vessel, originally a whaler, of 214 tons. She is best known for being the first Norwegian unit to engage the German invasion forces during the 1940 Operation Weserübung.
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.
Königsberg was a German light cruiser that was operated between 1929 and April 1940, including service in World War II. She was the lead vessel of her class and was operated by two German navies, the Reichsmarine and the Kriegsmarine. She had two sister ships, Karlsruhe and Köln. Königsberg was built by the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down in April 1926, launched in March 1927, and commissioned into the Reichsmarine in April 1929. She was armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm SK C/25 guns in three triple turrets and had a top speed of 32 knots.
The minelayer HNoMS Olav Tryggvason was built by the naval shipyard at Horten in the early 1930s and had build number 119. She served in the Royal Norwegian Navy until captured by the Germans in 1940. The Germans renamed her first Albatros II, and a few days later Brummer. She was wrecked in a British bombing raid in northern Germany in April 1945.
Birger Kristian Eriksen was a Norwegian officer who was instrumental in stopping the first wave of Gruppe 5 of the German invasion force outside Oslo.
The last of the Trygg class of Royal Norwegian Navy torpedo boats was HNoMS Stegg. Her sister ships were Trygg and Snøgg. The Trygg class vessels were the only additions to the Norwegian fleet of torpedo boats between the First and the Second World Wars. At the outbreak of the Second World War the Trygg class was mobilised together with eight 2. class and six 1. class torpedo boats.
Events in the year 1940 in Norway.
Operation Weserübung was Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign.
Blücher was the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles. Named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo, the ship was laid down in August 1936 and launched in June 1937. She was completed in September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. After completing a series of sea trials and training exercises, the ship was pronounced ready for service with the fleet on 5 April 1940. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,000 t).
HNoMS Brand was a 1.-class torpedo boat constructed in 1898. She served the Royal Norwegian Navy for more than four decades, including neutrality protection duties during the First World War. Having once again been employed on neutrality protection duty at the outbreak of the Second World War, Brand was captured by the Germans during their invasion of Norway in April 1940.
The Action in the Oslofjord occurred late on 8 April 1940 in World War II. As Kampfgruppe 5 of the German invasion force proceeded towards Oslo, it encountered Norwegian defences in the Oslofjord. During a short exchange that resulted in the first Norwegian casualty of the war, the Germans managed to push through down to Drøbak Sound, where they would face more determined resistance.
Albatros was the fourth of six Type 23 torpedo boats built for the German Navy. Completed in 1927, Albatros often served as a flagship of torpedo boat units. The ship made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. After an attack by aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force killed German sailors in 1937, she participated in the retaliatory bombardment of Almería.
Leopard was the fifth of six Type 24 torpedo boats built for the German Navy during the 1920s. The boat made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. During World War II, she played a minor role in the occupation of Bergen during the Norwegian Campaign of April 1940. Leopard was sunk at the end of the month when she was accidentally rammed by a minelayer that she was escorting.
The Carl Peters was a fleet tender of the Kriegsmarine, sometimes also known as an aviso. She was named after the German Africa explorer Carl Peters.
Coordinates: 60°23′47.80″N5°14′27.54″E / 60.3966111°N 5.2409833°E