Evenes, Norway, Heereskusten-Batterien, aka Coastal Artillery or HKB31/973

[CanadianAR]

Another fort I visited in Northern Norway. This one has one gun pad converted to parking, and one area blocked off, other then that it was left to nature. The mountain is hollowed out, with a tunnel under it and some tunnels leading from the beach up top etc, those have been sealed. This housed 3x MRS-18 21cm guns. Plus MG nests, and AA defenses. There is still barbed wire tangled amongst the rocks in places. Intact observation/command post. Barracks and wooden structures are just foundations.

 

[jbmauser]

Great pics. Very interesting. It would be neat to see what's in the sealed tunnels tho.

 

[CanadianAR]

Great pics. Very interesting. It would be neat to see what's in the sealed tunnels tho.

There were vents I could see through "
Looked like a small rail way for transporting heavy goods. The doors are heavy and welded....I tried.

 

[Coyote Ugly]

Interesting Place and Great Pics!

 

[purple]

Finland was still using coast artillery to protect the approaches to Helsinki and Turku into the 1980s. I got to tour these areas with friends in the Finnish Army.

Coast artillery was a very high tech operation with a lot of math involved to come up with firing solutions. My father was in the coast artillery and was a real math whiz in spite of having a Grade 8 education.

You can till see former coast artillery installations in Canada and the US where some have been preserved as museums with guns still in place (Ft Rodd Hill, Esquimalt, Ft Stevens, Oregon, Ft De Soto, Florida, etc). The amount of concrete and steel that went into these places makes it a real bear to demolish them for other purposes.

 

[AP]

Thank you for sharing those pics.... I will probably never get there but these will make up for it! I see they grow a lot of banana's there

 

[Cornflake Leader]

Thanks you for posting. So many places most of us will never get to, great to be able to share through pictures.

 

[Robert777]

I was in Norway in June for a few weeks visiting the wife's relatives. Lovely place full of history. I was in Tonsberg visiting a medieval fort and was in a German underground command post that one of the local museums looks after.

BTW without changing topics, I did go to a Norwegian rifle range. Very interesting. A very large pro hunting lobby there. But the gun laws are very restrictive with the exception of being allowed to own suppressors. My friend who took us there (niece's husband) was awed that we owned AR-15s. I think he did say they could own Mini14's. Beautiful place and expensive but I would not want to live there. It is even most socialist than Canada. LOL!