Main artillery: Four 10,5 cm. SKC/32 anti-aircraft guns
Ready for battle: Summer 1944
This battery was built on a very distinctive cliff close to the
western-most point of Norway. A substantial number of Russian POW's
were used as forced labour to build the battery. The work was hard and a number
of Russians lost their lives. Through the cliff runs two tunnels,
one 94 meters long, the second one 104 meters. The battery was never
completed, but the guns were in position and ready to fire.
Improvised firingcontrols were used while waiting for the permanent
controls to be completed. There was also a small tunnel and
two 40 mm. Bofors guns positioned on a smaller cliff west of
the main battery. A cablewagon for supplies ran from the opening
of one of the tunnels in the large cliff down to these positions,
because of very difficult terrain. The battery was closed down after
the war, but ammunition was stored in the tunnels for many years
after. Today the battery is easy accessible, but you will encounter difficult
terrain on the site. Gravel is put on the floor in the tunnels, making
it easier to walk there. Also paths are made up to the battery. From the main cliff with
the tunnels, there is a distance down to the two Flak positions and the smaller
tunnel. I actually had to make use of a rope to reach these positions,
as the terrain is very difficult and steep, and one wrong step will make
you fall into the sea, something you want to avoid at this place, due to
the extremely strong current in the sea around these cliffs. Information signs
are put up where the path goes up towards the tunnels. A member of my grandmother's
family was one of the people clearing up the place after the war. He told that
all the equipment (rangefinders, binoculars, electrical equipment and so on),
ammunition for small arms, helmets and uniforms, basically everything, except
the ammunition for the main artillery, was collected by the main entrance to
the tunnels, and thrown off the cliffs and into the sea.
There is a canyon in the cliffs that the sea has dug out, and everything went down there.
What now is not rusted away, has probably been taken out on greater depths by the strong
current.
Entrance to the tunnels. Once inside, there is one tunnel to the left and one straight forward, coming out at the edge of the cliff.
Looking down at the 40 mm. Bofors positions from the end of the tunnel. The cablewagon went down here.
