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Gneisenau artillery Norway
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The 280mm triple-gun turret from the battleship Gneisenau which was mounted as a heavy coast defence battery at Austrått on the Ørlandet peninsula in Central Norway in 1943. Aft main turret, called Cäsar, was converted to a coastal battery named Austrått and it still exists today as a museum. Austrått Fortress is a former German fortification with a gigantic five-storey cannon tower. This installation had an important strategic location at the mouth of the Trondheimsfjord.The Atlantic Wall was one of the most extensive fortification programmes ever carried out. Along the Norwegian coast were over 200 batteries that included over 40 guns of 240mm or larger calibre. The German batteries in Norway were nearly all captured intact when the Germans surrendered in May 1945 and as a consequence, unlike most countries, Norway had readymade fixed coast defences which were maintained up to the 1990s. Most heavy batteries were kept in reserve until the 1960s. This is the reason why Norway is the only country where German 406, 380 and 280mm coast defence guns are preserved in good condition. |
