Fjell Fortress: German Coastal Defence Battery in Norway
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Norway
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Norwegian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page19 sections
History
Fjell Fortress is a German coastal-defence installation in Norway, built above Fjell on the island of Sotra during the Second World War. Construction began in 1942 under the Organisation Todt, the German state construction agency that directed major wartime projects and used forced labour, including prisoners of war. The fortress formed part of Germany’s coastal-defence system and was subordinate to the German Navy. Its principal task was to control the seaward approaches to Bergen and the shipping routes north and south of Sotra.
Construction and wartime service
The German authorities initially considered Liatårnet, the highest point on Sotra, for the battery. Construction there was judged too time-consuming, so the lower Fjedlafjedlet plateau was selected. Its broad field of fire and other practical advantages made it suitable for the main artillery position. The fortress eventually occupied about 750,000 square metres at roughly 170 metres above sea level.
Norwegian contractors and volunteers took part in the works, while prisoners of war from several European countries were subjected to forced labour. The Organisation Todt established a temporary camp at Horebotn at the beginning of construction and later built a larger replacement camp near Sjursbotn, about one kilometre northwest. The number of deaths remains uncertain, but approximately 25 prisoners may have died through frostbite, exhaustion, or execution.
A material cableway carried supplies from the valley to Fjedlafjedlet before the access road was completed. The route from Fjell farm to the plateau became known as the Russian Path because local inhabitants used “Russians” as a collective term for the prisoners, although the workforce included people of several nationalities.
The fortress’s principal weapon was a naval turret removed from the German battleship Gneisenau after an air raid heavily damaged the ship in 1942 and led to its withdrawal from active service. Known at Fjell as Turret Bruno, it was installed to control access to Bergen. A heavy crane was dismantled in Bergen and transported by sea to Sotra on 20 December 1942. It was erected above the gun pit on 26 December, before the gun components arrived.
The first firing trials of the main gun took place in June and July 1943, with a firing date of 12 July. The close-defence installations were still unfinished at that time. Anti-aircraft batteries also monitored Bergen’s main air approach and were used against Allied air raids on the city.
Transfer to Norwegian control
After Germany surrendered, Allied troops occupied Sotra shortly after 8 May 1945, and Fjell Fortress was taken without resistance. The Norwegian Army incorporated the installation into the national coastal-defence system and operated it as a gun position until 1968.
Norway removed parts of the close-defence system soon after the war, including the flamethrowers. About 4,000 litres of remaining flamethrower oil were burned, mines were cleared, and much equipment was sunk in nearby waters. Norwegian personnel continued unfinished work on the telephone network, heating systems, and accommodation facilities. The guns were maintained and re-aimed weekly, and three post-war firing trials were held. The nearby Fjell farm had to be evacuated during those trials.
Changing weapons technology made the gun position obsolete, while continued operation was considered too expensive. The fortress was therefore abandoned as an active gun position in 1968. The main turret was sold to a scrap dealer for 3,000 Norwegian kroner, and its subsequent fate is unknown.
Radar station and preservation
The Norwegian Navy operated a coastal-radar station at Fjell until 2005. The former command bunker was adapted for radar use, and military manoeuvres continued there occasionally. After the radar station closed, responsibility for parts of the former military area increasingly passed to the Sotra and Øygarden Defence Association and a preservation foundation involving local municipal representatives, the association, and representatives of Hordaland.
Preservation has been difficult because much of the original equipment was removed, rusted, destroyed, or taken by souvenir hunters. The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, the national authority responsible for protecting Norway’s archaeological and built heritage, placed the fortress under heritage protection on 6 May 2004. Parts of the installation opened as a museum on 1 May 2009, with exhibitions about the fortress and wartime equipment. The tunnel complex had also received organised access from about 1992, while other sections were secured or sealed after break-in attempts.
Remains
Main gun position
Turret Bruno and gun pit
The main armament was a three-barrel naval turret carrying 28.3-centimetre guns of the German 28 cm SK C/34 type. These quick-firing naval guns had a maximum range of about 40 kilometres, while the reduced-charge range used at Fjell was about 37 kilometres. The barrels could fire separately or in grouped salvos. A firing delay reduced the combined recoil of all three guns, and each barrel could be elevated independently.
The complete gun assembly originally weighed about 600 tonnes and about 1,000 tonnes after its armour was reinforced. Each barrel and its cradle weighed approximately 72 tonnes. The turret rotated on a ball-bearing system like the one used aboard Gneisenau. Electrical motors controlled elevation and traverse, with manual emergency operation also available. The turret’s optical rangefinder was removed because target acquisition took place through a central fire-control system, which combined observation and calculations to aim the artillery.
The turret was made of chromium-nickel steel. Its original armour measured 358 millimetres at the front and 190.5 millimetres at the sides. Work beginning on 9 June 1943 increased the front armour to approximately 600 to 700 millimetres and the side armour to about 250 millimetres.
Installing the turret required a gun pit excavated approximately 17 metres vertically into the mountain. The main entrance and gun emplacement were first formed as an open ditch and later covered with concrete, rather than being blasted as a tunnel through solid rock. Water penetration subsequently became a persistent problem in the underground system. After the turret was removed, the open gun pit was fenced. Parts of the turret armour remain near the former gun position, and a café occupies the gun pit.
Close-defence works
Bunkers and firing positions
The defensive network included machine-gun, mortar, flamethrower, anti-tank, observation, command, medical, accommodation, and combined accommodation-and-anti-aircraft bunkers. Many were linked by concealed communication trenches about two to three metres deep. Close defence was arranged in several inner and outer rings. Circular RS 58 ring stands contained a protected shelter and a position for a machine gun, medium flamethrower, or observation equipment.
Mortar positions of type RS 61a, also called construction form 206, were often set behind the outer lines in depressions or hollows. Many machine-gun positions were covered by anti-tank guns. Most anti-tank guns were mobile and stored in anti-tank-gun garages so they could be moved quickly into forward positions. Minefields and three- or four-layer barbed-wire obstacles protected large parts of the defensive area. Important bunkers had machine-gun positions on their roofs, while standardised bunkers were protected by firing slits facing their entrances.
Anti-aircraft positions
Anti-aircraft defences were distributed in groups across the fortress. Larger guns stood on concrete foundations, while light anti-aircraft guns were intended for wooden platforms. The number of guns changed during the war, and the total quantity is uncertain. The combined anti-aircraft organisation was called Battery Buskvatn.
Command and radar installations
S446 command bunker
The S446 was a large, two-storey command bunker from which the heavy artillery was directed. A large direction finder and rangefinder were mounted on the bunker. Target bearing was read from a degree scale, while distance was determined through a mirror system.
Radar remains
Fjell Fortress contained a FuMO 214 naval-artillery radar, a modified Würzburg Giant radar, and a third position for a Freya radar. FuMO, Freya, and Würzburg were families of German military radar equipment used to locate ships or aircraft and direct fire. Radar information from other stations could also support anti-aircraft and heavy-artillery fire when targets could not be seen from Fjell.
The original command bunker was later adapted for the Norwegian coastal-radar station. A new radar apparatus was placed on its roof, monitoring equipment was installed inside, and a smaller surface radar was positioned beneath the main radar. The remains of a Freya radar and a FuMO 214 radar still stand on the fortress grounds. Another original radar installation, probably a Freya, was scrapped in 1947 and 1948.
Underground system
Main tunnel complex
The principal tunnel system connected the command bunker with the main battery, Turret Bruno, smaller bunkers, the ready-ammunition store, and generator rooms. It also contained underground accommodation for several hundred soldiers, a central-heating plant, kitchen, washroom, toilets, sauna, storage rooms, and a partly constructed underground medical complex.
Two generators remain available for viewing, including one that originally stood at another installation in Hordaland. The tunnels also retain kitchen boilers, a bath with sauna and showers, and a machine room. Several accommodation casemates, protected rooms for military use, were later filled with scrap and waste and sealed. The tunnel walls and ceilings have been secured.
Horseshoe complex and ammunition tunnels
A tunnel group known as the Horseshoe lies east of the main tunnel entrance and extends for approximately 300 metres, excluding the ammunition rooms. A parallel section was probably intended to expand storage capacity. It remained unfinished, with no lighting or plastered walls. Additional ammunition-storage tunnels were built to different stages, including one that runs through a hill in rough-construction form. Its intended function is unknown.
The complete underground system is estimated at about three kilometres long, although its exact length is uncertain. German maps from 1943 show plans for larger tunnel and bunker installations. The main tunnel entrance was protected by firing slits, machine guns, armoured doors, and an anti-tank gun. A large flamethrower installation known as Donner Felix guarded the entrance.
Prisoner camps and external works
Horebotn and Sjursbotn camps
The former prisoner route from Fjell farm to the plateau includes occasional stone steps and passed several anti-aircraft positions, probably installed on wooden platforms. At Horebotn, foundations from the temporary prisoner-of-war camp survive, together with a dam that impounded a nearby stream. The later camp near Sjursbotn had an assembly ground and at least three barracks. One of those barracks still survives.
Roadblock near Road 555
A roadblock near Road 555 consists of eight large stone blocks resting on a concrete foundation. Wire cables originally held the blocks in place. During an attack, the cables were intended to be detonated so that the stones would fall onto the road and obstruct vehicles.
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