Brekstad, Fort Austrått
WB Norwegen, Art.Gr. Örlandet, M.K.B. Örlandet 4/507, Fort Austrått, 3x28cm.
Take the 710 from Brekstad towards Opphaug and turn right towards the Fort Austratt. The fort is clearly showed on the road signs. The battery is located in the small forest.
The battery is nowadays a museum; there is a guided tour around the triple gun turret. The bunkers for the close defence are closed for public, only if you ask permission they might open it. The gun turret is one of the three turrets of the German battleship Gneisenau; the other two were placed at Fjell (Norway) and Rotterdam (Netherlands).
The gun turret has several levels, such as shell platform, cartridge platform and gun platform. The shells came in at the bottom and worked their way up, receiving the cartridges and getting ready to fire from the three 28cm guns. The whole installation looks still very nice, the Norwegian army used the battery for a while and so the installation is very intact.
The maximum range of the guns was 42,6km; the guns have never seen action and the only shells that were fired were test-rounds.
The gun is mounted on a concrete base and connected to several underground tunnel systems for the crew, ammunition, storage and all the other supporting facilities. The entrances of these two tunnels are at the back, the tunnels are blown out of the rocks and they are very impressive.
The close defence was given by several Tobruks, anti-tank obstacles and a beautiful 631 4,7cm PAK casemate. The 631 has a renovated 4,7cm gun inside, the entire mechanism still works, you can lift the armoured plate manual!
Types:
1x Gun emplacement for 28cm S.K.C/34, triple turret gun tower C Gneisenau battle ship.
1x Supporting tunnel.
1x Ammunition tunnel.
1x 631 Embrasured emplacement for 4.7cm fortress anti-tank gun (t).
1x 621 Group bunker.
1x 622 Twin group bunker.
3x Barracks.
2x Tobruk58c.
1x Tank-wall.
1x Tank-obstacles.