Randøya Fort
Randøya Fort is an abandoned coastal artillery fort on the island of Østre Randøya , about 13 km east of Kristiansand in Fylke Agder , Norway.
It was built by the Germans as part of the Atlantic Wall during the Second World War and taken over by the Norwegians after the war and decommissioned in the late 1990s. On the island there is now a recreation area with a beach for families on the west side and good opportunities for hiking and exploring the old military facilities.
history
The oldest plans for the fortress are from 1891, but the mapping of the area was not completed until the spring of 1940. In April 1941, German troops installed the first guns in the fort. Under the designation MKB 1./502 (MKB - Marine Coastal Battery ), the fort was subordinate to the commandant of the Kristiansand-Süd naval defense . The three 15 cm guns of the Germans were dismantled in 1944 and taken out of the country. In August 1947 the "Unneberg Committee" (Norwegian: Unnebergutvalget) declared: "The installation on Randøya is essential to block the main entrance. A defective installation would otherwise make the defense here illusory." 15 cm caliber guns were required, but they were not available. A 10.5 cm battery was temporarily installed as a replacement and was ready in April 1949. Guns were installed from 1951 to 1952 and remained there until it was closed in the 1990s. The last shot from this battery was on June 19, 1999.
Weapons and fire control system
Three Armstrong guns were moved from Fort Oddeøya to Randøya Fort in 1941. These remained there until 1944, when they were dismantled and taken out of the country.
In 1949 a 10.5 cm battery was temporarily installed.
In the summer of 1943 produced nine new 12.7-cm SKC 34 guns in Skoda -Werken of Czechoslovakia , which assembled and from 1951 to 1953 until the closure of the fort remained there.
The commander could give the order to fire on enemy ships from the fire control station.
The center console gave him a good overview and with the help of the two side consoles, which contained radar , optical instruments and the controls for the laser , he had the possibility to forward data directly to the guns. As a last resort, you could also fire directly from the individual guns.
The gun station in the far north in the direction of Randesund consisted of two 40 mm L 60 anti-aircraft guns. These were intended to prevent smaller ships from passing through the Stanggapet Strait .
Equipment and surroundings
When it was taken over in 1945, the fort consisted of 13 barracks and 14 other buildings. Some of them are still intact today and are used by the University of Agder (HiA) , schools from Randesund and non-profit organizations .
There was no insulation in any of the buildings. The barracks and lounges were heated with stoves. An exception is the sanitary building, which was equipped with electric heating. Each barracks had running water and shared washrooms, but warm water was only available in certain places.
The bunker with a viewing gap is between the guns.
At the end of the 1950s, the guns I, II and III got better coverage in the form of a shatterproof shield. A plastic cover was installed over it for better camouflage. The 4th gun was in an open position.
There is a 200–300 m long tunnel system in the mountain. The innermost part was used as a liaison center, operations center and fire control station. The operations center was divided into the operational areas of sea defense, air defense and firefighting station. So you could quickly mobilize different armed forces.
A 60 cm searchlight was placed a little further in the fjord.
swell
- Kystforet på Østre Randøy , Digitalt Museum (Norwegian)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 58 ° 6 ′ 4.1 ″ N , 8 ° 6 ′ 59.5 ″ E