Coastal fortresses in Ofoten

- their history in text and images

At the gateway to Ofotfjorden during the 2WW, the Germans built a dozen coastal batteries to defend the approach to Narvik and the anchorages and naval service support facilities in Bogen and Skjomen. Only three batteries were continued by the Norwegian coast artillery (CA) after the war. These were Nes, Tjeldøy and Korshamn. The purpose of this homepage is to recount their history – and that of their adjacent combat support infrastructure.

The German MAB 3. /516 Lödingen with its four 30,5cm costal howitzers was renamed Nes fortress post-war and its guns replaced with four ex-German 150mm SK C/28. In the nineties the fort underwent a total makeover, being reconstructed with two modern 120mm rotating automatic turret guns and all facilities and command and control infrastructure heavily fortified below ground. All military activity ceased in 2002 and the immense area was demilitarized and disarmed. The property was later sold to a real estate company and turned into plots for vacation cottages and for public recreation.

Four kilometers further inside the fjord, at the crossroad of Vestfjord, Tjeldsund and Ofotfjord, lays the island Tjeldøy. On its southernmost point, facing outwards Vestfjord, is MAB 2. /516 Tjeldöy. Armed by the Germans with four 15cm SKL L/40, it was converted by the Norwegians after the war to four 127cm SK C/34 in casemates. The fortress remained on mobilization status until 1998, when it was disarmed and declared a public outdoors recreational area.

To create more defensive depth and act as a final bloc, the Germans built two torpedo batteries named MAB 6. /516, the sister-batteries Korshamn and Porsöy. They interacted and both had torpedo guns placed in a concrete house on concrete pillars at the water’s edge. Initial armament was 50cm twin tubes – and from 1944, 53,3cm triple tubes. Korshamn was continued after the war and rebuilt in 1981 with an underground battery bunker and ex-German T1-torpedos and two fixed twin tubes. The fort was decommissioned in 1994 and sold to Ballangen municipality in 2006.

Why the Germans built the first fortifications in WW2 and five years of occupation?
Which Top Secret activities took place during the Cold War to  be ready to repel the USSR?
Why Europe’s most moderne fortress , built in the nineties was closed just 10 years later?

Why the Germans built the first fortifications in WW2 and five years of occupation?
Which Top Secret activities took place during the Cold War to  be ready to repel the USSR?
Why Europe’s most moderne fortress , built in the nineties was closed just 10 years later?

Expand your knowledge by spluring in historic accounts, maps, sketches and images. Read articles which document local places and their history

There are hidden bunkers and dark tunnels waiting for you to explore.
Find them on these pages – while also helping to preserve the historic military landscape and heritage

I hope you find these articles interesting, and that they inspire you to visit the fascinating military historic sites in Ofoten – and elsewhere in Norway