Bangsbo Fort, a German World War II battery in Denmark that is now a museum

@ElentirENG ES 9·06·2023 · 23:36 0

During World War II, Nazi Germany fortified the Atlantic coasts of the countries it occupied, from France to Norway.

Trondenes Fort: an old German battery in Norway with four colossal cannons
Kristiansand: an enormous World War II German cannon turned into a museum

This network of fortifications, known as the Atlantic Wall, included coastal artillery batteries whose mission was to destroy Allied ships if they attempted a landing. Today many of these batteries are in ruins and have been dismantled, but others are still in good condition. Among the latter is the Bangsbo Fort battery, in Frederikshavn, in northern Denmark.

This battery was built in a place of great strategic importance, as it dominated the southern corner of the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits, which connect the North Sea with the Baltic Sea. The Germans began to fortify this place in April 1940, as soon as they completed their rapid invasion of Denmark, and it was ready in June of that year. According to the Danish website Atlantvolden.dk, In May 1940, a stationary battery of 88 mm anti-aircraft guns was installed there, operated by the German Army. These cannons were replaced up to three times.

As for the coastal artillery, German 150 mm naval guns were initially installed, later replaced by Danish 120 mm guns, which in the spring of 1944 were replaced by 150 mm naval guns taken from the Danish cruise ship HDMS Niels Juel. The battery had 17 concrete bunkers and another 30 buildings made of the same material. The Germans kept this battery in their possession until the end of the war.

In September 1945, the battery passed into the hands of the Royal Danish Navy, which modernized and expanded these fortifications, naming them Bangsbo Fort. The battery was active until 1962, but the Royal Danish Navy still maintains a part of the installation.

In 2005, the North Jutland Coast Museum took over the defunct part of the battery, turning it into a museum. This place is periodically used to make historical reenactments about the Second World War, as you can see in this video published in June by the Nordjyllands Kystmuseum:

In these recreations the old battery cannons are still sometimes fired, as you can see in this other video:

You can see more details of this battery in this video from the Nordjyllands Kystmuseum:

To finish, today WW2HistoryHunter has published this video in which it shows with more detail one of the cannons of this barería:

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Main image: WW2HistoryHunter.