Herb Helu Welcome to Hel Gallery !
Norway
to the main page Trondenes battery - Theo battery [Norway] - 4 guns 406 mm

Trondenes battery (also known as the Theo battery) - 4 x 406mm is twin to Schleswig-Holstein battery in Hel (Poland) 3 x 406 mm
A few info about the fortress Trondenes:

Trondenes is a peninsula on the northern part of Norway's largest island - Hinøya. It is situated about 4 km outside the city of Harstad, near Narvik. Trondenes is in a fjord. However, the importance of this area was as great for the Germans in World War II as it was for the Norwegians during the Cold War. These fjords almost cut Norway into two parts.

Important for the Germans was to protect the shipping of Swedish iron ore from the city of Narvik to Germany. In the inland fjords east of Harstad landed in spring 1940 British, Polish and French forces to the Narvik front. In the entrances to Harstad area the Germans had more then 20 fortresses with guns from 250mm down to 105mm. After the war five of these were modernized and kept operational by the Norwegians up to 1990. Today only one of these fortresses - Skraalsvik (on Island of Senja, 25 km north of Trondenes) still has the 150mm guns as a museum.

Batteries Trondenes (4 x 406mm) and Dietl (3 x 406mm on Engeloya Island) covered the sailing routes through open waters to the south. Waiting for an allied invasion Germans built about 280 fortresses along the Norwegian coast. more...

At Trondenes there were in addition to the four big 406mm guns, three 170mm guns and eight 88mm guns for sea front protection. Further on the 406mm guns had an anti air protection consisting of 11 guns with a caliber from 88mm down to 20mm. All together - 44 anti air guns. The battery was never used in action during the II World War. Responsible for the construction was organization Todt. Russian prisoners of war were used as slave workers and about 800 died at Trondenes. The construction of the biggest gun - "Adolfkanonen" 406mm took part from 1941 to 43. Firing rate at elevation less than 20 degrees was theoretically one round for minute. Due to loading had to take part at zero elevation, loading between 52 and 20 degrees took a little bit longer. It was reckoned 3 minutes for round. Gun crew was 68 men - 20 in the turret and 48 in the magazine.

After the end of the way the Trondenes guns were taken over by the Norwegian Army, along with 1,227 shells. The battery was last fired in 1957 and formally decommissioned in 1961. The three Dietl guns were sold for scrap in 1968, but the four guns at Trondenes were spared, and one is open as a museum.

{Photos and Text: Martin Vahl - Norway, Harstad}

Click to enlarge
Gun no 4
Click to enlarge
Gun no 1 with pivot
Click to enlarge
Gun no 1 dressed for winter
Click to enlarge
Interior of no 1 turret.jpg
Click to enlarge
Hydraulic rammer elevator in background
Click to enlarge
406mm panzer shells
Click to enlarge
Charge cannisters
Click to enlarge
300 kg double charge
Click to enlarge
maintenance tools
Click to enlarge
Inside loadind system
Click to enlarge
Ammo transport wagon
Click to enlarge
Lower part of ammo elevator
Click to enlarge
Electric elevation motor in turret
Click to enlarge
Elevation control
Click to enlarge
Switchboard and control for elevation and sidedrive motors
Click to enlarge
main electric switch board
Click to enlarge
Bearing instrumeents and rangefinder
Click to enlarge
Fire control instruments
Click to enlarge
Fresh water system
Click to enlarge
158 kw genrator
Trondenes peninsula and battery {Photos and Text: Martin Vahl - Norway, Harstad}
Martin Vahl

(welcome to the biggest www site about Hel (Poland) ! - http://hela.com.pl)

Valle - Władysław Szarski

Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional