The Strategic Position of Denmark 

 The strategic position of Denmark as  "The Cork in the Baltic" made it neccesary to protect The Danish territory, the airspace
 and the waters. To Protect the strait of the Øresund and to defend minefields at the expected landing beachhead at the Fakse
 Bay, it was decided to buils a artillery fort at the southern end of Øresund.   

 The fort was build from 1952 to 1953 and in 1954 the barracks nearby were finished. Before the construction, there was a
 careful study of positions build by the Germans in Denmark during WW2 and a British coastal battery at Dover. Dover, in
 particular, had an underground similar to Stevns. 

 The Building and construction was made by the Danish Construction company Rasmussen & Schiøtz. 
 1.7 km. of tunnels were drilled and blown in the underground, 18 metres under the surface. The fort was situated at the end of
 a cliff, and the drilling started in two tunnels from the beach. These tunnels are still known as “foxholes”. The removed
 materials from the tunnels was simply thrown into the see, and had soon disappeared. 

 The special underground in The Stevns peninsula (geological known as Bryozo-chalk) is extreme chock absorbing.  This
 special chalk is extremely good at absorbing chocks of both conventional shells and nuclear weapons on the surface.  
 

 The Gneisenau guns

 The main armament of the fort was 4 pieces of 15 cm guns in two armoured turrets. The turrets were connected by the tunnel
 system. Originally the guns were placed as secondary armament on the WW2 German pocket battleship  Gneisenau of the
 Gneisenau / Scarnhorst class.
 

The A and B turret on the                  Gneisenaus with the six                  280  mm guns.        The destroyed foredeck    and A-turret on the    Gneisenau.   The turret named "Caesar" from the Gneisenau placed by the Germans on the Austrått Fortress in Norway    The sad end of a proud      ship. The Gneisenau    sunk outside Gotenhaven    harbour as a blockship.

 The Gneisenau were brought to Gotenhaven (Gdynia) in Poland for repair and new armament of 380 mm guns.  However this
 never happened.
 In 1943 Hitler ordered (Führerbefehl) that all heavy ships, from light cruisers and onwards, should be demolished. He was not
 satisfied with their efforts. Because of this “Führerbefehl, the artillery were removed from the heavy units and used as the
 armament on the Atlantic Wall. Gneisenau itself was sunk as a block-ship in the harbour of Gotenhaven (Gdynia).
 It was scrapped by the Poles after the war.
 The two turrets from the Stevns Fort were originally placed on the north part of the western Danish island Fanoe as The
 Graadyb Battery. (Batteri Graadyb).
 In 1952 the turrets were moved from Fanoe to their current position on the Stevns Fort.
 

 
 In 1957 a 12.7 cm. gun, meant for shooting lightflare shells, were mounted. This gun was in the early 1960’s replaced with a
 15 cm. gun. It had a range of 23 kilometres.  In a period launchers for light rockets has been mounted on the outside of the
 turret.  Where this gun originally was placed is unknown, but it is of German origin.
 

 
 Beside the main artillery two batteries of double 40 mm. anti aircraft guns were placed in a southern and a northern  battery.
 It was possible to reach the southern battery from the tunnels, but not the Northern. It was either to difficult or to expencive
 to dig this tunnel.
 Each battery consisted of 3 pieces of guns with two barrels. Both batteries were demolished in late 1970’s.   
 

40 MM Anti Aircraft Gun                                                          (The actual picture is from the                                                          Langelands  Fort)

 Two 150 cm floodlights were mounted to light up naval targets for the artillery, but these were used only in the first half of the
 forts active period. 
 

The two permanent 40 mm Anti Aircraft              Batteries had a 60  cm. floodlight each.                (The photo is not from the Stevns Fort)

 Originally the fort had 8 mobile 40 mm anti aircraft guns, but this number was later increased to 18 pieces in 1997.  
 

.                       Foto: Tom Wismann.

 The only entrance to the tunnel system was though the bunker in the northern end.  At the entrance bunker they were three flanking
 positions for defence of the entrance. In the start the famous Danish Madsen machine gun was used for the defence, and later the
 German machinegun M/62, used as a standard for the Danish Army. Inside there are an elevator and a staircase to the tunnels and an
 artillery command post for the first piece of artillery.
 

 The main tunnel was curved. In the middle the two artillery sections were divided by heavy
 armoured doors. This was made to be able to stop an attack from one end to another. Also it
 prevented explosions to spread.           

The armoured doors were eighter taken from     abendoned German bunker in Jutland or made     on the Navys shipyard "Holmen" in Copen-     hagen.     They are most lightly german.

 At all the crossings of the tunnels, bulges were made in the walls to prevent explosions to spread from  the side tunnels to
 the main tunnel. 

From the main tunnel there                        was access to the radar                        antennas. hidden in the fort.                        At the top these tubes were                        closed with 5 cm. armour

In case of crash or weakening of   walls and ceiling, there were   stores of timber in the tunnels.

 To supply the fort with power and water there was a lot og heavy machinery. This was placed in two large ingeneer centrals
 in each end af the fort.

Engineer central                                        Drawing: Tom Wismann after the                                        original drawings 1998.

Emergency Generator 8 cyl.	Boiler in the main tunnel	The generator engine
	Cooling Component	There were at lot of water pipes

 To each gun there was an ammunition store with an elevator to to the gun..

One of the Grenade stores

Store for charges

The elevator.

 If the Fort should become active i wartime, several hundreds og men had to live and fight here. For weeks - maybe for
 months. Talking about years is not reasonable.  With  no kitchen facilities, they would have to live of the armys standard
 rations. In peacetime they were eating in the barracks nearby.

 Other facilities in the tunnels were also rather primitive.

Post for fresh water                                      in the main tunnel.		Mens room in the                   main tunnel.                   No women - no doors
	It was a naval fort and  things were done the  naval way. Room for  36 artillery crew men  and 10 petty officers.		The hospital had a  number of beds in the  main tunnel.

 
   The Original Operations Rooms.   

 In the southern end of the tunnes, the operations rooms and the artillery central were placed. It was moved to the former
 hospital rooms in the northern part when the fort was modernized in 1982-84.

Part of the old Operations Rooms.                         The three doors are 7-8-9 on the drawing.                         At the end the door to the command office.      The Artillery Control Central

The old Operations Rooms.  The plotter-table in the middle has been moved to  the museum at the Langelands Fort.                        Photo and drawing:Tom Wismann 1997

The Artillery Calculator

 
 The Artillery Control Central was a part of the original operations rooms. Here the targets were plotted, and firing data
 calculated. It was before the computer as we know it today, and we are talking about large calculations. Speed of the target,
 direction and speed of the wind, air pressure and the time in the aor of the grenade on a distance of 23 km. In that time the
 target could easily move 500 meters.  The data were put into the calculator on the little black wheels on top af the machine.


 The Operations Rooms

 The operations room was the last part of the fort in use. Earlier it was situated in an other part of the tunnels, but after a
 modernising in 1982-84, it was moved to the rooms of the former hospital.  (described below) The Royal danish Naval Radio
 Service and Oeresund Naval Region had its command central here.

Part of the old Operations room complex.:                      The three doors are 7-8-9 on the drawing of                      the complex.                      At the end, the door to the daily office.

 The Hospital

 In the beginning the fort had its own hospital with 2 surgical theatres. It had an initial department with 18 beds and a hospital
 department with 36 beds. It also had rooms for 6 patients declared dead, but still under observation. X-ray was available and
 there were stores of medicine and bandages. There was no store of blood, but the blood type of all crew was known.
 The hospital was able to treat heavily burned victims, in case of  an attack with phosphor or napalm.

 There even was a chapel in two minor rooms, where killed members of the crew could be stored until fighting was ended and
 they could be brought to the family or buried on the fort area. In case of major damages, the hospital had 80 beds in the
 northern part of the tunnels.
The hospital facilities were after a modernizing of the fort 1982-84 replaced by the Operations Rooms.