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
 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 material 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 very
 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. neisenau 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 comes from 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  originals 1998.  Click for enlargement

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

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

Grenade store

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. To talk 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 hospital rooms in the  northern part when the fort was modernized in  1982-84.     (Click for forstørrelse)  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 og the target, direction and speed of the wind, air pressure and the flying time of the
 grenade on a distance of 23 km. 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.