Fortress Europe- European Fortifications Of World War II by J E Kaufmann

Author:J E Kaufmann [Kaufmann, J E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2008-09-03T01:02:00+00:00

In some of the coastal defense positions the weapons were mounted on barbette carriages, but most were in casemates and turrets. Every year stronger positions were created.

The Per Albin Line was mostly in the Helsingborg command and it consisted of bunkers with two to four machine guns covering one to two flanks. They were designated Ksp I, II, III, or IV (Ksp for machine gun, and the Roman numeral for the building phase). Bunkers designated PV had 37-mm Bofors anti-tank guns. Most positions had an observation cloche. Because of heavy concentration of defenses in this line, some bunkers were only 165 meters apart.

On the island of Gotland the Tingstade Fortress was the main center of resistance. It was located north of Visby and consisted of six small forts built between 1911 and 1916 which formed a semicircle around the town with the lake on the open side. Only one of these was an artillery fort, and during World war II its four old 84-mm gun turrets remained in operation. The fort's garrison was 300 men. The remainder of the fortress was defended by open concrete machine gun positions.

Sweden did not dedicate as much effort to its land borders as to the coast except for the Boden area. Five major forts and about a dozen smaller medium and light works formed the fortress ring that had a circumference of about 25 kilometers.' Its garrison consisted of about 25,000 men, both regulars and reservists. The artillery men occupied the forts and the infantrymen the intervals, and sometimes, cave-like shelters outside the forts. The large forts, located on mountains from which they took their names, included:

-Fort Rodberget at 120 meters, south of Boden on the west side of the river.

-Fort Gammelangsberget at 126 meters, east of Boden.

-Fort Mjosjoberget at 115 meters, just north of Gammelangsberget.

-Aberget at 98 meters on the opposite side of the river from Rodberget.

-Degerberget at 171 meters to the north of Boden.

These forts, blasted into the granite mountains, had encircling moats of a depth of over 6 meters and a width of 9 to 12 meters. The forts had one main entrance located above the fosse and, in some cases, more than one emergency exit in addition to the exits in some of the caponiers that protected the moats. The subterranean works consisted of three to five levels and a main gallery in the middle. The only tunnels below the main gallery passed beneath the fosse to access the caponiers. The tunnels were cut into the granite and were not lined with concrete, but in the rooms of the forts the walls were cemented. The roof of the forts consisted of 10 to 15 meters of granite mountainside. The forts included subterranean magazines, a caserne, a usine (power room) and other facilities at different levels.

Other features included telegraph and power line links that were buried up to a meter beneath the surface. The usine's two diesel engines provided electrical power to the fort. The air intakes were in the moat or on top of the fort.

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