Tims Times

Leaving Oslo on a sunny September day, the glare would have burned out my optic nerves had it not been for the trusty sunglasses.

Picturesque villages and houses on the Fjord.

The Oslo pilot told us the story of the beginning of the invasion of Norway by the Nazis in 1940 and the resistance put up by the locals in the face of superior military might.

Oscars fort guns installed in 1893, made ironically by Krupps of Germany they put the German ship Blucher partly out of action. The official story is that because the guns were so old they waited until the warships were close before they started to fire, according to the story we heard from the pilot the commanding officer was over 70 years old and was hard of hearing and nearly blind so he thought the Germans were further away then reality. He ordered the guns to be elevated for a further away target, the shells hit high up on the structure of the Blucher, but by a stroke of luck for the Norwegians they put the forward guns out of action and set fire to a fuel depot onboard. The main damage was done when the torpedoes were launched from their secret under water firing position middle of picture below.

Unaware of the presence of torpedo capability installed in 1901 the Kreigsmarine Heavy Crusier Blucher sailed into her last manouever at the narrows of Dröback. The other ships in the convoy Lutzow and Emden on seeing the explosions from Blucher backed away down the channel fearing a minefield and delaying the eventual occupation of Oslo.

The weapons had been installed by the Norwegians in a military build up at the end of the 19th century when Norway was in a Union with Sweden, they said that the build up was a preventative measure in case of attack from Russia, of course this was a ruse, the real reason was in case of a war with Sweden as the Norwegians wanted out of the union, which they were successful in doing in 1905, there was no war. So this equipment had not been used in anger ever and the newest parts were the Austrian torpedoes from 1901, as the Blucher came in range the officer in charge fired not knowing whether his 40 year old torpedoes would work. They did. He was Norway’s most decorated soldier for his actions.On the 9th of April 1940 the Blucher sank down 80 metres and took 830 lives with her. She lies there to this day. For further reading check out Wikipedia.

Off to Kaliningrad now, more news later.