laststandonzombieisland

An M270 150mm gun salvaged from the scuttled Danish cruiser Niels Juel, emplaced by the Germans at Frederikshavn, seen under new management circa May 1945– a beret-clad Danish resistance member with a British STEN gun. FHM-210592

When the Germans swept into Denmark in April 1940, the country, jutting like a finger out between the North Sea and Baltic Sea, had a few coastal artillery batteries dotting its shores, typically clustered around Copenhagen. These totaled just over 100 assorted guns in 10 batteries and forts.

The largest of these guns were five 30.5 cm MRK L/35 Krupp M1889 guns at the fortress island Middelgrundsfortet, accompanied by another dozen 17cm fortress guns from the same era, while similar fortress island Flakfortet had a half-dozen 8.3-inch M1913 guns. These works, built at the turn of the century and updated in the Great War and in the early 1930s when there was a real threat of war with neighboring Norway over Greenland (!), had guns mounted on barbette carriages and protected by armored shields and earthen ramparts. The ammunition and barracks areas were under concrete.

Middelgrundsfortet guns FHM-275366

Danish Cannon cleaning at Middelgrundsfortet THM-3280

Two Danish Navy conscripts present rifles in front of Middelgrundsfortet. Note the Krag rifles. THM-22156

Other batteries were simply guns removed from old warships, such as Kongelund Battery, on the southern end of the circa 1660s Copenhagen Fortress, which was armed in 1939 with four 150mm Bofors guns landed from the condemned coastal battleship Herluf Trolle.

Danish Den næstnordligste 7,5 cm kanon battery at Hørhaven, from guns taken from old torpedo boats

Caught unprepared due to tiny defense budgets, the Danes had several new batteries (Skagen-North, Läsö, Hjelm, Seelandsodde, Hornbek, et al) of surplus 5- and 6-inch guns planned but not finished.

Danish batteries in 1933, via Fortress Europe: European Fortifications Of World War II by JE Kaufmann.

Then came the Germans

The easy German fix to get around the Danish seacoast defenses around Copenhagen was to sail a converted passenger ship (Hansestadt Danzig) escorted by three gunboats, boldly into the capital city of the neutral country at 0420 when Operation Weserübung kicked off on 9 April 1940.

Filled with troops of the 2nd Bn, 308th Infantry Regiment, the men efficiently secured their objectives by 0600 on “Der Tag.”

Hansestadt Danzig landing troops in Copenhagen harbor during the invasion of Denmark, 9 April 1940

The Germans moved to rectify the condition of Danish coastal defenses and soon had two dedicated Marine Artillerie Bataillons (Nos. 308 and 309), rushed to Denmark within weeks to begin that sector’s length of the Atlantic Wall. Those two battalions were the first with the 10-battalion 180. Heeresküstenartillerie (HKAR) Dänemark, or coastal artillery regiment, was formed to oversee the enterprise.

Danish coastal artillery near Copenhagen operated by German gunners FHM-213114

Czech hedgehogs (Spærringer) at Hanstholm FHM-209998

By April 1945, at least 70 batteries existed in occupied Denmark in various states of construction and manning, with no less than 6,000 coastwise bunkers and 277 guns sized 3-inch or larger. The biggest pieces were giant, state-of-the-art, 15-inchers.

Just about every inch of the Danish coast was covered

As noted by a 1945 American survey, here are the guns by size and number:

7,5-cm – 15 batteries with total of 60 guns

8,8-cm –     5       ”                          19   ”

10,5-cm – 17        ”                          67   ”

12,0-cm –   3        ”                          16   ”

12,2-cm –   8        ”                          32   ”

12,7-cm –   5        ”                          20   ”

15,0-cm – 10        ”                          40   ”

17,0-cm –   2        ”                          16   ”

19,4-cm –   1        ”                            4   ”

21,0-cm –   1        ”                            6   ”

30,5-cm –   1        ”                            5   ”

38,0-cm –   2        ”                            8   “

A later Danish survey in 1946 came up with at least 79 batteries and well over 300 guns.

Several pieces were recycled Danish guns harvested from the country’s scuttled Navy.

On Fano Island, a battery of four guns, recovered from the lost Danish bathtub battleship Peder Skram, made up one battery, while another four 5.9-inch guns came from the battleship Gneisenau. A third battery was made up of French guns.

French cannon on Fano FHM-210127

Gneisenau’s 5.9-inch guns, set up on Fano Denmark FHM-210106

Gun from Peder Skram on Fano. FHM-210103

Among the more modern German pieces, the 7.5 cm Pak 40 was popular. Others included 76.2mm and 122mm Russian field artillery captured along the Eastern Front.

7.5 cm Pak 40M on Kattegat FHM-210360

There were also lots of very old (M1888) French 194mm pieces and Great War-era Schneider 105s– some 60 guns, reclassified as K 331(f)s in German service– and Creuzot 155s.

At Hanstholm, concrete fortifications up to 11 feet thick were constructed while the base mounted dozens of guns brought from occupied Poland and elsewhere, augmented by flamethrowers and over 30 assorted flak guns– many of the latter being British Vickers and French Hotchkiss.

Guns at Hanstholm FHM-209958

17cm gun at Hanstholm FHM-209981

Naval piece at Hanstholm FHM-210270

17 cm naval gun, Hanstholm, FHM-209953

The biggest, the eight pack of 38 cm (14.96″) SK C/34s, in two planned four-gun batteries at Oksby and Hanstholm, were Siegfried coastal artillery variants of the guns used on the Bismarck class battleships.

unmounted 38cm gun at Guldager near Esbjerg FHM-209862

38, cm gun, Hanstholm FHM-210072

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-209957

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-209964

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-210027

Gratefully, other than the occasional flak burst at passing Allied aircraft, none roared in anger during their time in Denmark.

German soldiers surrender their rifles at Kruså, Denmark – 17 May 1945. Norris (Sergeant) Photographer. IWM BU 6345

For a time, the Danes manned (or planned to man with reservists in case of war) some of the more modern batteries into the early 1950s, when even the last few were retired, seen as obsolete in an age of guided missiles and nuclear weapons. The bunkers often remained in use for other purposes until the end of the Cold War.

The majority of the guns were long ago scrapped, although a few have been retained as museum pieces.

M270 bunker med 150mm Bofors kanon fra Niels Juel at Bangsbo battery, Frederikshavn, by Carsten Wiehe via Wikimedia