The narrows at Drøbak, called the Drøbaksundet, is the key natural chokepoint for the naval defence of Oslo, the capital of Norway. Accordingly, in the 1600s fortifications were built at the narrows for that purpose. In the early 1800s the fortress was modernized, upgraded, and in 1855 was named Oscarsborg, in honor of a visit by the King of Sweden (Norway at that time being unified with Sweden).
Of course, as military technology has been wont to do during the era of the Industrial and post-Industrial Revolutions, military realities soon overcame the practical design of the fortress, and the Norwegians upgraded the fortress, adding some nice Krupp products from Germany to the batteries covering the sound, adding an underwater barrier and a torpedo battery to take advantage of that new invention, the Whitehead torpedo, developed by an English engineer Robert Whitehead, working for an Italian company, for the Austro-Hungarian Navy (heh, there's even a Sound of Music tie in there...) The main armament selected were three 280 mm caliber Krupp cannon, and assorted smaller-caliber guns of 150 mm and 57 mm on the mainland across from the fortress. The underwater barrier went from the main islet of Kaholmen southwest to the western side of the fjord, blocking the channel west of the fortress to large vessels.
On April 9, 1940, Oscarsborg received it's first, and only, test by fire. Sometimes you only get one, and if you're a warrior... you better be ready to give it your best. So it was for Oberst (Colonel) Birger Erikson, commander of Oscarsborg. While unable to save Norway from conquest by the Nazis, Oberst Erikson bought the time needed for Norway to evacuate her government and gold reserves to England, the better to continue the fight against the Teuton despoiler from Austria, Herr Corporal Hitler.
I'm sure that Oberst Erikson had some concerns... his guns were all 40+ years old, and while his torpedoes were known to be a sound design, they too were old and had been test-fired a lot over their lifetimes, albeit without their warshot warheads affixed. It was an open question whether or not they would explode when they hit the target.
At 65 years old, with no significant combat experience in his career, and in a chaotic situation out of effective communications with his superiors, Oberst Eriksen knew only that warships were headed his way, and had no knowledge of whether or not they were German or Allied vessels. He was however aware of Norway's official position of neutrality, with the intent of joining the Allies if Norway were attacked.
And his fortress was in a parlous state. His officers were old, with the torpedo battery being commanded by a retired coast artillery officer, Kommandørkaptein Andreas Anderssen, recalled by Eriksen for just that purpose. Most of his garrison troops were new recruits, having started their national service just days before, and he had numbers insufficient to man all his guns.
Up the fjord, large naval units appeared, ghosting out of the morning mists.
After warning shots had been fired and live rounds received in response, resulting in a fatality on his patrol boat, Oberst Eriksen seized his duty with both hands, giving the order to open fire on the approaching vessels at 04:21, and the 280mm Krupp guns, named Aron and Moses, sent rounds downrange at the large vessel 1,800 meters away, joined by the smaller guns on the opposite shore, scoring hits all along the lead vessel, still unidentified as to ship and nationality.
The ship was the German cruiser Blücher. The first hit took out the Blücher's forward fire control station, effectively disabling the ship's forward guns. The second hit took out the aircraft hangar, igniting aviation fuel and infantry munitions stored on deck.
These were the only two rounds Aron and Moses were to ever fire in anger, their inexperienced crews and long reload times effectively taking them out of the battle. If you only get one shot - make it count.
The Blücher's return fire from her secondaries was ineffective. The damage to her fire control station rendered her main guns unusable.
While the fire was raging aboard the Blücher, the smaller Norwegian guns raked her, complicating damage control, as her decks were continually swept by fire. The Blücher was carrying infantry for the attack on Oslo, and the Landsers and crew were undaunted, breaking out into a rousing chorus of "Deutschland über alles" as the Blücher ran the gauntlet of fire.
They would have done better to pay attention to what was just ahead of them.
The Germans' intel was fatally flawed. They were unaware of the commanded by just-recalled-from-retirement Kommandørkaptein Anderssen torpedo battery near the main gun battery, sited to cover the narrowest point of the fjord.
After passing the line of fire of the fortress' gun batteries the cruiser was burning and severely damaged. However, Kapitan Zur See Heinrich Woldag intended to save to save his ship and complete his mission. Too bad for KzS Woldag and the Blücher, she was passing in front of a pissed-off artillery officer and Kommandørkaptein Anderssen had two of his three torpedo tubes ready at a range of only 500m. Like their commander, the torpedoes were old and well-worn 40-year-old Whitehead torpedoes of Austrian manufacture. These torpedoes had been practice-launched well over 200 times before being aimed in earnest - and no-one was certain if they would function or not. Kommandørkaptein Anderssen fired the torperdoes himself, and the torps ran straight, hot, and true. The first torpedo hit near the Blücher's forward turret, and the second in the engine room, which left her drifting out of control.
The torpedoes sealed her fate.
The rest of the flotilla, believing the Blücher had hit mines, reversed back up the narrows, postponing the invasion of Oslo. The Norwegians weren't finished however - as the Germans retreated, the Lützow was hit three times by the Norwegian 150's and her "Anton" and "Bruno" turrets were disabled.
To avoid running aground, the Blücher dropped anchor at Askholmen, south of Oslo. KzS Woldag ordered her torpedoes to be fired into the sides of the fjord to prevent them from exploding aboard the ship. At 06:23, the Blücher capsized and sank, about an hour after she took her first hit. Of the 2,202 crew and troops on board, 830 died. The German Navy, while having failed the soldiers of the invasion force thus far - atoned in a classy way: Blücher's sailors were ordered to give up their life jackets to the troops on board, thus saving the lives of a significant number of soldiers. Kapitan zur See Woldag did not go down with his ship, but died a week or so later in a plane crash.
The Germans weren't finished with Oberst Erikson and Oscarsborg, either. The Lutzow bombarded the fortress with her remaining functional (but damaged) turret, and the fortress was bombed. Oberst Eriksen, being able to keep the German vessels under observation, ordered his gun crews into the tunnels to avoid casualties, knowing he could man the guns in time should the Germans start running down the fjord towards Oslo again. By doing this, Oberst Eriksen suffered no casualties in the fight. The only Norwegian casualties at all were two women killed by stray German rounds and the soldier on the patrol boat.
According to the people who wandered around counting craters, 100 battleship shells and 500 bombs landed in and around the fortress, but no guns were knocked out, nor soldiers killed or wounded.
When he received word that airlanding troops had taken Oslo, but the government was safely away, Oberst Eriksen decided further resistance would be a needless expenditure of lives and surrendered the fortress.
Aside from telling a tale of duty and the old and new soldier's baptism of fire (aside from the excuse of posting the picture of Aron), the other part about this story that intrigued me is the fact that the german-built ships were damaged by german-built guns. And that the pride of the Kriegsmarine, the Blücher, was sunk by Austrian-built torpedoes... since Hitler was Austrian, I just like the symmetry.
And it just goes to show, that most of the time, it's not the gear, it's who mans it that matters.
Update: And one more thing I meant to add... the Blücher was the Kriegsmarine's newest capital ship at the beginning of the war... which just makes the old war dog story even better.
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