| |
The
official German name for these guns was 40,6cm
Schnell-ladekanone C/34, abbreviated 40,6cm SK C/34.
The guns were developed in 1934 for the new capital ships
for the Kriegsmarine, probably at the same time as the 38cm
guns, and they are often wrongly referred to as Schiffskanone SK
C/34. The 38cm guns were the heaviest armament onboard the
battleships Tirpitz and Bismarck.
In
1937 the Kriegsmarine ordered the 40,6cm guns from Krupp in
Essen for the next series of battleships, the H and J class
of 56,200 tons. Plan Z was the driving force behind the
expansion of the Kriegsmarine. It was approved in 1937 and
very ambitious when it came to number and size of ships.
However, the timeframe did not coincide with Hitler’s plans
for the land war. The building of the two battleships with
the planned names of Friedrich der Große and
Großdeutschland was stopped.
The
ordered and finished 40,6cm guns were released for use
ashore and Hitler decided that no less than 8 out of 12 guns
should go to the Northern front, i.e. the Narvik area. 3
of the guns were sent to Hel in Poland in 1941 were they
formed Batterie Schleswig-Holstein. That battery was
test fired and completed in 1942, but shortly after the 3
guns were moved to Sangatte near Calais and became Batterie Lindemann. The two
batteries in Norway and the battery at Sangatte were all
operational and test fired in 1943.
Only
the two batteries in Norway survived WW II, the battery at
Trondenes, Batterie Trondenes I, and the battery at
Engeløy in Steigen, Batterie Dietl. In 1956 the
battery at Engeløy was decommissioned and scrapped and the
guns removed. The battery at Trondenes, however, remained as
a part of the Norwegian Costal Defence up to the final closing
date 1. July 1964. All the other 40,6cm Krupp made guns are
now destroyed.
Today, the battery at Trondenes remains the only one of its
kind in the world. It is inside a military guarded compound
and can only be visited with a guide.
© Vågsfjord Krigshistorie v/Harald Isachsen
|
