CME Expedition 19

Location: Oslo, Norway.
Members: 001, 005.
Type: Bunker, WW2.
Status: Abandoned / Sealed.

Waking up early in the morning, on our Oslo based member 005's couch..I rubbed my eyes twice to figure out where I was. Once up and running 005 made us some coffee and breakfast before we headed out for todays mission. Nothing like some eggs & bacon on a sunday morning. (Thanks!)

Either way..we packed a big thermos of coffee along with a king size plate of chocolate and headed on out into the pouring rain. As usual we don't give away detailed locations, but taking the tram downtown, we switched to an eastbound subway line. We were already quite soaked once we got to the right station. But with our spirits still up, we headed out into the wilderness..destined for the once german "Marineoberkommando Norwegen" bunker complex..

Norway was attacked on the morning of april 9th 1940. Norwegian forces were quickly overwhelmed by the might of the german invaders. We had not taken part in any war for at least the preceding 100 years, and we were not prepared by any measure. What followed was a five year long occupation. I could go on, but you can read up on this yourself. Back on track, we had checked out maps and were looking for a bunker complex built east of Oslo, constructed so that the German Naval High Command had somewhere to retreat if Oslo was under attack by allied forces. After roaming around in the bush for a while, we finally spotted some german concrete.

005 Looking For More..

Sometime after the war ended in 1945 the norwegian civil defence took over the structures in the area, and their emblem can still be seen in several places. Unfortunately once they were deemed no longer needed, they weren't just abandoned..they were sealed with concrete, blocking all entrances. But rumor has it that all the bunkers in the area are connected with tunnels through the mountain, with loads of rooms, spread over several stories. There is still a building on top of the hill, but none of us were in the mood for knocking on their door, all soaking wet, dripping with water, asking to see if there was an access throught the basement of the building.

Civil Defence Seal

Though we were disappointed with all the sealed entrances, we carried on in the wet forest to see if we could at least find some smaller close defence positions.

005 Tryin' To Get A Look Inside

Not finding much we decided to go on top of the hill, aiming to get an overview of the area as a whole. Slippery, wet rocks made the terrain difficult, but after a while it leveled out and we reached the top. Both quite cold and dripping with rain we started looking for a place to have some coffee. We soon forgot about the whole coffee once we spotted this little beauty a little distance away.

Top Of The Hill

Walking around the structure in the picture above we couldn't see any entrance. This fact, combined with seeing pipes sticking out on top of it made us suspect that it might have been some sort of platform, with something standing on top..radar maybe? Later we agreed on the likelyhood that this had to be a water reservoir of some sort.

Leaning up against this little mystery of ours, drinking coffee and scanning the area for more, our cold, wet feeling seemed to disappear somewhat. It's amazing what a cup of coffee can do! Before climbing down the mountain, back in the direction we had originaly entered the area, I decided to have a look on top of this thing. Once up there the whole thing presented itself as totaly flat with the exception of the pipes sticking out of it...and of course...the little hatch I had discovered (!) Yelling back down to 005 to come have a look, he didn't believe me at first..seems just a little to perfect to find a rusty old hatch, just after discovering all else is sealed right? I somehow managed to convince him to get his ass up to take a look for himself.

001 & The Hatch

Not expecting much, I got a grip and started pulling..and to my amazement it budged.

Knock Knock..

I can hardly describe how much I cursed myself for not bringing a flashligt from my home city of Skien. But in hindsight, I didn't really expect to find much out here, and draging around big flashlights and lots of exploring gear at a work related conference would only have given me lots of stares. Climbing on down into this structure would have to wait for another day..but you didn't think we would end this expedition without letting you have a peek inside did you? Here you go..

Left For Another Day...

 
Don't get me wrong..I actually love graffiti, yes, also the illegal sort..but only in certain places. In my humble opinion, this is not an example of it being in the right place. Imagine if each and every single explorer who came on top of this thing could open this hatch and get the feeling that they were the first ones to discover it (?!) Think about it..! The Caveman stance is and will continue to be "Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints."

Ok..I'll stop ranting about it now..and instead leave you with this little picture from further down the hill. The entrance of a bunker showing quite clear signs of alternately being sealed, opened, sealed, opened..etc.

005 Questioning His Agility..

Damn those missing flashlights..Our lesson of the day was clear:

Always carry a flashlight, bring a backup for the flashlight and a backup for the backup, and batteries!!

-Caveman 001-

CME Expedition 14

Location: Skien, Norway.
Members: 001, 004.
Type: Defence Post, WW2.
Status: Abandoned.

After exploring the location in expedition 13, we got back in the car and continued our journey. It was still early in the evening, sunny and warm, and caveman 004 was ready for some more exploring. We decided to have a look for a defence position built by the germans during the second world war, reported to be nearby. This place was located on a little hill right in the middle of a field, so we had to drive a little back and forth to find a place to park. We saw a guy standing by the side of the road and decided to ask him politely if we could park on his property for half an hour. He replied with a grin, so I was curious to see if the car was there at all when we got back, or if it had been stripped for all usable parts. Either way, we climbed the little hill and the following picture illustrates what we saw.

001 Headed Into The Bush

We looked at eachother thinking 'how the hell are we going to find anything here'? It was the right spot, so we carried on through the bush, fighting off branches and bugs, carefull not to fall into overgrown trenches. Then, at last we spotted concrete, though heavily overgrown after being abandoned for the past 68 years. This was a perfect caveman playground and a nice find. All we had to do now was find a good entry point.

Trenches

After pushing through branches and trees a little while longer, we found the entry point. All of a sudden a horse comes riding by litterally 20 ft. from where we stand, but the rider has no chance of spotting us, as this place is so overgrown. It made us wonder how much of the surrounding bush the germans would have left standing when making this place. The trees around us seemed to be quite young, but this could have been cut down and re-grown several times since the war. Caveman 004 jumped on in, and while I took pictures from above, 004 was moving along down in the trench.

 
It didn't take long before it branched off into two paths..towards two different shooting positions.

Intersection

We decided to check out the path on the left hand side in the picture above. Branches and small trees down in the trench served the purpose of natural barriers, but 004 carried on and got to the first shooting position. It had a raised platform and niches in the wall for storing ammo.

Position 1

After heading back to the intersection and choosing the other path, 004 crouched down to get a shot of where we came from. If you imagine his camera replaced by a gun, it sort of looks like he's defending the trench from a rear attack.

Private Caveman 004 Reporting From The Front Lines

The second shooting position turned out to be a bit bigger than the first, and was overbuildt with what the germans called wellblech, but still had the raised platform and ammo niches in the walls.

Position 2

Having found the extent of the trench system we climbed up and headed to the front of the structure to get an impression of what potensial enemies would see, that's when 004 discovered that they had even built a draining system to keep water out of the trenches.

Drain Hole In Front Of Position 2

Once down from the little hill we had been on, we turn back towards the second position and discussed how this must have been quite a strategic position, it overlooks the field nearby and a little lake, and it's relatively well concealed. Besides the fact that it uses natural rock, the germans probably fitted it with their own camouflage.

Looking Back Up At Position 2

So now to the question about why the germans constructed this position just here? Well, it's hard to tell really. It's not situated close to any place of obvious strategic value. The guys over at the kystfort forum speculate that this may have been constructed to protect a seaplane port down by the lake, or it could have been here to defend against airborne troops landing in the area. I have no idea which is correct, but the germans constructed several inland positions up in the county of Telemark during the last stages of the war. A lot of the original german records from the war are simply gone, so it could be hard to find out. We'll keep you posted if we do. Oh, by the way...the car was still there when we got back!

-Caveman 001-