Oscarsburg Fortress is best known for its role in the demise of the German heavy cruiser Blucher. This fortress is located on an island (actually two islands connected by a foot-bridge spanning the 10ft gap between them) just off the town of Drobak - about a 35 minute drive south of Oslo. Army historians have an advantage of being able to walk their battle-fields, but this is one of the few places where naval historians can do the same thing. Neither photos nor charts really convey how narrow a straight the Germans were trying to force - it's hard to avoid a "what the f*** were they thinking" response - the Norwegians couldn't miss at that range.There is a ferry service out to the island (there is a hotel operating in some old defence buildings there), but the service isn't regular - when we missed a ferry by 30 seconds (despite running the last 300m), it was a two-hour wait until the next one. Now Drobak is a nice little town, but you would be stretched to keep yourself busy in it for 2 hours. Fortunately most of that time was taken up trying to work out how Norwegian parking meters worked, but we did stumble across one of Bluchers anchors which is now part of the town's war memorial.After finally getting onto the island, the ferry timetable gave us a choice of staying either 1 hr or 3 hrs. 1 hr was not long enough to cover the fortress and the museum, so it was a pretty rushed visit. The staff had all left on the ferry that picked me up, so the place was completely deserted. The fortress itself is well preserved and largely intact - a lot of what appears to be original guns are still mounted there. There is a museum in the fortress with a lot of displays on the history of the fortress, and the action from April 1940. The torpedo battery is on the second island and was a little hard to find. There isn't much above ground except a (locked) door, and the observation slit. Due to the rush of my visit, I didn't really get decent photographs - and I didn't find what I actually went to look for - a 5.9" turret from Graf Zeppelin that I had heard was somewhere on the island. But this is an excellent place to visit, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is going to be in the area; - just work out the ferry timetable first, make sure you have at least two hours on the island, and go in summer when it isn't so damned cold!
