Kystfort

Sorry I have asked so many questions in this forums and this question may be a little off topic! Sorry! I am just trying to understand something of Norway during the cold war particular 1980:

* In the cold war Norway had 18 Home guard districts, these were static and were comprised of platoons of men who were either infantry or AAA primarily. They stayed in their district
* There are 11 brigades, 10 brigades which are reservist and not currently active
* Brigade North is the only active brigade and is a mechanized brigade
* Brigade 4 and 12 are also mechanized brigades but are demobilized
* Brigade 1,3,5,7,8,13,14,15 are all the infantry brigades


1) Are all these brigades randomly sized? Just looking through Wikipedia a tank battalion has 38 tanks for brigade 4 but yet Brigade north has 26 tanks in a battalion?
2) Were the forts which were not completely active, supposed to be manned by the homeguard in the event of war?
3) During war who was at these forts? In terms of organization, like were there men part of Brigade 3 in a fort? Or what "organization" did the men at the forts fall under?
4) Is each brigade different? It seems like some of 1 infantry company but others have like 5-6 of them
5) Are brigades and home guard completely separate? Or why is brigade 1 also in the same region as homeguard 1? Do they share troops or is there a relationship or is this just merely for naming purposes?

Thanks for reading this forum posts. I am just trying to understand the Norwegian way of making an OOB definitely a bit of a challenge haha. If anyone has any OOBs or oragnization of troops during the cold war I definitely would be interested in reading them. Currently Wikipedia on Allied forces South / North Norway isn't helping too much and https://www.fireandfury.com/orbats/modcwnorwegian.pdf which was made for a game is about my only other lead.

Thanks,
CluckSalad

Responding to your questions no. 2 and 3:

All coastal artillery units were organized as a separate branch of the Norwegian navy after WWII. All active forts were manned by personnel from the coastal artillery branch. Non-active forts were either manned by a small force for guard and maintenance purposes or by a single civilian guard. In the event of a war, all forts would be manned by active or reservist coastal artillery personell. From my experience with the exercises at Breiviknes Fort, home guard units were occasionally used as an addition to the fort's personnel in defense operations, but were never posted inside the fort's perimeter. The presence of the home guard at the fort did not reflect their primary role, which was, and still is, protection of local population and infrastructure.

Replying to question no. 5:

The home guard is a separate branch of the Norwegian defence forces, along with the navy, the air force and the army. The home guard have their own bases, but co-exists with the army at some bases. Formerly the home guard also consisted of naval units. These were disbanded in 2017.

It isn't often I cite Wikipedia as a source, but in this case I'll make an exception as I believe it will answer your question.

Please see the articles on Allied Forces South Norway and Allied Forces North Norway, which gives an indication to the command & control and organization of the units in question:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Fo ... uth_Norway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Fo ... rth_Norway

Eeo wrote:It isn't often I cite Wikipedia as a source, but in this case I'll make an exception as I believe it will answer your question.

Please see the articles on Allied Forces South Norway and Allied Forces North Norway, which gives an indication to the command & control and organization of the units in question:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Fo ... uth_Norway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Fo ... rth_Norway

Well... Considering the many errors, I'd say those two pages are probably very good examples of why you shouldn't use Wikipedia as your main source (besides, those articles claim to show the structure of 1989, ie 10 years later than what's being asked for here) ;-)