Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Big 'small military trains' in the snow yesterday - Small 'big military trains' in the snow today

Yesterday I visited a friend and his garden for his annual 'Chistmas run-in', and for the occasion I had prepared my military trains for winter service.

As people starts to prepare for Christmas these days heritage Railways often invites to different "Christmas Trains"  and "Santa Specials". Today a heritage industrial narrow gauge railway , which collects different 600mm rollingstock from all over Norway, invited to such a "Santa Special", and I decided to take my youngest son there as he loves both trains and Christmas.

The narrow gauge railway is called Lommedalsbanen, and they have not only collected stock from pure industrial railways, but from different Norwegian military narrow gauge lines as well. Some of them were running today.

Military narrow gauge trains
This locomotive was in service with the Norwegian Navy at a an armament depot just across the fjord from where I live. It was probably brought to Norway by German forces during WWII.
A locomotive of the same type has been in service on a coastal fortress in the southern region of Norway.
Military narrow gauge trains

This is a postwar locomotive which were in service on the same naval armament depot as the one above. I think it was in service until about 1990.
Military narrow gauge trains

In the shed at a distance I got a brief glimse of this one; A German WWII narrow gauge locomotive which was used on another naval armament depot in the middle region of Norway.
Military narrow gauge trains
That armament depot is long gone, but I visited it last summer during a motorcycle-tour in the district, and found some few traces of the railway there
Military narrow gauge trains

At Lommedalsbanen they hava also collected some naval rollingstock with propper loads as torpedoes and mines. It's not very easy to see them now when they're covered in snow.
Military narrow gauge trains

The 'Up' meets the 'Down'
Military narrow gauge trains

Another locomotive of the same type used on the naval armament depot mentioned above.
Military narrow gauge trains

And off course; No "Santa Special" without a Santa:

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

ONUC - Opération des Nations Unies au Congo

If you've been reading earlier posts in this blog, you have probably noticed that I've used a wargaming scenario from the UN operation ONUC in Congo for 15 games and reviews now. Between 1960 - 64 some 1173 Norwegians served in this mission. I wanted to show what the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo displays from this mission in their INTOPS section, and what initially inspired me to paint my armies the way I did and game from this conflict. There was also in this museum I bought my army in the museum-shop in the first place, and the miniatures that started my wargaming.

ONUC

There was not a very big display from this mission, but a Jeep, some weapons used by the Norwegians and the Congolese. The weapon collection from the Norwegian contribution was not complete as the service rifle the M1 Garand was not included.

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling

IFOR

Already in the INTOPS-section of the museum I was also curios to see the display from the mission I participated in 1996/97 in Bosnia. Again there was only one but even smaller display and with very limited contents.

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling

It belongs in a museum...

You know you're getting old (er) when most of the equipment and uniforms used in your own service belongs in a museum:

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling
Ironically even I belongs in a museum these days. 
- I work in one (!)

I've seen this piece many times before at the museum, but I've noticed that Alan from the Tradgardland made a nice artillery support for his ski-troops. Here is the prototype:
Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling

Modelling

After all this is a blog about military modelling, so I think it would be fair to add some pictured from some of the modelling displays there as well. As Norway is a maritime nation, a lot of the models have a maritime theme:

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling
Wanting to get out of the forced union with Sweden, Norway started to modernize all branches of the armed forces, including the navy in the early 20th century

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling
In 1905 the union with Sweden was dissolved peacefully, and Norway had one of the most modern navies at the time. It didn't last as some of these ships were still in service at the outbreak of WWII

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling
In WWII more than 30 000 sailors and 806 modern (civilian) cargo ships were armed and went into allied service to transport supplies in convoys from the US to Europe

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling
German submarines, sometimes operated from bases in the occupied Norway, was a threat to these convoys  

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling
Despite of heavy escorts 3700 Norwegian sailors and 473 ships were lost

Forsvarsmuseet i Oslo. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum in Oslo. ONUC and IFOR INTOPS display. Maritime modelling

The Norwegian Armed Forces museum in Oslo is a nice museum, and if you're in the neighborhood I recommend you to visit it.


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