Forsvarsmuseet

The Norwegian Armed Forces Museum is situated in one of the outlying parts of the Akershus fortress. Outside it are rows of muzzle loading cannon and a few light tanks. Inside is a neatly curated set of exhibits, with particularly excellent model and diorama displays. The models are supplemented by written exposition and artefacts, mainly of particularly fine craftsmanship.

The flow of exhibits isn't particularly chronological (or any sort of logical). The pathway begins with late 20th century peace keeping, before heading to the 16 and 1700s, and continuing through the Napoleonic era and then onto the early 20th century.

One thing I learned was that Norway was significantly ahead of the curve on adopting camouflage - moving away from brightly coloured line infantry uniforms decades before their peers elsewhere in Europe. The star of the museum is the World War II segment. It begins with the battle of Norway, then continues through the activities of the Free Norwegian Forces and Norway's merchant marine (the latter particularly instrumental in allied victory). The activities of the Norwegian resistance are the subject of their own museum elsewhere in the fortress complex.

The sinking of Blucher is the topic of an excellent model, and Stord - the plucky Norwegian destroyer made famous at the battle of the North Cape is present in model form (although it's participation in that action isn't mentioned). The English language content is largely good, but a few amusing mistranslations can be found - I especially enjoyed the cannon stamped with "the King's monogamous [SIC]" rather than monogram. As a poor scholar of Norwegian though, I am in no position to criticise.Read more