Danish War Museums

By Robert Kelly

Photos by the Author

This is part 2 of Robert’s visit to the Norwegian and Danish War Museums.

My wife is Danish, and we usually travel to Denmark each spring. We secured two return tickets on the Copenhagen to Oslo.

The cruise leaves Copenhagen each day at 1630 hrs, arriving at Oslo for 0945 hrs the next morning. You get to spend the whole day in Oslo, and then the ship leaves Oslo at 1630 for Copenhagen, arriving at 0945 hrs the next morning.

I didn’t actually see the Danish War Museum after getting off the ship, but it makes for a better story, so let’s pretend. I’m actually using photos from a number of previous trips.

Since we arrived in Copenhagen nice and early and because we had time before our bus ride back to my wife’s hometown of Aarhus, I made a trip to the Danish War Museum while my wife took a break at Nyhavn. I think my wife might have seen more exciting things than I did that day.

Nyhavn

Since we showed a Norwegian guard here is a Danish one at the Queen’s palace (Amalienborg).  They also wear red tunics for more formal ceremonies. Only a few will notice the Canadian made rifles. I’m not a fan of the small magazines though. Unlike Canadian or British guards they (and the Norwegian guards) will talk to you very politely (in English) when you get too close for comfort.

The museum was originally called the Royal Arsenal Museum (Tøjhus Museet). They have since wisely re-named it the Danish War Museum to better reflect their exhibits and to make it clear what type of museum it is. It is located in the inner city (Indre by) right behind the Danish parliament and Royal Stables.

Surprisingly, military ID didn’t get me any discount on the admission fee.  In Canada I can get free admission to the Canadian War Museum, can bring two guests for free, get free parking, and a free lunch. They couldn’t figure out why I might even think military service would get me a discount to their museum. They also have a gift shop with some very nice books on Danish military history, though unfortunately almost all of them are in Danish.

 

This was taken in 2009. Note how long the building is. The building was at one time the longest building in Europe. Originally the first floor was heavier artillery pieces and the upper floor was cabinet after cabinet of all types of weapons through the ages.  In the past decade, they’ve gotten away from every weapon possible and added uniforms and other artifacts, to the betterment of the museum.

First floor

37mm Swedish Bofors anti-tank gun used by Denmark briefly on 9 April 1940. See link to the movie trailer below.

 

Another shot of the 37mm gun.

 

This is the most impressive display in the whole museum. Its a diorama about Afghanistan.  It takes you from the soldiers barracks room, to Afghanistan, and home to a big reception. You can crawl over most of the display and touch whatever you’d like.  The only thing it doesn’t recreate is the heat, smell, and powder-like dust.

 

Bottled water was stockpiled everywhere in the sandbox.  Yours for the taking.

The Danes always have great t-shirts. In my camp, they ate at the German kitchen and made t-shirts with  “I survived the German Field Kitchen, Camp Warehouse 2003-04” on them.

Eating area of a forward operating base (FOB). Of course the rations contain Danish rye bread.

Hard to see, but those are Canadian made rifles similar to the American M-4.

Note the Danish MG3,which is really just a German WW2 MG 42, re-bored to fire Nato 7.62mm ammunition.

A Swiss Mowag Eagle vehicle destroyed by an IED.

Note the Barracuda camouflage add on kit.

Security point manned by Afghan police or army.

The welcome home ceremony.  When I came home to Canada, our families had to wait for quite some time while we got our kit and made it through customs.  Then they got to accompany us through the administrative meat grinder before being allowed home the next day.

Upper Floors

Now we are up on the upper floor and it is filled with weapons, uniforms, models, and dioramas from Denmark’s military history.

 

This shows that Danish uniforms in the 1860s were modelled after US uniforms.

The WW2 period.

 

 

Danish Post War Army was a mix of British and US kit.

And some shots for our Black Seas fans.

There was a lot of really good ship models and naval dioramas of which I’ve only shown a small sample. I must see for the naval enthusiast.

I hope to one day do a review of the new (and yet to open)  Danish Resistance Museum in Copenhagen once the airways open up again and I can make it to Denmark. Unbelievably I’ve never made it to this museum and then it had a fire in 2013 and has been under construction since then.  Its located very close to the Little Mermaid, so no excuses for not checking it out.  It’s also located just outside Kastellet (or Citadel) which is a Napoleonic star fort that has been preserved and is currently a military barracks and headquarters for the Danish army.

Oslo and Copenhagen are very compact and walkable cities, though very expensive. If you happen to find yourself in these cities, there is always something of interest to the gamer and/or historian.  And if you happen to have your significant other with you, there is always something for them to look at or buy while you slip away to a museum or fort.

We don’t think of Norway and Denmark as being particularly militaristic, but they have a history going back far longer than what we have in North America, and they’ve done a very good job of preserving that history.

Weblinks

https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/akershus-fortress/432/

http://www.forsvaretsmuseer.no/  Norwegian Armed Forces Main site (in Norwegian)

• http://www.forsvaretsmuseer.no/Forsvarsmuseet  The museum I visited (in Norwegian)
• http://www.forsvaretsmuseer.no/Oscarsborg/ENGLISH-summary

https://kongeligeslotte.dk/en/palaces-and-gardens/kronborg-castle.html Kronborg (Hamlet’s Castle)
https://en.natmus.dk/museums-and-palaces/danish-war-museum/

https://en.natmus.dk/museums-and-palaces/the-museum-of-danish-resistance/

https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/planning/citadel-gdk410745

https://www2.forsvaret.dk/omos/organisation/kastellet/Pages/forsideKastellet.aspx (official army Kastellet page in Danish)