Stebel Soviet Coastal Battery, Sääre, Saaremaa island

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This is a really off the path exploration, looking for lost vestiges... Good job!
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Some vestiges of the hard fightings between the Russians and the Germans in WW1 and WW2. One day is not enough to visit all the bunkers!

My experience, Explo description:

Close to the Sorve cape, there are about 6 coastal batteries left, constructed in times of First, Second World Wars and during Soviet time.

The first one was built before WW1, the Russian Czsar decided to construct a strong coastal battery at the very end of the Sääre peninsula: this is indeed a strategic point, controlling the strait leading to Riga, which was at that time the 3rd city of the Russian Empire...

Thus, 4 concrete bases holding 305-mm guns were built. You can still see these remains from the road to the lighthouse.

Deeper in the wood (about two kilometers north-west), for most adventurous ones, you can find the vestige of a more recent battery built by the soviet forces, armed with 2 180-mm cannon turrets called "underground dreadnoughts". This battery was the 315-th battery, also called the battery of the Captain Stebel (who was the battery commander and who died in a German camp).

The cannon emplacements were 16 meters deep two - story concrete constructons, with two meter thick concrete walls and a 3.5 meter thick concrete roof. Cannonfire could reach a distance of 40 kilometers. When the German forces were closing in, the Soviets blew the batteries up. After that, they filled with water.

In the woods, you can still see many shelters, observation towers, defense bunkers, barracks and undergrounds. Most of them are flooded: exploring them is thus not so easy.

My personal recommendations:

I advise you to visit first the small Sorve Militaarmuuseum (in a wood close to the WW1 battery, about 500m W from the crossraods leading to the lighthouse), open from 10am to 20pm. There you will have an overview of the total area and its history, before going to explore the wood for lost bunkers...

To help you, I have reported some interesting points on the map:
Afficher Sorve cape coastal batteries and bunkers, Saaremaa sur une carte plus grande

How getting there:

The site is accessible by car. It is located about 40km from Kuressaare.

A tip to eat:

There is a little bar close to the car park at the light house.

A tip to sleep:

No place to sleep there! In a bunker?

Useful information:

Open hours:

All day long.

Visit duration:

1/2 day!

Entry fees:

Free!

Access security:

Due to the war, even now, more than 60 years after the war, I have heard that it is dangerous to walk in undeveloped forest areas around because many land mines still remain.

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