The Canon Museum.

Last Friday, the international class took a trip to the Canon Museum of Kristiansand. It is home to the second largest on land cannon in the world. The largest cannon on land being situated outside Harstad in the north of Norway. The cannon we visited at Møvig, outiside Kristiansand was built between 1940 and 1945 when Germany occupied Norway in the second world war. It was built in this position because it has the shortest distance between Norway and Denmark. Even though it is not the most southern tip of Norway, there is only 116 km across the Skagerak strait to reach Hanstholm in Denmark. The cannon could shoot 55km and there was also a cannon on the Danish side of the strait. Therefore enemy ships only had 6km in the middle of the strait which they could be free from cannon fire. Of course this area was covered in sea mines. The cannon barrel is 19.76m long and weighs 110 tons.  It had a maximum altitude of 15,000 meters and used shells of up to 800kg. It took five years to build this cannon and it was only ever used for exercise. Let's hope a cannon this big never needs to be used.