Coastal defence batteries at Olmani

Another important coastal battery is found to the North of Ventspils, in a place called Olmaņi. Until 1955, Battery No. 456 had four 152 mm Kane-type cannons which were manufactured during World War I and were extensively used to protect the coastal territories of the Soviet Union along the Baltic Sea in Estonia and Latvia, as well as other places. A new battery was established in 1955. It had four MY-2 152 mm cannons with a range of 25 km. When it was built, it was the most modern costal battery of its time. Work on it began in 1952. When the new battery was prepared for battle operations, the old Kane cannons were dismantled and taken to Ventspils. The new battery had command facilities, a telescope tower, diesel generators, a basin of water with 50 cubic metres of water for fire safety, and special equipment to cool down the diesel generators if necessary. The battery remained battle-ready until 1975, when it was turned into a reserve facility. The last alarm was raised when naval personnel aboard a battleship rose up against the Brezhnev regime. The ship left the Rīga port and was bombarded from the air, with the battery providing support fire. The battery was located where the Ventspils-Kolka road crosses the Irbe River near the seashore. A Border Guard facility was also there. The command facility and observation facility were between the old and the new battery, and there was a narrow gauge rail line there. By the 1950s, the coastal batteries were out of date, because there were missiles – new and more modern weapons. There were places where fake missiles were posted so as to confuse the enemy – Pitrags was one such place. There was also a military campus for service personnel, as well as radio systems which were used to monitor the airspace above Eastern Europe. Local residents still remember that when there were training sessions at the base, the boom of the cannons could be heard all the way in Ventspils. The blasts did rattle the windows, indeed.