The 12-Inch Coastal Battery at Tahkuna (no 39)
Fortification

According to various plans of the naval defence system of St. Petersburg, up to fifty coastal batteries were to be built on the Estonian coast. There were three 14-inch batteries planned but none were completed. There were six 12-inch batteries planned but just four were completed: in Aegna, Naissaar, Sõrve and Tahkuna.

As the original plans had outlined no batteries on the islands, the war-time construction work  was hastily carried out according to simplified drawings – unarmoured artillery was positioned uncovered on round concrete platforms (diameter 15 m, height 2 m, depth of foundation  4.5 m). Only about a tenth of the concrete work got completed in Tahkuna. Four guns are positioned in two pairs, the distance between guns is 64 m. In June 1917 the guns were mounted on the platforms and test shootings were carried out. In the autumn the battery was reported to be battle-ready, although the installed range finder was small and would not let the battery shoot accurately at maximum distance. The battery was manned by 220 soldiers.

The length of the 12-inch gun barrel was 15.8 m, the weight was 50 tons. The weight of a shell was  450 kg, with the explosive charge up to 156 kg. The maximum shooting range was 28 km. The lifetime of the barrel was 300 shots, then the barrel needed to be replaced. The battery of Tahkuna was the only 12-inch Estonian battery where the guns remained intact although according to the report of the destruction crew, the guns had been destroyed. The barrels were taken to Naissaar in the early 1920s for the renovation of its battery but this work was never completed. From Naissaar one spare barrel was sold to Finland in 1934. 

Today all four gun platforms survive in Tahkuna, demonstrating  stages when the construction work must have been interrupted. The third position is the most complete. The gun platforms have been exposed to weather for over a century, nevertheless, the concrete is in excellent condition and all bolt circles are complete. Only a layer of moss covering the concrete gets thicker each year and the surrounding forest gets denser. Behind the gun platforms in the woods there are plenty of remains of shelters and trenches, a couple of concrete foundations, a recognizable railway dam and drainage ditches. About 200 m Southeast of the first gun platform there is a large crater of a blown up ammunition cellar.