Ristna coastal battery no.42 and radar station
Fortification

The area between the Southern Cape of Ristna and Kalana Port in Hiiumaa is tightly packed with military objects. As the structures of different eras and military units are randomly scattered, you can only wonder about the function of several objects. After the battery was closed down in 1960, an early warning radar company moved to the base from North Ristna. In 1986 large-scale work began: a two-storey 16-apartment block for officers remained incompleted, a foundation of  barracks was completed and the brick-laying of walls had started. The block of flats is still standing, the barracks have been demolished to their foundations. From 1979 a department of making aluminium spoons operated in Ristna base. It was meant to keep the officers’ wifes busy working but later it was employing some local people as well.

A border guard technical observation post was located in direction of Kalana Port, by now it has been demolished.

The 130mm four-weapon armed battery completed in 1940 was situated half a kilometre South of its present location. You can identify the craters of two gun emplacements, the parapets and bolt circles. Very little is known about the operations of the battery in 1941. Allegedly the crew blew up the guns after running out of ammunition and retreated to Tahkuna.

After the war the battery was opened. In 1945 three 127- mm warship guns of US origin were installed on temporary positions.

The four surviving ferroconcrete gun blocks were constructed in the 1950s. This is the only battery of such design in Hiiumaa. The circular gun emplacement is surrounded by a closed gallery with two long corridors stretching out from it, lined with ammunition depots. The length of a gun block is ca 60 metres and as there are only a couple of metres between the corridor entrances, it was possible to move from one end of the fire position to the other along concrete corridors in a hidden, safe manner. The ferroconcrete fire control tower was completed in 1953 with artillery radars and an optical 6-metre range finder installed in it. The tower is in a better condition than the one in Tahkuna, although a couple of original metal staircases have disappered and have been replaced by temporary wooden ladders. The rest of the buildings of the battery (ammunition depots, power station, machine gun bunkers) are in a relatively good condition and dry, overgrown, though. A remarkable amount of equipment, shelves, ventilation pipelines, original metal doors and shutters of the battery have survived.

The battery was closed down in 1960, after that an early warning radar company moved here from North Ristna resulting in the construction of massive concrete hangars and radar hills. Some of the battery buildings (ammunition depots, a power station) were used by the early warning radar company as well, some reconstruction was done and some entrances were walled in. One gun emplacement was filled with earth. The command post and the sauna also originate from the battery era. A dummy radar had been installed on the Cape of North Ristna. In 1976 a concrete helicopter pad was completed.