Coastal battery at Olmaņi

Until 1955, Battery No. 456 housed four 152 mm "Kane" type guns, which were manufactured during the First World War and were widely used in the defense of the Baltic Sea coast of the USSR in Estonia and Latvia and beyond. After 1955, a new battery was deployed right next to it to the north – also four MY-2 type 152 mm guns. They were able to fire their shells at a distance of 25 km. During construction, it was the most modern of the coastal batteries of that time, its installation began in 1952. When the new battery was ready for combat, the old Kane type guns were dismantled and taken to Ventspils. The new battery housed a command post, a rangefinder tower, diesel generator sheds, a 50-cubic-meter pool for fire safety purposes was installed near the command post, and there were also special facilities for cooling diesel generators. The battery was in combat readiness and operated until 1975, when it was "conserved" and kept in reserve.

The last time the battery was on alert was when the crew of the battleship "Stremiķeļnij" mutinied in Riga, rebelling against the regime of General Secretary Brezhnev. However, the battery did not have to open fire on the mutinous ship that left the port of Riga, because it was bombed from the air. The location of the battery is where the Ventspils-Kolka road crosses the Irbe River, on the seashore. A border guard unit is also based there. There was a command post and an observation post between the old and new batteries, and a narrow-gauge railway line ran next to it. In the 1950s, the coastal batteries have served their military life, as newer and more modern weapons - missiles - have entered the armament. In some places, for example, on the Pitrags seashore, mock-ups of missiles are installed instead of real missiles to deceive the enemy. In parallel with the construction of the batteries, a military camp for service personnel is being built on the banks of the Irbe River and radio equipment is being installed to monitor the airspace over Eastern Europe. Local residents still remember that when the exercises took place and this battery fired, the roar of the guns could be heard even in Ventspils and the windows of some good windows shook.