University of BergenPublished: 18.02.2013 | Author: Nils Georg Brekke
Skytestilling på Hesthaugen (Svein Nord).
Vinappen lies on a low hill to the very west on the island. Here you have an amazing panorama of the sea. Originally the area was grazing land for cattle, but this changed when the Germans occupied the island. Just before WWII there was a small bearing station, used by the Norwegian Coast Artillery in connection with exercises at sea.
The area at Hesthaugen, just east of Vinappen has been an important area for the pilot service on Fedje. From 1929 and up to 1970 there was a coastal station at Hesthaugen itself. At the same place was a cabin for neutral guards during WWI - the coastal guard station operated by a guard group of six men, from the autumn of 1939 to the spring of 1940. Then the Germans took over the command of Fedje. The guard group’s duty was to report shipping traffic at Fedje. Outside wartime four men had a fixed salary to be available in case of a state of emergency.
In 1992 a facility for fire protection and the use of breathing apparatus was established at Vinappen. The administrative building is the old “White house”, a house that was used during the war to house two large generators. Fedje training centre is in charge of this facility. They run safety training for seamen, and have their main base at the harbour.
