2nd Coastal Artillery Regiment

The Karlskrona Coastal Artillery Regiment, designation KA 2, was a Swedish Navy coastal artillery regiment of the Swedish Armed Forces which operated between 1902 and 2000. The unit was based in Karlskrona. Locations Vallgatan (1902–1943) When KA 2 was raised on 1 January 1902, the regiment took over the area on Vallgatan, which since 1895 has been used by Karlskrona Artillery Corps. The Artillery Corps was raised in 1893 and from the beginning had its main location at Kungsholmen with units located at Oscarsvärn and at Västra Hästholmen. The units, which had to man the fortifications before the artillery corps, had from the beginning been on Kungsholmen and Drottningskär. Västra Hästholmen and Oscarsvärn became permanent places around 1870 at the same time as Drottningskär was de-manned. In 1895, the barracks at Vallgatan were completed (Northern Barracks) and shortly thereafter the so-called Underofficershuset with housing for the non-commissioned officers of the Artillery Corps. Furthermore, the Exercishuset was built immediately west of the barracks. In order to build these buildings, large parts of Erik Dahlbergh's fortress wall from the early 18th century had to be demolished. Where the main entrance to the area was located, in the middle of the Northern barracks, once stood the Achilles bastion, the second bastion from the east, in Dahlbergh's fortifications. KA 2 was almost immediately cramped and the planning and work on another barracks took off. In 1905, the Southern Barracks, was completed and in order to be able to build it one had to demolish the Naval Shipyard's old arsenal from the 1730s. A new arsenal was built at the same time as the Southern Barracks. This was much further south than the old one. Parallel to the city barracks on Vallgatan, among other things, the outer installations were used the same way as the Artillery Corps had used them. Exterior changes hardly happened as long as KA 2 remained on site. The interiors were changed that characterized the first half of the 20th century (electricity, water supply, central heating, etc.). In 1943 KA 2 left Vallgatan and headed north towards Gräsvik. The move came after a lengthy procedure. The Flottans sjömansskola ("Swedish Navy Seaman's School") was to be established in Karlskrona and the issue was long between this school and KA 2 about Gräsvik. It was KA 2 that got Gräsvik and in August 1943, the regiment left Vallgatan and moved north.