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Bofors Test Center
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History
In 1886 Bofors established a firing range to test canons, or shooting range is it was then called, which was situated just north of the old Bofors railway station. The downfield firing distance was only 150 metres, however, which is why only live firing and ammunition testing could be performed.
The development of new long range guns and attendant firing tables that all required longer firing ranges were sent to the Army Firing Ranges at Marma and Skyllingard, or the Naval Firing Range at Karlskrona. The need for a larger testing facility grew when the defence matériel production assumed new proportions after 1910. Operations at the firing range in proximity to the Bofors railway station were suspended for reasons of safety.
A very important factor in making the decision to establish a new firing range was the ordering of the 28 cm canon for the F boat series.
The Swedish Admiralty more or less demanded that the ballistic firing tests be conducted at Bofors. Bofors had become the owner of Villingsberg and its large surrounding tracts of forest. In 1912 one started to make use of these and began surveying and later decided, after several proposals, on the present firing range area that, for the most part, stretches from Immetorp to Tolsboda. (It would later become apparent that the “new firing range” was, itself, insufficient and during a transitional period, the problem was solved by firing over lake Möckeln.) A significant weight in the scale pan that led to using the present area was that one would have access to the decommissioned railway station as a transport and communications centre, which had been closed in 1907.
On December 1, 1912 Lieutenant Oscar Lundberg was employed as the first Range Officer, whose first task was to initiate the organization of the new firing range. The facility was, to a great extent, ready by the end of 1913. The costs became rather large. Thus, the Swedish Admiralty contributed a total of SEK 65,000 on the condition that, among other things, the firing range would have a length of 13,000 metres and that the Swedish Admiralty would have free access to the range for three months of every year up to 1965 for their own testing purposes. This investment can easily be regarded as having paid for itself. Although the actual firing range did not extend all the way to Tolsboda (13,000 metres), there were agreements with the different property owners enabling firing tests at even significantly longer ranges. Thus, a 28 cm canon was fired on August 24, 1914, at a range reaching 19,600 metres.
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