Berga Naval Base

Berga Naval Base is a naval base of the Swedish Navy located in the Hårsfjärden fjard near Berga, Haninge Municipality. Today it is the home of the 4th Naval Warfare Flotilla, the 1st Marine Regiment and Home Guard unit Södertörn Group .

In the late 1800s, the Swedish Navy began using Hårsfjärden as a training area. Shooting warnings were read in the area's churches and a shooting target workshop was built in a bay on Vitsgarn opposite Märsgarn at Hårsfjärden. From 1904, Hårsfjärden began to be used more permanently as a base for the Coastal Fleet's combat and signal schools and for naval mine training and more. In 1905 it was decided to set up a target depot for a combat school at Vitsgarn. The depot met a great need and grew steadily. From 1911 to 1921, the Swedish state gradually acquired more land for the navy, including at western Vitsgarn. The experience of the navy's preparedness and exercises during the World War I meant that the depot at Hårsfjärden largely came to serve as an forward operating base for the entire mobilized part of the navy. Predecessors to the Artillery School at Berga were schools and training facilities on the islands of Alvsta Långholmar, Vitsgarn and Märsgarn outside Hårsfjärden. During World War I, target depots were developed and bridges and other facilities were built at Märsgarn. The exercises on Horsfjärden were intensified. Heavy artillery was now used and a few larger decommissioned ships were sunk as targets in Hårsfjärden.

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