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Oscarsborg Fortress was very well situated, but outfitted with very out-of-date equipment. Most of the crew on duty had received almost no training and there were far too few of them. The commander of the fortress, Colonel Birger Eriksen, was faced with great difficulties. The Drĝbak channel had not been laid with mines either. The fortresses biggest battery had been placed at Sĝndre Kaholmen (the southern islet). The largest weapons were two old 28cm Krupp cannons from 1892. The first of these was popularly known by the nickname "Moses". It got this name after it fell in the water while it was being unloaded for installation in 1892 and was raised back up from the sea. Its twin cannon was, naturally enough, called "Aron". In their time they had been the Norwegian defense's proudest new recruits, but were now quite antiquated. On the northern islet stood a torpedo battery under the command of Commander Captain Anderssen, and on the Drĝbak side two smaller cannon batteries were placed on Husvik.

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Around four o'clock the German squadron with Blücher in the lead was close enough to the fort for an exchange of fire to begin. The commander waited to fire until the Blücher was within a 1600-1800 meters distance. The patrol ships that had been sent out released flares to enable the cannons to be sighted in on the Blücher. At 05:19 hour both Moses and Aron manged direct hits in the midship superstructure on the first shot. This caused the command tower and flight hangar to be completely destroyed. The ship was now out of control and the tanks of airplane fuel and ammunition store with four 50 kilograme airplane bombs were ablaze. The Blücher tried it's best to return fire but the cannon crew where not able to see from where they were fired upon, all engines were put to full power. Only minor material damage was done to the fortress structure, but civilian lives were lost in the build-up on the Drĝbak side.

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The air temperature was below freezing and 4° celsius in the water. 600 soldiers lost their lives onboard or in the freezing water that April morning. Many of the local population took part in the clean-up operation and were paid 25 Norwegian kroner for each corpse they pulled out of the sea.

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