Subject: Three Nazi bunkers on a beach have been uncovered by violent
storms.
Sea unearths secret Nazi bunkers that
lay hidden for more than 50 years:
Three Nazi bunkers on a beach have been uncovered by violent storms off
the Danish coast, providing a store of material for history buffs and
military archaeologists. The bunkers were found in practically the same
condition as they were on the day the last Nazi soldiers left them, down
to the tobacco in one trooper's pipe and a half-finished bottle of
schnapps.
This bunker was entombed under the
sand dunes until a violent storm swept away the sands three months ago.
The bunkers had not been touched since
the war.
The bunkers were three of 7,000 built
by the Germans as part of Hitler's 'Atlantic Wall' from Norway to the
south of France. But while the vast majority were almost immediately
looted or destroyed, these three were entombed under the sand dunes of a
remote beach near the town of Houvig since 1945. They were uncovered
only because recent storms sent giant waves cascading over them,
sweeping away the sand and exposing glimpses of the cement and iron
structures.
Kim Clausen, curator of the
Ringkoebing-Skjern museum views a heater retrieved from the bunker.
Stamps of the German Eagle of Adolf Hitler and the Swastika were also
retrieved.
They were located by two nine-year-old
boys on holiday with their parents, who then informed the authorities.
Archaeologists were able to carefully force a way, and were astounded at
what they found. What's so fantastic is that we found them completely
furnished with beds, 'chairs, tables, communication systems and the
personal effects of the soldiers who lived inside,' says Jens Andersen,
the curator of the Hanstholm museum.
The discovery of the fully-furnished
bunkers was 'unique in Europe,' said Bent Anthonisen, a Danish expert on
European bunkers.
Expert Tommy Cassoe: 'It was as if the
Nazis had just left yesterday' .
And a third expert, Tommy Cassoe,
enthused: 'It was like entering the heart of a pyramid with mummies all
around. What I saw blew me away: it was as if the German soldiers had
left only yesterday.' The team working with Cassoe emptied the
structures within a few days of boots, undergarments, socks, military
stripes, mustard and aquavit bottles, books, inkpots, stamps featuring
Hitler, medicines, soda bottles, keys, hammers and other objects. All of
the objects from the shelters have been taken to the conservation centre
at Oelgod museum, some 20 miles from the beach to be examined.
The centre's German curator, Gert
Nebrich, judged the find 'very interesting because it is so rare.' ''We
don't expect contemporary objects like these to be so well preserved.
Maybe it's because they were kept for 60 years in the cold and dark like
in a big vacuum,' he says, carefully showing four stamps featuring
Hitler's image and the German eagle, found in one bunker. The Germans
left the bunkers in May 1945 after the Nazi surrender.
Historical records show that Gerhard
Saalfed was a 17-year-old soldier with the German army when he arrived
at the bunker in January 1945.
Germany surrendered on May 8 1945, but
it wasn't until two days later that he and his fellow soldiers left
their remote station. They shut the steel doors of the bunker behind
them on their remote beach and went to the nearest town ten miles away
to surrender.
'The remote location of the bunkers
and the drifting sands that covered them saved them from being
ransacked,' said Cassoe.
