Drive to Esbjerg but not before the Hanstholm tour

Stayed at the Hanstholm Manor Hotel last night, not much to say except when we woke up we noticed there was a machine gun bunker right outside our door. How cool is that? Should come as a surprise, during WW2 there were over 4,000 German troops stationed in Hanstholm. There are bunkers everywhere! Today is a little warm, around 72⁰ and clear but we’ll be underground for much of the morning so no biggie.

Machine gun bunker

But, before we can have breakfast and start touring, need to help Justin and his travel group. They left Denver on Saturday to begin their 14-days in Europe only to end up in a very slow Immigration & Customs line in Brussels. So slow they missed their connecting flight to Prague. That was a surprise. They had a little over 2 hrs between flights on a Sunday morning, plenty of time to process through immigration and make the flight. That is, if there were immigration officers checking passports. According to #1 son, there was a line of about 300 people all standing around waiting for 1 of the 4 officers to call them ahead. Long story short, missed their flight and had to buy a new ticket on Czech Air. Problem resolved but cost them $155 each and there is no recourse.

Once youngblood and his crew were taken care of, time to hit the Bunkermuseum. As soon as you arrive, you are greeted by a 38cm SK C/34 cannon barrel. Until May 2005, this particular barrel was in the courtyard of the Royal Danish Arsenal Museum. It was originally slated to be installed on the warship, “Gneisenau” except the Allies found the ship first and unloaded a welcome package. Switch to plan “B”. The barrel was then sent to a depot where it waited to be installed at the Tirpitz Battery in Oksby, Denmark. Didn’t happen. Switch to plan “C”, leave the barrel in a depot because the end was near. Side note: The Tirpitz battleship was the heaviest battleship ever built by a European country weighing in 44,500 tons! The Tirpitz was sunk November 1944 by the British Air Force while in harbor in northern Norway. More than 1,000 men were lost.

The museum is located in the bunker that supported one of the four 38cm cannons. Most of the rooms have been reconditioned to reflect what they looked like during the war. Unfortunately, the only remaining 38cm cannon that works is the one at Kristiansand, Norway. As with most others, the barrels and mechanisms were sold for scrap at the end of the war.

20mm anti-aircraft gun

Munitions cart – man-powered

Closest translation: You’re not a pig so use this room

Crew bunk room (the facility held 90 crew members)

What was behind door #3

Ramrod for smaller caliber cannon – took twelve men to use

Czech hedgehog

Sea mine

Powder room ( the kaboom kind)

38cm projectile room

Shower (different design from Auschwitz)

Original bunker wall art

AA gun bunker

Great museum with lots of memorabilia. Probably the most interesting piece isn’t a gun, cannon or clothing; it’s a helmet. If you’ve ever wondered where all those German helmets went at the end of the war, this display answers that question. Seems the Danish, who had no love for their occupiers, found that if you weld a handle on a German helmet, it makes a perfect chamber pot!

German helmet chamber pot

We toured the museum bunker then struck out on our own to discover a few of the outlying bunkers. We found one of the flak-gun bunkers, nothing much inside. Then we found the searchlight bunker, again, nothing much inside. Then we found one of the other 38cm cannon bunkers that still had original paint and directions on the walls. Now that’s cool!

10.5cm cannon bunker

38cm cannon bunker

What waited for you at the end of the corridor

Original directions and paint on wall of 38cm cannon bunker

Pretty much ate up the morning and we have a 3-1/2hr drive to Esbjerg to our apartment so time to get. The Misses took a few pictures of the scenery on our drive. Hate to say this but it looks a hell of a lot like Illinois, flat farmland with a few trees. Pretty much it. Still, looks really nice!

One thing about Scandinavian roads, they have plenty of roadside facilities like picnic tables, restrooms (WC’s), trees, etc. We’ll take a few minutes during the drive to stop and have a picnic lunch and enjoy the scenery. Wonderful!

Next episode: Ribe, the oldest town in Denmark.