Adjacent to the Sea War Museum was the Thyboron Fortress, a portion of Germany’s World War Two Atlantic Wall. The Atlantic Wall contains over 8000 concrete structures, 2000 of which were placed in Denmark and 100 that were part of the Thyboron Fortress.
Thyboron is on the north-east coast of Denmark. In 1825, the North Sea washed through the sand dunes, creating an entrance to the Limfjord. Soon after the German occupation in April 1940, defences were established in the area, initially guns and anti aircraft weapons to protect the harbour, followed by permanent emplacements.
Stützpunktgruppe Thyborøn spreads out over 2,7 kilometers of coastline. It covers the Thyborøn harbor and the entrance to the Limfjord. While Stützpunktgruppe Thyborøn lies at the North Sea and at the south side of the Limfjord waterway, Coastal Batterie Stützpunkt Agger-Batterie lies at the north side. Both coastal batteries with radar and anti-aircraft support seal of the entrance to the Limfjord.
Some of the photos in this post are ours, but the ones with the sun shining come from the excellent website Landmark Scout, https://www.landmarkscout.com/stutzpunkt-heeres-kustenbatterie-4-180-thyboron-german-coastal-battery-thyboron-denmark/
The radar site, Stützpunkt Lama, is next door to the museum.
There were a number of different types of radar installed in this location. There was early warning equipment, distance and height pin pointers and night fighter support. The maximum range of the radar was 160 km for early warning, and 120 km for detailed tracking. A radar site was maintained at this location, using the same bunkers, until 2015.
The Germans used standardized designs for their bunker, so the commander could select the desired configuration from the catalog, and position the buildings as required. The Regelbau type bunkers were all numbered, and I’ll refer to any numbers I found. The Regelbau FL-241A is the radar control bunker shown above.
The R622 bunker was used to house 20 personnel. The bunkers were usually partially buried for additional protection and to lower visibility.
After 80 years, the bunkers are a little worse for wear, Rachel pitches in to help straighten things up.
Just around the point from the radar station were the initial open air gun emplacements for anti aircraft weapons.
This is an L410a flak gun emplacement.
View from the top of the flak gun emplacement, with some targets of opportunity unwittingly strolling in our field of fire.
A little further down the beach is Stützpunkt Heeres Küsten Batterie, the coastal battery. The battery was built in 1942 and 1943 by Danish workers under the guidance of the Germans. During the war, 60 large bunkers and 40 smaller bunkers were built. Many remain in various states of disrepair and buried under varying levels of sand. The bunkers are now protected sites.
The aerial photo shows the location of the bunkers on the beach. The fire control bunker R636 was the overall command bunker, controlling R671 gun emplacements and the L410 flak anti aircraft guns. The R501 bunkers were housing for personnel.
When General Rommel visited the site, he declared the bunkers were too obvious and needed to be camouflaged. The Germans got a Danish architect, Poul Morell Nielsen, aka the Turtle Spy, to design camouflage for the bunkers. He painted the buildings and added roof tiles and structure to make the bunkers appear like seaside cottages. He was also a spy, so as he designed the structures, he passed a second set of drawing to the Danish underground, and ultimately the British so they knew what the targets really looked like.
The photo below shows the camouflaged structures.
Our week in Denmark wasn’t marred by any sun, but it was particularly rainy and windy when we visited the bunkers. The weather was worse than it looks in the picture, speeding up our visit.
The command-and-control bunker R636 was in the middle of the guns.
The fire control bunker R636, had an observation port, crew area and a gun emplacement on the roof.
The roof tiles from the camouflage are still visible on this bunker.
The rear of the R636 fire control bunker and stairs to the gun emplacements.
Rachel taking control of the beach from R636.
The R671 gun emplacements housed 10 cm guns for antiship protection. The emplacements were installed at different angles to cover the approach area.
The design of R671 is shown below. The stepped frontal design allowed for 35 degrees of elevation and 120 degrees of azimuth coverage.
The level of the sand intrusion is obvious. This R671 is buried in sand. The overhang provided shelter from incoming rounds, and a nasty rain shower.
The back entrance to R671.
The levels of sand intrusion vary for each installation. This R671 was not completely filled so a view from the gun emplacement is available.
The R636 and a R671 side by side.
The small bunkers in the background are R501 personnel bunkers.
The layout of the R501 is shown below. The crew bunkers housed 10 personnel.
There were several flak gun emplacements on the beach as well.
A model of the L409a emplacement is shown.
The amount of other people’s effort (and concrete) that went into the building of the Atlantic Wall was impressive. It is interesting to see how nature reclaims its land over time and how well the bunkers held up over 80 years.
A short video shows the extent of the Fortress.
After a hard day of the Battle of Jutland, and manning the beaches against invasion, Rachel settled into her reward, a flight (squadron?) of beers. The most impressive flight I’ve seen and basically every beer the bar had on tap. She cheerfully spent the day in full on history mode, and graciously shared her bounty at the bar that evening.
So very interesting. Pictures bring things to life. Rachel seems to be enjoying it too. Kurt
It was in Amazon.de only. But the bunkers are the same all along the wall. As well as detailed drawings they listed how much concrete was required
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. 😂🍎🍺
Very interesting and quite a bit more technical than other reports. I have read with interest your post on the Battle of Jutland. Was there any land intrusions into Denmark? I started out immediately disliking the Turtle Spy but gave him a rousing cheer in the next sentence. Judging from the weather, I can see where you might have picked up your cold. Way to go Rachel with your flight of beer.