Digging trip to German Coastal Defense Battery

[Vegard T]

In my winter vacation, I visited a German coastal defense battery about 30 min away from our house. I had heard and read a bit about it, but I had never been there. It was much bigger than I had expected. Right when we arrive, there is a family coming down, I speak to the father and he mentions that his brother is the landowner. So of course I have to ask him if I could have his/his brother's permission to dig there, and he says yes. He had been there a couple of times with a metal detector and found a lot of weird stuff(He said he had also found a dagger that to me sounded like a German dress dagger). His father/grandfather had been there after the war and helped clean up after the Germans, he got a hold of a crate with a Krag Jørgensen and loads of ammunition for it(Which is in the possession of the landowner's brother), hopefully I'll get to see it one day, could be interesting.

Day 1:
Recon, and getting permission to dig

[CARL]

Excellent images Vegar, thank you sharing those with us all.

Cheers,

Carl

[Woolgar]

Great photos ! Do you have period shots of it ?

Nick

[Vegard T]

Day 2:
Digging





I got a hold of a friend of mine and we went digging. Since the area is so big, and I am not sure where there might be a dump etc, I have mostly dug around some AA positions(Need to get some more info from the landowner).

We found a lot of 20mm shells and rifle rounds(Most were Krag Jørgensen).

I got a bit annoyed at my friend after a while since he was the only one finding anything. His first find was a very nice half of a 20mm shell. My finds were as follows in the first hour or so: Nails, rusty shit, barbed wire, piece of a pole, beer can(I was sure it was a 20mm shell since my friend had found so many 20mm shells around there) and finally a stump of a very rusty 20mm shell.

His finds after 1-2 hours:


And my find on the right...


AA position we dug a lot around:



My luck eventually started to turn, and I found some Rifle rounds(one .303 round) and 13 20mm shells(My friend found 15).
Even though it was very windy and cold(Winter didn't want to let go), it was a nice trip, we spent about 8 or so hours there. I'll see if I can get a picture of my finds cleaned up later today.

- - Updated - -

Great photos ! Do you have period shots of it ?

Nick

I found one which shows a couple of barracks etc, but none of the gun emplacements etc, I'll see if I can upload it later today.

[Vegard T]

Day 3:
More digging



A couple of weeks back we started to move things to the new house(I live in East-Norway now, and I am moving to West-Norway, which is where the coastal defense battery is), I brought along a couple of boxes of Post-War stuff(See this thread, page 2: New War Room - You can help! ) and since the weather was so beautiful, I decided to take a trip to the coastal defense battery. My friend didn't have time, nor did the landowner's brother, but it was a nice day anyways.

Some of the heavy stuff:




























Ration tins:











Positions:































Unidentified finds:








Markings on one of the 105mm Cannons:



A German soldier's failed attempt at making a swastika?:




Looks like somebody has had a paintball war:


Below are the finds of the day:

[Datrus]

Very nice. Always cool to go digging. Beautiful nature.

Regards, Lars

[KradSpam]

Very cool mate, great area. If you find a helmet in one of the bunkers pm me

[Atle M]

get yourselves a magnet Vegar,i bet there's stuff to find in the sea there

[Vegard T]

Very cool mate, great area. If you find a helmet in one of the bunkers pm me

I doubt there will be anything to find in the bunkers, but if I do find a helmet, I'll PM you. Not to sell it, but to brag about it

[Vegard T]

get yourselves a magnet Vegar,i bet there's stuff to find in the sea there

I do have a magnet, but it is very very very small, I need to get myself a new one. The landowner's brother told me that there was a boat that was transporting ammunition after the war, and one time it nearly tipped over, spilling much ammunition/shells overboard and it fell under the pier you can see in post 1(picture 6). I was very tempted to magnet fish after it, but then he told me that a lot of live 105 mm rounds also fell overboard, which I'd rather not play around with.