Hitler's Atlantic Wall stretched along the coasts of Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium and France, all the way to the Spanish border. Some 5000 km of shoreline which was - in Nazi propaganda - often depicted as an endless row of impregnable concrete fortresses manned with crack-elite SS troops, packing state-of-the-art firepower.

Reality was somewhat different though. Strong fortifications did exist, especially in Normandy, but the "wall" in Norway and Denmark consisted mainly of a number of strongholds with kilometer after kilometer of relatively unprotected beach or rocky shore in between. The firepower was mostly composed of outdated artillery pieces, captured from subdued countries, and the troops were either 2. class German, wounded or elderly, or in some places POW enemy soldiers given the choice of a bullet or a Nazi uniform.

Nonetheless, what is left of the Atlantic Wall in Denmark remain an impressive document of times that were, and a chilling monument over the consequences of blind submission to an idea and the voluntary abolishing of mans most precious possession; the freedom of will. Thus, it is an excellent place to take your kids for a little compulsory education on Europe's recent history. 

Ambitions
The ambitions of this website are threefold; (1) To give the lay visitor an idea of the magnitude and ingenuity of the German fortification technique as it unfolded along the Atlantic Wall in Denmark as in other occupied countries. (2) To serve as an initial planning tool - sort of tourist guide, if you like - for planning day trips to interesting spots along the Danish part of the Wall. (3) To generate an interest for WW2 and 20. century European history in general and maybe stimulate the visitor to seek more information. To cater for the latter purpose, a comprehensive links page will be established and maintained - as time allow.

The number of Regelbau bunkers built in Denmark from 1942 to 45 approaches some two thousand. Combined with Bauform and irregular types, the total number of concrete fortifications may go as high as 8000 and a great proportion of these are still accessible to the public. Most of them in the form of "open-air museums" on public soil (some on private property), but several places in the country bunkers have been restored to form part of actual museums. In any event, for the interested party there is plenty to see, to touch, to explore and to photograph.

Navigation
The present overview starts on Denmark's East Coast and continues counterclockwise down the West Coast where most installations are found. Danish location names are used. As a starter, nine prominent locations have been selected, but many more exists and these may be described at a later point. Each location is presented on this page with a few photos and a brief description. Jump to a location by clicking the names below. To get the full story of a specific location; more photos, stories, drawings and related documents, click the 8 arrow at the bottom right of the presentation. To return to top of page, click the 5 arrow, to return to a previous page, click 7 and to return to the Introduction page, click the 9 arrow.

Since the late 1800 Silkeborg Bad had been a fashionable health center for the more wealthy part of Danes. The place even enjoyed some attention outside Denmark as the water from the stream "Arnakke" was considered to have healing properties.

In the spring of 1943, the facility was taken over by the German occupation forces to serve as HQ for the regional high command.

The German Generals Hermann v. Hanneken and Georg Lindemann resided here and the general's private bunker (R608), the radio bunker (R618) and command bunker (V196) are among the exciting places you can visit on a guided tour.

The aim was to be closer to the west coast of Jutland where an invasion might occur. 

After the war, Silkeborg Bad was temporarily used as a refugee camp for German civilians and von Hanneken's personal bunker used as a prison. Today it is burried under the lawn in front of the main building. Access is via a step ladder.

As the entrance has been kept away from sunlight, the original luminous camouflage painting still glows in the dark - after so many years a somewhat eerie sight.

The Bunkermuseum is situated in a fully restored R622 double group crew bunker. It houses numerous artifacts, many which has been - and still are being - discovered in the surrounding woods or in the lake nearby.  

With its history as German HQ, a Silkeborg Bunkermuseum visit is highly recommendable.

Guided tours with highly skilled guides are available. Read more on their homepage.

If you are familiar with Danish geography, you may find it odd how Stützpunktgruppe Süd (Bangsbo Fort as the name is today) with its location on the East Coast of Jutland, could form part of the Atlantic Wall. The answer is simple though; The four 150 mm cannons were supposed to protect the important Naval Base in Frederikshavn and the sailing routes with iron ore from Sweden via occupied Norway in case enemy ships did slip by the "Sperbatterie" in Hanstholm.

Decommissioned by the Danish Navy in 1962, Bangsbo is today a beautiful recreational area as well as an exciting mixture of open-air and regular WW2 museum with a fully refurbished Regelbau 152 command bunker and the guns as the main attractions. 

The museum bunker provides a feeling of the conditions the 1945 crew enjoyed; all-in-all not too bad and certainly better than many other places where German troops were stationed. 

The 152 bunker is only one of some 40 constructions comprising gun emplacements, ordnance bunkers, shelters for crews, a fire control post and machine gun positions. 

Part of the area is still in use by the Royal Navy and only open to the public on special occasions, but a trip to Bangsbo is highly recommendable and is suitable for the whole family.

One of the more challenging endeavors is to search the surrounding forest for hidden bunkers. Several Tobruks and mortar bunkers are located here.

The northernmost point of Denmark was heavily fortified by the occupation forces with installations comprising both a costal battery and a radar station. A part of the bunkers are overgrown today, some have been removed, some claimed by the sea, but several - including the emplacements for the 122 mm battery situated directly on the beach as a result of land erosion - are open to the public.

Skagen is also a wonderful tourist resort where two seas meet at the northernmost point of Denmark. 

A perfect place for a summer vacation or a romantic weekend - which should make it easier to sell the idea to your spouse ;-)

NEW: A bunker museum just opened in Skagen.

Hirtshals North

Hirtshals is sometimes referred to locally as a "fortress", but in reality no German stronghold in Denmark held this Nazi classification. Hirtshals however is full of bunkers, including two heavy batteries north and south of the city, so there is some justification to the notion.

The strongpoint in the north is almost covered in sand and vegetation, but a few bunkers remain open although rubber footwear and caution to debris and garbage is recommendable in some. A 636a fire control bunker has been furnished with stairs for easy access.

Note how people here has learned to live with the bunkers, building upon and around them.

Hirtshals South

The southern compound is the largest of the two and is today an open air museum comprising some 70 bunkers and 4500 meters of excavated trenches. The area is very beautiful and easily accessible with an intense atmosphere. It is fantastic spot for a retrospective picnic and a spectacular frame for educating your children on the Second World War and the Atlantic Wall.

Many interesting bunkers are situated here, including 501 and 622 crew shelters, a 661 hospital bunker, a 645 kitchen bunker, Siegfried bunkers, 672 gun emplacements, a partially buried 636a fire control post, 409 anti-aircraft positions, ammunition bunkers, a 174 radar bunker (Wurzburg Riese) and a selection of "Tobruks", some with a concrete cupola as shown to the left.

If you want to see a complete WW2 "Stutzpunkt" with geography and bunkers in prime condition - and be able to bring your family without having to resort to special clothing, gear and headlamps - then Hirtshals South is the place. 

To most Danes Bulbjerg is primarily known as the only cliff formation on mainland Jutland and home to a breed of seagulls called "Rider". However, during the war it was also home to a observation- and fire control post for the 38 cm Hanstholm Battery.

Today most of the bunkers are buried by the ever migrating sand dunes, but the fire control post itself on the top of the cliff remain open and serve as a information stand on the local wildlife. Here and there you can spot some concrete in the sand and the grass; proof that some fourteen bunkers once accommodated the garrison here.

Anti-tank ditches miles long once surrounded the whole area, but I have found no evidence of them today. Maybe you will have more luck...

An R622 crew bunker has been modified to serve as a lavatory for visitors. Most likely the safest loo in the world.

Be careful not to disturb the birds nesting on the cliff. Do not try to descend down the cliff side - it is prohibited and rather dangerous too.

Like Hirtshals, Hanstholm is also often referred to as a fortress, and they really have something to back it up. If you are looking for the ultimate in artillery, you will want to go to the home of Denmark's largest WW2 battery ever put in service.

Four mighty 380 mm cannons - Battleship Bismarck type - were installed here. In tandem with a sister battery in Kristiansand, Norway, they were supposed to block the sailing routes through the Kattegat and thus seal off the Baltic to allied traffic.

The guns were scrapped after the war, but one barrel survived and the impressive 110 metric ton chunk of metal has been placed as a landmark outside the museum.

Hanstholm is undoubtedly the German WW2 facility in Denmark that comes closest to deserve the classification "fortress". Not only is it home to the heaviest artillery on Danish soil ever, but the area is made up of several smaller strongholds, spread over a wide area, all of it heavily fortified. 

Three of the huge concrete emplacements housing the guns are derelicts today, but open to the public (although one is almost inaccessible due to overgrowth). One is fully restored and forms a 3000 square meter museum in mint condition with ammunition conveyors intact and a working mini-railroad.

The area is also home for more than 100 other bunkers.

At the same time, a mix of bunkers; from fully restored, over newly excavated to completely overgrown bunkers are available within walking distance - all in beautiful surroundings

Thus Hanstholm offers the war tourist a unique opportunity to choose a bunker tour with exactly the level of difficulty he prefers.

The huge museum-bunker has been refurbished to near-original status with crew compartments and even amenity facilities in 1945 condition. A job very well done.

In the lobby, an extremely detailed model of a 501 crew bunker being constructed is on display as well as several guns of the days.

The only thing missing in Hanstholm is the mighty 38 cm gun itself. They have the barrel, but the rest was scrapped after the war. 

To see the full Monty you must go to Møvik Fort near Kristiansand in Norway, where one gun is preserved in fully operational condition. The even exercise it at certain times.

This can be seen by the efforts displayed by the German occupation forces to seal off the western entrance to the fjord with two coastal batteries and an impressive array of bunkers of all sorts.

Although a great deal of these bunkers today have sunk into the sand, there is still plenty to see. An entire coastal battery with auxiliary bunkers arranged like pearls on a string as far as the eye can see. 

Oksbol Tank Training School has its firing range near Blaavand, and the area is closed for public traffic when the range is in use. As most of the bunkers are situated within this area, it is quite important for a successful bunker tour, that it is open. Schedule here. 

The impressive L485 bunker, emplacement for the Mammoth radar capable of detecting enemy aircrafts up to 300 km away. The large bunker is just one of some 50 bunkers in the immediate area, also comprising a coastal battery in R671 gun emplacements, a Fl277 for a 150 cm searchlight, ammo-bunkers, crew bunkers, a R633 for an M19 automatic mortar, a V174 radar bunker and many more.

The work on the huge 38 cm battery was initiated in late 1944 at a time where the writing on the wall should have been obvious to the German High Command.  However, work proceeded on the Danish part of the wall and in Oksby they got as far as casting the foundations for the huge battleship turrets, each brandishing two 380 mm guns with a range of 55 km but the armament itself was never installed.

The huge, three-and-a-half meter walls withstood postwar demolition attempts easily and that is why we have a fine museum here today.

One bunker stands more or less as the Germans left it in 1945, the other is home to the museum.

Attempts to demolish the two bunkers were tried after the war, but to little avail. The 3.5 meter thick concrete walls withstood the demolition charges (after all, they were built to be able to resist heavy shelling from enemy battleships), and in 1991 a museum opened in the best preserved of the bunkers.

Some damage to the structure is visible though.

Some pieces of the barrel lining and parts of the recoil mechanism have been preserved, but the only whole 38 cm barrel on display in Denmark is the one in Hanstholm.

The two M184 bunkers on the northernmost part of Fanoe are unique in the Atlantic Wall. They each supported a 150 mm twin turret, secondary armament from the decommissioned cruiser Gneisenau, and protected the entrance to the important Esbjerg Harbor - in German view the first choice for allied forces to make landfall during an invasion in Jutland.

In 1951 the guns were moved to southern Sealand as part of the brand new "Stevnsfortet". This Cold War Fort has recently attained status as a Museum and the guns are there to see, along with an exciting facility carved in the limestone cliff 20 meters below the surface.

Even with guns gone, the M184 bunker is exciting to see. The upper part, housing the cavity for the turret, has been leveled, whereas the base compartment is accessible, but requires headlamps and suitable clothing. 

It is a fairly large bunker; some 225 m² and 13 individual rooms, littered with 60 years of garbage, so use caution and common sense - and don't go alone!

The purpose of the locally famous "bus shed" on Fanoe is not totally clear, but most likely the small bunker was part of an infrared detection system known as Donau 60. This example of German WW2 technical ingenuity was allegedly able to trace the heat emission from larger objects such as ships, and using triangulation from an array of stations, range and direction of the intruder could be determined. This is at least the predominant theory, but the floor is open to alternative suggestions...

Møvik Fort is an impressive fortress, carved into the cliffs of the Møvik peninsula, southeast of Kristiansand. Here, four 38 cm "Bismarck guns" were supposed to seal of the entrance to the Baltic Sea in conjunction with a similar battery in Hanstholm on the Danish side, In Møvik, one gun has been left intact and operational and offers a stunning impression what the two batteries were capable of, working in tandem.

In Kristiansand as well as in Hanstholm, the guns were installed in so-called land turrets, as they were originally spare parts for the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz.

But even more breathtaking is the single gun embrasure that was built. Huge as a cathedral its dimensions impose awe on the spectator. The gun for this was never installed though.

The Møvik area is packed with well-camouflaged bunkers and tunnels in the cliffs. However, a large proportion of the area is still under military control.

The museum bunker is well maintained and impressive. A Shoppe offers soft drinks and various second-hand equipment along with military paraphernalia at reasonable prices. 

The 105 mm gun battery at Ny-Hellesund is one of more than 220 German batteries in Norway by 1943. It is situated on the small island of Helgøya only a few miles southwest of Kristiansand, and providing some coverage of the sailing route to this city. The battery is often referred to as Norway's little Gibraltar because of the several kilometers of passages carved out in the cliff and connecting the batteries and fire control bunker.

A visit to Ny-Hellesund Fort is almost like a trip in a time-machine. The island of Helgøya is secluded and uninhabited and you have a very fair chance of being the only human around for miles. Nature is just dazzling and the historic sites in mint condition and very well kept. It is an awesome and very recommendable trip. 

Note how clean and orderly these Norwegian sites are and help keeping them in that condition. Do not litter or write graffiti, but help preserve the sites for posterior. 

Following a devastating bombardment on the Kiel shipyard in 1942, rearming of the battleship Gneisenau was cancelled and the ship decommissioned. The A-turret was so heavily damaged that it was split up in three individual barrels, the B-turret went to Fjell Festning, also in Norway and the C-turret was installed at Austrått, northwest of Trondheim. With a range of 40+ kilometers, the mighty guns could easily cover the sailing routes to this important city. 

Guided tours are available all year by ordering in advance via the official homepage (Norwegian language) 

Like everything else in Norway, the scenery surrounding Austrått Fort is immensely beautiful. It is a two-hour drive from Trondheim (also a really wonderful city) through a veritable Tolkien landscape. Approx. halfway there is a rest area alongside a large lake; the perfect place to stop for a cup of coffee.