Randalls bottle found in wartime camp in Denmark

The find was made by a Danish club that investigates wartime fortifications around Esbjerg, on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in south-west Denmark.

The country was occupied by Nazi forces from 1940 and its coastline formed part of German coastal defences from northern Norway to southern France.

Jens Andersen, from the Association of the Atlantic Wall in Esbjerg, said there were many bunkers in the area, which were part of the Atlantic Wall defences.

He posted a picture of the bottle on a Guernsey history social media page after making the discovery with fellow club members Erik Skov and Mathias Nielsen.

‘We found the bottle in the Blavand camp, which was built as a barracks town for Danish workers at the major construction sites in connection with the Germans’ construction of the Atlantic Wall from 1940 to 1945,’ he said.

The camp accommodated about 1,200 men. After the war, the camp in Blavand first housed Baltic refugees and later, from August 1945, German refugees.

The bottle, among others, was found in the remains of a small lake.

While the green glass bottle was found intact, it is not easy to date. Randalls does not have a history for when certain bottles were produced.

Mr Andersen said the bottle was found about 50cm down, with several other bottles made by German and Danish brands from the 1940s.

He thought the pool was a firepond – kept in case of fire in the camp – and when the men finished drinking they threw the empties in it, so there was no evidence of dating.

‘The camp at that time was far, far, far away from anything and drinking and playing cards were the only options.’

The Blavand camp was the largest of its kind in south-west Jutland. The workers there built the Buffel radar position, as well as around 50 other bunkers in the area.

There are still trenches in the area and it is still used by the military, meaning there is limited access for the public.

Some foundations from the camp are still visible today, with an information board.

The camp was behind the dunes about a kilometre north of Blavand lighthouse.