A large number of World War II weapons fished out of the lake

Thanks to information provided by a 92-year-old man, staff at the Sea War Museum Jutland in Thyborøn have unearthed a large quantity of armaments and various other items from the Second World War from beneath the water.

This confirmed a local story about German soldiers sinking something in the waters of the basin in Hviding, near Ribe. The information was given to museum staff by 92-year-old Jens Toft, who lived on a farm in the area in 1946.

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“In 1946 I was 19 years old and together with my neighbour Karl we were fishing. One day I got on the hook and fished out a German rifle, and a month later history repeated itself and we pulled out some grenades and two machine guns from under the water,” Jens Toft recalls

A few years later, Jens Toft was diving in the waters of the lake and once again came across German militaria. A gas mask, helmets and ammunition packs were among the recovered items. Afterwards, he always dreamed of being able to once again search the waters of the body of water he visited as a young boy, but his dream did not come true until 6 December 2019.

“We are not into treasure hunting. We are interested in history, and the history here seemed exciting. So we decided to dive in and see how much truth there is in it.” – said Gert Normann Andersen

The lake is privately owned and its owners have never before given anyone the opportunity to dive into it and search for World War II militaria. By allowing the search, they made no secret of the hope that the German armaments would be found and that they would be completely removed from the lake.

The sought-after equipment was located without any major problems and brought to the surface. Unfortunately time has not been kind to the artefacts and most of the excavated items are in very poor condition.

Source: tvmidtvest.dk