Day 6 of the WW2 battlefield archaeology dig in Hanko S. Finland where archaeology students BA Fanny Fagerholm (University of Uppsala) and BA Jaakko Ervasti (University of Oulu) today made tremendous work today in Hanko under my supervision.
With much effort Fanny and Jaakko managed to identify, recover and document several very rare and extremely fragile burnt document fragments that can definitely be associated with Swedish Lieutenant Åke Kretz. Kretz was one of the three soldiers manning the shelter when it caught fire and burned to the ground in November 1941.
Åke Kretz participated as an observer in the Spanish civil war and tried several times to volunteer in the ”Waffen SS” through German occupied Norway before joining ”Svenska Frivilligbartaljonen” and the battles on the Hanko Front in 1941.
The dig is advancing according to plan with lots and lots of small finds coming to light by the minute as we get nearer to the floor level of the burnt down shelter.
A Swedish brass sports badge that propably belonged to either Lieutenant Åke Kretz, second lieutenant Sture Stigsson or private Dahl.
