Germans open up new front in battle of the sun loungers: It’s you British who hog them, they claim, and here’s their ‘proof’

• German newspaper Bild carried out investigation into sun lounger hoggers
• It monitored activity at hotel in Spanish resort of Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava
• Found British tourists 'reserved' loungers with their towels early in morning
• Darren, from Devon, said: 'Without a reservation you don’t stand a chance'

By David Wilkes and Allan Hall

It is the crime we have accused the Germans of for decades – hogging the sun loungers.

But now, it seems, holidaying Britons might have to throw in the towel in the battle for the moral high ground by the swimming pool.

For it is us, and not them, who are more likely to get up early, creep down from our hotel rooms and bag the coveted spots, at least according to an investigation by the mass-selling German newspaper Bild.

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All quiet on the pool side: The loungers in the resort at Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava, are free of towels at 7.36am

Flagged up: Circled here are the British families’ towels ‘reserving’ loungers at 9.21am, according to Bild

It monitored activity in the hotly contested pool side area at a hotel in the Spanish resort of Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava, a region long popular with sunseekers from both countries.

Bild apparently took two photos: the first at 7.36am showing all the sun loungers empty and towel free, the second at 9.21am showing most of the sun loungers bedecked with a towel – including one emblazoned with a Union Jack and one with a St George’s Cross – but still not a human on them.

When the lounger baggers eventually turned up to claim their spots, the paper’s reporter went to find out who they are – and it then printed the findings under the headline: ‘Photo evidence in the war of the towels. The English are the worst lounger squatters!’

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The paper focuses on three families it identifies as British and says the hotel is filled with English holidaymakers. However, it doesn’t detail the owners of the other pictured towels. Potentially they could all belong to Britons.

One family was identified in Bild as Julie, 49, Danni, 19, and Korban, 12. They said they claimed their sun loungers earlier, including laying a towel decorated with images of England soccer stars on one, because a party of French vacationers ‘stole’ them all the day before.

One-nil to England: Bild identified Korban and his mother Julie as among those who bagged their spots early

‘Not enough places’: Darren, 43, from Exmouth, Devon, at the holiday resort with daughters Elouise and Daisy

Car mechanic Darren, 43, from Exmouth, Devon, holidaying with daughters Elouise, nine, and Daisy, seven, and proud owner of a Union Jack towel, said: ‘I was in a queue at 8.50am. Without a reservation you don’t stand a chance. There are simply not enough places for everyone.’

Asked if Germans or Britons were the worst poolside hogs he said: ‘I don’t know. We often have exchange students staying from Germany. I find them very polite and friendly.’

The third family identified, Carolina, 52, from Farnborough, Hampshire, and her husband Mark, said they bagged their places because ‘everybody does it.’

Another tourist, Linda, 55, from Somerset, put towels on seven loungers for her family. ‘If we all want to be together we have no other choice,’ she told Bild.

It is the latest skirmish in the long-running battle of the sun loungers and follows another recent article in Bild which mocked Britons on foreign holidays for being drunken, stupid, overweight, lecherous, tattooed and sunburnt.

‘Everyone does it’: Carolina, 52, husband Mark and son Josh, from Farnborough, Hampshire, said they are doing no different to anyone else

German newspaper Bild carried out the investigation to discover which nationalities hog sun loungers the most

It poked fun at British men abroad with ‘red and white chests’ and the women with ‘underwear amnesia’ – and suggested we have ‘Prince Harry Syndrome’, which it described as a compulsive need to undress.

It also referred to the condition ‘balcony leg’ which it blamed on Britons injuring themselves trying to jump into the hotel pool.

A survey of German holidaymakers in June claimed British tourists are second only to Russians when it comes to nationalities they dislike most on holiday.

The research by German travel operator Urlaubstours found Germans viewed Britons as both loud and all too often drunk.