Tirpitz Museum is a war museum that is located in Kåfjord outside the city of Alta in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. [1] [2] [ non-primary source needed ]
Tirpitz Museum is a war museum that is located in Kåfjord outside the city of Alta in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. [1] [2] [ non-primary source needed ]
The museum has one of the largest collections of photos and artifacts from the battleship Tirpitz, a Bismarck-class battleship built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The battleship Tirpitz had served as one of the main threats against supply convoys sailing to Murmansk. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, a German naval base was established in Altafjord to prevent convoys from the Western Allies from delivering supplies to the Soviet Union. These supplies were deemed critical to the outcome of the war on the Eastern Front.
The Alta area was one of Germany's largest naval bases during the war. Tirpitz, which was one of the world's largest and most powerful battleships, was anchored for nearly two years in Kåfjord. Altafjord was also a base for many other German warships, among them the battleship Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser Lützow, as well as dozens of German destroyers and supply ships. On 12 November 1944, Tirpitz was hit by bombs and capsized in the bay outside Tromsø.
The timber building that the Tirpitz Museum is located in dates from approximately 1880. It was originally built in Lillehammer. It was taken down and sent to Alta in 1946 as part of the effort to help rebuild the war-ravaged region. Initially the building served as the first nursing home in Finnmark. It remained in use until the new nursing home in Kåfjord was built in 1961.
Alta is the most populated municipality in Finnmark in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Alta. Some of the main villages in the municipality include Kåfjord, Komagfjord, Kvenvik, Langfjordbotn, Leirbotn, Rafsbotn, Talvik, and Tverrelvdalen.
PQ 17 was the code name for an Allied Arctic convoy during the Second World War. On 27 June 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on 1 July, after which it was shadowed continuously and attacked. The First Sea Lord Admiral Dudley Pound, acting on information that German surface units, including the German battleship Tirpitz, were moving to intercept, ordered the covering force built around the Allied battleships HMS Duke of York and the USS Washington away from the convoy and told the convoy to scatter. Because of vacillation by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the Tirpitz raid never materialised. The convoy was the first large joint Anglo-American naval operation under British command; in Churchill's view this encouraged a more careful approach to fleet movements.
The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle which occurred on 26 December 1943, as part of the Arctic campaign. The German battleship Scharnhorst, on an operation to attack Arctic Convoys of war materiel from the Western Allies to the Soviet Union, was brought to battle and sunk by the Royal Navy – the battleship HMS Duke of York with cruisers and destroyers including an onslaught from the HNoMS Stord of the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy – off Norway's North Cape.
The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945, sailing via several seas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, with two gaps with no sailings between July and September 1942, and March and November 1943.
Bardufoss Air Station is a military air station located at Bardufoss in Målselv Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county in Northern Norway. It is the location of the Royal Norwegian Air Force 139 Air Wing and two helicopter squadrons; the 337 Squadron operating Lynx MK 86 for the Norwegian Coast Guard and the 339 Squadron equipped with Bell 412SPs. It is also the base for the Royal Norwegian Air Force Flight Training School. In addition, helicopter Squadron no. 334 is currently under establishment as it will be operating NH90 NFH helicopters. The delivery of the NH90 helicopters just started. 334 Squadron will only have its command post and maintenance facilities at Bardufoss, as the helicopters will be stationed on the new Fridtjof Nansen class frigates when they arrive.
Operation Sportpalast, also known as Operation Nordmeer, was a German naval raid between 6 and 13 March 1942 that targeted two of the Allied Arctic convoys of World War II as they passed through the Norwegian Sea. It was conducted by the battleship Tirpitz, three destroyers and eight submarines. The German ships were unable to locate either of the convoys but sank a merchant vessel that was sailing by itself. The Allies attempted to intercept the German force, also without success.
Operation Tungsten was a Second World War Royal Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship Tirpitz. The operation sought to damage or destroy Tirpitz at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she could become fully operational again following a period of repairs.
Operation Paravane was a British air raid of World War II that inflicted heavy damage on the German battleship Tirpitz, at anchor in Kaafjord in the far north of German-occupied Norway. The attack was conducted on 15 September 1944 by 21 Royal Air Force heavy bombers, which flew from an airfield in the north of the Soviet Union. The battleship was struck by one bomb, and further damaged by several near misses. This damage rendered Tirpitz unfit for combat, and she could not be repaired as it was no longer possible for the Germans to sail her to a major port.
Operation Catechism was a British air raid of World War II that destroyed the German battleship Tirpitz. It was conducted on 12 November 1944 by 29 Royal Air Force heavy bombers that attacked the battleship at its anchorage near the Norwegian city of Tromsø. The ship capsized after being hit by at least two bombs and damaged by the explosions of others, killing between 940 and 1,204 members of the crew; the British suffered no casualties.
Kåfjord is a village in Alta Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The village is located along the Kåfjorden, about 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of the town of Alta along the European route E6 highway. The village of Kvenvik lies about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the east, also along the E6 highway.
HMS Mahratta was an M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy which served during World War II. Begun as Marksman, she was damaged while under construction, and dismantled to be rebuilt on a new slipway. She was launched as Mahratta in 1942, completed in 1943, and quickly pressed into service. After a short but busy career in the North Atlantic and Arctic, largely guarding merchant convoys, she was torpedoed and sunk on 25 February 1944.
Altafjord is a fjord in Alta Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The 38-kilometre (24 mi) long fjord stretches from the town of Alta in the south to the islands of Stjernøya and Seiland. The 200-kilometre (120 mi) long river Altaelva empties into the fjord at the town of Alta. At Stjernøya and Seiland islands, the fjord splits into two straits before emptying into the Norwegian Sea. Some of the larger side-branches off the main fjord include Langfjorden, Kåfjorden, and Korsfjorden.
The Bismarck class was a pair of fast battleships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine shortly before the outbreak of World War II. The ships were the largest and most powerful warships built for the Kriegsmarine; displacing more than 41,000 metric tons normally, they were armed with a battery of eight 38 cm (15 in) guns and were capable of a top speed of 30 knots. Bismarck was laid down in July 1936 and completed in September 1940, while her sister Tirpitz's keel was laid in October 1936 and work finished in February 1941. The ships were ordered in response to the French Richelieu-class battleships. They were designed with the traditional role of engaging enemy battleships in home waters in mind, though the German naval command envisioned employing the ships as long-range commerce raiders against British shipping in the Atlantic Ocean. As such, their design represented strategic confusion that dominated German naval construction in the 1930s.
Tirpitz was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (navy) prior to and during the Second World War. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Kaiserliche Marine, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and her hull was launched two and a half years later. Work was completed in February 1941, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Like her sister ship, Bismarck, Tirpitz was armed with a main battery of eight 38-centimetre (15 in) guns in four twin turrets. After a series of wartime modifications she was 2000 tonnes heavier than Bismarck, making her the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy.
HMS Musketeer was a M-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was ordered from Fairfield's, Govan, Glasgow on 7 September 1939 under the 1939 Build Programme and laid down on 7 December the same year. She was launched on 2 December 1941 and completed on 18 September 1942 at a cost of £462,543. Musketeer was adopted in December 1941 by the community of East Barnet, now part of Greater London. Musketeer was the second RN ship to carry this name: the first was a destroyer built in 1915 and sold in 1921.
Z28 was one of fifteen Type 1936A destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Built as a flotilla leader with fewer guns than her sister ships, she was completed in 1941. The ship spent most of the first few years of her service in Norwegian waters, escorting convoys and laying minefields. Z28 ran aground in early 1943 and spent the rest of the year under repair. The ship briefly returned to Norway at the beginning of 1944, but was transferred to the Baltic shortly afterwards to support minelaying operations in the Gulf of Finland. That was her primary focus through July and then she began escorting German cruisers as they bombarded Soviet troops ashore in addition to German convoys evacuating people from Finland and the Baltic States.
Z29 was one of fifteen Type 1936A destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in 1941, she took part in the Channel Dash in early 1942 as flagship of the escort force. Despite this venture to France, the ship spent most of the war in Norwegian waters, escorting German ships and laying minefields. Z29 participated in the indecisive Battle of the Barents Sea at the end of the year, during which she helped to sink a British minesweeper. The ship was damaged during the raid on the island of Spitsbergen in September 1943. Z29 was damaged by British aircraft attacking the battleship Tirpitz in July 1944. The ship escorted troop convoys from northern Norway when the Germans began evacuating the area beginning in October until she began an extensive refit in December.
Kåfjorden (Norwegian) or Njoammelgohppi (Northern Sami) is a fjord in Alta Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The 8-kilometre (5.0 mi) long fjord branches off the main Altafjorden. The village of Kåfjord and the Kåfjord Church both lie along the northern coast of the fjord. The European route E06 highway follows the northern shoreline of the fjord. A bridge over Kåfjorden was built in 2013 to shorten the E6 highway route around the fjord.
Operation Mascot was an unsuccessful British carrier air raid conducted against the German battleship Tirpitz at her anchorage in Kaafjord, Norway, on 17 July 1944. The attack was one of a series of strikes against the battleship launched from aircraft carriers between April and August 1944, and was initiated after Allied intelligence determined that the damage inflicted during the Operation Tungsten raid on 3 April had been repaired.
Operation Goodwood was a series of British carrier air raids conducted against the German battleship Tirpitz at her anchorage in Kaafjord in occupied Norway during late August 1944. It was the last of several attacks made by the Home Fleet during 1944 which sought to damage or sink Tirpitz and thereby eliminate the threat it posed to Allied shipping. Previous raids on Kaafjord conducted by Fleet Air Arm aircraft had involved only one air attack; in Operation Goodwood several attacks were made in a single week. The Royal Navy hoped that these raids would wear down the formidable German defences.
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