Tirpitz Museum



Tirpitz Museum is a war museum that is located in Kåfjord outside the city of Alta in Finnmark county,  Norway.

History
The museum has one of the largest collections of photos and artifacts from the battleship GERMAN BATTLESHIP Tirpitz, a 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 base 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 GERMAN BATTLESHIP Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser GERMAN CRUISER Lützow as well as dozens of German destroyers and supply ships. On 12 November 1944, Tirpitz was hit by bombs and the ship capsized in the bay outside of Tromsø.

Between 1948 and 1957, the wreck was broken up by the Norwegian company Hövding. In 1985, a monument in memory of the Allied aircrews killed in attacks and reconnaissance on the battleship Tirpitz was erected near Fættenfjord in the Trondheim Fjord. The memorial is made of slate and stands on a 12.5 cm thick armor plate from Tirpitz. The armor plate measures 120x130 cm and weighs approx. 1400 kg.

The timber building that the Tirpitz Museum is located in dates from approx. 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.

Other sources

 * Brown, David (1977) Tirpitz: the floating fortress (Naval Institute Press) ISBN 978-0-85368-341-4
 * Kennedy, Ludovic Henry Coverley (1979)   The death of the Tirpitz  (Little Brown)   ISBN 978-0-316-48905-8
 * Peillard, Leonce (1983) Sink the Tirpitz! ( Academy Chicago Publishers)  ISBN 978-0-583-12384-6
 * Sweetman, John (2004) Tirpitz: Hunting the Beast (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited)  ISBN 0-7509-3755-6
 * Zetterling, Niklas; Tamelander, Michael (2009) Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship (Havertown, PA: Casemate) ISBN 978-1-935149-18-7.