And here's a view I'd never seen before until it turned up on another forum.... http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/miscellaneous/tirpitz_wreck_site/tirpitz_wreck_site.html
Thanx for that Martin! Very interesting that the Tall Boy bomb hits can still be seen as clear craters!
It is estimated that up to a third of the ship, including a complete turret, remains on the fjord bed......
Any idea if there has been any divers around looking for souvenirs over the years? I´d think though that the water is rather cold even in the summer so you need more than just the snorkel...
I guess the 'souvenirs' may be rather on the large side ! There is such a Tirpitz souvenir at the RAF Museum in Hendon ; one anchor-chain link. It's huge and very heavy !
Thanks for the link, Martin! It was pretty amazing to see the craters of the 'Tallboys', it might seem like a WWI battlefield, specially those tiny 'lakes' at Messines…
Which probably are filled with the remains of the crew. I hope divers don't go looking for souvenirs around there. Those Tall-Boys really made a mark on the ground there.
Five years later ( ca 1949 that is ), the Norwegian salvage company raising the Tirpitz found an engine room bulkhead door on which one of the crew had painted the ship breaking through a rough sea underneath the words: 'Gegen England' (Against England). This bulkhead was mounted and an inscription, "Part of bulkhead of Tirpitz, sunk by Nos 9 and 617 Squadrons - 12th November, 1944, at Tromso. Presented to Bomber Command by brothers-in-arms, Royal Norwegian Air Force, in commemoration of friendship and co-operation during World War II" was added before it was placed on display at RAF Binbrook, the then home to both squadrons. Both Squadrons lay claim to the fact that it was their bombs that actually sunk the Tirpitz, and the bulkhead has been 'owned' by both squadrons over the years and continued to be the centre of inter-squadron rivalry until 2002. The bulkhead was the presented to the Bomber Command Museum, where it remains as a memorial to the crews of two of Bomber Command's most famous Squadrons. http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/tirpitz.html
Tall boy hit close to Tirpitz... The Men Who Sank The Tirpitz: Air Force, Part 54 - Legion Magazine The Men Who Sank The Tirpitz: Air Force, Part 54 - Legion Magazine
