Did you know you can (sort of) drive a car over the battleship Tirpitz?
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The Tirpitz camouflaged in a Norwegian fjord
(Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command)
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Leftover or destroyed military hardware can turn up in the unlikeliest of places. The case in point is the World War II German battleship Tirpitz, sister ship of the Bismarck. The Tirpitz spent most of her career in occupied Norway as a fleet in being, a naval force that influences the enemy just by being in dock – in this case, the Allies needed to assign escorts to Arctic convoys delivering Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviet Union, since if they hadn’t, the Tirpitz could have sailed out and attacked those convoys. The ship was finally destroyed by a series of British air attacks in November 1944, but parts of it resurfaced after the war in a surprising new role.
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A plate from the Tirpitz used during road construction
(Photo: vg.no)
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The Tirpitz sank in shallow waters, and was cut up and sold for scrap after the war. Some of her armor plates were acquired by the Norwegian Road Authority and put to use as temporary road surfaces during road maintenance. The sturdy plates are still used to that purpose today, and millions of vehicles in the Norwegian capital of Oslo drive over (parts of) the Tirpitz each year.
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Some of the armor plates from the Tirpitz used during road maintenance
(Photo: Sf66 / Wikipedia)
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Save 10% with our Christmas promotion
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Soldiers decorate a Christmas tree in Germany, December 1944
(Photo: U.S. Army)
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Get a 10% discount on our tours by paying only the registration fee by December 26, 2023, and transferring the rest of the list price until January 31, 2024. Note that this offer applies only in case of new bookings, and it cannot be combined with other special promotions. If you have any questions related to this promotion or our tours, please contact our travel consultants at info@beachesofnormandy.com or by calling our toll-free number: +1 855-473-1999.
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