The Wreck of Battleship Tirpitz - Capsized and Salvaged in Cold Norway

Since it apparently isn’t obvious to some people: When I talk ineffectual raids, I’m talking the numerous aircraft carrier raids (and odd heavy bomber raid) that did no damage. Or light damage. Only a couple attacks, X-Craft included, did actual lasting damage.

A lot of pipes from Tirpitz were reused as water suply pipes in Tromsø, a town close to where the ship was sunk. Most of those has been replaced by now, but there are still a few still in use. Source: I am a civil engieneer who work in water mamagement in Norway

Tripitz's generators were put to work ashore. She helped electrify northern Norway.

Some of the plates were used to cover holes in the roads in Oslo when they were repearing pipes and conduits below ground.

I would disagree that she was among the most useless of all battleships. Just the threat of her reaching the open sea tied up scores of Allied ships and aircraft that could've been used in other theaters instead. She spent her career as a massive chess piece and proved quite good at it, even if that wasn't her designed role.

what i know about the crew after the sinking is that every crew member found inside the wreck, was handled with dignity as any human would be. The bodies was placed into nicely made coffins and send home to Germany to there families as is the right thing to do . Remember they are just boys , following orders given by there leaders in a time of war. My grandfather was a scrapper on the Tirpitz he did operate the big welders they used to Cut the thick panzer plates into pieces. He said they were told not to talk or share what they did see and experienced on board. He brought home some kitchen equipment and a weapon locking case. most things has been given to the local Tirpitz museum. but i still have a few small items gifted to me by my grandfather that i will pass own to my own children one day. Thou my grandfather open up and told everything in his last years alive and told everything to a historian. and just a year after that he got a stroke in his head and he could not even remember his families beside my grandmother. But he remember everything from back then, he even ask for his coworkers from back then. it was like his mind was reset back to the end of ww2. He passed away about 2 years after this stroke. but we don't know who is left alive from this scrapping crew if any, but we like to believe he was among the last Rest in peace too all the crew members of Tirpitz that passed away onboard the ship. The ship will always be part of my families history

Some debris were left behind near Håkøya. The sea plane deck can still be seen above water at low tide. The keel remains on the shallow sea bed and still attracts divers. Hikers still find grenade fragments on the hills and mountains in the background on these images. That's where many of the grenades fired from the battleship against attacking planes landed. Until the shipyard moved to the north tip of Tromsø island a few years ago, some armour plates from Tirpitz' hull were stored there. You could see why bombs couldn't penetrate the armour. It was truly massive. Thanks for compiling and sharing!

One of Tirpitz small boats to cary the officers to and from shores survived. I saw it in a boatyard in Oslo in 1994. Owner of the boatyard told me it was from Tirpitz, People from germany had been there and wanted to buy and restore it but it was to far gone by then. It was used a few years after that but was in the end towed out and sunked. I compared it with photos of tirpitz and it was identical to one of the boats besides the funnel of tirpitz.

14:08 Starboard side of the bow up side down! Great video!🥰

Thanks for such a great collection of pictures. I was 8 years old when "Sink the Bismark" was new in theaters and I still research much of WWII history. My father rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Army during WWII; but he was in the Pacific theater. I have previously searched for pictures of the Tirpitz; but this was the largest collection of the deconstruction photos I have ever seen.

Thank you so much for doing such a fascinating video! I never realized the effort to scrap her wreck was a multinational one, and I’ve actually never seen any of the pictures of her scrapping process before, so all of those photos were totally new to me. I was honestly about to mention the knives made from her hull, but you beat me to it, and as a collector of historical artifacts, I completely agree with the sentiments on finding a ‘legit’ Tirpitz hill knife. Thank you again so much for doing this video!! Made my morning to watch this, and I always enjoy your content!! Last note: I don’t know if you already have made a vid about this, but I’m curious if there has been any efforts to locate the wreck of Sharnhorst. I think the royal navy had a rough note of where she sank, but I honestly am I unsure. You are much more capable of researching this topic than I am, and I would hope you end up finding out something as interesting as you did for Tirpitz. Thank you again so much for an awesome video, sorry to make this comment so long, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend!!

I had no idea the Tirpitz was scrapped! I knew she sank but figured it was deep underwater. Great video.

i just been watching some videos regarding smelting of Silver, completely unrelated, but it does really make you think of the human resource in getting to this stage - ore pulled from the ground, iron smelted, and steel produced, a ship built and sunk, and then all the resources again to strip her down and melt down to be reused - it baggers belief in so many ways, quite extraordinary - i wonder how much gas used used cutting her up and the costs involved - i wonder how much of her and where she is, how many cars she might have made, what percentage is still in use, and i don't mean the raw plates as suggested to cover holes in roads etc as described, fascinating stuff

Have you got any stats on how many bodies were found inside during the scrapping?

The salvage story of this ship always manages to skip over the interesting questions; What about the ammunition? The large shells removed or still there? The Crew? Remains recovered and interned? Where were they buried? How many? Is the remaining metal valuable and worth another salvage effort? (Metal under water during Nuclear weapons testing has value?). Were all the big guns removed? Any environmental issues with ship’s bunker oil? Apparently these are sensitive topics and Information is hard to find. * Thanks for a super video.

The biggest navy operation from the germans was the reparing of Tirpitz up in norway - after the x-crafts attack the hull of the ship had gone through a state of whipping which means that the hull had swayed violently making the auxelery engine and propelshaft out of alignment making it not fit to sail , the ship-yard workers succeded in straiting the shafts again making the Tirpitz able to sail again at a lesser topspeed thought but a partly succes .

I read an article about 40 years ago that stated that the generators and turbines were repurposed in Norway as part of a stationary power plant.

Thanks for a very interesting video. I would have thought that the ship's armour plates would have been the first things to be recovered seeing as how much good steel was used to fabricate them.

Many people here asked about the fate of the crew. From Wikipedia: 916 of the crew on "Tirpitz" died, 807 were rescued ashore. Of those who survived, 87 were saved by the rescue crews cutting in through the ship's side.

Some amateur journalist wrote a piece on Tirpitz some 20 years ago where he stated that the hull was raised and was taken back to Blohm&Voss ship yard to be scrapped - but as you see here the hull was torn apart where it capsized in Norway and yes i have been looking for years for these pictures.