Our Tirpitz steel supplies were slowly dwindling, making further production of the coveted Tirpitz Damascus knives impossible without a fresh supply. The approximately 41,000 tons of Tirpitz steel had already been completely scrapped in the 1950s and, as a sought-after raw material, used in a variety of other applications after the war. Our old supplier had run out of stock. Only a small museum near the town of Alta in Finnmark, in the far north of Norway, was believed to still possess a single plate of Wodan armor steel from the Tirpitz. The success of the mission was uncertain for more than one reason.
Our cameraman Bastian and I began our odyssey from Düsseldorf via Copenhagen and Trondheim to Tromsø. Some of the planes were barely bigger than a Douglas DC-3 from an Indiana Jones film.
The first destination was the Tirpitz's final mooring place on the island of Håkøya near Tromsø, where the Tirpitz was sunk on November 12, 1944, by three direct hits from British Talboy bombs, each weighing 5.4 tons. The drone's aerial photograph shows the quay, which was built in the 1950s for dismantling the Tirpitz. The bomb crater from a near miss is still visible in the water to the right.
Ahead of us lay a 390 km drive to the Tirpitz Museum in Kåfjord/Alta. The only possible land connection between these places is the E6 highway.
At all costs: The bridge pier carrying the E6 over the Badderelva River had been damaged by a flash flood a few weeks earlier, temporarily rendering the bridge impassable. We weren't sure if the repairs had been completed. If not, our journey would have ended right there.
The Tirpitz Museum in Kåfjord/Alta, built and operated by Norwegian entrepreneur Even Blomkvist using his own funds, houses numerous artifacts from the Tirpitz in a historic log cabin, as well as the most extensive photographic collection of the ship. The museum's mission is to inform the public about the history of the Tirpitz and the resistance in the Arctic during World War II and to place these events within the context of global history.
The negotiation regarding the quantity and price of the steel took place over the phone with the founder and director in Oslo. We didn't have a cutting torch to cut the promised quantity. Linn Røkenes, owner of a steel construction company in Alta founded by former professional divers, had agreed to cut the slab for us in her workshop. However, we had neither a trailer nor a forklift or crane.
Gregorz (left) and Pawel (right), two bikers from Gdansk, helped us heave the 300 kg slab into the trunk of our rental car using only their own muscle power. They had promised to help us before they even knew what we needed. They were an absolute godsend!
Røkenes AS was also astonished to find such a load in a passenger car. Although they had heavy equipment, getting the slab out of the trunk, which wasn't designed for it, with a forklift proved to be the next challenge.
Tom-Andre (at the burner) and Tor-Jørgen (in the background) from Linn's crew needed a lot of creativity, skill, and nerve to unload the slab and cut the truly tough Wodan steel of the Tirpitz. Linn, who hadn't known about us or our plan that morning, decided to help us despite her own urgent business.
The transport of the heavy and valuable cargo, acquired with considerable effort, to Solingen was carried out by a freight forwarding company. This ensures the continued existence of our Böker Tirpitz Damascus knives for many years to come. Mission complete.