[Blohm und Voss]

While you're in Hamburg why not take a tour of the Blohm and Voss shipyard where many of the U Boats were built? The Bismarck was also built here and there is a huge model of it that was bricked up until the year 2000 to hide it from the allies. It is now displayed with pride in the main building. There is a model of every ship built by Blohm and Voss as well including the U Boats. You may need permission to see the model though so do enquiries.

A huge piece of the armour plate intended for the Bismarck is on display near the heliport and you can still see the entrances to the air raid shelters. The facades of the workshops still display bomb damage.

Also in Hamburg try to visit the Peter Tamm museum on the Elbe Chausee. It may be difficult because it is a private museum and permission is required from the reclusive billionaire. There are apparently 10 000 models of ships and even actual vessels in the grounds of the museum. The museum has uniforms worn on the HMS Victory and those of famous Naval Characters as well. The ceremonial staffs of Grand Admirals also reside here including those of Raeder and Doenitz. The paintings alone must be worth a fortune. Every naval weapon from the stone age to the present day is displayed as well.

In Kiel try to visit the Howaldts Deutsche Werke (HDW) Shipyard where U Boats were also built and present day German and Client nation submarines are presently built. See if you can spot the new and revolutionary U212 type submarines that have got many nations operating nuclear submarines interested and concerned.