Sea War Museum Jutland

Giant Exhibition about the Battle of Jutland - the world's largest naval battle

As the only Danish museum, Sea War Museum Jutland in Thyborøn tells the story about the naval battle at the North Sea during the First World War. It is international history told on neutral grounds, and the emphasis is placed upon the battle of Jutland, which happened along the west coast of Jutland in 1916.

Here the German Højsø fleet and the British Grand Fleet met for the first and only time and for 12 hours 250 ships fought against each other. The battle took place so close to the west coast of Jutland that the cannon could be heard in Thyborøn, and when it was over, 25 ships were on the bottom of the sea, while 8645 sailors had lost their lives. That was the world's largest naval battle, which has never since been surpassed.

The museum is set up in buildings that belonged to the water supply services, and the raw buildings go well with the harsh history. The sea war was foughtusing all means, and during the First World War the North Sea became the scene of a rapid technological development. This was where modern warfare was developed with fast destroyers and deadly submarines, and this was where the huge battleships and battle cruiser had their days of glory before they were outcompeted by carriers and aircraft.

The Sea War Museum depicts all the dramatic history and does it with many objects gathered from the bottom of the ocean, and cannot be seen elsewhere. However, the museum does not restrict itself to only show the technological advances, but also tells about the human costs and does it without squinting at nationality.

The latest initiative at the Sea War Museum is the opening of a new permanent outdoor exhibition about mines and torpedoes.

The outdoor exhibition in the museums yard is the first part of an exhibition about mines, which will show different types of mines, where the mines were laid out and something about how they were subsequently removed again by minesweeping and dismantling. It is a very special exhibition and story that is not told in many places.

Sea War Museum Jutland is worth a visit to anyone who is interested in history.

Memorial park for the Battle of Jutland
100 years passed before the world's largest naval battle received its own memorial park. The Battle of Jutland between the German Højsø fleet and the British Grand Fleet took place in 1916, and not until 2016 a memorial park was opened in Thyborøn.

On the other hand, it is an excellent example of "landart" at its very best. 25 ships were sunk in the battle, and in the dunes between the Sea War Museum Jutland and the North Sea, 25 large granite stones have been formed as a bow of a sinking ship.

At first glance they appear scattered between the dunes, but there is nothing random about the layout. The relative interrelationship corresponds to the positions where the ships were sunk.

The stones are of red, Swedish granite and have a single inscription indicating the name of the sunken ship and the number of deaths. The naval battle took a total of 8645 human lives, and there was no difference between Germans and Britons. All were victims of war and are remembered as such.

The memorial was built in the vision of ​​the painter Paul Cederdorff from Holstebro, and Thyborøn is chosen because the canons could be heard thunder during the 12-hour-long naval battle. Around each stone, Cederdorff will also erect a stylized sculpture for every dead sailor. He has not reached that far yet, but a few hundred sculptures have been erected, and with contributions from the audience, he hopes to reach the goal.

Since the inauguration, a memorial ceremony has been held every year the 1^st of June in the beautiful park, and each time it has been with the participation of the English Nicholas Jellicoe and German Reinhard Scheer-Hennings, respectively the son-in-law and grandson of the supreme admirals during the Battle of Jutland.