The museum Torpedoverkstedet (the Torpedo workshop) is located next to the Aviation History Museum, near Stavanger international airport, Sola. The Torpedo workshop was built by the German occupation forces during World War II and functioned as a torpedo workshop for the German seaplanes that operated from the sea. Today, it tells war stories through a selection of people in an exhibition.
Stories from World War II
The exhibition focuses on personal stories that are disseminated in seven exhibition boxes located in the venue's main hall. The stories are conveyed by actors from Rogaland Theatre and are told through the use of an audio guide. In the exhibition, you meet the following people:
- Solveig Bergslien was a resistance woman from Stavanger. She was eventually arrested by the Germans and died in captivity in 1943.
- Inge Steensland was a young person from Stavanger who fled to Great Britain in a small ship with three other young people in 1941. He then became a special soldier in Company Linge.
- Richard Roth was a sailor from the island of Roth off Tananger in Sola municipality. Throughout the war, he sailed in Nortraship.
- Alf Kristiansen was a sailor from the island of Roth off Tananger in Sola municipality. When the war broke out, he was a sailor on the liner Vestri. He continued his work onboard the ship after the German occupations and thus became a so-called home winner. He was killed in December 1941 when Vestri was attacked by a British plane.
- Martin Aarre was a young man from Stavanger who volunteered for the German military after the German occupation of Norway. He ended up as a front fighter on the Leningrad front.
- Medwedef Simion Andreewich, a Soviet soldier, was captured as a prisoner shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. He was then sent to Sola where he worked at German facilities in the winter of 1941/42. He was later sent to Eastern Norway and eventually fled to Sweden.
- Eric Mills was a British special forces soldier. During World War II, he fought in North Africa, Italy and the Netherlands. After the peace, he was sent to Sola with the first Allied soldiers who arrived in Norway by plane to ensure that the German capitulation went smoothly.
- Odd Bergo was a five-year-old child when he saw the German attack on the airport at Sola on April 9, 1940. Later that month, he and his family were forcibly evacuated from their home.
The exhibition "Stories from World War II" conveys that war and conflict are not just something that exists elsewhere - far away in distant worlds. After a visit to the exhibition, young people and visitors, in general, will be left with an understanding that war has also taken place in the local area not too long ago. The goal is to create a closeness to the war and show its consequences on a personal level.
It is the same entrance ticket to the Torpedo Workshop as to the Aviation History Museum. A café can be found in the Aviation History Museum. The museum is part of the constellation of museums, Jærmuseet.
