WWII history & relics collection in Iceland

Welcome to my website. My name is Hinrik and my main profession is an aircraft engineer on large aircraft. It has been almost 20 years since me and a friend went scuba diving in an old abandoned British WWII Naval base: Hvítanes in Hvalfjordur Bay.  Winston Churchill called Hvalfjord bay one of the world´s  best naval base made by mother earth. Long and deep with high mountains on each side with AA guns, provided good cover and safety for the numerous ships stopping by for the Murmansk / Britain convoy runs.

During our diving trip we found; beer bottles, coffee mugs, rum jugs, Brylocream jars and all kinds of interesting items. After taking these items home and cleaning them, I thought to myself why not collect this, just as stamps or marked pens? And that is how my collection started.

I started to research airplane crash sites and hiking to them in  bid to recover some interesting items. This got me hooked on aviation history. I was given a list of US pilots names in the 33^rd and 50^th Fighter squadrons. I actively started to search these men on the white pages on the internet. I did not have my own internet connection or computer and had to go to the Reykjavik city library to do my search.  If the man´s name was John Smith, there were too many hits. I then used the telephone (high phone bills followed!) I called of all the names on my list. With this method I was able to contact about 30 pilots that were originally based in Iceland during WWII. Most were very friendly and told me about their time here and many of them sent me letters with photos, documents and even their original medals!  One of them came to Iceland to visit me and gave me his original A-2 flight leather jacket which he flew in here during WWII. This became more than a hobby, I felt dedicated to open a museum in the honor of these old Veterans.  This interest in aviation history finally made me go to USA to train in Spartan School of Aeronautics, with a bit of push from a good friend of mine, also an aircraft engineer.

This is what I have been working on past years and it is going well. My collection is getting quite big, to a point I need new storage space every 2-3 years.  I am now a member of The Aviation and war history museum of Keflavik Airport, which is a project in the making. Our Chairman is a State senator, and other members are very dedicated hard working people.

If you have any WWII items related to Iceland I would be interested in hearing from you. I can offer free assistance or advice on items you have, and I can in some cases assist with historical information.  I hope you enjoy my site. Hinrik.