or (or unofficially: ''Rombaksfjord'') is a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

that branches off of the main

Ofotfjorden The Ofotfjord (; ) is a fjord in Nordland county, Norway. It is an inlet of the Norwegian Sea, located about north of the Arctic Circle. The long Ofotfjord is Norway, Norway's 12th longest fjord and it is also the 18th deepest, with a maximum d ...

Narvik Municipality () is the third-largest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. Some of the notable villag ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The fjord is about long and is surrounded by steep mountains, and the town of Narvik lies on the south shore of the mouth of the fjord. The

European route E06 European route E6 (, , or simply E6) is the main north–south thoroughfare through Norway as well as the west coast of Sweden. It is long and runs from the southern tip of Sweden at Trelleborg, into Norway and through almost all of the countr ...

and

European route E10 European route E10 is the second shortest Class A road which is part of the International E-road network. It begins in Å, Norway, and ends in Luleå, Sweden. The road is about in length. The Norwegian part of the road is also named Kong Ol ...

highways run along the northern shores of the fjord. The fjord has two bridge crossings: the

Hålogaland Bridge The Hålogaland Bridge () is a suspension bridge which crosses the Rombaksfjorden in Narvik Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is the second-longest bridge span in Norway. The bridge is part of the European route E06, European Route E6 hi ...

, completed in 2018, crosses at the mouth of the Rombaken fjord and the

Rombak Bridge The Rombak Bridge () is a suspension bridge in Narvik Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The bridge crosses the Rombaken fjord near the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. The bridge was opened in 1964. The main span is , and the maximum clearan ...

, which crosses at a narrow point about mid-way down the fjord.

History

Along the inner part of the fjord, there used to be a city——with 700 inhabitants.Hadde både bordell og bowlingbane - så forsvant byen
ad brothel and bowling lane - then the city disappeared/ref> It had its time of greatness during the construction of the

Ofotbanen The Ofoten Line () is a rail transport, railway line in Narvik Municipality, Norway. It runs from the Port of Narvik to Riksgränsen on the Norway–Sweden border, where the line continues as the Malmbanan, Ore Line via Kiruna and Gällivare to ...

between 1898 and 1903.

World War II

Rombaken was the site of several naval battles during the

Battle of Narvik The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940, as a naval battle in Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian town of Narvik, as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. Th ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Ten German

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

s, half the destroyer force of the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

, and one

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

were sunk during the battle. It is also where ORP ''Grom'', one of the two most heavily armed and fastest destroyers of World War II, was sunk by a Heinkel He 11 from Luftwaffe's ''Kampfgeschwader'' 100.

After World War II

Parts of the bow of the German destroyer ''

Georg Thiele The German destroyer ''Z2 Georg Thiele'' was one of four Type 1934-class destroyers built for the German Navy (''Kriegsmarine'') during the mid-1930s. Completed in 1937, two years before the start of World War II, the ship spent most of her t ...

'' remain visible above the water in Rombaksbotn to this day. The wrecks at Narvik remain popular diving spots, although some are off-limits because they still contain

unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...

. The destroyers '' Anton Schmitt'', ''

Diether von Roeder ''Z17 Diether von Roeder'' was one of six Type 1936 destroyers built for the ''Kriegsmarine'' (German Navy) in the late 1930s. Completed in 1938, the ship spent most of her time training although she did participate in the occupation of Memel ...

'' and '' Wilhelm Heidkamp'' rest in of water there and were opened for diving. Several other wrecks are accessible, too, but most have been preserved as historic sites, and it is forbidden to dive into them.Wrecks of Narvik - wreck diving in the Narvik area
accessed: 21 November 2010

Media gallery

File:Rombaken harald groven.jpg, Part of Rombaken File:Rombak Bridge-2.jpg, The

is a suspension bridge over the fjord. File:Bernd von Arnim scuttled.jpg, The German destroyer Z11 Bernd von Arnim, beached and scuttled at Rombaken during the

Second Naval Battle of Narvik The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940, as a naval battle in Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian town of Narvik, as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. Th ...

during

References

{{authority control Fjords of Nordland Narvik

History

World War II

After World War II

Media gallery

See also

References