A new trove of sunken Nazi ships has emerged in the River Danube, following a blistering summer drought that caused water levels to drop, according to new reporting by Reuters.
The German vessels, still decked out with explosives, were discovered by the Serbian town of Prahovo.
Hundreds of miles up the river, receding water revealed four other ships by Hungary’s Danube-Drava National Park.
This isn’t the first time ships have cropped up in the River Danube, Europe’s second-longest river at 1,770 miles.
Dozens of scattered ships operated by Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet appeared in 2022 near Prahovo after water levels reached record lows.
How the Nazi ships ended up stuck in the Danube Nazi Germany and its allies occupied the Western Balkans from 1941 to 1945, where they imposed an iron-fisted rule and fought communist partisan guerillas.
As Nazi troops retreated west, Germany scuttled scores of ships from its Black Sea fleet across the Danube in September 1944.
The aim was to slow the Red Army by clogging the river, but also to prevent the vessels from falling into Soviet hands.
Clearing the river of the WWII boats For 80 years, the boats remained largely undisturbed on the bottom of the Danube.
“The ships are full of mines, shells and unexploded ordnance, which could cause major, catastrophic problems if they were to explode,” Trailovic told AFP.
According to recent Reuters reporting, a fresh cache of sunken Nazi ships has surfaced in the Danube after a severe summer drought caused water levels to drop.
The Serbian town of Prahovo found the German vessels, still rigged with explosives. Four additional ships were discovered by Hungary’s Danube-Drava National Park as the water receded hundreds of miles up the river. According to the outlet, this set of vessels dates back before 1950.
The Danube, which is 1,770 miles long and the second longest river in Europe, has seen ships appear on previous occasions. The Black Sea in eastern Romania and the Black Forest in southwest Germany are connected by a water route that causes annual drops in water levels that expose German ships and pose a threat to the drinking water supply. These annual droughts and heat waves also cause navigation difficulties for those on this water route.
Prahovo port manager Damir Vladic told AFP, “Captains have to exercise extreme caution as incidents like groundings happen often.”. “It only takes a small detour from the easily navigable path to create issues. ****.
In 2022, after the water levels dropped to record lows, dozens of dispersed ships belonging to Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet appeared near Prahovo. In that year, the European Commission-run Copernicus program reported that some sections of the Danube in western Europe were unnavigable and that there was a shortage of water along its course.
Reuters reports that in October 2018, the Danube recorded its lowest level at 1 point 3 feet. The outlet stated that by Budapest on Tuesday, the Danube measured 3 point 8 feet high.
How the German ships got trapped in the Danube.
From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies occupied the Western Balkans, enforcing strict laws and engaging in combat with communist partisan guerillas.
However, after the catastrophic Soviet invasion, German forces were gradually pushed back inside its borders.
In September 1944 Germany scuttled scores of ships from its Black Sea fleet across the Danube as Nazi troops withdrew westward. In addition to blocking the river to slow the Red Army, the goal was to keep the ships out of Soviet hands.
Historian Velimir Miki Trailovic stated, “The Germans were retreating from the Red Army.”.
He went on, “They wanted to pass through the Djerdap Gorge,” which is a nearby narrow river pass. “But they chose to scuttle the ships when they realized they couldn’t. “.”.
Trailovic claims that during their retreat, the Nazis sank almost 200 ships, including transport ferries, barges, and torpedo boats.
getting rid of the WWII boats in the river.
The boats on the bottom of the Danube went mostly unnoticed for eight decades. The German tugboat UJ-106, with its massive steel hull, broke the surface close to Prahovo during droughts.
About 30 million euros have been provided to manage a salvage operation to remove the crafts as part of a 2022 initiative funded by the Western Balkans Investment Framework and the European Investment Bank.
In August, the first ship—a minesweeper—was taken out of the Danube. Even the local port workers proposed that after the ship was thoroughly cleaned and its holes fixed, it could be launched again.
However, removing the ships is made more difficult by the buried munitions, which must be carefully manipulated to minimize the chance of detonating them.
“If the ships were to explode, there would be a great deal of catastrophic problems due to the abundance of mines, shells, and unexploded ordnance on board,” Trailovic told AFP.
The removal of the ships, according to Serbian officials, will take a year and a half.
The minister of construction, transportation, and infrastructure for Serbia, Goran Vesic, stated, “We will retrieve 21 ships that have been lying on the bottom of the Danube in the coming months.”.
