World War II-era vessels once operated by the Kriegsmarine have “risen” from the depths of the Danube, in Serbia. The wrecks, which belonged to Germany’s Black Sea Fleet, have surfaced as a result of a months-long drought that’s caused the river’s water levels to recede.
Four other ships dating back to before 1950 have also emerged from the water at Danube-Dráva National Park, in Hungary. This isn’t the first instance of wartime vessels emerging from the depths of the Danube, near the Serbian community of Prahovo, with a similar event being reported in 2022.
Throughout the early years of the Second World War, Germany and its allies had control of the countries through which the river winds. During the Red Army‘s advance in 1944, the Black Sea Fleet scuttled around 200 ships in the Danube. Over 20 were sunk near Prahovo alone, in the hopes of keeping the vessels out of Soviet hands.
As Reuters reports, some of the sunken ships still have their turrets and command bridges, with damaged hulls and broken masts also noted. There’s even reports that some of the vessels have explosives onboard, posing a danger to the public and river traffic.
Speaking with AFP, Damir Vladic, the manager of Prahovo’s port, said, “Captains must be extremely cautious and incidents such as grounding occur frequently. It only takes a slight deviation from the navigable route to cause problems.”
Speaking with Reuters, Endre Sztellik, a guard who works at Danube-Dráva National Park, explained visitors have been coming to look at the wrecks, only for parts of the ships to suddenly go missing.
“We still don’t know what this is exactly,” he said, referring to one of the vessels. “An unfortunate fact is that the wreck is diminishing as people are interested in it and parts of it are going missing.”
The aim is currently to pull a portion of the ships – 21 – from the Danube, but such a directive will take significant time and money, largely due to the amount of unknown munitions aboard the ships.
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Extended rainfall is expected throughout the week, with the river expected to rise several meters as a result. It’s believed this will be enough to submerge the ships once again.
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