Friday, September 20, 2024
History
By the evening edition.
In Serbia and Hungary, the summer drought has caused the level of the Danube to drop. To the point of bringing to the surface Nazi wrecks that had been lying dormant at the bottom of the river since the Second World War.
There are secrets buried under water forever. And there are those that resurface, thanks to climatic hazards. The Danube, currently in flood, reached, conversely, abnormally low levels at the beginning of September, after particularly dry months of July and August. In Budapest, Hungary, for example, its surface was measured at 1.17 meters on September 10, when it can exceed 6 meters during periods of high flow. And as the water went down, strange silhouettes emerged.
In Prahovo, Serbia, wrecks of Nazi ships loaded with explosives and sunk during World War II have resurfaced. Some buildings are still almost intact, while others have fallen apart. “Scattered across the riverbed, some ships still have turrets, conning towers, broken masts and twisted hulls, while others lie largely submerged under sandbanks.” describes the news agency Reuterswho documented these apparitions. A little further up the river, in Mohacs, Hungary, four other ships have also come to the attention of locals.
The Nazi Fleet in the Black Sea
Although not all of the ships have been clearly identified, particularly those that emerged in Hungary, these wrecks are linked to the fighting in the Black Sea during World War II. “They were among hundreds of ships scuttled along the Danube by Nazi Germany’s Black Sea Fleet in 1944 as it retreated from advancing Soviet forces,” specify the journalists of Reuters.
Long before the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, the region was already strategic. The Nazi army had notably positioned a submarine force there, consisting of six U-boats. This was, according to Wikipediaprotected by 16 S-boats, 23 R-boats, 26 submarine chasers and more than 100 barges.
Problems for the environment and navigation
While these wrecks, some of which were already sighted in 2022, may help to bring stories to light, they are nonetheless problematic. Many still contain explosives and pose a risk to navigation. They limit the space available for transport and fishing, while, as explained Smithsonian magazinethe European Union aims to develop river transport in the region.
Finally, the environmental impact on the waters of the Danube is not negligible. “The German flotilla left behind a great ecological disaster that threatens us, the inhabitants of Prahovo,” declared in 2022, ReutersVelimir Trajilovic, a pensioner from Prahovo who wrote a book about German ships. Serbia has already announced its intention to dismantle these warships. A project that would cost around 30 million euros.
