Danube Drought Exposes Nazi-Era Wrecks in Serbia, Delays Shipping
Approximately 200 wrecks and debris are clogging the Danube, while drought-driven low water has forced ship delays and reactor slowdowns, officials said.
- Drought-Driven low water levels in the Danube River have exposed dozens of Nazi Germany's Black Sea fleet vessels near Prahovo, Serbia, as the heatwave sweeping across Europe reveals wreckage submerged for decades.
- During their 1944 retreat, German forces scuttled these vessels to prevent capture by advancing Soviet troops in World War II, leaving hundreds of ships scattered along the Danube that periodically emerge.
- According to the European Investment Bank, approximately 200 vessels lie scattered along the waterway, with some ships still containing ammunition and explosives that pose hazards to communities and shipping operations.
- Serbia faces annual shipping losses estimated at roughly €5m due to the debris, prompting the European Investment Bank to commit €16m for blockage removal as part of a Balkans investment plan.
- Further north in Bulgaria, researchers recently discovered mammoth remains near the city of Ruse, while the European Investment Bank has committed to recovering similar Kriegsmarine wrecks emerging across the river in recent years.
51 Articles
51 Articles
The record heat in Europe has reduced the level of water in the Danube to a minimum in the last 30 years; the river's exchange has not only reduced navigation, but has also affected the operation of at least two nuclear power plants in Hungary and Romania, while in Bulgaria it has been possible for scientists to detect the bones of mammoths, and in Serbia the wreckage of several German warships of the Second World War, which sunk in 1944, is est…
Margarete Bihrle was scheduled for deportation in 1941, but a neighbor secretly removed her name from the deportation list. She never left her Munich apartment again until the end of the war – and survived as an invisible figure.
Sunken Nazi warships resurface on Danube as Serbia's drought deepens
Dozens of Nazi-era warships, deliberately sunk in the Danube in 1944 to stop them falling into Red Army hands, have resurfaced near Prahovo in eastern Serbia as a summer drought pushes the river to some of its lowest levels on record.
The shattered wreckage of the "Oryoku Maru" made it impossible for the United States to retrieve the remains of hundreds of Americans - until now.
The second longest river in Europe is historically low in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in Romania. Drought disrupts navigation, threatens irrigation and begins to affect the country's energy infrastructure.
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