FROM THE DEEP

Sunken Nazi Warships Packed With Explosives Exposed by Drought

The dangerous hulks now pose a threat to other ships nearly 80 years after they were scuttled.

More than 20 Nazi warships sunk during World War II have re-emerged from their watery graves in the Danube River in Serbia during a scorching drought in Europe. The skeletal vessels, which are among hundreds scuttled by the Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet in 1944 as they fled advancing Soviet troops, still cause problems for modern-day shipping when the water level drops—and not just with their jagged metal structures rising above the surface of the river. Many of the boats are still packed with tons of ammo and explosives, creating extremely perilous obstacles near the port town of Prahovo, eastern Serbia. “The German flotilla has left behind a big ecological disaster that threatens us, people of Prahovo,” said local author Velimir Trajilovic, 74, who wrote a book about the German ships. The Serbian government in March invited a tender for the salvage of the hulks and the removal of their dangerous cargo, with the cost of the job being estimated at around $30 million.