A rare wreck in Baltic waters

While last year, reports about the discovery of shipwrecks appeared in the press every now and then, this season it is mainly aircrafts that fall prey to searchers. Last week, German military divers recovered the wreckage of the JU88, which had sunk to the bottom of the Baltic Sea during World War II. Starting the

ByTomasz Andrukajtis

Published: June 16, 2012 - 14:26

Updated: July 22, 2023 - 05:26

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Starting the whole expedition, it was expected to find a single-engine JU87 dive bomber on the bottom, but as it turned out after excavation, the remains found were a twin-engine Luftwaffe Junkers JU88 multi-role aircraft.

The found model was one of the most important German aircraft during the Second World War. It was produced from 1936 until the end of the war in 1945. During this time 16,000 of these machines, produced in many variants, left the production lines.

Just how perfect a machine the Junkers JU88 was can be seen by the fact that for 9 years, it was built to a single, unchanged design!

During the expedition, the German team managed to retrieve half of the plane. However, the searchers hope to return and complete the mission by retrieving the remainder. What they managed to lift from the bottom of the Baltic Sea will be on display at the German Aviation History Museum, located at the old Gatow Airport in Berlin.

Source: mhmbw.de

About author

Tomasz Andrukajtis

Editor-in-chief of the DIVERS24 portal and magazine. Responsible for obtaining, translating and developing content. He also supervises all publications. Achived his first diving certification – P1 CMAS, in 2000. Has a degree in journalism and social communication. In the diving industry since 2008.