Gdansk Bay: cannon and anchor excavated

Yesterday – 16 July – a cannon from World War II and an anchor from the 19th century were excavated from the bottom of the Gulf of Gdansk near Oksywie. The artifacts were recovered as a result of a find made by accident by Mariusz Szymański while testing fins in the spring of this year.

-- Advertisement --

The whole operation was conducted by the Naval Museum with the support of two units of the Maritime Office in Gdynia, among others. The works were carried out underwater by 3 professional divers under the archaeological supervision of Magdalena Nowakowska from the Underwater Archaeology Department of the University of Warsaw.

[ot-video type=”youtube” url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiFl7u1JClc”]

Although the work was carried out at a shallow depth of 2-2.5m, the area of the entire operation had been thoroughly surveyed for mines and explosives by a unit of the Gdynia Maritime Office – “Sonar 4″. Then the excavation was carried out with the help of a crane mounted on the board of the second unit – “Tukan”. The whole action lasted 3 hours.

The find was secured and transported ashore. Now the cannon and the anchor will be cleaned and put under maintenance. This is very important and time is of the essence. After a long stay in salt water, corrosion progresses much faster and an unprotected find can easily disintegrate. After these treatments the excavated objects will be included in the Naval Museum’s list of exhibits and in time will be made available to the public.

While the excavation was organised to take up the cannon, the real pearl may turn out to be a mid-19th century steel forged admiralty anchor found by accident. There are only a dozen or so anchors of this type in the world, making it invaluable to the Naval Museum.

The found howitzers, in turn, are Infanteriegeschütz 18 and 42, which were equipment of the German infantry during World War II. According to the findings, both cannons were most probably abandoned in the spring of 1945 by the 83rd Infantry Division during the evacuation from the advancing Soviet troops as part of the “Pomeranian Operation”.

Fans of militaria will surely be pleased to know that the cannons are in good condition. According to the information provided by Tomasz Miegoń, director of the Museum, one of the cannons is complete (albeit in two parts), while the other is missing its undercarriage, which archaeologists will continue to search for.

Soon, the Polish museum will be able to boast a real rarity, because the prototype model 42 is considered to be such. There is no information as to how many were produced, but from the information we have found out, there are only a few Infanteriegeschütz 42s in the world.

Source: tvn24.pl Photo: Polish Naval Museum