The wreck of the submarine Sch-408 has been found and identified in the Gulf of Finland! - photos + video

Another success of wreck seekers in the Baltic Sea! A Russian-Finnish team of technical divers has located and identified a Soviet submarine from the Second World War. Thus, the vessel Sch-408 was officially found and restored to the pages of history. The discovery was made in the waters of the Gulf of Finland.

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News of the finding and subsequent identification of the Sch-408 vessel had been emerging for about a week. Both Russian and Finnish divers have shared perfunctory information and graphics on their social network profiles. Today, however, literally 30 minutes ago, more extensive information and several photos appeared. It is on the basis of the latest publication that the following text was written.

Unit Sch-408 is the only Soviet submarine to be sunk by the Kriegsmarine in the Gulf of Finland during combat. The Soviets were tracked by a German aircraft while surfacing in May 1943, when they were recharging batteries that were running low. The pilot immediately relayed the ship’s position to the Finnish and German commands.

The units that arrived on the spot remained in the given location for another two days. By that time the air supplies as well as the already mentioned batteries of the Sch-408 were exhausted and did not allow to make an underwater escape. The commander of the submarine – Pavel Kuzmin, being pinned down, gave the order to surface in order to call for help, and then to try to escape from the enemy ships while being afloat.

During a very intensive artillery shelling, lasting about 10 minutes, the German units recorded several hits in the vicinity of the bridge. Also, the shelling conducted by the Soviets proved effective, hitting the enemy ships several times. During the exchange of fire the commander of the escaping unit was most probably killed, but the crew managed to send a distress call stating “We were attacked by a German aircraft. The ship is damaged. German units have made it impossible to recharge the batteries. We need help. We are near the island of Vaindlo”.

The message was received, and the command tried to rescue the ship and its crew. Two groups of aircraft were sent to the indicated region, but were intercepted by the enemy and failed to help the crew of the Sch-408.

After two days of depth charge bombardment by Finnish ships, a considerable amount of air, oil and various debris came to the surface. A further two days of radio listening brought confirmation that the Soviet submarine Sch-408 had been sunk.

As determined by the team exploring the wreck, there are no signs of damage caused by deep-sea bombs, but the ship has extensive damage resulting from gunfire. The most damaged area is the bridge area on its port side. The guns are in armed position and pointing to the port side. Ammunition boxes are located near both guns/guns (it was not mentioned what type of weapon – ed.)

In the vicinity of the hit, which caused extensive damage, the divers found a PPSH machine gun, probably belonging to Commander Kuzmin. On this basis, it was concluded that he was killed during the shelling conducted from the Kriegsmarine ships.

All hatches on the vessel are in the closed position. The ship’s stern is in a slightly raised position above the bottom. In their account, the divers point out that the crew probably tried to surface. It should be remembered that at this point the air and energy reserves were already completely exhausted. The manoeuvre failed most probably as a result of loss of buoyancy, after the ballast tanks in the bow section were damaged (air seen by the Finnish ship’s crew). It seems that the crew had a chance to evacuate the dying ship, but preferred to stay inside rather than end up in German captivity.

Source: Разведывательно-водолазная команда, SubZone