U-boat wreck found in the Baltic Sea!

German media have reported the discovery of the wreck of a World War II submarine. The discovery was made in the waters of the Bay of Lübeck, located in the southwestern part of the Baltic Sea. The little information that has been revealed so far suggests that the wreck is a miniature submarine belonging to the Kriegsmarine.

This unusual wreck was unexpectedly found a few months ago by a diving group from Hamburg. However, the whole affair was kept strictly secret until now to ensure that the researchers could work quietly on the site and to enable them to gather accurate and as complete a documentation as possible.

-- Advertisement --

There are certainly still some undiscovered WWII wrecks in the Baltic, but the fact that it is a submarine is like winning the lottery. Many submarines in the Baltic Sea were sunk by their crews at the end of the war. In this case, this is also indicated by a hole in the lower part of the wreck – said Ingo Oppelt, one of the discoverers of the unusual wreck

Although neither the model nor the type of the ship we are dealing with have been mentioned anywhere so far, we only know that it is the wreck of a 2-man vessel. Most probably the unusual find is a “pike” or Hecht, type XXVIIA or a “seal” ship (Seehund) Type XXVII B 5 or Type 127, all of which were crewed by 2 men.

It is interesting to note that the Germans began working on miniature submarines after recovering two British X-type ships (X6 and X7), which were sunk during an unsuccessful attempt to attack the battleship Tirpitz. After examining the enemy ships, they began to produce their own, which at first did not differ in principle in design from their prototype.

^{Seehund’s specimen on display in the museum in Dresden}

Both Hecht and Seehund were produced by the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel. The former was built in number of 53 units and was quickly turned into a training ship for sailors operating on the latter. The Seehund, on the other hand, was built in 285 pieces, but only 138 of them entered service (of which 35 were lost).

The Germans were quick to appreciate the potential of the miniature submarines, as they planned to produce a total of 1,000 Seehunds. However, in 1944-45 this was no longer possible. Increasing shortages of raw materials made this and many other projects impossible.

^{Source: mopo.de, wikipedia.org, wikiwand.com}