Wreck of a WWII submarine found in the Baltic

Another wreck from the Second World War has been found in the waters of the Baltic Sea. This time in the waters of the Gulf of Finland the last resting place of the unit Szcz-302 “Okuń” was located. The information about the find was made public literally a moment ago and everything was reported by our friendly profile Разведывательно-водолазная команда.

An expedition searching for wrecks of Soviet vessels from World War II has again combed the area between the islands of Gogland(Го́гланд) and Bolshoy Tyuters(Большой Тютерс), located in the Gulf of Finland. It was the next stage of a series of searches aimed at finding the wrecks of all ships flying the USSR flag that sank in the waters of the Gulf of Finland.

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On October, 13th, 1942 the submarine “Okun” Szcz-302 disappeared. From the beginning it was supposed that it shared the fate of several other Soviet submarines of the class “Shchuk” operating in this region and sank after hitting a German mine.

The first dives confirmed these assumptions. The wreck is located at a depth of 67 metres and the examination showed traces of a mine explosion in the area of the third compartment. After the mine explosion the ship lost buoyancy and the bow plunged to the bottom at an angle of about 20°. Currently, the bow is almost completely buried, and the stern is raised about 4-5 metres above the bottom.

The ship Szcz-302 “Okuń” was the unit of class “Shchuk” of the III series, built in the Plant No. 189 “Baltijskij Zavod” in Leningrad (construction No. 200). The keel for the construction of the ship was laid on February, 5th, 1930, and the launching took place on February, 6th, 1931. The Shp-302 was assigned to the Baltic Fleet and entered service on October, 14th, 1933.

Interestingly, the wreck of Shch-302 is located just a mile from the wreck of Shch-320, which also sank in 1942, just a week earlier and was found by the same search group during an expedition in 2017. A total of 8 submarine wrecks have already been located, meaning that in this region within Russian territorial waters, only the wreck of M-96 remains to be discovered.

In terms of technical parameters, the “Szczuki” Series III had the following:

• Length 57 metres, breadth 6.2 metres, draught 4.2 metres
• Standard displacement was 578 tons/draught 704 tons
• The vessel developed a speed of 12.5 knots on the surface and 8.5 knots when submerged
• The operational range was 6,000 Mm, maintaining a speed of 9 knots, and in a submerged position 123 Mm at 2 knots
• Armament: 6 torpedo launchers cal 533 mm, 1×45 mm pl
• The crew consisted of 34 sailors

Source: regnum.ru