Level of River Danube Continues To Drop in Summer Drought, Sunken Nazi Ships Emerge From River Bed

A new collection of sunken Nazi ships has emerged in the River Danube following a severe summer drought that caused water levels to fall.

The German vessels, still equipped with explosives, were discovered near the Serbian town of Prahovo. Further upstream, receding waters revealed four additional ships near Hungary’s Danube-Drava National Park. These latter vessels date back to before 1950, as reported by the outlet.

This is not the first instance of ships surfacing in the River Danube, Europe’s second-longest river at 1,770 miles.

Annual droughts and heat waves have led to significant drops in water levels, revealing German ships while also threatening the region’s drinking water supply and complicating navigation along the river route, which stretches from the Black Forest in southwestern Germany to the Black Sea in eastern Romania.

“Captains must exercise extreme caution, as grounding incidents are common,” Damir Vladic, the manager of the port of Prahovo, told AFP. “Even a minor deviation from the navigable route can lead to problems.”

In 2022, numerous ships from Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet appeared near Prahovo after water levels fell to record lows.

That year, the Copernicus program, managed by the European Commission, documented severe water scarcity along the Danube, indicating that certain sections of the river in western Europe became unnavigable.

The lowest recorded level of the Danube was 1.3 feet in October 2018. As of Tuesday, the river measured 3.8 feet high near Budapest, the outlet reported.

Nazi Germany and its allies occupied the Western Balkans from 1941 to 1945, imposing strict control and engaging in battles against communist partisan guerrillas.

Following their unsuccessful invasion of the Soviet Union, German forces were gradually pushed back to their borders.

As Nazi troops retreated westward, Germany scuttled numerous ships from its Black Sea fleet in the Danube in September 1944. The goal was to hinder the Red Army by obstructing the river and to prevent the vessels from being captured by Soviet forces.

“The Germans were retreating from the Red Army,” historian Velimir Miki Trailovic explained. “They intended to pass through the Djerdap Gorge, but upon realizing they could not, they decided to scuttle the ships.”

During their retreat, the Nazis sank nearly 200 vessels, including transport ferries, barges, and torpedo boats, according to Trailovic.

For 80 years, the sunken boats remained largely undisturbed on the riverbed. During droughts, the steel hull of a German tugboat, marked UJ-106, became visible near Prahovo.

A 2022 initiative funded by the European Investment Bank and the Western Balkans Investment Framework has allocated nearly 30 million euros to oversee the salvage operation.

The first ship, a minesweeper, was recovered from the Danube in August. Local port workers have even suggested that the vessel could be refurbished and relaunched after repairs and extensive cleaning.

However, the removal of these ships is complicated by the submerged munitions they contain, which require careful handling to avoid detonation.

“The ships are filled with mines, shells, and unexploded ordnance, which could pose serious and catastrophic risks if they were to explode,” Trailovic told AFP.

Serbian officials estimate that it will take approximately a year and a half to remove the ships.

“In the coming months, we will retrieve 21 ships that have been lying on the bottom of the Danube,” said Goran Vesic, Serbia’s minister of construction, transportation, and infrastructure.