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WET & HOT NEWS ! > World War Wrecks
Search and discoveries of War wrecks, Story tales...Dark secret of underwater treasure
The 31 Aug. 2010 at 10:27World War Wrecks
From RT (first published 1st of May, 2010)
After a decade of painstaking underwater searching, the wreck of a Soviet World War II submarine has been found in the Baltic Sea.
The vessel went down with its fifty-man crew in 1940 after being sunk by a mine laid by Finland. The relatives of those who died say it is a matter of honor to establish what really happened all those years ago.
For seventy years, it was a mystery how, where and even when the S-2 submarine perished. During the war between the Soviet Union and Finland, the sea around the Aland Islands became a focal point for the naval conflict, much of it underwater.
The S-2 – which set sail on January 1, 1940 – was sent by the Soviet High Command to roam and disrupt Finland's supply lines. Retired submarine captain Igor Kurdin told RT that “surviving on a submarine like this was very difficult. There was no air purification system. The heat was stifling. Besides, the commanders had little information about this area.”
Three days later – just as the S-2 was entering the conflict zone – all communication was lost. A lighthouse officer described seeing the submarine surface on January 3, then hearing a shattering explosion. That officer's grandson, professional diver Ingvald Eckerman, dedicated ten years to finding it.
“My father told me the story of the submarine since I was a child. But there were no specific coordinates. We searched everywhere. The moment we found it – it was amazing!” he recalled. However, not everyone believes the S-2 was lost without a fight.
Aleksandr Tutyshkin was only a toddler when his father, the most senior officer on the S-2, died. To honor him, he became a navy man himself.
“I turn 73 soon. I have only one dream left. That is to visit the place of my father's death, and to find out how he really died,” he said.
Aleksandr Tutyshkin claims the S-2 was engaged in action, battling bravely before sustaining serious damage. Leaking oil, with a failing radio system, it tried to communicate with another Soviet ship – but could not make itself clear. Knowing they were doomed, the crew tried to return home, before being bombed by Swedish boats which were helping Finland.
Tutyshkin claims Sweden's war neutrality meant that the incident was hushed-up. Now the S-2's final resting place has been found, researchers may at last discover how it sank. Yet unless it is declared an official war grave, underwater treasure hunters may get there first.Canadian scuba sleuths locate missing WWII sub
The 14 Aug. 2010 at 12:48World War Wrecks
By Randy Boswell - Postmedia News
The discovery of a sunken U.S. submarine from the Second World War by a Canadian father-son dive team in the Philippines has finally given closure to hundreds of relatives of the 78 men who died in the 1944 sinking.
The USS Flier was lost after it struck a mine in the Balabac Strait entrance to the South China Sea on Aug. 13, 1944 — 66 years to the day before a memorial service for the lost seamen was held Friday at a Michigan naval museum.
Among those attending the ceremony were the discoverers of the wreck, Mike and Warren Fletcher — the shipwreck mystery hunters from Port Ryerse, Ont., and stars of the History Television documentary program Dive Detectives.
The sub's destruction set in motion one of the most dramatic survival stories of the war, as a handful of sailors who escaped the initial terror swam and floated 18 hours to reach land — an uninhabited island with no fresh water.
Only eight of the 14 submariners who survived the sinking made it to that shore. Those men were then forced to raft to other islands in search of food, water and help to reach U.S. forces.
After being hidden and smuggled through Japanese-held territory by Filipinos sympathetic to the Allied cause, the eight American sailors were finally delivered safely into U.S. hands and were able to return home.
In 2008, the last of the sub's survivors — Michigan businessman Alvin Jacobson — died with his long-held dream of discovering the wreck of the USS Flier unfulfilled.
But last year, his son Steve gathered his father's research on the Flier's whereabouts and joined in a search for the sub organized by the Fletchers and Toronto-based YAP Films.
At a depth of about 110 metres off the coast of the Philippines, the dive team captured images of what they believed was the sunken USS Flier.
"It was a pretty emotional experience," Steve Jacobson said at the time. "It is tremendous closure and I wish that my dad could have experienced this."
In February, the U.S. navy's Hawaii-based Pacific submarine command confirmed the discovery.UAE diving team to search for sunken wartime submarine
The 15 May. 2010 at 05:04World War Wrecks
By Kevin Scott - Gulf News.com
A Dubai-based shipwreck hunter is embarking on a new expedition in search of a sunken Italian wartime submarine.
William Leeman, a member of the Desert Sports Diving Club in Al Quoz, and his team of divers will begin their five-day search for the Galvani in international waters off the coast of Iran on May 28.
The Galvani was sunk by British sloop HMS Falmouth near the Straits of Hormuz on June 26, 1940. Leeman, who was the first person to find the Nazi submarine U-533 off the coast of Fujairah several years ago, is heading the first expedition to search for the Galvani.
Very little information is available about the whereabouts of the lost Italian sub, which makes her physical discovery even more precious to historians.
"We have coordinates for the Galvani from the Hydrographic Office in London that show ‘position precise'. We have already been on a scouting trip prior to the exhibition because it is vital we locate the Galvani's exact position; every meter counts when you are underwater," Leeman said.
"The Galvani is a historic vessel and it will be quite a challenge to find it. If we succeed, it would equal any of my diving achievements including the discovery of the U-533. The big problem we face on this expedition is the sub's location just off the coast of Iran," he said.
"We will be diving in a shipping channel between Iran and Oman. I would not say it is inevitable that we will be arrested by the Iranian authorities but it is a possibility," Leeman added.
"I have my passport and ID on a laminated sheet in case we encounter any difficulties. We have never had a boat driver brave enough to take us before."
However, the Galvani's location is not the only obstacle facing the expedition. The deep-sea mission is dangerous in its own right and every team member has been trained to be totally independent underwater.
Technical diving is generally considered diving which is deeper than 40 metres. Leeman and his team will be plummeting to depths of a 100 metres over a period of approximately two hours.
"We always dive in pairs, nobody goes solo. However, circumstances can change underwater and people can become separated from each other," Leeman said.
"You cannot go looking for people at such depths if you lose them; there is no way back at that point and you just have to hope you meet up with everybody back at the top," he added.
"The other big risk with 100-metre dives is oxygen toxicity on decompression, which could lead to convulsions underwater. The team have been trained to mix different gases on their way back to the surface."Wreckage of WWII sub found
The 05 Apr. 2010 at 05:23World War Wrecks.jpg)
By David Johnson - Oa Online
Now, most World War II veterans are battling bad knees and fading hearing, but almost 70 years ago they faced German tanks and Italian bullets and Japanese mines.
Many U.S. servicemen were not able to grow old enough to experience arthritis, and some weren’t even able to be properly laid to rest.
Although Jarrold Clovis Taylor’s family had a memorial in September 1944 and a plaque with his name is in the Ector County Cemetery, his body was never there, and for almost 66 years, no one knew where he or any of the other 77 sailors from the USS Flier had gone to rest.
Clovis Taylor was born March 1, 1921, in Electra to J.G. and Beaulah Taylor; he was their first child. Nine more siblings survived to join him during the next 17 years, and his 87-year-old sister Eunice Wittie, now of Stephenville, remembers him well.
"I envied him because he was so good looking, and I was a girl and thought I should be the pretty one," Eunice said. "He was well-liked by everybody."
Newspaper clippings preserved by the family chronicle of some of the awards Clovis received while in high school in Electra, such as most representative boy and president of the freshman class of 1938. He also worked at the movie theater, for the same people who owned the newspaper, and was a member of the Texas National Guard.
"He was a very active person," Eunice said.
In March 1940, Clovis joined the Navy and went to San Diego. During the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was on the battleship USS Pennsylvania, which was hit but still able to sail. During 1942, he saw several battles, including Midway.Kiwis at odds over Aussie shipwreck discovery
The 23 Mar. 2010 at 18:35World War Wrecks
By Geoff Strong - TheAge.com.au
World War I might have been finished nearly a century but in regards to an Australian vessel sunk by a German mine off New Zealand the hostilities are just hotting up.
The row is over claims made in the New Zealand media this week that a search by a team using underwater imaging technology found the wreck of the Melbourne-owned SS Wimmera that went to the bottom in 1918, costing the lives of 26 of the 151 on board.
The find was claimed to have been made on Friday after a four-day search off New Zealand's extreme northern tip by Auckland electronics developer Mike Hodson, whose company funded the two-vessel expedition.
It was claimed to have been made possible by his company's main product, a multibeam underwater sonar system called 'WASSP', which it developed and market worldwide.
But Auckland amateur historian Mike Fraser, who spent years researching the ship's sinking, including getting German naval records about where their ship laid the mines, was angered by the claim.
Mr Fraser, who was on one of the vessels in the expedition, said all that was found was a blip on the sonar which could have been an underwater reef and that the truth of the claim could only be verified by a diver.
"Hodson's got no idea about finding shipwrecks, he has just come in and taken over this search as a means of promoting his sonar system. He would not let anyone use other technology, he was rude to everyone on the trip. I was so angry I could have hit him."End of long hunt for Centaur
The 01 Mar. 2010 at 04:52World War WrecksBy Tuck Thompson - CourierMail.com.au
Australia's top political and military officials will lead the public in a national service of remembrance today for the 332 victims and survivors of the sinking of the AHS Centaur.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Premier Anna Bligh, Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Chief of Army Ken Gillespie and Chief of Navy Russell Crane are among those expected to attend the service at St John's Cathedral on Ann St in Brisbane's CBD on Tuesday, March 2, at 11am.
The wreck of the hospital ship, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in May 1943, was found before Christmas about 50km east of Moreton Island.
The discovery and marking of the war grave has brought closure for hundreds of Centaur family members around Australia, many of whom will attend the service. Centaur survivor Martin Pash of Melbourne, 87, will be among the speakers.
Centaur Primary School pupils will read the names of 268 men and women non-combatants lost on the hospital ship.
Following a campaign by The Courier-Mail in August 2008, the Commonwealth and Queensland governments jointly agreed to a $4 million search. Family members had spent more than a decade lobbying for a search without success, as some within government feared a rift with Japan.SS Mendi's stories told almost 100 years after sinking
The 28 Feb. 2010 at 06:57World War Wrecks
From BBC
Many in the UK have never heard of SS Mendi, yet in South Africa's Easten Cape Province she is as famous as RMS Titanic.
In February 1917, she was lost off the south coast of the Isle of Wight with, 600 troops on board. Sinking 9 miles (14.4 km) off St Catherine's point, it is a story that is still virtually unknown in the UK.
Diver Martin Woodward was the first person to find and identify the wreck of SS Mendi in 1974. It was not until later he discovered the tragic story behind the artefacts that he brought to the surface.
Martin, owner of The Shipwreck and Maritime Museum in the Isle of Wight said: "The ship was coming up through the Channel destined for Le Havre."
As part of the British Empire, South Africa was automatically at war with Germany. Thousands of men were recruited as labourers, to dig trenches more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) away from their homes.
The 4,000 ton Mendi was hit in fog by The Darro, almost three times the size of the troopship, and sank in 20 minutes. Martin explained: "A lot of people who were in the holds were drowned instantly."Date set for Centaur service
The 04 Feb. 2010 at 12:24World War Wrecks
By Mark Furler - Sunshine Coast Daily
Premier Anna Bligh has announced the date for the first of two major commemorations following the discovery of the AHS Centaur.
"A National Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance will be held at St John's Cathedral Ann Street Brisbane on 2 March 2010 at 11 AM," the Premier said in a statement released this morning.
"The Order of Service for the ceremony is being prepared in consultation with key stakeholders but we wanted to give survivors and relatives of survivors time to make the arrangements they need to be there.
"A further ceremony proposed to be conducted at sea for Centaur relatives is yet to be scheduled and the details are being worked through with the commemoration taskforce."
A telephone number has been established by the Australian Army for people to register an interest in the commemorative proceedings :
Phone: 1800 019 955
Alternatively it is also possible to register an interest in the commemorative proceedings via the following internet link:
http://www.army.gov.au/AHS_Centaur.asp
In January, a memorial plaque was positioned by the expedition crew on the foredeck of the wreck of the Centaur honours those who lost their lives.WWII tank retrieved from the mud
The 21 Jan. 2010 at 13:58World War Wrecks
WW II Russian tank with German markings uncovered after 62 years. WW II Buffs will find this interesting. Even after 62 years (and a little tinkering), they were able to fire up the diesel engine!
A Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer pulled the abandoned tank from its tomb under the boggy bank of a lake near Johvi, Estonia . The Soviet-built T34/76A tank had been resting at the bottom of the lake for 56 years. According to its specifications, it's a 27-ton machine with a top speed of 53km/hr.
From February to September 1944, heavy battles were fought in the narrow, 50 km-wide, Narva front in the northeastern part of Estonia . Over 100,000 men were killed and 300,000 men were wounded there. During battles in the summer of 1944, the tank was captured from the Soviet army and used by the German army. (This is the reason that there are German markings painted on the tank's exterior.) On 19th September, 1944, German troops began an organized retreat along the Narva front. It is suspected that the tank was then purposefully driven into the lake to conceal it when its captors left the area.
At that time, a local boy walking by the lake, Kurtna Matasjarv, noticed tank tracks leading into the lake but not coming out anywhere. For two month s he saw air bubbles emerging from the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armored vehicle at the lake's bottom. A few years ago, he told the story to the leader of the local war history club 'Otsing'. Together with other club members, Mr. Igor Shedunov initiated diving expeditions to the bottom of the lake about a year ago. At the depth of 7 meters they discovered the tank resting under a 3 meter layer of peat.
Enthusiasts from the club, under Mr Shedunov's leadership, decided to pull the tank out. In September of 2000 they turned to Mr. Aleksander Borovkovthe, manager of the Narva open pit company AS Eesti Polevkivi, to rent the company's Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer. (Currently used at the pit, the Komatsu dozer was manufactured in 1995, and has recorded 19,000 operating hours without major repairs.)
The pulling operation began at 09:00 and was concluded at 15:00, with several technical breaks. The weight of the tank, combined with the travel incline, made for a pulling operation that required significant muscle. The D375A-2 handled the operation with power and style. The weight of the fully-armed tank was around 30 tons, so the active force required to retrieve it was similar. A main requirement for the 68-ton dozer was to have enough weight to prevent slippage while moving up the hill.
After the tank surfaced, it turned out t o be a 'trophy tank' that had been captured by the German army in the course of the battle at Sinimaed (Blue Hills) about six weeks before it was sunk in the lake. Altogether, 116 shells were found on board. Remarkably, the tank was in good condition, with NO RUST, and all systems (except the engine) in working condition. This is a very rare machine, especially considering that it fought both on the Russian and the German sides. Plans are underway to fully restore the tank. It will be displayed at a war history museum in the Gorodenko village on the left bank of the River Narv.
Memorial plaque placed on Centaur
The 11 Jan. 2010 at 16:01World War WrecksBy Andrew fraser From -The Australian
A brass memorial plate was placed on the AHS Centaur early today, despite the ship being classified as a war grave, after a special permit was granted in record time to override the Historic Shipwrecks Act.
The state of the ocean floor has led to some problems with laying a memorial to the hospital ship, which has been two kilometres beneath the waves for more than 66 years after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II.
The brass plate was blessed at a service in Sydney three weeks ago attended by members of the Centaur Association, and originally the intent was to place the plate on the ocean floor beside the wreck.
But when ship hunter David Mearns, who located the Centaur earlier this month, lowered an identical plate to the ocean floor it promptly sank into the mud.
On Sunday night the Queensland government urgently contacted its federal counterpart to see if the plate could be placed on the ship itself.