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Finnish Diver Finds German WWII Submarine Near Estonia

Posted by timothy on from the they're-probably-all-dead-by-now dept.

jones_supa writes: A wreck of a German submarine, presumed lost more than 70 years ago, has been discovered near the Estonian coast. The submarine, which dates back to the Second World War, was found by Finnish diver Immi Wallin in July. The U-679 was apparently the last lost German u-boat in the Gulf of Finland. It was presumed destroyed by depth charges in January, 1945. However, the wreck was found in its own patrol zone, sunk by an underwater mine. After the wreck was discovered, the first dive down to its 90-metre grave was undertaken by a six-person group on September 10. The mission was to investigate the condition of the submarine and photograph it. Wallin says that she believes the submarine had remained lost due to the great depth at which it was destroyed.

53 comments

  1. Was it empty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or filled with Nazi gold or dead bodies?

    1. Re:Was it empty? by Kiaser+Zohsay · · Score: 1

      51 crew members to be exact.

      --
      I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
    2. Re:Was it empty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gold and zombies, gold and zombies.

    3. Re:Was it empty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or filled with JEWGOLDS

      FTFTFYFY.

      (The caps filter doesn't like my use of so many caps, so I'm going to water it down a bit...)

    4. Re:Was it empty? by Coren22 · · Score: 0

      Do you mean Goldsteins?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    5. Re:Was it empty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      | Or filled with Jewish gold

      That they stole back.

    6. Re:Was it empty? by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "Or filled with Nazi gold or dead bodies?"

      My bet is on Nazi gold-plated dead bodies.

  2. Did someone inform CNN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...ping...

  3. Tech news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was this some sort of experimental super sub carrying an early electro-mechanical computer or are slashdots standards slipping?

    1. Re:Tech news by Coren22 · · Score: 2

      No, but they found a briefcase containing a sheet of paper with the name of a china pattern and a nice set of eye glasses inside.

      The sub was also full of gold.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    2. Re:Tech news by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      Was this some sort of experimental super sub carrying an early electro-mechanical computer

      Nope, just a run-of-the-mill Type VIIC, the most common U-boat. Germany made hundreds of 'em during the war.

  4. its Finnish(ed) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    nuff said

    1. Re:its Finnish(ed) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aren't all divers Finnish?

  5. Depth by Kiaser+Zohsay · · Score: 5, Informative

    For reference, recreational diving is usually limited to 30 to 40 meters (90 to 120 feet). I've only been past 90 feet a couple of times myself, so this is pretty hard core.

    --
    I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
    1. Re:Depth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      yes, that's nuts. I went to ~140 in Belize at the blue hole, and bottom time was limited to ~8 minutes. You can't do nitrox at this depth either, so it was some serious tech diving that they had to be doing.

    2. Re:Depth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe. But I'll bet you could make it to the surface if you had to. You'd just have to come straight up and risk the bends. I'd be surprised if there weren't at least a few people that survived this. Of course any loot that would have been on board will still be there. But it would not be normal for the Nazi's to be loading up their submarines with gold and jewels and artwork.

    3. Re:Depth by pz · · Score: 2

      It goes to show how vastly different water is from air. I mean, yes, obviously there are differences, but we take them largely for granted except for those like the parent who intentionally explore them. 90 meters vertical difference is less than the height of many buildings (its, very roughly, 30 floors). In air, we barely think about that sort of altitude change.

      But in water, where every 10 m or so is an additional atmosphere of pressure, going down the same distance is a Big Frelling Deal. We may exist in a nice fat slab of the earth's atmosphere, but we are only surface dwellers on the water.

      One of the world's most famous vessels is Jacques Cousteau's Calypso. At 42 m long, she isn't a very big ship. If you put two Calypsos end-to-end vertically, that wouldn't quite reach the newly-discovered submarine.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    4. Re:Depth by phayes · · Score: 1

      Given the present state of the Calypso, you'd be better of using "was" instead of "is" when referring to it. After having sunk after a collision almost 20 years ago & then being abandoned for about 10 years, It was taken apart for a near total restoration over 5 years ago after. Should the funds ever be found to pay for the dismantlement and reconstruct it will have very little in common with the boat as Cousteau knew it.

      --
      Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
    5. Re:Depth by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 2

      Probably not, but you are forgetting one thing - old stuff sells. A Zippo lighter from that era would easily fetch $300, add in the place it was found etc. and you will probably get a lot more. Also you don't "risk the bends" it's bloody painful and can cause all sorts of permanent damage.

      --
      There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
    6. Re:Depth by Deadstick · · Score: 2

      If you put two Calypsos end-to-end vertically, that wouldn't quite reach the newly-discovered submarine.

      Looking at it a slightly different way, the length of submarines in that period was roughly equal to their normal maximum diving depth.

      I'm fond of pointing out that there really is no such thing as a "WW2 submarine". We had something we called submarines, but they were surface vessels that could submerge, once in a while, for a little while. The first real submarine hit the water in 1954.

    7. Re: Depth by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      It's not about whether they can submerge; it's about whether they can re-emerge again. ;)

    8. Re:Depth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't see how--try walking/jogging 140m holding your breath. Add to that dealing with the concussion of the mine, flooding of the submarine and time taken to evacuate.

    9. Re:Depth by lokedhs · · Score: 1

      Well, arguably the German type XXI submarine was the first "real" submarine in war. That said, only two ever went on combat patrols before the war ended.

    10. Re:Depth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't it a war grave, though? No recovery would be allowed without permission of the owning government, if I understand it correctly? (It's quite possible I don't. I have a vague knowledge of the topic and no more.)

    11. Re:Depth by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      So, was the Wright Flyer not a real airplane because it could only travel very slowly over short distances? By that logic, the first "real" airplane would perhaps be the first operational jet-powered aircraft, like the Messerschmidt ME 262. Or maybe we'd choose the first all-metal monoplane, like the Junkers J 1?

      I'm pretty sure most people agree on the basic definition of a "submarine" (a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater.), and even much earlier and more primitive vehicles quality by that definition.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    12. Re:Depth by Deadstick · · Score: 1

      So, was the Wright Flyer not a real airplane because it could only travel very slowly over short distances?

      Of course not: it spent its entire operational career in flight, never doing anything on the ground. If it putt-putted down roads most of the time and lifted off once in a while, you'd have a comparison.

    13. Re:Depth by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "I'll bet you could make it to the surface if you had to"

      I'll bet ten to one you wouldn't.

      I base my case in my free and scuba diving experience, and the obvious lack of experience from your side.

    14. Re:Depth by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "But in water, where every 10 m or so is an additional atmosphere of pressure, going down the same distance is a Big Frelling Deal."

      It is not the pressure itself. The body has no problem going down to 100 or even 200 meters -in fact, it is the first 10 meters the only ones that you will notice, it is everything else: coldness, oxygen toxicity, nitrogen narcosis, air consumption speed... that makes it a technical challenge -of course, all of them are related to pressure, but still, it is not pressure as in "it'll crush you" the main concern.

      Now you mention Calypso, remember Cousteau and his team went down to the Andrea Doria's wrekage, 77m down, and it was quite a feat back in, I think, 1967, still using aqualungs and the old stuff (it happens that I cut my teeth on scuba using twin-hose, aqualung-type equipment too).

    15. Re:Depth by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      "I'll bet you could make it to the surface if you had to"

      I'll bet ten to one you wouldn't.

      I base my case in my free and scuba diving experience, and the obvious lack of experience from your side.

      Out of curiosity, a quick google shows that the world free diving record is over 200m, so escaping from a 90m deep submarine is certainly survivable in theory, but in an emergency situation it does seem pretty unlikely.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    16. Re:Depth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe a Nazi zippo would, but I collect Zippos and your run of the mill one from that era is NOT going to fetch $300.

      The other thing people are missing about the survivability of the depth is that it probably wasn't on the bottom when it hit the mine. The only thing I know about U-boats I learned from movies but it's my understanding they don't typically rest on the bottom (except in Das Boot).

    17. Re:Depth by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "Out of curiosity, a quick google shows that the world free diving record is over 200m"

      It has no relevance to this situation. That's why I talked about "the obvious lack of experience" of the parent poster that, it seems, you also exhibit. The problem is neither depth nor distance, but pressure differential. You must understand that all those records start and end at the same pressure level.

      "Free escape" is the technical term you should look for. Max training depth is usually 30m and you should understand the problems grow exponentially, not linearly.

      In practice, there's the description of the Pacocha submarine incident, 1988, when 22 tripulants carried free escape from around 30m deep: one dead, 14 with severe decompression problems, 7 with minor decompression problems.

      There's no training facilities for free scape beyond the 300 feet limit that I'm aware of, not only because they'd be quite expensive but also because, taking the words of Edwyn Gray in "Disasters of the Deep: A Comprehensive Survey of Submarine Accidents & Disasters", "...the free-escape method is of doubtful utility at depths approaching 300 feet", that is, 1/3 the alleged depth here. I myself trained free escape both within a 10m tank and 22m free water and clearly understand why.

  6. Re:Is this the 'Daily Nazi' or something? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is the second article about WWII today. I wonder why. 'Refugee' propaganda not working? Add a little 'Holocaust' propaganda, that will make the goyim bow down before you... NOT.

    Evidence found on this sub will indicate the Nazis were closer to building the bomb than we ever realized.

  7. Re:Is this the 'Daily Nazi' or something? by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

    Because history doesn't count as "news for nerds"?

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  8. I doubt by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I doubt that it was destroyed at that depth, that depth is just where it ended up AFTER it was damaged and could not surface.

    --
    There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
  9. Re:Is this the 'Daily Nazi' or something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm a nerd, and I love this kind of news. It isn't like this is a sports team having to change their name... like they had on here earlier.

  10. TV Show White Collar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They need to raise it up covertly and sell off the hidden treasure that is inside it. :)

  11. Delimma by sycodon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    On the one hand, the members of the crew were probably Nazis in the technical sense...as in a member of the party.

    On the other hand, they were also probably just kids following the path that was laid out for them...join the party and fight or go to the camps.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Delimma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In 1945 I'd say it is unlikely very many of them were party members. Kids following orders, yes...

    2. Re:Delimma by dunkelfalke · · Score: 2

      Kriegsmarine was the least nazified Wehrmacht branch.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    3. Re:Delimma by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      In fact, your average German military man was NOT a member of the Nazi party--particularly in the Kriegsmarine, which on the whole didn't like the Nazis much (aside from SS formations, which were by definition all Nazis, the most Nazified of the armed forces was the Luftwaffe, thanks mainly to Herr Goering). Most likely there wasn't a single actual Nazi on the boat. Party membership wasn't handed out like party favors--it meant something. You had to earn it, and to earn it you had to want it. You had the choice of fighting for the party or going to the camps, but they never made you join.

    4. Re:Delimma by tsotha · · Score: 1

      To add to this: In the 1930s it would have been illegal for a German soldier to hold membership in a political party. It wasn't until after the war started the rules were changed.

      The military was a competing center of power in Germany throughout most of Hitler's rule. That's why he turned on Röhm and the SA when the brass demanded he do so. He was afraid of the general staff and managed the relationship carefully as they were the only people who could depose him. It wasn't until 1943 that he had true dictatorial power over the military - prior to that misbehaving officers were usually allowed to retire.

    5. Re: Delimma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't matter. The only good german is a dead german. I hope they suffered.

    6. Re:Delimma by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      On the one hand, the members of the crew were probably Nazis in the technical sense...as in a member of the party.

      On the other hand, they were also probably just kids following the path that was laid out for them...join the party and fight or go to the camps.

      Would you have the same dilemma about the teenagers beheading prisoners for ISIS?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  12. Re:Is this the 'Daily Nazi' or something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aww, you're retarded. That's cute.

  13. so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    are there any spooky skeletons still in it?

  14. Re:Is this the 'Daily Nazi' or something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bill English just announced to New Zealand that if it weren't for those damned refugees, we'd all have pay increases!

  15. Fine print by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Also funny to note, the Calypso was a mine sweeper btw.

    That sub could have used one.

  16. One of many by tsotha · · Score: 1

    734 U-boats were sunk during the war. Seems like it would be pretty easy to find one.

  17. Re: Is this the 'Daily Nazi' or something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. Nerds do not care for history or for anything that really matters. They only care about computers, games, star trek and kiddie porn.

  18. 7 Months after the War ended? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WWII ended at the beginning of May 1945.
    This sub continued operations another 7 months?
    How was it supplied?

    1. Re:7 Months after the War ended? by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      WWII ended at the beginning of May 1945. This sub continued operations another 7 months? How was it supplied?

      TFS said it sunk in January 1945, which to us normal human beings is 4 months before the end of the War.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it