08/08/2026
Record-low water levels on the Danube River have exposed dozens of German World War II shipwrecks near Prahovo, Serbia, where around 200 N**i vessels were deliberately sunk in 1944.
The ships belonged to Germany’s Danube and Black Sea flotillas, which were scuttled to block the river and slow the advancing Soviet Red Army during the war.
Some wrecks still contain ammunition and unexploded ordnance, making recovery dangerous while restricting commercial navigation and costing Serbia an estimated €5 million annually.
An EU-backed project is removing the most hazardous wrecks, while others remain buried beneath the riverbed because they are too risky to recover.
Experts say extreme heat and drought are exposing long-hidden wartime relics and reshaping Europe’s archaeological landscape.
