Sunken Nazi German U-Boats Now a Dive Site For Turkish Explorers

Nazi Germany U-boats once prowled the oceans, but today, nearly a century after the end of World War II, several of the submarines lie at the bottom of the Black Sea.

How the U-boats reached the Black Sea, a distance of nearly 1,000 miles away from Germany, was no easy feat.

During Hitler’s war against Soviet Russia, Turkey had denied Germany’s request to open the Dardanelles and Istanbul Straits for Germany to transport the six submarines into the Black Sea to attack Soviet Russia.

In order to seek victory, Germany instead painstakingly brought them to Romania’s port by land and river channels.

Thanks to the U-boats, Germany successfully sunk 20 Soviet ships in the Black Sea, but eventually half the fleet and the submarines’ home port were destroyed in battle. To prevent the weapons of war and the technology that created it from ending up in enemy hands, Nazi commanders ordered the submarines sunk.

The sunken submarines, U20 and U23, are now unintentional homes for marine life, algae and sea shells off the coast of northern Turkey, according to footage by professional divers sent to explore the ruins.

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