A Nazi shipwreck, filled with explosives and weapons, has been raised from its riverbed grave in the River Danube near Prahovo, Serbia, after being submerged for 80 years. It is the first of a couple of hundred wrecks in the river set to be recovered.

The German naval ship, part of the flotilla Kampfgruppe Zieb which had gathered in the region in a futile attempt to cross upstream to escape the Soviet Red Army advance.

It was one of around 200 ships deliberately sunk in 1944 on the orders of the Rear Admiral, Paul-Willy Zieb. At that time, the Red Army had already reached the Iron Gates, blocking the Germans’ planned retreat towards the Reich.

Around 8,000 German soldiers and civilians aboard the vessels fled from the advancing Russians on foot. Some ships were later refloated and used by the Soviets for military transports in the final phase of the war.

78 years later, in August 2022, the lowest water levels in almost a century on the Danube – as a result of Europe’s worst drought in recent memory – revealed the sunken remains, which complicated commerce in Serbia and Hungary.

Some wrecks narrowed the navigable section of the stretch to just 100 metres. Around a thousand boats use the river each day for trade, transport and tourism purposes.

Over the past eight decades, no efforts have been made to remove the shipwrecks until now.

In the coming weeks, authorities plan to remove 21 vessels, with a further 80 to be raised in the following phase, according to the Serbian Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesic. The project is receiving funds from the European Union.

According to NeedToKnow, many of the sunken ships are believed to hold cargo of explosives. This has been the cause of much concern for locals, who have described the wrecks as an “ecological disaster”, endangering the lives of fishermen and trade.

“Every ship that is taken out goes through a thorough inspection with the dismantling of the explosives left inside them,” said Vesic.

“When this process is completed, we will allow the public to see a part of the sunken Nazi fleet that has been making navigation difficult on this part of the Danube for eight decades.”