Wreckage of 2 German Submarines From WW1 Thought To Be Sunk by Mines Discovered off the Coast of Belgium

A wreckage of two German submarines believed to have sunk due to an explosion during World War 1 (WW1) was found on the coast of Belgium. The submarines were reportedly among the casualties during the war.

German Submarine Wreckage on the Coast of Belgium

This month, wrecks were discovered in the North Sea off the Belgian coast. It was believed that mines sank both submarines during WW1, one of the deadliest international battles in history. Millions of military personnel and civilians perished during the world war that raged between 1914 and 1918.

Shipwrecks, warplane wrecks, and submarine wrecks are all across the North Sea, located between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Many are yet unknown.

It has long been known that there are wrecks at the sites where the two German submarines sank. But only recently have ideal water conditions allowed divers to approach them near enough to recognize them.

Divers could properly pinpoint the wreck's location after more than a century of searching. During World War I, the Imperial German Navy employed both submarines to command the waters off the coast of Belgium. One of the submarines is a class "U-5" U-boat with a length of roughly 187 feet that was put into service before the war in 1910.

In December 1914, the vessel sank off the coast of Belgium, killing all 29 crew members. The sub, which had four torpedo tubes, is thought to have hit a mine off Zeebrugge. The wreck has been well-preserved and is still largely intact.

The other submarine is a mine-laying type "U-14" U-boat approximately 112 feet long. The Austro-Hungarian navy employed the UC-14 in the Mediterranean Sea before its use in battles in the North Sea.

Over a dozen Allied ships, including those from the United Kingdom, Italy, and France, were submerged by mines laid by the submarine during its military service during World War I.

The submarine struck a mine outside the port of Zeebrugge in October 1917 and sank with more than a dozen crew members on board. It is obvious from the wreck's extensive damage that a large explosion obliterated the craft.

Missing Submarine Located After 80 Years

In June, a British submarine was found missing for over 80 years. The ship mysteriously vanished while sailing off the coast of Greece in January 1942.

The sub was believed to contain the approximately 64 people on board at the time. All of them were British service members who had each received 36 medals for bravery.

The wreckage, located tens of kilometers off the coast of Cape Sounion, was featured in a video. The discovered wreck is thought to be the missing HMS Triumph due to distinguishing characteristics of the sub's hull and its location. The divers concluded that it was "unequivocally" Triumph.

The HMS Triumph narrative was initially introduced to Kostas Thoktaridis, a seasoned Greek diver, in 1998. He described this self-funded journey as the "hardest" he had ever gone through.

Thoktaridis and his colleagues discovered the sub using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with sonar. This tool uses sound waves to "see" through water and find underwater objects.

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