Nazi Sunken Sub (2012) - full transcript
Beneath the cold and
brackish waters of the baltic
lies one of the greatest
unsolved mysteries of
word war ii.
This
is what we came here for.
It's only the wreck that tells
the last line of the story.
Nobody knew
that it existed.
I
could actually see the
u-boat lying on its side,
and I was looking
at it like wow.
With all hope for
victory fading fast the Nazi's
are desperate to turn
the tide of the war.
Their last-ditch efforts
in the baltic may today be
at the bottom of the sea.
Those guys
don't know what hit them.
After more than
a decade of searching,
a Finnish dive team
hopes to make history,
and reveal
the secrets behind
the Nazi sunken sub.
March 10th, 1945 the frozen
body of a u-boat commandant
is found on the
island of föglö.
His submarine and crew
are presumed lost.
I received
the scan of the original
police report from the,
the police constable who
went to examine the body.
And it was found out that
it was a German Navy
officer in, in uniform
and a flotation jacket,
and with his dog
tags so he could absolutely
positively be identified as
kapitanleutnant
Wilhelm Von trotha, the
commander of the u-745.
It was suspected that
since the body was washed to
the shores of åland islands
that the submarine had actually
must be also somewhere very
close to that area.
Yet the
wreck is never found.
The members of badawanne,
a skilled dive team,
hope to finally
locate the u-745.
It needs to be done, it's
no use to go out there to the
sea spend enormous amount of
diesel fuel just
searching for wrong place.
They believe that
if you're looking for
u-boats in the baltic
you first look where the
minefields were laid.
One of the Finland's most
dangerous minefields was
vantaa three laid by the
Finnish minelayer
louhi in January 1945
in the Gulf of Finland.
The louhi
was laying in the minefield
and their guys were on board
really executing the operation.
They were first-timers
none of them had been
laying a minefield before.
Then there were of course
officers saying ok you do
this and don't think don't do
anything else
but just do this.
And then someone with
stopwatch saying it's, now
it's time and now it's time.
And guys were able
to accomplish.
Today the members
of badewane are searching
the very minefield
louhi laid that day.
They believe they have
located a sunken u-boat.
They make the leap
of faith and descend
to the ocean bottom,
hoping that this is the u-745.
The lost u-boat of captain
lieutenant Wilhelm Von trotha.
If they are right they will
be the first people to see the
sub since the 48 men inside
sank to their deaths in 1945.
The problem with
that wreck actually has
been at the visibility.
Close to the
bottom it's often really poor.
It's getting milkier and
milkier and some kind of Clay
particles are here and there
and hey where is it and then
suddenly you see this whole
bow of the u-boat coming at
you and it's beautiful, it's
just unreal amazing site.
♪ ♪
This is the
gold standard for world
war ii shipwrecks.
The frigid temperatures and
low salinity of the baltic
have kept the wooden deck in
remarkably good condition.
I still
remember like it was yesterday.
We were going down,
jussi was in front of me
because he had the lights
and on that dive also the
visibility was fairly good.
And I
could actually see the
u-boat lying on its side
and this incredible
mushroom type
or a funnel type,
if you like, conning tower
construction and I was
looking at it like wow!
What kind of a
sub is this that after all
because the conning tower,
it looked like it would
be like one size too big.
It was a big platform with
closed railing in the front
and double the amount of
anti-aircraft warfare.
There was two twin
two-centimeter automatic
guns and two single
barrel 37 mil guns.
Because of the
depth of the wreck the divers
time on the bottom is limited.
After only 15 minutes on the
bottom the team must begin
the process of decompression,
which allows the body to
eliminate gases accumulated
during the dive.
It's kind of important
to check your watch
because anyway exceeding bottom
time by one or two minutes,
means we have a lot more
decompression to do.
If a diver ascends
without proper decompression,
they run the risk of serious
illness or even death.
Every single minute that
you're low at the bottom
it increases the total depth
compression application
by significant amounts.
♪ ♪
The first thing that
actually came to my mind
is that I had seen a line
drawing of this design
in one of the books.
I said
"hey that's the one that's
supposedly never built."
The design of
this u-boat was strange.
Why would the Germans take
one of their sleekest and
most technically advanced
naval vessels and build
such a large and awkward
conning tower
configuration on top of it?
It's like tying a bathtub
to the back of a shark.
This kind of
design was thought to be good
for escorting the submarines
leaving the submarine base
and heading for the patrol
area and this anti-aircraft
weaponry on board was
thought to be efficient to
cover the submarine convoys.
This one of a kind
design would seem to make
identifying this u-boat easy,
but it turns out
not to be so simple.
In the late stages of
the war a lot of modifications
were carried out in
the naval ports in the
shipyards according to
the skipper's wishes
or somebody just
wanted to experiment.
This
is typical for late war.
Things developed so quickly
nobody made any records or
there is no documentation.
You just built this thing
and went out with it.
Even though
it's not the u-boat
they're looking for,
it's a spectacular find.
It was so unique
that it wasn't supposed to,
to have been built at all.
Nobody knew that it existed.
I wanted to, to know
what the differences of
those boats would be,
because uh they didn't have
numbers on the conning towers.
This was the so
called turimbow seven, the
conning tower model seven,
which was presumably
not built at all or
if it was built,
probably built in a
different formation.
So I mean that was
a great amazing discovery.
When we
found it and of course it
also made this 3-d modeling
a little bit more challenging.
There were just some
sketches available.
It's the only known submarine
with this, this kind of a
tower configuration
where you have around
the normal tower here,
you have this kind of bathtub
like structure.
And then on top of
that there's four
anti-aircraft guns.
The whole boat was just kind
of a prototype and many books
and references claims that
this was never taken
into use but obviously
if there's one in the
Gulf of Finland,
it was used.
From this dive,
the members of
badewanne believe
the mystery u-boat is a
variation of a type vii,
but there are no official
records of its identity to
be found in Germany.
We actually found
one document of the kind of
logbook entry there was
drawings this, of this
conning tower type and
number u-676.
The sketch in
a submarine guest book signed
by the crew confirms that this
sub is the u-676.
The location of the
u-745 remains a mystery.
In 1940 German
u-boats are on a killing
spree in the Atlantic
wreaking havoc on an
enemy that is unprepared
for this new threat.
In just seven months u-boats
attacking in wolf packs sink
hundreds of ships
carrying vital
supplies to britain.
They are so effective
Winston Churchill
declares u-boats
the greatest threat
to the allied forces.
When you look at the
kreigsmarine submarines
of the second world war,
they already were
fairly high tech.
They
would have gyro compasses,
they would have different
kinds of radio equipment
to communicate with
their headquarters.
Their weapon systems
already were,
like they had
electric torpedoes,
higher acoustically homing
torpedoes and stuff like that.
The treaty of
versailles prohibited Germans
from possessing submarines,
but it did not stop them from
secretly developing them.
Throughout the 20's and 30's
the Germans evolve and test
their designs across the
baltic in the Netherlands.
By the start of the war the
Germans design a sub that
is both sea-worthy and
economical to build.
It will become
known as the type vii,
the workhorse of the Atlantic.
Over 700 will be
rushed into service.
The
Southern baltic was used
as a training site for the
submarine captains who are
heading towards Atlantic.
So first you go
into bathtub and do a
little training there,
then you go to the real sea.
Right, you train your
little boats there, then you
go into big business.
U-boats are built
in bremen then sailed
in the baltic for
several months.
The idea is to train the
44-man crew to operate as one,
before sending them
to the Atlantic,
but not all subs are
sent to fight the
British and Americans.
Some u-boats are kept in the
baltic to fight the Russians.
The baltic sea for the,
for the Germany.
It was very, very important
to keep it enemy free.
As
the Gulf of Finland is
the only sea route
going to St. Petersburg that is,
strategically it's the key
for the success of Russia.
Also during the
second world war,
it was essential for
Russians to get their
submarine fleet
from St. Petersburg to
operate on the baltic.
The baltic sea was
important to the Germans
for various reasons.
One it was the iron ore that
they were getting from Sweden.
It was important and
essential for the war machine.
The Soviets
also knew very well that if
they can block this iron ore
shipments from all the
way out to Germany,
that Germans won't be able
to make any more tanks.
If you don't have steel
you can't make more tanks.
If you don't have tanks,
the situation on the eastern
front is changing completely!
The struggle for
the control of the baltic is
fought between submarines
and naval mines.
The two leave behind
a trail of wrecks.
When you
start looking for submarines
the basic nature of that
branch of military
service is stealth.
Nobody knows where they
are you might have a,
have a rough idea.
The only way you may know that
one is lost is that after a
certain date it never reports
back to headquarters
it never returns.
Because the
baltic is shallow with
little or no tides
it's well suited
for mine warfare.
The use of these crude
devices reached a peak
during world war ii
and over 200,000 would
be laid defensively.
A marine mine
is a relatively cheap weapon
so what happened was that
over 60,000 mines were laid
in the Gulf of Finland.
There are
at least 46 different
types of mines used
with as many as ten different
triggering mechanisms.
Fins were laying
mines, Germans were
laying mines here,
Russians were laying mines
here and because the water
depth which is only about
100 meters at its
deepest at its maximum.
Maximum.
Its kind of
very favorable.
Here we have a cut out in the,
in the mine showing its guts.
So how does it work?
Basically the horn, it's
this lead horn with glass amp
filled with acid and when a
submarine or something else
hits into the lead part,
the glass amp is breaking
and it forces two metal
electrodes inside here in the
bottom of the cavity and it's
generating on battery.
And then we
have 250 kilos tnt.
And poof,
off you go.
Today they are
diving in vannta three,
the same minefield
laid by louhi where
they found the u-676.
They are exploring an anomaly
spotted on their sonar.
This could be a second u-boat.
That was something that,
the first reaction
was, was when we saw
this on sonar is that
there's something busted
in the equipment.
This can't be true,
that kind, that kind of
things don't just happen.
The first
thing was it's like ok
there's some kind of cliff,
which is protruding
from the sea bottom.
♪ ♪
It seems there are fishnets
all over the place it might
be very dangerous place to be.
And remember we
are both yelling,
"yoo hoo",
under pitch darkness.
The team has
found another intact u-boat.
The whole sub is inside the Clay
all the way to the
conning tower.
That kind of sight
is just insane.
♪ ♪
Over 27,000
u-boat men lost their
lives during the conflict.
It was the highest loss
rate for any branch
of the German military.
Each
and every wreck is a
military graveyard.
They were service men.
They died in the line of duty
and you need to respect that.
Inside this wreck
is their final resting place
and the divers of badewanne
will never enter it.
Imagine
how the guys felt inside.
Yeah,
I am fairly confident
that those guys actually
don't know what hit them.
The new u-boat lies
only a few hundred meters
from the one found earlier.
Now the team has to piece
together information from
various sources in order to
successfully
identify this wreck.
Fingers are crossed that
it's the elusive u-745.
At the military archive in
Helsinki members of badewanne
consult maps of known
minefields and compare
them to the last known area
of operations of the u-745.
So what we are here
is a map of Gulf of Finland.
Here's hanko,
porkkala peninsula,
and here is Estonia.
And this map is showing all
minefields that were laid
to the western part of
Gulf of Finland during
the second world war.
The
minefield at louhi was laying
in January 12th, 1945
it's here in middle of mouth
of Gulf of Finland,
and this is the place
where the submarine,
submarine, German submarine
wrecks are located at.
It's kind of a textbook
example how, how ships
sink where the mines are.
We know that mines
were in depth of two
and a half meters.
We believe that the explosion
took place here somewhere
around this forward torpedo
compartment and they
might have been also secondary
explosions from the torpedoes,
and then there's only few
seconds time to react and the
ship is diving into the Clay.
It's
amazing it's like in length
equal to 25-story building,
you can imagine half of
it is buried in the mud.
That's just unreal.
U-boat designs
constantly evolve so small
variations in construction can
be used to identify them.
This
flooding holes is one thing that
helps us to identify the ships,
the shape,
the number of flooding holes
in the bow section also in
the aft to the bow section is
actually buried in the mud and
we were unable to see those.
So we have to rely on all
the other evidence that's
available out there.
This is the area where
another u-boat was
supposed to meet u-745.
They were searching this
area but never found it.
This is the team's
first clue that the second
u-boat could be the u-745.
Meanwhile Harry, the team's
lead researcher finds a
picture of the u-745 in which
it appears to have a
distinctive metal plate or
box on the conning tower.
They'll have to dive
the wreck once more to
see if they can ID
just such a box proving
this wreck is the u-745.
Jussi and juha collect the
equipment needed for the dive.
♪ ♪
It's a two-hour drive to hanko,
where they'll meet the
dive team and boat.
Lets just
keep our fingers crossed and
hopeful that weather be.
Yeah that's a good
question it could go
anywhere from here.
As the skies
above turn gray,
the weather turns to rain
and there is a growing
concern that they
won't be able to dive.
Though it's not raining
near the harbor in hanko
where the other members
of the team are gathered,
it doesn't mean it's
clear in the Gulf where
the wreck is located.
It's very different
out at the sea middle of the
Gulf then what it is
here at the coast.
Jouni, who has
studied meteorology, analyzes
high-resolution local area
weather maps and looks at raw
wind data that's not available
to the general public.
When we
start diving it's not enough
that it's good weather
then we need good weather two
hours after the diving when we
are picking the divers up
and that's the most
critical situation,
and also we need visibility
at surface because of
we see the ship traffic.
We just have
to have the ship,
and the boat and the crew
on station and if the
weather breaks we're
ready to move out.
The only thing we can do
is just go out and take a,
take a look.
This is it,
it's time to go then.
It's the end of the
diving season in Finland
and soon the temperatures will
drop making diving too risky.
With their last chance
to dive the wreck this
season slipping away,
the team decides to head out
to the wreck site and hope
for a break in the forecast.
♪ ♪
The original members
of badawanne who call
themselves the old school,
have brought several
younger new members.
Basically
it looks very difficult for
diving right now.
Big waves.
That's the problem in here,
like in an ocean you got big
waves and the boat goes up the
wave and down the wave
whereas here it's very,
you have very aggressive
movements on the,
on the boat.
At the dive site
there is still more waiting.
Conditions aren't improving.
The team takes
this opportunity to review
the mission for the dive.
Jussi, how can you
be certain that it's u-745
and not another u-boat?
This is the only boat
that was patrolling in the area,
which had this particular
square metal plate in the
aft of the conning tower.
And we saw this
photograph this very
photograph of the uh...
It sounds easy
but at 70 meters below the
surface nothing is easy.
U-676 has the, the railing
is solid from, from the,
from the, from the front
part until like, like
after the conning tower.
Yes, yes.
And it's like a can of anchovies.
So how can
you see just a box?
How, how can you identify
just a box on the boat?
U-745 is
the only ship that operated
here that had this box.
There were other ships,
u-boats that also had it but
they were operating elsewhere.
So do you
know what that box is?
We don't
know whether it is some kind
of plate, sign or a box.
Yeah.
But clear, clearly
it's smoking gun because
picture show that u-745
had it and no other of these
possible boats have it.
So is this the same
wreck where the captain was
found uh, in the surface,
dead in föglö?
Yeah, exactly.
From the archives, we know
that the commander of u-745
was kapitanleutnant
Von trotha.
Where badewanne
team is diving is
approximately 150 kilometers
from where his body washed up.
It's a long distance
for it to have traveled.
When
we looked into this
issue more closely,
we found out that
actually many bodies
of, of wrecked mariners from
shipwrecks even in, in more
further east in Gulf of
Finland, had ended up
in the åland islands.
So obviously the, of course
it depends at which depth
the body is floating.
So if the u-boat
was driving on the surface
how could they hit a mine?
I thought that u-boats
are pretty shallow.
They're not.
Oh no,
they're not, never.
U-boats have actually
really deep draft.
Yeah.
Because they are heavy
and, and they must be heavy
to be able to dive so
like the seven u-boat has
five meter in drop.
Yeah. Drop, yeah.
And the mines we know from the
museum and from the archives
they were, they were,
they were set at two and a
half meters depth so it's
just the right depth.
So when you, when you lose
that you get a, you get a
hole in the pressure hull.
The boat will just
sink like a rock.
So I understood
that these mines were laid
by the mine layer louhi.
Yes.
Have we found a hole
or any signs of an explosion on
that wreck or are they
buried in the mud?
No, they're buried,
obviously, somewhere in
the bow section.
Front of, of the conning
towers everything else
we can easily see.
On the, on
the, on the let's say from
conning tower towards the aft
we can see everything
the bottom, the sides,
the top casing.
There's no, no
superficial damage there.
So it needs to be in the bow.
And this also supports
the fact this kind of, this
boat became nose heavy
and immediately went
to the bottom.
Yeah. It's like glacial,
glacial Clay actually.
And the properties
of that stuff.
It's funny if it receives
an impact it goes liquid
for a while and it's,
sorry, if the momentum is there
you can just keep on pushing
the object into the,
into the Clay and then
when the movement stops it
sort of solidifies again,
and that's why it's
standing there.
With the weather
at the dive site now clear,
the badewanne divers take
advantage of this small window
of opportunity to get in
the water and try and get the
proof they need that
this is indeed the u-745.
So previously the
weather didn't allow any diving
operations it was way too
windy and now, now the wind
has calmed down significantly
so probably only about four
to five meters per second and
it seems that now we're
finally able to go down there
and see what we can find.
The first team will be
recon team going down.
Two divers one with
camera and a dive body and
they are going down
and checking out where
the strut line is and what are
the conditions whether there
are any other currents
and what is the visibility and
then after that we're going down
with video cameras and
continue shooting current
video, video plan.
It's
kind of very important
team to go down because
security of all other
divers is to some extent
dependent on these guys
and their findings.
They are
going down first and jouni
decided to take his camera
and said ok if the
visibility allows he'd be
shooting some more details.
We have this giant
tombstone sticking out
from otherwise flat mud.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
The size of the submarine
in your presence,
it feels enormous,
giant piece of machinery.
The recon divers
carry only enough in their
tanks to survive under water
for a limited time.
Their maximum
time in the bottom is
about 25 minutes roughly
and the total time from surface
to surface is 75 minutes.
The recon
team arrives on the
surface on schedule.
Where's, where's the shot
and how are the conditions?
The rest of
the team is anxious
to hear their report.
According to the
recon divers the visibility
is, is good at the bottom
and allows for
shooting some video.
You don't, you don't get
to dive u-boats every day.
So it's going to be good.
Let's get ready then.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Ok.
The team is
specifically looking for a
small box that is visible in
an archival photograph
of the u-745.
♪ ♪
After the first
divers we hear that the
visibility is fairly good
so we're looking forward
to shooting some really
good video this time.
And get all the details
and finally we can be
sure which boat it is.
The 745 if we get good
footage of the fixture at
the back of the flak tower.
♪ ♪
We get
the chance of showing it
to the entire world.
It's big thing
for us you know.
15, 20 years dream
come true really.
♪ ♪
When you go to, to, towards,
a little bit further
down from, from the
tip of the stern,
from the rudders you can see
the huge amounts of netting
hanging down and that is
actually one complete
pelagic trawl.
That trawl is actually a
very, very big net that a big
trawler hauls behind itself.
The net
is actually so big that when
it's open in the water
you can take a four story high,
high apartment house and
put it in the mouth and all
that netting is caught on the
boat and that is
actually very dangerous.
If you would chance
to go under the boat.
If you tried to come out into
the topside of the boat you
would end up in the trawl.
You think of yourself.
You know I'm carrying all
these tanks on my back under
my arm the big camera with
lights sticking
out of it you know.
Nothing would be easier than,
than get that tangled up the
in the trawl.
You can actually see there are
two dead seals in the netting
so I mean you got
multitudes of tanks
and valves and
you're a very clumsy
thing under the water.
There's nothing sleeker
than a seal and even
they got caught in that.
So you need to have the eyes
on the back of your head.
Approaching the conning tower
one of the problems is this,
this re-suspension
of sediment this milky mist
which could be just like a
half a meter or several
meters from the bottom.
Here it's about one and a
half meters and it's like
the boat would be
disappearing in the mist.
And the problem with this
stuff is that it's very
light and it just reflects
all the light back.
It's really difficult for,
for filming.
When you go back towards
the deck and look back down at
the conning tower and the flak
platform it's right here
that you can actually see
the, the, the rectangular
part, the box.
This is what we came here for.
That was like uh, one of
these big things you feel like
yelling out of the water but
you can't do that since you'll
get water in your mouth.
Tell you what boys and girls
that was some dive, you don't
get to do this everyday.
The old school is not
completely over the hill
yet, it's in the can man.
It's in the can.
The visibility quite good
enough at the end of the conning
tower, we actually could make
the, I could make the box.
Yes.
And it's a good thing
light was in the side so
there's a bit of a shadow.
You could make it out.
It's the smoking gun and man I
could tell you I was so
happy when I was looking
through the view finder
shooting this footage and
I said okay, there it is
the same thing as
on the photos.
Quite sure that
now we have the identity
and that the mission is
accomplished and we,
we have solved this
puzzle that
has been circulating in
the air for so many years.
Overall that was a success
and we were able to
accomplish what we were
actually looking for.
We have good footage and
combined with juha's photographs
I believe the mystery
has been solved.
We have u-745
here right below us.
The team members
believe they have successfully
located and identified two
Nazi u-boats in the last
minefield laid by louhi,
a boat many believe was
sunk by a Finnish mine,
maybe even one of its own.
We had been diving
these, these submarines
and we knew that ok,
these submarines went
down because they hit
mines laid down by louhi,
and it's essential
for the whole story to
know where louhi is.
Louhi was the
one first ships of the
Finnish Navy and by 1945
it was showing signs of age.
It was
an old ship, old design,
it was leaking and
it was rolling badly if
there was bad weather and
it was not very sea worthy.
On January 12,
1945 louhi completed its
mining mission
and is returning to hanko.
And
suddenly there was an
explosion under louhi's keel
somewhere on the right
side of the stern.
Many people heard
some kind of knock
and then there was
a huge explosion in the,
in the aft.
Most likely it was a mine.
When I was a younger
diver of course people
would talk about the louhi,
which was the last ship the
Finnish Navy lost in the war.
I think it
is a matter of pride and it was,
matter of feeling
really bad that
if it was fact that louhi was
indeed sunk by our own mines.
And the whole
thing was a little bit
of an embarrassment.
There were
stories here and there but no
one had really had kinda
collected all the information
together and looked at the wreck
and done any, any investigations
out there and seen that
'what could be the most probable
cause of, of the sinking?'
Members
of badewanne set out to
find the wreck of louhi.
After all, it's part
of their heritage.
Louhi is an
interesting wreck because
location of louhi's Mark
in the sea charts has
been there for ages,
but there's no
shipwreck in that spot.
This
whole story was so
remarkable that we thought
ok it's time to
solve this mystery.
So we applied for a
permit to do a seabed
search in the location
where we thought that
louhi would have sunk.
What we're about to do
here is we're going to dive
a wreck which superficial
would look like a very
insignificant warship but
it's actually the unsung hero
of the submarine warfare
here in the baltic sea.
Using side scan
sonar they meticulously
search the louhi's route
from the minefield back
towards the port of hanko.
Something
starts to show up in, in a
sonar and, and looking at it
ok it's a ship and all the bits
and pieces were falling together
and I had to hold my breath
because I wanted to
yell guys, hey, come down.
After a
call to the Navy,
permission is granted
for an exploratory dive.
Is that ok?
Ok, I'm outta here.
♪ ♪
We came to
the bridge of louhi and saw
the deck Cannon out there
and it was quite obvious.
Ok this is it, this
can't be anything else,
there's nothing like this
missing in this area.
It was pristine water
and amazing sightseeing
the whole deck,
and deck gun and bow and
everything and the bridge.
Everything at once out there.
We swam around the boat and
saw the bow and, and there
was minesweeping equipment
and everything was like
expecting it to be like.
We noticed that the stern is
very badly damaged the deck
has just blown up out there.
A lot of, a lot of bent metal
and details are missing.
There
must have been a tremendous
explosion under the keel and,
and this missing of
decking supports.
It's actually much
more probable that was
instead torpedo.
There might
have been a torpedo which
exploded very close to the hull
of louhi about seven, eight
meters towards the front
from the propellers that's
where the machine room and
that's where the strongest
sounds are generated from.
That's the location where it,
it actually did hit.
There is
still more evidence to
support their theory.
While researching, the
team came across German
communication records.
What was
found in the archivals.
The journals and the
reports of the high command.
In the which was reported
that, that u-370 actually
torpedoed louhi.
They fired a torpedo
at a Finnish mine
laying ship 11:47.
The louhi log and the
survivors tell that it was an
explosion on board louhi
in 12:50 so there's, there's
over an hour difference but
then of course
one has to take into account
that a German ship
has its
log in German time.
Germany is a little more to
the west so it is one hour
behind the Finnish time
and this explains
the difference.
So it was like three
minutes, which is actually
the typical running
time for the torpedo.
The new information
from badewanne appears
to set the record straight,
the louhi was not sunk
by a Finnish mine
but rather hit by
a German torpedo
and the minefield she
laid that day was responsible
for the sinking of two
technically superior u-boats.
She was far from
an embarrassment.
The story
altogether of this old,
old ship which
is technically outdated,
but still kind of, it
was the first ship of the
independent Finnish Navy.
This
old steam ship gets hit
by acoustic torpedo.
The state of the art
weapon of that time
shot by German u-boat.
Again, state of the
art war machine
and there's this battle of old
steamer against the grey wolf.
Although she sank, louhi
also was able to sink
two German u-boats and
the operation was successful.
♪ ♪
As you
look at the submarines or
other wrecks on the seabed
they are dark and
lonely places.
There are no bad guys
or good guys anymore.
They're just young men who
went out in the prime of their
life to serve their country,
they died in the process.
So I think it's only just that
the truth be told and their
story be told to everybody.
It's only the wreck that tells
the last line of the story,
it cracks the former war.
Now we know where
your boys are buried.
They're there, you can pay
your respects and you can
put an end to the story.
This old Russian proverb says
something like the war is not
over until the last of the
fallen soldiers has been buried,
and in a way I feel that
this is what we're doing.
Captioned by
cotter media group.
brackish waters of the baltic
lies one of the greatest
unsolved mysteries of
word war ii.
This
is what we came here for.
It's only the wreck that tells
the last line of the story.
Nobody knew
that it existed.
I
could actually see the
u-boat lying on its side,
and I was looking
at it like wow.
With all hope for
victory fading fast the Nazi's
are desperate to turn
the tide of the war.
Their last-ditch efforts
in the baltic may today be
at the bottom of the sea.
Those guys
don't know what hit them.
After more than
a decade of searching,
a Finnish dive team
hopes to make history,
and reveal
the secrets behind
the Nazi sunken sub.
March 10th, 1945 the frozen
body of a u-boat commandant
is found on the
island of föglö.
His submarine and crew
are presumed lost.
I received
the scan of the original
police report from the,
the police constable who
went to examine the body.
And it was found out that
it was a German Navy
officer in, in uniform
and a flotation jacket,
and with his dog
tags so he could absolutely
positively be identified as
kapitanleutnant
Wilhelm Von trotha, the
commander of the u-745.
It was suspected that
since the body was washed to
the shores of åland islands
that the submarine had actually
must be also somewhere very
close to that area.
Yet the
wreck is never found.
The members of badawanne,
a skilled dive team,
hope to finally
locate the u-745.
It needs to be done, it's
no use to go out there to the
sea spend enormous amount of
diesel fuel just
searching for wrong place.
They believe that
if you're looking for
u-boats in the baltic
you first look where the
minefields were laid.
One of the Finland's most
dangerous minefields was
vantaa three laid by the
Finnish minelayer
louhi in January 1945
in the Gulf of Finland.
The louhi
was laying in the minefield
and their guys were on board
really executing the operation.
They were first-timers
none of them had been
laying a minefield before.
Then there were of course
officers saying ok you do
this and don't think don't do
anything else
but just do this.
And then someone with
stopwatch saying it's, now
it's time and now it's time.
And guys were able
to accomplish.
Today the members
of badewane are searching
the very minefield
louhi laid that day.
They believe they have
located a sunken u-boat.
They make the leap
of faith and descend
to the ocean bottom,
hoping that this is the u-745.
The lost u-boat of captain
lieutenant Wilhelm Von trotha.
If they are right they will
be the first people to see the
sub since the 48 men inside
sank to their deaths in 1945.
The problem with
that wreck actually has
been at the visibility.
Close to the
bottom it's often really poor.
It's getting milkier and
milkier and some kind of Clay
particles are here and there
and hey where is it and then
suddenly you see this whole
bow of the u-boat coming at
you and it's beautiful, it's
just unreal amazing site.
♪ ♪
This is the
gold standard for world
war ii shipwrecks.
The frigid temperatures and
low salinity of the baltic
have kept the wooden deck in
remarkably good condition.
I still
remember like it was yesterday.
We were going down,
jussi was in front of me
because he had the lights
and on that dive also the
visibility was fairly good.
And I
could actually see the
u-boat lying on its side
and this incredible
mushroom type
or a funnel type,
if you like, conning tower
construction and I was
looking at it like wow!
What kind of a
sub is this that after all
because the conning tower,
it looked like it would
be like one size too big.
It was a big platform with
closed railing in the front
and double the amount of
anti-aircraft warfare.
There was two twin
two-centimeter automatic
guns and two single
barrel 37 mil guns.
Because of the
depth of the wreck the divers
time on the bottom is limited.
After only 15 minutes on the
bottom the team must begin
the process of decompression,
which allows the body to
eliminate gases accumulated
during the dive.
It's kind of important
to check your watch
because anyway exceeding bottom
time by one or two minutes,
means we have a lot more
decompression to do.
If a diver ascends
without proper decompression,
they run the risk of serious
illness or even death.
Every single minute that
you're low at the bottom
it increases the total depth
compression application
by significant amounts.
♪ ♪
The first thing that
actually came to my mind
is that I had seen a line
drawing of this design
in one of the books.
I said
"hey that's the one that's
supposedly never built."
The design of
this u-boat was strange.
Why would the Germans take
one of their sleekest and
most technically advanced
naval vessels and build
such a large and awkward
conning tower
configuration on top of it?
It's like tying a bathtub
to the back of a shark.
This kind of
design was thought to be good
for escorting the submarines
leaving the submarine base
and heading for the patrol
area and this anti-aircraft
weaponry on board was
thought to be efficient to
cover the submarine convoys.
This one of a kind
design would seem to make
identifying this u-boat easy,
but it turns out
not to be so simple.
In the late stages of
the war a lot of modifications
were carried out in
the naval ports in the
shipyards according to
the skipper's wishes
or somebody just
wanted to experiment.
This
is typical for late war.
Things developed so quickly
nobody made any records or
there is no documentation.
You just built this thing
and went out with it.
Even though
it's not the u-boat
they're looking for,
it's a spectacular find.
It was so unique
that it wasn't supposed to,
to have been built at all.
Nobody knew that it existed.
I wanted to, to know
what the differences of
those boats would be,
because uh they didn't have
numbers on the conning towers.
This was the so
called turimbow seven, the
conning tower model seven,
which was presumably
not built at all or
if it was built,
probably built in a
different formation.
So I mean that was
a great amazing discovery.
When we
found it and of course it
also made this 3-d modeling
a little bit more challenging.
There were just some
sketches available.
It's the only known submarine
with this, this kind of a
tower configuration
where you have around
the normal tower here,
you have this kind of bathtub
like structure.
And then on top of
that there's four
anti-aircraft guns.
The whole boat was just kind
of a prototype and many books
and references claims that
this was never taken
into use but obviously
if there's one in the
Gulf of Finland,
it was used.
From this dive,
the members of
badewanne believe
the mystery u-boat is a
variation of a type vii,
but there are no official
records of its identity to
be found in Germany.
We actually found
one document of the kind of
logbook entry there was
drawings this, of this
conning tower type and
number u-676.
The sketch in
a submarine guest book signed
by the crew confirms that this
sub is the u-676.
The location of the
u-745 remains a mystery.
In 1940 German
u-boats are on a killing
spree in the Atlantic
wreaking havoc on an
enemy that is unprepared
for this new threat.
In just seven months u-boats
attacking in wolf packs sink
hundreds of ships
carrying vital
supplies to britain.
They are so effective
Winston Churchill
declares u-boats
the greatest threat
to the allied forces.
When you look at the
kreigsmarine submarines
of the second world war,
they already were
fairly high tech.
They
would have gyro compasses,
they would have different
kinds of radio equipment
to communicate with
their headquarters.
Their weapon systems
already were,
like they had
electric torpedoes,
higher acoustically homing
torpedoes and stuff like that.
The treaty of
versailles prohibited Germans
from possessing submarines,
but it did not stop them from
secretly developing them.
Throughout the 20's and 30's
the Germans evolve and test
their designs across the
baltic in the Netherlands.
By the start of the war the
Germans design a sub that
is both sea-worthy and
economical to build.
It will become
known as the type vii,
the workhorse of the Atlantic.
Over 700 will be
rushed into service.
The
Southern baltic was used
as a training site for the
submarine captains who are
heading towards Atlantic.
So first you go
into bathtub and do a
little training there,
then you go to the real sea.
Right, you train your
little boats there, then you
go into big business.
U-boats are built
in bremen then sailed
in the baltic for
several months.
The idea is to train the
44-man crew to operate as one,
before sending them
to the Atlantic,
but not all subs are
sent to fight the
British and Americans.
Some u-boats are kept in the
baltic to fight the Russians.
The baltic sea for the,
for the Germany.
It was very, very important
to keep it enemy free.
As
the Gulf of Finland is
the only sea route
going to St. Petersburg that is,
strategically it's the key
for the success of Russia.
Also during the
second world war,
it was essential for
Russians to get their
submarine fleet
from St. Petersburg to
operate on the baltic.
The baltic sea was
important to the Germans
for various reasons.
One it was the iron ore that
they were getting from Sweden.
It was important and
essential for the war machine.
The Soviets
also knew very well that if
they can block this iron ore
shipments from all the
way out to Germany,
that Germans won't be able
to make any more tanks.
If you don't have steel
you can't make more tanks.
If you don't have tanks,
the situation on the eastern
front is changing completely!
The struggle for
the control of the baltic is
fought between submarines
and naval mines.
The two leave behind
a trail of wrecks.
When you
start looking for submarines
the basic nature of that
branch of military
service is stealth.
Nobody knows where they
are you might have a,
have a rough idea.
The only way you may know that
one is lost is that after a
certain date it never reports
back to headquarters
it never returns.
Because the
baltic is shallow with
little or no tides
it's well suited
for mine warfare.
The use of these crude
devices reached a peak
during world war ii
and over 200,000 would
be laid defensively.
A marine mine
is a relatively cheap weapon
so what happened was that
over 60,000 mines were laid
in the Gulf of Finland.
There are
at least 46 different
types of mines used
with as many as ten different
triggering mechanisms.
Fins were laying
mines, Germans were
laying mines here,
Russians were laying mines
here and because the water
depth which is only about
100 meters at its
deepest at its maximum.
Maximum.
Its kind of
very favorable.
Here we have a cut out in the,
in the mine showing its guts.
So how does it work?
Basically the horn, it's
this lead horn with glass amp
filled with acid and when a
submarine or something else
hits into the lead part,
the glass amp is breaking
and it forces two metal
electrodes inside here in the
bottom of the cavity and it's
generating on battery.
And then we
have 250 kilos tnt.
And poof,
off you go.
Today they are
diving in vannta three,
the same minefield
laid by louhi where
they found the u-676.
They are exploring an anomaly
spotted on their sonar.
This could be a second u-boat.
That was something that,
the first reaction
was, was when we saw
this on sonar is that
there's something busted
in the equipment.
This can't be true,
that kind, that kind of
things don't just happen.
The first
thing was it's like ok
there's some kind of cliff,
which is protruding
from the sea bottom.
♪ ♪
It seems there are fishnets
all over the place it might
be very dangerous place to be.
And remember we
are both yelling,
"yoo hoo",
under pitch darkness.
The team has
found another intact u-boat.
The whole sub is inside the Clay
all the way to the
conning tower.
That kind of sight
is just insane.
♪ ♪
Over 27,000
u-boat men lost their
lives during the conflict.
It was the highest loss
rate for any branch
of the German military.
Each
and every wreck is a
military graveyard.
They were service men.
They died in the line of duty
and you need to respect that.
Inside this wreck
is their final resting place
and the divers of badewanne
will never enter it.
Imagine
how the guys felt inside.
Yeah,
I am fairly confident
that those guys actually
don't know what hit them.
The new u-boat lies
only a few hundred meters
from the one found earlier.
Now the team has to piece
together information from
various sources in order to
successfully
identify this wreck.
Fingers are crossed that
it's the elusive u-745.
At the military archive in
Helsinki members of badewanne
consult maps of known
minefields and compare
them to the last known area
of operations of the u-745.
So what we are here
is a map of Gulf of Finland.
Here's hanko,
porkkala peninsula,
and here is Estonia.
And this map is showing all
minefields that were laid
to the western part of
Gulf of Finland during
the second world war.
The
minefield at louhi was laying
in January 12th, 1945
it's here in middle of mouth
of Gulf of Finland,
and this is the place
where the submarine,
submarine, German submarine
wrecks are located at.
It's kind of a textbook
example how, how ships
sink where the mines are.
We know that mines
were in depth of two
and a half meters.
We believe that the explosion
took place here somewhere
around this forward torpedo
compartment and they
might have been also secondary
explosions from the torpedoes,
and then there's only few
seconds time to react and the
ship is diving into the Clay.
It's
amazing it's like in length
equal to 25-story building,
you can imagine half of
it is buried in the mud.
That's just unreal.
U-boat designs
constantly evolve so small
variations in construction can
be used to identify them.
This
flooding holes is one thing that
helps us to identify the ships,
the shape,
the number of flooding holes
in the bow section also in
the aft to the bow section is
actually buried in the mud and
we were unable to see those.
So we have to rely on all
the other evidence that's
available out there.
This is the area where
another u-boat was
supposed to meet u-745.
They were searching this
area but never found it.
This is the team's
first clue that the second
u-boat could be the u-745.
Meanwhile Harry, the team's
lead researcher finds a
picture of the u-745 in which
it appears to have a
distinctive metal plate or
box on the conning tower.
They'll have to dive
the wreck once more to
see if they can ID
just such a box proving
this wreck is the u-745.
Jussi and juha collect the
equipment needed for the dive.
♪ ♪
It's a two-hour drive to hanko,
where they'll meet the
dive team and boat.
Lets just
keep our fingers crossed and
hopeful that weather be.
Yeah that's a good
question it could go
anywhere from here.
As the skies
above turn gray,
the weather turns to rain
and there is a growing
concern that they
won't be able to dive.
Though it's not raining
near the harbor in hanko
where the other members
of the team are gathered,
it doesn't mean it's
clear in the Gulf where
the wreck is located.
It's very different
out at the sea middle of the
Gulf then what it is
here at the coast.
Jouni, who has
studied meteorology, analyzes
high-resolution local area
weather maps and looks at raw
wind data that's not available
to the general public.
When we
start diving it's not enough
that it's good weather
then we need good weather two
hours after the diving when we
are picking the divers up
and that's the most
critical situation,
and also we need visibility
at surface because of
we see the ship traffic.
We just have
to have the ship,
and the boat and the crew
on station and if the
weather breaks we're
ready to move out.
The only thing we can do
is just go out and take a,
take a look.
This is it,
it's time to go then.
It's the end of the
diving season in Finland
and soon the temperatures will
drop making diving too risky.
With their last chance
to dive the wreck this
season slipping away,
the team decides to head out
to the wreck site and hope
for a break in the forecast.
♪ ♪
The original members
of badawanne who call
themselves the old school,
have brought several
younger new members.
Basically
it looks very difficult for
diving right now.
Big waves.
That's the problem in here,
like in an ocean you got big
waves and the boat goes up the
wave and down the wave
whereas here it's very,
you have very aggressive
movements on the,
on the boat.
At the dive site
there is still more waiting.
Conditions aren't improving.
The team takes
this opportunity to review
the mission for the dive.
Jussi, how can you
be certain that it's u-745
and not another u-boat?
This is the only boat
that was patrolling in the area,
which had this particular
square metal plate in the
aft of the conning tower.
And we saw this
photograph this very
photograph of the uh...
It sounds easy
but at 70 meters below the
surface nothing is easy.
U-676 has the, the railing
is solid from, from the,
from the, from the front
part until like, like
after the conning tower.
Yes, yes.
And it's like a can of anchovies.
So how can
you see just a box?
How, how can you identify
just a box on the boat?
U-745 is
the only ship that operated
here that had this box.
There were other ships,
u-boats that also had it but
they were operating elsewhere.
So do you
know what that box is?
We don't
know whether it is some kind
of plate, sign or a box.
Yeah.
But clear, clearly
it's smoking gun because
picture show that u-745
had it and no other of these
possible boats have it.
So is this the same
wreck where the captain was
found uh, in the surface,
dead in föglö?
Yeah, exactly.
From the archives, we know
that the commander of u-745
was kapitanleutnant
Von trotha.
Where badewanne
team is diving is
approximately 150 kilometers
from where his body washed up.
It's a long distance
for it to have traveled.
When
we looked into this
issue more closely,
we found out that
actually many bodies
of, of wrecked mariners from
shipwrecks even in, in more
further east in Gulf of
Finland, had ended up
in the åland islands.
So obviously the, of course
it depends at which depth
the body is floating.
So if the u-boat
was driving on the surface
how could they hit a mine?
I thought that u-boats
are pretty shallow.
They're not.
Oh no,
they're not, never.
U-boats have actually
really deep draft.
Yeah.
Because they are heavy
and, and they must be heavy
to be able to dive so
like the seven u-boat has
five meter in drop.
Yeah. Drop, yeah.
And the mines we know from the
museum and from the archives
they were, they were,
they were set at two and a
half meters depth so it's
just the right depth.
So when you, when you lose
that you get a, you get a
hole in the pressure hull.
The boat will just
sink like a rock.
So I understood
that these mines were laid
by the mine layer louhi.
Yes.
Have we found a hole
or any signs of an explosion on
that wreck or are they
buried in the mud?
No, they're buried,
obviously, somewhere in
the bow section.
Front of, of the conning
towers everything else
we can easily see.
On the, on
the, on the let's say from
conning tower towards the aft
we can see everything
the bottom, the sides,
the top casing.
There's no, no
superficial damage there.
So it needs to be in the bow.
And this also supports
the fact this kind of, this
boat became nose heavy
and immediately went
to the bottom.
Yeah. It's like glacial,
glacial Clay actually.
And the properties
of that stuff.
It's funny if it receives
an impact it goes liquid
for a while and it's,
sorry, if the momentum is there
you can just keep on pushing
the object into the,
into the Clay and then
when the movement stops it
sort of solidifies again,
and that's why it's
standing there.
With the weather
at the dive site now clear,
the badewanne divers take
advantage of this small window
of opportunity to get in
the water and try and get the
proof they need that
this is indeed the u-745.
So previously the
weather didn't allow any diving
operations it was way too
windy and now, now the wind
has calmed down significantly
so probably only about four
to five meters per second and
it seems that now we're
finally able to go down there
and see what we can find.
The first team will be
recon team going down.
Two divers one with
camera and a dive body and
they are going down
and checking out where
the strut line is and what are
the conditions whether there
are any other currents
and what is the visibility and
then after that we're going down
with video cameras and
continue shooting current
video, video plan.
It's
kind of very important
team to go down because
security of all other
divers is to some extent
dependent on these guys
and their findings.
They are
going down first and jouni
decided to take his camera
and said ok if the
visibility allows he'd be
shooting some more details.
We have this giant
tombstone sticking out
from otherwise flat mud.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
The size of the submarine
in your presence,
it feels enormous,
giant piece of machinery.
The recon divers
carry only enough in their
tanks to survive under water
for a limited time.
Their maximum
time in the bottom is
about 25 minutes roughly
and the total time from surface
to surface is 75 minutes.
The recon
team arrives on the
surface on schedule.
Where's, where's the shot
and how are the conditions?
The rest of
the team is anxious
to hear their report.
According to the
recon divers the visibility
is, is good at the bottom
and allows for
shooting some video.
You don't, you don't get
to dive u-boats every day.
So it's going to be good.
Let's get ready then.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Ok.
The team is
specifically looking for a
small box that is visible in
an archival photograph
of the u-745.
♪ ♪
After the first
divers we hear that the
visibility is fairly good
so we're looking forward
to shooting some really
good video this time.
And get all the details
and finally we can be
sure which boat it is.
The 745 if we get good
footage of the fixture at
the back of the flak tower.
♪ ♪
We get
the chance of showing it
to the entire world.
It's big thing
for us you know.
15, 20 years dream
come true really.
♪ ♪
When you go to, to, towards,
a little bit further
down from, from the
tip of the stern,
from the rudders you can see
the huge amounts of netting
hanging down and that is
actually one complete
pelagic trawl.
That trawl is actually a
very, very big net that a big
trawler hauls behind itself.
The net
is actually so big that when
it's open in the water
you can take a four story high,
high apartment house and
put it in the mouth and all
that netting is caught on the
boat and that is
actually very dangerous.
If you would chance
to go under the boat.
If you tried to come out into
the topside of the boat you
would end up in the trawl.
You think of yourself.
You know I'm carrying all
these tanks on my back under
my arm the big camera with
lights sticking
out of it you know.
Nothing would be easier than,
than get that tangled up the
in the trawl.
You can actually see there are
two dead seals in the netting
so I mean you got
multitudes of tanks
and valves and
you're a very clumsy
thing under the water.
There's nothing sleeker
than a seal and even
they got caught in that.
So you need to have the eyes
on the back of your head.
Approaching the conning tower
one of the problems is this,
this re-suspension
of sediment this milky mist
which could be just like a
half a meter or several
meters from the bottom.
Here it's about one and a
half meters and it's like
the boat would be
disappearing in the mist.
And the problem with this
stuff is that it's very
light and it just reflects
all the light back.
It's really difficult for,
for filming.
When you go back towards
the deck and look back down at
the conning tower and the flak
platform it's right here
that you can actually see
the, the, the rectangular
part, the box.
This is what we came here for.
That was like uh, one of
these big things you feel like
yelling out of the water but
you can't do that since you'll
get water in your mouth.
Tell you what boys and girls
that was some dive, you don't
get to do this everyday.
The old school is not
completely over the hill
yet, it's in the can man.
It's in the can.
The visibility quite good
enough at the end of the conning
tower, we actually could make
the, I could make the box.
Yes.
And it's a good thing
light was in the side so
there's a bit of a shadow.
You could make it out.
It's the smoking gun and man I
could tell you I was so
happy when I was looking
through the view finder
shooting this footage and
I said okay, there it is
the same thing as
on the photos.
Quite sure that
now we have the identity
and that the mission is
accomplished and we,
we have solved this
puzzle that
has been circulating in
the air for so many years.
Overall that was a success
and we were able to
accomplish what we were
actually looking for.
We have good footage and
combined with juha's photographs
I believe the mystery
has been solved.
We have u-745
here right below us.
The team members
believe they have successfully
located and identified two
Nazi u-boats in the last
minefield laid by louhi,
a boat many believe was
sunk by a Finnish mine,
maybe even one of its own.
We had been diving
these, these submarines
and we knew that ok,
these submarines went
down because they hit
mines laid down by louhi,
and it's essential
for the whole story to
know where louhi is.
Louhi was the
one first ships of the
Finnish Navy and by 1945
it was showing signs of age.
It was
an old ship, old design,
it was leaking and
it was rolling badly if
there was bad weather and
it was not very sea worthy.
On January 12,
1945 louhi completed its
mining mission
and is returning to hanko.
And
suddenly there was an
explosion under louhi's keel
somewhere on the right
side of the stern.
Many people heard
some kind of knock
and then there was
a huge explosion in the,
in the aft.
Most likely it was a mine.
When I was a younger
diver of course people
would talk about the louhi,
which was the last ship the
Finnish Navy lost in the war.
I think it
is a matter of pride and it was,
matter of feeling
really bad that
if it was fact that louhi was
indeed sunk by our own mines.
And the whole
thing was a little bit
of an embarrassment.
There were
stories here and there but no
one had really had kinda
collected all the information
together and looked at the wreck
and done any, any investigations
out there and seen that
'what could be the most probable
cause of, of the sinking?'
Members
of badewanne set out to
find the wreck of louhi.
After all, it's part
of their heritage.
Louhi is an
interesting wreck because
location of louhi's Mark
in the sea charts has
been there for ages,
but there's no
shipwreck in that spot.
This
whole story was so
remarkable that we thought
ok it's time to
solve this mystery.
So we applied for a
permit to do a seabed
search in the location
where we thought that
louhi would have sunk.
What we're about to do
here is we're going to dive
a wreck which superficial
would look like a very
insignificant warship but
it's actually the unsung hero
of the submarine warfare
here in the baltic sea.
Using side scan
sonar they meticulously
search the louhi's route
from the minefield back
towards the port of hanko.
Something
starts to show up in, in a
sonar and, and looking at it
ok it's a ship and all the bits
and pieces were falling together
and I had to hold my breath
because I wanted to
yell guys, hey, come down.
After a
call to the Navy,
permission is granted
for an exploratory dive.
Is that ok?
Ok, I'm outta here.
♪ ♪
We came to
the bridge of louhi and saw
the deck Cannon out there
and it was quite obvious.
Ok this is it, this
can't be anything else,
there's nothing like this
missing in this area.
It was pristine water
and amazing sightseeing
the whole deck,
and deck gun and bow and
everything and the bridge.
Everything at once out there.
We swam around the boat and
saw the bow and, and there
was minesweeping equipment
and everything was like
expecting it to be like.
We noticed that the stern is
very badly damaged the deck
has just blown up out there.
A lot of, a lot of bent metal
and details are missing.
There
must have been a tremendous
explosion under the keel and,
and this missing of
decking supports.
It's actually much
more probable that was
instead torpedo.
There might
have been a torpedo which
exploded very close to the hull
of louhi about seven, eight
meters towards the front
from the propellers that's
where the machine room and
that's where the strongest
sounds are generated from.
That's the location where it,
it actually did hit.
There is
still more evidence to
support their theory.
While researching, the
team came across German
communication records.
What was
found in the archivals.
The journals and the
reports of the high command.
In the which was reported
that, that u-370 actually
torpedoed louhi.
They fired a torpedo
at a Finnish mine
laying ship 11:47.
The louhi log and the
survivors tell that it was an
explosion on board louhi
in 12:50 so there's, there's
over an hour difference but
then of course
one has to take into account
that a German ship
has its
log in German time.
Germany is a little more to
the west so it is one hour
behind the Finnish time
and this explains
the difference.
So it was like three
minutes, which is actually
the typical running
time for the torpedo.
The new information
from badewanne appears
to set the record straight,
the louhi was not sunk
by a Finnish mine
but rather hit by
a German torpedo
and the minefield she
laid that day was responsible
for the sinking of two
technically superior u-boats.
She was far from
an embarrassment.
The story
altogether of this old,
old ship which
is technically outdated,
but still kind of, it
was the first ship of the
independent Finnish Navy.
This
old steam ship gets hit
by acoustic torpedo.
The state of the art
weapon of that time
shot by German u-boat.
Again, state of the
art war machine
and there's this battle of old
steamer against the grey wolf.
Although she sank, louhi
also was able to sink
two German u-boats and
the operation was successful.
♪ ♪
As you
look at the submarines or
other wrecks on the seabed
they are dark and
lonely places.
There are no bad guys
or good guys anymore.
They're just young men who
went out in the prime of their
life to serve their country,
they died in the process.
So I think it's only just that
the truth be told and their
story be told to everybody.
It's only the wreck that tells
the last line of the story,
it cracks the former war.
Now we know where
your boys are buried.
They're there, you can pay
your respects and you can
put an end to the story.
This old Russian proverb says
something like the war is not
over until the last of the
fallen soldiers has been buried,
and in a way I feel that
this is what we're doing.
Captioned by
cotter media group.