WWII Wrecks

Second World War

British T class submarine HMS Triumph

British WWII submarine located in the Aegean Sea

Kostas Thoctarides told state news agency ANA his team had located the wreck of HMS Triumph at a depth of 670 feet at an undisclosed location in the Aegean Sea.

The HMS Triumph was a British T-Class submarine involved in military operations in the Aegean Sea and elsewhere in the European theatre of the Second World War. It carried out twenty missions, including attacks against Axis ships, landing British commandos and rescuing Allied soldiers, until it disappeared during a mission in 1942. Eighty-four submariners were killed when the HMS Triumph sank.

The Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales coming in to moor at Singapore in 1941
The Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales coming in to moor at Singapore in 1941

Malaysia detains Chinese ship suspected of looting two British WWII wrecks

Malaysia's maritime authorities have detained a Chinese-flagged cargo ship amid reports this month that scavengers targeted two British World War Two wrecks off the coast of Malaysia—the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse—which were sunk by Japanese torpedoes in 1941.

USS Mannert L. Abele off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 1 August 1944
USS Mannert L. Abele off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 1 August 1944

Wreck site off Japan identified as World War II US destroyer

USS Mannert L. Abele (DD-733), was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer of the United States Navy, which was launched on 23 April 1944. On 12 April 1945, the Mannert L. Abele was operating 75 miles off the northern coast of Okinawa when enemy aircraft appeared on radar.

USS Albacore
A row of vent holes along the top of the superstructure, and the absence of steel plates along the upper edge of the fairwater allowed NHHC’s Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) to confirm the wreck site finding as Albacore.

Wreck site identified as World War II submarine USS Albacore

(Photo credit, top image: US Naval Institute Photo Archive)

The US Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) confirmed the identity of a wreck site off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan, as USS Albacore (SS 218). The NHHC made the announcement on Thursday, after several months of examining Japanese surveys conducted on the site in 2022.

Awakening the Past: Reimagining Kavieng's Ghosts of the Machines

Photogrammetry image of the wreck of a Nakajima “Kate” B5N fighter-bomber in Kavieng. Image by Sean Twomey
Photogrammetry image of the wreck of a Nakajima “Kate” B5N fighter-bomber in Kavieng, by Sean Twomey

There is a huge potential for wreck photogrammetry in Kavieng and the neighbouring large island of New Hanover in Papua New Guinea, for it is here that one can find several notable wrecks of WWII aircraft. Don Silcock shares his experience working with technical expert Sean Twomey in an initiative to capture photogrammetry imagery of the wrecks before they succumb to the ravages of time and eventually disappear.

HMS Regent, long lost WW2 submarine, found in the Adriatic

The newly-found wreck lies off the coast near Villanova di Ostuni, some 19 miles from Monopoli.

First believed to be found by Italian divers in 1999, it was later determined in 2020 that the wreck thought to be Regent was in fact the Italian submarine Giovanni Bausan which had been sunk by the RAF in 1944.

Now, it seems another dive team has had better luck in identifying Regent. She rests off the coast near Villanova di Ostuni, some 19 miles from Monopoli, upside down in 70m of water. The apparent victim of a mine.

The V-1302 John Mahn started out as a German fishing trawler before being converted into a patrol boat during the war. It was sunk close to the Belgian coast in 1942 by the British Royal Air Force, as part of the Channel Dash operation.
The V-1302 John Mahn started out as a German fishing trawler before being converted into a patrol boat during the war. It was sunk close to the Belgian coast in 1942 by the British Royal Air Force, as part of the Channel Dash operation.

Abandoned WW2 wrecks leak toxic chemicals in the North Sea

The V-1302 John Mahn was a fishing trawler requisitioned by the German navy during the Second World War and sunk by UK bombers in 1942. It has rested at 30 metres below sea level in the Belgian North Sea ever since.

Together with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, bio-engineer Josefien Van Landuyt examined samples of sediment in the area around the sunken John Mahn. In doing so, she aimed to discover whether old shipwrecks in the Belgian section of the North Sea continue to affect microbial marine life.