Danube drought reveals Second World War German battleships

The ships, some still laden with munition, belonged to Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet that was deliberately sunk by the Germans as they retreated from Romania as Soviet forces advanced

The wreckage of a Second World War German warship in the Danube River near Prahovo, Serbia (Darko Vojinovic/AP)

The worst drought in Europe in decades has exposed a part of Second World War history that had almost been forgotten, with the hulks of dozens of German battleships emerging from the Danube River as its water levels have dropped.

In the middle of the river separating Serbia and Romania near the Serbian port of Prahovo, a rusty hull, a broken mast where the swastika flag used to fly, an upper deck where a command bridge used to be and a barrel that could have been holding fuel – or even explosive materials – lean on a pebble stone dune that has emerged from the water.