A Magnetic Investigation of the Scuttled, German Danube Flotilla and of the Risks it Poses

Following the unsuccessful attempts to breach through upstream the river, made by the German river flotilla known as Kampfgruppe Zieb (Battle-Group Zieb), gathered in Prahovo (Serbia) section of Danube at the beginning of September 1944, the Germans decided to destroy and scuttle the entire fleet. Thus approximately 200 German war and transport ships, as well as other watercrafts, have been scuttled, the highest concentration being near Prahovo.

An unknown number of the German scuttled ships have been recovered and recommissioned by the Soviet army starting from November 1944 and several other later by Romanian authorities. On the Serbian side, six to eight watercrafts have been towed near the bank in order to clear the waterway, but they were never removed.

A high-resolution magnetic investigation carried out near Prahovo in the fall of 2020 covered a 5 km long sector of the Danube River. The survey confirmed the locations of 22 previously known shipwrecks, revealed the certain presence of another 18 shipwrecks and the possible existence of several other dozens of shallowly buried shipwrecks. The magnetic inversion made for over 2000 magnetic targets found, allowed their classification from the perspective of actually being risky UXO-type objects.