A team of Finnish and Swedish divers has discovered the wreck of a World War II Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea off the Nordic coast. The wreck, called the S-2, sank in 1940 with its crew of 46 and four passengers.
The sub was found near Aland, a chain of small islands in the strait that separates Finland and Sweden. “After having searched a large water area, a diving team from Sweden and Aland found the wreck in the Aland Sea near the border between Sweden and Finland,” the divers said in a statement to Reuters.
Wartime records from Finland and Sweden show the Soviet submarine hit a mine as it passed through the island chain in January 1940. “The wreck had split in three. The rear and middle parts are there, but the front part is missing,” Marten Zetterstrom, one of the divers, told Reuters. Russia has been officially notified of the find.
The team of divers had been looking for the S-2 sub for more than 10 years at their own expense. “My feelings were mixed. There it was this war machine that was built to take ships down. I was happy, sad, depressed and elated all at once,” Zetterstrom said.
When the submarine sank, the Soviet Union was officially at war with Finland. However, Sweden had declared itself neutral during WWII, a war that saw countless ships from nations around the globe sink in the Baltic Sea during fighting.
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