The operation was completely secret. Under cover of night, American, British and Soviet ships went out into the waters of the Baltic. The sailors did not know what was in the containers that they threw overboard. The containers disappeared soundlessly into the dark, icy water …
Sometimes the Americans or the British received a strange order to leave the ship. They were transferred to another ship, and the captured German warship, on board of which they were previously, was sunk and went to the bottom with a mysterious cargo in the hold. So the secret weapon of the Wehrmacht was destroyed. Tons of substances, which, on Hitler's orders, were developed by the best scientists in Europe in secret laboratories. Skagerrak, Small Belt, Kiel Bay …
After the victory over Germany, the Allies began to study Hitler's military arsenals. They found hundreds of tons of toxic gases inside chemical containers, shells and bombs. These were the most terrible chemical poisons known in the 40s - sarin, mustard gas, lewisite, soman, phosgene, adamsite, herd … Many substances were born in the chemical laboratories of the Wehrmacht. Their formulas were developed by the best chemists in Europe. By the way, many of them ended up in the USA after the war, settled in research centers, universities and … continued their experiments.
In secret German warehouses, about half a million tons of combat gases were stored, which Hitler wanted to use to establish world domination and to destroy peoples objectionable to the Aryans. It was necessary to do something with these terrible trophies. The armies of the three countries - the Soviet Union, America and England - after the victory over Germany had many worries.
Therefore, no one really began to think about the problem of the destruction of poisonous gases. It was decided to drown chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea. Actually, in the 40s, scientists still did not know how to neutralize poisonous gases in such quantities. For its time, the decision to flood containers and shells was even correct.
After the concentration of chemical warfare agents in the port of Wolgast, the command of the Soviet troops chartered small vessels of the German merchant fleet in the English zone of occupation, which could carry 200-300 tons of chemical ammunition in one voyage. The expedition to sink captured chemical weapons was led by an experienced naval officer, captain of the third rank K. P. Terekov.
Burial map of captured chemical weapons.
Promotional video:
In the period from June 2 to December 28, 1947, 35 thousand tons of captured Wehrmacht chemical weapons were sunk in the Baltic Sea (see diagram), in two areas, including 5 thousand tons in 65-70 miles south-west of the port of Liepaja (1). In the second burial area, which was located south of Christians Island, north of the Danish island of Bornholm (2), 30 thousand tons of chemical munitions were dumped.
The Soviet military archives contain detailed information on what was found in chemical arsenals in East Germany and dumped in the Baltic Sea:
- 71469 250-kg bombs equipped with mustard gas, - 14258 250-kg and 500-kg aerial bombs equipped with chloroacetophene, diphenylchloroarsine and arsine oil,
- 8027 50-kg bombs equipped with adamsite, - 408,565 artillery shells of 75mm, 105mm and 150mm caliber, loaded with mustard gas.
- 34592 chemical landmines of 20 kg and 50 kg, - 10420 smoke chemical mines of caliber 100 mm, - 1004 technological tanks containing 1506 tons of mustard gas.
- 8429 barrels containing 1030 tons of adamsite and diphenylchloroarsine, - 169 tons of technological containers with toxic substances, which contained cyanide salt, chlorarsin, cyanarsin and axelarsin.
In addition, 7860 cyclone cans were flooded in the Baltic Sea, which the Nazis widely used in 300 death camps for the mass extermination of prisoners in gas chambers.
According to available data, chemical weapons discovered in West Germany were dumped by American and British occupation forces in four areas of the coastal waters of Western Europe: in the Norwegian deep water near Arendal (5); in Skagerrak near the Swedish port of Lysekil (6); between the Danish island of Funen and the mainland (3); near Skagen, the northernmost point of Denmark (4).
A total of 302,875 tons of toxic substances lie on the seabed in six areas of European waters. In addition, 120 thousand tons of British chemical weapons were dumped in unidentified places in the Atlantic Ocean and in the western part of the English Channel.
Geranium-scented chemical weapon
Everything took place in the strictest secrecy. The sailors did not know what kind of cargo they were lifting on board. Nobody explained to them why the command suddenly sounded: "Leave the ship!" - and everything that lay in the holds went to the bottom along with the German warship. Soviet sailors acted differently. They kept the German ships and barges for themselves, and the containers and shells were simply thrown into the sea on the move.
The allies acted without any plan, no one made a map of the burials of weapons. Until recently, the world did not know the details of this terrible operation and the burial sites of chemical warfare agents. Bombs, mines, shells, barrels and containers with toxic substances were thrown into the Baltic for two years - in 1946 and 1947. And only now the burial sites became known - the Skagerrak and Small Belt straits, the Kiel bay, the Bornholm and Gotland depressions.
For fifty years, no one spoke of Wehrmacht chemical weapons. The countries of the Baltic region pretended that they are located along the shores of one of the cleanest seas in the world, therefore they catch clean fish and develop ecological nature tourism on the shores of the sea. All information about chemical weapons was classified as "top secret". Even the international organization that officially deals with the ecological problems of the Baltic Sea, HELCOM, was silent about the weapon, as if it had taken the very Baltic water into its mouth.
The reason is simple - information about chemical weapons that rest at the bottom of the sea could provoke social political disasters in countries whose economies are focused on tourism and the fish processing industry. What kind of ecology is this if seven tons of mustard gas, sarin, lewisite, soman, phosgene, adamsite, herd have already leaked into the waters of the Baltic …
Chemical weapons will reach us in 10 years.
The specter of chemical warfare?
Sea water does not have the ability to neutralize the poisons in German weapons. In addition, under water, without stopping for a minute, there is a process of corrosion of the metal from which the bodies of bombs, shells and containers are made. Part of the terrible cargo is already safely buried under the thickness of marine sediments and does not pose a danger. But hundreds of tons lie at the bottom, washed by underwater currents. There are also the warships launched by the Americans and the British, stuffed with a terrible load to overflowing.
Russian scientists believe that these underwater chemical arsenals pose a threat to all countries in the Baltic region. Ironically, some of the weapons burial areas - the Bornholm and Gotland Basins - are traditional fishing grounds. It is here that Norwegian anglers catch "the cleanest fish in the world." But in fact, they do not only catch fish.
The first cases of poisoning of fishermen were recorded back in the 50s. Boxes, containers, shells with German inscriptions and symbols began to fall into the nets along with fish. At the same time, fishermen received poisoning and chemical burns. Over the past five years, there have been 360 registered cases of fishermen from different countries being hit by chemical weapons buried at sea fifty years ago.
Scandinavian doctors speak louder and louder about the increased incidence of cancer and genetic diseases in their countries. For example, one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world, Sweden, came out on top in terms of cancer incidence. There are 3 thousand people sick here per 100 thousand inhabitants.
And over the past few years, the level of cancer has increased 16 times.
Russian scientists who have examined several burials of chemical weapons at the bottom of the Baltic paint a terrible picture. Sea water destroys the metal shell of shells and bombs. Within a few years, the corrosion process will lead to the chemical filling seeping into the water. A real chemical attack on humanity will begin.
There are so many weapons in the Baltic Sea that they are capable of exterminating all life in and around the Baltic Sea six times. The first stage of such a chemical war is the death of all animals and plants in the Baltic Sea and on the coast. The second stage is the ingress of gases into the air masses and a real chemical hazard for the countries of Europe and Russia up to the Urals.
The chemical weapons accumulated by Hitler are capable of spreading to the Mediterranean Sea, North Africa and the Middle East in the south, and North America in the west. The impact of these weapons can be compared to a full-scale chemical war.
Information about German chemical arsenals is no longer secret. Chemical weapons are spoken and written about in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia. The bottom of the Baltic is being investigated by Russian scientists. But in order to defuse the bombs and shells of the last world war, the efforts of all the Baltic states, and possibly the entire world community, will be needed.
Scientists already have technologies that can neutralize hundreds of tons of chemicals without harming the Earth's ecology. True, it is not yet clear who will pay for this.