MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) – The remains of a Soviet diver killed during a torpedo attack in summer 1944 have been found in the Gulf of Finland, a Russian military official said Thursday.
The diver was likely killed while carrying out underwater repairs to his vessel, the Kilektor, when it was hit by a German torpedo, Oleg Kochetkov, spokesman for Russia’s Western Military District, which covers Russian waters in the Baltic Sea, said Thursday.
Amateur divers found the remains near Shepelyev Point outside St. Petersburg, the spokesman said. Almost the entire crew of the Kilektor died in the attack, but a post-war search of the area to find the wreck and those who died had to be called off because of large quantities of mines left over from the fighting.
The German submarine that sunk the Kilektor, U-250, was itself sunk just months afterwards, and then raised from the seafloor by the Soviet navy, in an attempt to discover German technological secrets.
A logbook found on board U-250 contained a reference to an attack on the Kilektor in July 1944, RBK news agency reported.
Naval fighting in the enclosed waters of the Baltic Sea during the Second World War involved Soviet, German and Finnish forces and was dominated by mines, which were used heavily by all sides, and submarines.
The remains of the diver will be buried in Russia’s nearby Kronstadt naval base, Kochetkov said, adding that the diver’s equipment will be donated to a museum in Kronstadt.
